Granola, Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai: which to choose for your meetings
All three transcribe and summarize meetings automatically. The real difference is how they capture audio, how generous the free plan is, and how deep the analytics go.
None of the three is objectively "the best" — each prioritizes something different: Granola prioritizes discretion, Otter.ai prioritizes breadth of integrations and a generous free plan, Fireflies.ai prioritizes deep analytics for sales and support teams.
If you want discretion, no visible bot: Granola
Transcribes meetings and writes up clean notes automatically, with no visible bot joining the call. Captures audio straight from the device, without joining the call as a participant.
Granola
AI meeting notesTranscribes meetings and writes up clean notes automatically, with no visible bot joining the call.
If you want the best free plan and more integrations: Otter.ai
Transcribes meetings and conversations in real time and turns them into notes, summaries and actionable tasks. Ideal if your team already lives in Zoom, Meet or Salesforce and wants to start for free.
Otter.ai
AI TranscriptionTranscribes meetings and conversations in real time and turns them into notes, summaries and actionable tasks.
If you want conversation analytics for sales: Fireflies.ai
Automatically records, transcribes and summarizes meetings, and pulls out action items so nobody has to take notes. Adds team reporting and competitor-mention detection on the Business plan.
Fireflies.ai
AI MeetingsAutomatically records, transcribes and summarizes meetings, and pulls out action items so nobody has to take notes.
Verdict
- Granola — informal meetings, interviews or client calls where a visible bot would be awkward or simply isn't allowed.
- Otter.ai — teams already living in Zoom, Meet or Salesforce who want to start free, with 300 minutes a month at no cost.
- Fireflies.ai — sales or support teams that need more than notes: conversation analytics, team reporting and automatic competitor-mention detection.
Frequently asked questions
Which is best if I don't want a bot joining the call?
Granola: it captures audio straight from the device instead of joining as a visible participant, useful for informal meetings or where adding a bot isn't allowed.
Which has the best free plan?
Otter.ai, with 300 minutes of transcription per month at no cost and a 30-minute cap per conversation.
Which is best for a sales team?
Fireflies.ai, whose Business plan adds conversation analytics, team reporting and automatic detection of competitor mentions.