Granola and Oatmeal start from the same idea: no bot in the call, and your own notes at the centre. They part ways on where the work happens.
Granola works live, with help from the cloud
Granola listens through your computer and shows a live transcript while you talk. Its help pages say the audio is passed to its transcription provider and that it doesn’t save recordings, only the transcript. It runs on Mac, Windows and phones, understands many languages, and connects to tools like Slack and Notion depending on your plan.
Oatmeal works afterwards, on your Mac
Oatmeal records your microphone and your Mac’s audio and keeps the recording on your Mac. After the meeting it writes the transcript and summary there too, with models you add yourself. You can replay any moment, correct the transcript, and confirm or ignore the decisions it suggests. It’s English only and Mac only.
The short version
If you want live notes, more languages and team tools, Granola is built for that. If you want the whole meeting, audio included, to stay on your own Mac, choose Oatmeal.