If you picked Granola for the no-bot capture, Quietly works the same way. If the encrypted database and the monthly bill wore you down, Quietly fixes both: plain .md files in a folder you pick, for $49 once.
Plain .md. Front-matter has attendees, calendar, duration. Body is clean, LLM-polished Whisper output.
Your notes sit in an encrypted SQLite database. Community tools had to reverse-engineer it, and Granola later changed the format and broke them.
Sync you can't turn off. Your notes round-trip through Granola's backend whether or not you asked for it, and the audio is transcribed there too. Before you put an NDA call through it, read is Granola safe for confidential meetings?
$14 per seat on Business, $35 on Enterprise. That is $168 to $420 per seat per year, billed for as long as you keep the notes you took yourself.
One company sits between you and your data. If Granola pivots, raises prices, or shuts down, you are left with an encrypted blob.
| Quietly | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| No bot joins the call | Yes | |
| Audio capture | On-device | On-device |
| Where notes live | Plain .md, your folder | Encrypted SQLite + cloud sync |
| MCP for Claude / Cursor / Codex | Shipping next | Yes |
| Works fully offline | Cloud-dependent | |
| Open in VS Code / any editor | ||
| Bring your own LLM | Ollama · LM Studio · OpenAI · Anthropic | Granola's stack |
| If the company disappears | Your .md files | Encrypted blob |
| Pricing | $49 once | $14/seat Business · $35/seat Enterprise |
If any of these matter more to you than owning your files, stay on Granola.
Granola runs on both. Quietly is macOS-only today; a Windows port is on the roadmap.
Granola's pre-built templates (sales recap, 1:1, retro) work well out of the box. Quietly's built-in Chat summarises on a local model or with your own key, or you hand the transcript to any LLM you like.
Granola's Business tier has shared folders and admin controls. Quietly keeps notes in your own folder with no shared cloud. Team licensing is available on request.
Granola encrypts its local cache, and the community had to reverse-engineer it. Quietly writes plain .md with front-matter from the day you install it.
Quietly only goes online for model downloads, update checks, license validation, Google Calendar polling if you turn it on, and Chat if you pick a cloud model. Audio stays on your Mac, and with Chat on a local model in Ollama or LM Studio, so do transcripts. Granola syncs notes through its own backend by default.
Granola Business costs $168 per seat per year. Quietly costs $49 once. Four months in, you are ahead, and you stay ahead.
You already pay for Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus. Hand the transcript to your own model, or use Quietly's built-in Chat with the same key or a local model in Ollama or LM Studio. No AI credits, no per-summary cap, and each answer cites the transcript.
Pick Transcribe a file… in Quietly: an .m4a from Voice Memos, a .wav from a field recorder, an .mp3 of a podcast. Same Markdown, same folder.
VS Code, Atlas.ti, Cursor, Codex CLI, your shell. Granola encrypts its notes. Quietly's notes were open files from the start.
Export from Granola. Settings → Export. Granola gives you plain text or an API dump.
Drop the files into your Quietly folder. iCloud, Dropbox, your repo, any folder you point Quietly at.
Keep recording. Quietly saves new meetings next to the old ones from the moment you install it. A one-click import is in the works.
If you get stuck, email support@meetquietly.com and we'll help.
Or read the buyer’s guides: best local meeting note takers for Mac and AI note takers that don’t join your meetings.
Free 7-day trial · No account, no card. 7-day refund. $49 once, no subscription.