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.
| 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 |
| Speaker separation / diarization | Yes | Partial | 1Yes (see note 1) | 1Yes (see note 1) |
| Identifiers scrubbed before any AI summary | Yes | No | No | No |
- 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.
| 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 |
| Relationship cadence and last met, automatic | Yes | No | No | No |
| More than a meeting recorder | Savory | Granola | Fireflies | Otter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unified Google and Apple calendar, record any event | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| Built-in Markdown notebook (Notes mode) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Separate academic space for lectures (Student mode) | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| 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
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
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
Architecture is the feature list you can't patch later.
Choose where your meetings get processed before choosing anything else.
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