{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Dataset", "@id": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback#dataset", "schemaVersion": 4, "type": "SoftwareApplicationComparison", "slug": "granola-vs-circleback", "url": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback", "canonicalUrl": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback", "title": "Granola vs Circleback: pricing, features, and which is better", "description": "Compare Granola vs Circleback: pricing, recording options, notes, action items, and integrations, with plan limits and first-party sources.", "inLanguage": "en-US", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "representations": { "html": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback", "markdown": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback.md", "json": "https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-circleback.json", "describedBy": "https://circleback.ai/compare/llms.txt" }, "editorialPerspective": "Circleback-authored direct comparison; product preference is explicit and competitor strengths are preserved.", "verdict": "Granola builds notes around what you write and deletes the source audio. Circleback creates detailed notes, assigns action items, and shares the meeting record across your team.", "products": [ { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "shortName": "Granola", "logoPath": "/logos/granola.svg", "website": "https://www.granola.ai", "tagline": "A bot-free notepad that combines your notes with an AI summary.", "positioning": "Granola combines notes you write during a meeting with an AI-generated summary, without a meeting bot or saved recording. It supports Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch, with integrations, API, and MCP access. Sharing starts with the individual note or folder.", "bestFor": "People and small teams who write a few notes during calls and want AI to expand them without keeping source audio or video.", "lessIdealFor": "Companies that need recordings and clips, automatic capture, consistent named-speaker transcripts across every device, workspace-enforced sharing, bulk transcript export, service-account agent access, or operational automations across every function.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "A personal notepad without saved recordings", "chooseFor": [ "Writing notes as you meet", "AI summaries shaped by your notes" ], "watchFor": [ "No saved recordings or clips", "No auto-created, assigned action items" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly", "detail": "Granola currently bills monthly rather than offering an annual discount. Basic is free but only the last 30 days of history remain accessible, including through MCP. Business adds unlimited history, advanced AI, integrations, MCP transcripts, API, billing, and user management. Enterprise adds SSO, retention, organization sharing/API controls, training defaults, and participant notifications. A workspace uses one tier and every active member of a paid workspace is a paid seat, although someone who only opens a shared note link does not need a seat.", "freePlan": "Yes, with a rolling 30-day accessible history." }, "strengths": [ "Your own notes guide the AI summary, so you can emphasize what matters to you.", "No durable source recording: audio is processed for transcription and then deleted, which some privacy-sensitive teams prefer.", "Desktop and mobile apps, person and company pages, cross-meeting chat, integrations, API, and MCP support work beyond an individual note.", "Granola can extract source-linked action-item text with owner and date labels, and paid users can route note output into task systems through Zapier." ], "tradeoffs": [ "No replayable audio/video, timestamped moments, or clips after processing.", "Android and Apple Watch now cover in-person capture, but their launch pages do not document the same multi-speaker labeling that Granola explicitly documents for iPhone. iPhone also cannot capture audio from another calling app; integrations and several settings remain desktop-oriented.", "Starting notes automatically for every meeting remains under consideration. Users can copy and redact transcript segments after capture.", "Bulk CSV export omits transcripts, and admins cannot export the entire workspace; each person exports only their own notes.", "MCP is OAuth-only and has no service-account/API-key path. On Basic it reaches only the last 30 days of personal notes, without transcripts.", "Free and Business accounts permit anonymized customer data to be used for Granola model improvements by default unless users opt out. An administrator-enforced organization-wide opt-out is an Enterprise feature.", "Notes and transcripts are retained indefinitely by default. Configurable transcript retention is Enterprise-only; SSO is also Enterprise-only and documented for organizations with at least 50 seats.", "The notes are concise and shaped by what you write. If people who missed the meeting will rely on them, test whether the summary preserves enough context for those readers.", "Granola can extract owner and date text into a note, but it does not automatically create and assign native action items to users. Actions remain note content unless a team builds a Zapier handoff; there is no workspace-wide task board with assignees, status, due dates, and completion tracking." ], "chooseIf": [ "You want a notepad first and do not want to retain source recordings.", "Your users are on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch and are happy to start notes themselves.", "You want to shape and share a meeting document more than manage recordings or automate follow-up." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture", "detail": "Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.", "level": "available" }, "platforms": { "summary": "macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.", "level": "strong" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture", "detail": "The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "No retained audio or video", "detail": "Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.", "level": "not-available" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat", "detail": "Your notes guide the generated summary. Paid plans support chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Granola extracts action-item text with owners, deadlines, and transcript citations, but does not create or assign native tasks. Those actions remain in the note unless sent to another tool. Source recordings are deleted after transcription.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "People and company pages built from calendar contacts", "detail": "Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.", "level": "available" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder", "detail": "Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.", "level": "limited" }, "automations": { "summary": "Zapier triggers from folders or manually shared notes", "detail": "Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.", "level": "limited" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP", "detail": "Business includes integrations for sending notes to connected tools. