The honest table.

Rows we win, rows we don't, and no weasel asterisks. The short version: if privacy and people-centric organization matter most, Savory; if team cloud workspaces matter most, another tool.

How to read this

Architecture first, features second.

Most meeting tools differ at the edges. The row that matters is where your audio goes. Savory transcribes on your own device, so the table below is not a feature race, it is a choice about who holds your conversations.

See the privacy model →

On your device. Transcription runs locally, so the audio never leaves.
Around people. Every meeting rolls up onto the people who were in it.
Offline. Capture and organize with no connection at all.
No ceiling. Unlimited meetings on the free plan, because transcribing on your device costs nothing.

Privacy and architecture	Savory	Granola	Fireflies	Otter
Transcription runs on your device	Yes	No	No	No
Audio never stored, anywhere	Yes	Partial	No	No
Works fully offline	Yes	No	No	No
No bot joins the call	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Tells speakers apart / speaker diarization	Yes	Partial	¹Yes (see note 1)	¹Yes (see note 1)
Emails, phone and card numbers removed before any AI summary	Yes	No	No	No
AI summary only when you ask, never automatic	Yes	²No (see note 2)	²No (see note 2)	²No (see note 2)

1Fireflies and Otter separate speakers in their cloud, and capturing a call for them means a bot in the room. Savory separates speakers on your device, with no bot.
2Granola, Otter and Fireflies write notes or a summary for every meeting on their own. Savory writes one only when you ask, one meeting at a time, and never sends a transcript anywhere until you do.

People and follow-through	Savory	Granola	Fireflies	Otter
A page per person, not a pile of meetings	Yes	No	Partial	Partial
Two-way action-item ledger, per person	Yes	No	No	No
Knows when you last met someone, automatically	Yes	No	No	No

More than a meeting recorder	Savory	Granola	Fireflies	Otter
Google and Apple calendars together, record any event	Yes	No	No	Partial
A notebook for your own notes (Notes mode)	Yes	No	No	No
Separate academic space for lectures (Student mode)	Yes	No	No	Partial

Free plan	Savory	Granola	Fireflies	Otter
Unlimited meetings and minutes, free	Yes	³No (see note 3)	³No (see note 3)	³No (see note 3)
No card to start	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

3Granola's free plan limits meeting history; Otter's allows 300 minutes a month and 30 per conversation; Fireflies' free plan comes with fewer transcription credits. Savory transcribes on your device, so the free plan has no minute or meeting cap.

Where cloud tools still win	Savory	Granola	Fireflies	Otter
Cross-device sync	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Team sharing and workspaces	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows and web apps	No	Partial	Yes	Yes

Reflects publicly documented behavior as of July 2026. If a row is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.

The head-to-heads

Savory vs Granola

Both skip the bot. The difference is where transcription happens and what the notes orbit around.

Transcription on your Mac, not the cloud
A page per person, not a pile of meetings
Full capture that still works offline

Read the comparison →

Savory vs Fireflies

A notetaker bot in the participant list versus no bot anywhere. The architectural opposite.

No bot joins the call
Audio processed on device, never stored
Every meeting rolls up onto people

Read the comparison →

Savory vs Otter

Cloud transcription with minute caps versus on-device transcription with no ceiling.

No monthly minute limits
Audio never leaves your Mac
Notes organized around people

Read the comparison →

Architecture is the feature list you can't patch later.

Choose where your meetings get processed before choosing anything else.

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