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps; more complex workflows require setup in the destination or automation tool.", "level": "available" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "MCP on every plan, API on Business+; material export and scope limits", "detail": "Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP works on every plan, but Basic reaches only the last 30 days of personal notes, and transcripts need a paid plan. MCP uses OAuth and has no service-account key. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.", "level": "available" }, "admin": { "summary": "User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise", "detail": "SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.", "level": "available" }, "languages": { "summary": "Multilingual transcription", "detail": "Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.", "level": "available" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." }, { "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." }, { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." }, { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." }, { "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and public workspace notes on Business." }, { "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." } ] }, { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "shortName": "Circleback", "logoPath": "/logos/circleback_square.png", "website": "https://circleback.ai", "tagline": "Every meeting becomes useful company memory.", "positioning": "Circleback records online meetings with a meeting bot or bot-free desktop app, then turns them into detailed notes, speaker-labeled transcripts, and automatically assigned action items. Automatic sharing, search, and automations turn those meetings into shared company memory. People and AI agents can use the same complete record through the app, API, MCP, and CLI. In-person conversations captured on mobile or Apple Watch, plus imported recordings, flow through the same system.", "bestFor": "Teams across sales, product, engineering, recruiting, customer success, and leadership that need shared meeting notes, assigned follow-up, and automations—with the full record available to people and AI agents.", "lessIdealFor": "People who only need occasional transcripts, or sales organizations buying primarily for forecasting and rep coaching.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Online meeting notes, follow-through, and shared company memory", "chooseFor": [ "Detailed notes and labeled transcripts", "Full meeting data via API, MCP, and CLI" ], "watchFor": [ "Paid plans are per user", "Not a forecasting suite" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually", "detail": "Free includes unlimited meetings and members with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $15 with annual billing or $18 month-to-month; Business is $25 or $29; Enterprise is $35 with annual billing only. See https://circleback.ai/pricing for current plan packaging.", "freePlan": "Free includes unlimited meetings and members, with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access." }, "strengths": [ "Record online meetings with a meeting bot or bot-free desktop app. In-person and imported recordings get the same speaker-labeled transcripts. Keep the recording for playback, or retain just the notes and transcript.", "The notes are detailed enough to stand alone, while automatically assigned action items stay trackable across the workspace and can become issues in Linear or another work tracker.", "Conditional automatic sharing, company context, free viewers, enforced defaults, and actions in connected apps make each meeting useful beyond the person who recorded it.", "Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record available to a person—including the recording, full speaker-labeled transcript, notes, action items, attendees, people, and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI.", "Security controls include encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, GDPR support, and HIPAA compliance. Customer data is never used to train models, and an external infrastructure pentest report is available through the security portal.", "For in-person conversations, one tap on your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication starts recording; a configured iPhone Action button starts it with a press and hold. There is no separate recorder to buy, carry, or charge." ], "tradeoffs": [ "The Free plan has shorter history and limited automations. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. A solo user who only wants occasional transcripts may find a more generous free recorder elsewhere.", "It is not a sales forecasting suite. Gong goes further on deal inspection, rep coaching, and forecasting.", "It is not a live meeting coach. Read AI goes further on real-time engagement and sentiment signals, while Krisp specializes in cleaning up audio before it reaches the transcript.", "Circleback’s primary processing operations are in the United States. A company with a hard regional-hosting or on-premises requirement should confirm fit during security review." ], "chooseIf": [ "You want online meetings captured with or without a bot, with the same speaker-labeled record for in-person conversations and imported recordings.", "You want notes that explain the meeting to someone who missed it, plus assigned action items in one shared list and your issue tracker.", "You want Circleback to look things up and do the next step in the apps where your team works.", "You want coworkers, ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and your own tools to use the same company context.", "You also want quick in-person recording from your phone or Watch without a separate recorder." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Online meetings with or without a bot; in-person recording too", "detail": "Use the meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls, or record online meetings locally on macOS or Windows without a bot. On desktop, click Record in the detected-meeting prompt. In-person recording on mobile or Apple Watch and imported phone calls join the same system. Every route produces speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, and assigned action items, with search, sharing, and automations in one workspace.", "level": "strong" }, "platforms": { "summary": "Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "macOS and Windows apps capture online meetings without a bot, including system audio and video, with recording from the detected-meeting prompt. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch records from your wrist without the iPhone nearby. Every app sends recordings into the same Circleback meeting system.", "level": "strong" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels", "detail": "Record in-person conversations from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. For quick capture, tap your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication, or press and hold your configured iPhone Action button. No separate recorder is needed. Recordings get the same speaker labels, notes, assigned action items, search, sharing, and automations as online meetings. Phone calls use an existing call recording imported into Circleback.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "Optional recordings with playback, downloads, and clips", "detail": "Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off.", "level": "strong" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search", "detail": "Circleback’s notes are designed to give someone who missed the meeting its context, decisions, and next steps. It automatically creates action items and assigns them when the conversation makes the owner clear. One workspace-wide list lets teams filter and complete tasks across meetings. Custom insights extract the fields a team needs, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "Meeting and email history for each person and company", "detail": "Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team.", "level": "strong" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards", "detail": "Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations.", "level": "strong" }, "automations": { "summary": "Conditional sharing, CRM updates, and task creation", "detail": "Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings.", "level": "strong" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Search other apps, then do the work there", "detail": "Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, Intercom, and Plain. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Connect additional tools through Zapier, Make, webhooks, or custom MCP servers.", "level": "strong" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents", "detail": "Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags, and can update meetings and tags, share meetings, and create, update, or delete action items. Connect ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting data by webhook.", "level": "strong" }, "admin": { "summary": "Security, privacy, and workspace controls", "detail": "Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats.", "level": "strong" }, "languages": { "summary": "100+ transcription languages", "detail": "Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes.", "level": "strong" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback pricing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/pricing", "note": "Current plan prices, included features, Business controls, Enterprise options, and free viewer seats." }, { "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback desktop recording", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/desktop-app/record-meetings-with-the-desktop-app", "note": "Detected-meeting recording prompts, automatic recording, and bot-free desktop audio and video capture." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile recording shortcuts", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/record-meetings-with-the-mobile-app", "note": "Mobile recording and links to widget and Action button setup guides." }, { "label": "Circleback iPhone Action button", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/start-recording-with-the-action-button-on-iphone", "note": "Configure Controls → Circleback → Record, then press and hold to start recording." }, { "label": "Circleback Apple Watch complication", "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/circleback-ai-meeting-notes/id6738971048", "note": "Publisher description documents one-tap Watch complication recording and the same transcript and notes as other meetings." }, { "label": "Circleback optional recording storage", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved", "note": "Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback public API", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/api", "note": "Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies." }, { "label": "Circleback MCP documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-mcp", "note": "Access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags, plus write tools for meetings, tags, sharing, and action items." }, { "label": "Circleback CLI documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-cli", "note": "Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search." }, { "label": "Circleback Assistant connectors", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/assistant/ask-circleback-assistant", "note": "Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant." }, { "label": "Circleback automatic sharing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace", "note": "Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace." }, { "label": "Circleback enforced workspace settings", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/workspace-and-teams/default-and-enforced-workspace-settings", "note": "Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings." }, { "label": "Circleback security and data processing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/dpa", "note": "Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations." }, { "label": "Circleback security overview", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/security/security", "note": "Encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, no-training commitment, GDPR support, HIPAA compliance and BAA availability, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, and an external infrastructure pentest." }, { "label": "Circleback security portal", "url": "https://security.circleback.ai/", "note": "Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report." }, { "label": "Circleback action items in Linear", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/integrations/integrate-with-linear", "note": "Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee." } ] } ], "dimensions": [ { "key": "capture", "label": "Capture options", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for capture options.", "analysis": "Granola: Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting. Circleback: Use the meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls, or record online meetings locally on macOS or Windows without a bot. On desktop, click Record in the detected-meeting prompt. In-person recording on mobile or Apple Watch and imported phone calls join the same system. Every route produces speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, and assigned action items, with search, sharing, and automations in one workspace.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture", "detail": "Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Online meetings with or without a bot; in-person recording too", "detail": "Use the meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls, or record online meetings locally on macOS or Windows without a bot. On desktop, click Record in the detected-meeting prompt. In-person recording on mobile or Apple Watch and imported phone calls join the same system. Every route produces speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, and assigned action items, with search, sharing, and automations in one workspace.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback desktop recording", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/desktop-app/record-meetings-with-the-desktop-app", "note": "Detected-meeting recording prompts, automatic recording, and bot-free desktop audio and video capture." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." } ] } }, { "key": "platforms", "label": "Desktop and mobile", "lead": "Both products document broad support for desktop and mobile, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Granola: Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented. Circleback: macOS and Windows apps capture online meetings without a bot, including system audio and video, with recording from the detected-meeting prompt. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch records from your wrist without the iPhone nearby. Every app sends recordings into the same Circleback meeting system.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "macOS and Windows apps capture online meetings without a bot, including system audio and video, with recording from the detected-meeting prompt. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch records from your wrist without the iPhone nearby. Every app sends recordings into the same Circleback meeting system.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback desktop recording", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/desktop-app/record-meetings-with-the-desktop-app", "note": "Detected-meeting recording prompts, automatic recording, and bot-free desktop audio and video capture." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." } ] } }, { "key": "inPerson", "label": "In-person capture and speaker labels", "lead": "Both products document broad support for in-person capture and speaker labels, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Granola: The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone. Circleback: Record in-person conversations from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. For quick capture, tap your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication, or press and hold your configured iPhone Action button. No separate recorder is needed. Recordings get the same speaker labels, notes, assigned action items, search, sharing, and automations as online meetings. Phone calls use an existing call recording imported into Circleback.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture", "detail": "The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels", "detail": "Record in-person conversations from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. For quick capture, tap your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication, or press and hold your configured iPhone Action button. No separate recorder is needed. Recordings get the same speaker labels, notes, assigned action items, search, sharing, and automations as online meetings. Phone calls use an existing call recording imported into Circleback.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile recording shortcuts", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/record-meetings-with-the-mobile-app", "note": "Mobile recording and links to widget and Action button setup guides." }, { "label": "Circleback iPhone Action button", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/start-recording-with-the-action-button-on-iphone", "note": "Configure Controls → Circleback → Record, then press and hold to start recording." }, { "label": "Circleback Apple Watch complication", "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/circleback-ai-meeting-notes/id6738971048", "note": "Publisher description documents one-tap Watch complication recording and the same transcript and notes as other meetings." } ] } }, { "key": "recordings", "label": "Recordings, playback, and clips", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.", "analysis": "Granola: Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review. Circleback: Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "No retained audio or video", "detail": "Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.", "level": "not-available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Optional recordings with playback, downloads, and clips", "detail": "Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback optional recording storage", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved", "note": "Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video." } ] } }, { "key": "notesAndSearch", "label": "Notes, action items, and search", "lead": "Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Granola: Your notes guide the generated summary. Paid plans support chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Granola extracts action-item text with owners, deadlines, and transcript citations, but does not create or assign native tasks. Those actions remain in the note unless sent to another tool. Source recordings are deleted after transcription. Circleback: Circleback’s notes are designed to give someone who missed the meeting its context, decisions, and next steps. It automatically creates action items and assigns them when the conversation makes the owner clear. One workspace-wide list lets teams filter and complete tasks across meetings. Custom insights extract the fields a team needs, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat", "detail": "Your notes guide the generated summary. Paid plans support chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Granola extracts action-item text with owners, deadlines, and transcript citations, but does not create or assign native tasks. Those actions remain in the note unless sent to another tool. Source recordings are deleted after transcription.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search", "detail": "Circleback’s notes are designed to give someone who missed the meeting its context, decisions, and next steps. It automatically creates action items and assigns them when the conversation makes the owner clear. One workspace-wide list lets teams filter and complete tasks across meetings. Custom insights extract the fields a team needs, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback action items in Linear", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/integrations/integrate-with-linear", "note": "Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee." }, { "label": "Circleback CLI documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-cli", "note": "Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search." } ] } }, { "key": "companyMemory", "label": "People, companies, and context", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for people, companies, and context.", "analysis": "Granola: Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen. Circleback: Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "People and company pages built from calendar contacts", "detail": "Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Meeting and email history for each person and company", "detail": "Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." } ] } }, { "key": "sharing", "label": "Automatic sharing and workspace defaults", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults.", "analysis": "Granola: Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams. Circleback: Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder", "detail": "Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards", "detail": "Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback automatic sharing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace", "note": "Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace." }, { "label": "Circleback enforced workspace settings", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/workspace-and-teams/default-and-enforced-workspace-settings", "note": "Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings." } ] } }, { "key": "automations", "label": "Automations", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for automations.", "analysis": "Granola: Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself. Circleback: Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Zapier triggers from folders or manually shared notes", "detail": "Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Conditional sharing, CRM updates, and task creation", "detail": "Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." } ] } }, { "key": "integrations", "label": "Integrations", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for integrations.", "analysis": "Granola: Business includes integrations for sending notes to connected tools. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps; more complex workflows require setup in the destination or automation tool. Circleback: Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, Intercom, and Plain. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Connect additional tools through Zapier, Make, webhooks, or custom MCP servers.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP", "detail": "Business includes integrations for sending notes to connected tools. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps; more complex workflows require setup in the destination or automation tool.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Search other apps, then do the work there", "detail": "Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, Intercom, and Plain. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Connect additional tools through Zapier, Make, webhooks, or custom MCP servers.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback Assistant connectors", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/assistant/ask-circleback-assistant", "note": "Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant." } ] } }, { "key": "agentsAndApi", "label": "API, MCP, CLI, and data portability", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for API, MCP, CLI, and data portability.", "analysis": "Granola: Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP works on every plan, but Basic reaches only the last 30 days of personal notes, and transcripts need a paid plan. MCP uses OAuth and has no service-account key. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete. Circleback: Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags, and can update meetings and tags, share meetings, and create, update, or delete action items. Connect ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting data by webhook.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "MCP on every plan, API on Business+; material export and scope limits", "detail": "Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP works on every plan, but Basic reaches only the last 30 days of personal notes, and transcripts need a paid plan. MCP uses OAuth and has no service-account key. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and public workspace notes on Business." }, { "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents", "detail": "Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags, and can update meetings and tags, share meetings, and create, update, or delete action items. Connect ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting data by webhook.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback public API", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/api", "note": "Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies." }, { "label": "Circleback MCP documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-mcp", "note": "Access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags, plus write tools for meetings, tags, sharing, and action items." }, { "label": "Circleback CLI documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-cli", "note": "Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search." } ] } }, { "key": "admin", "label": "Security, privacy, and admin", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for security, privacy, and admin.", "analysis": "Granola: SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export. Circleback: Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise", "detail": "SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "Security, privacy, and workspace controls", "detail": "Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback enforced workspace settings", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/workspace-and-teams/default-and-enforced-workspace-settings", "note": "Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings." }, { "label": "Circleback security and data processing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/dpa", "note": "Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations." }, { "label": "Circleback security overview", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/security/security", "note": "Encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, no-training commitment, GDPR support, HIPAA compliance and BAA availability, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, and an external infrastructure pentest." }, { "label": "Circleback security portal", "url": "https://security.circleback.ai/", "note": "Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report." } ] } }, { "key": "languages", "label": "Languages", "lead": "Circleback has broader documented support for languages.", "analysis": "Granola: Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls. Circleback: Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes.", "productA": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Multilingual transcription", "detail": "Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "summary": "100+ transcription languages", "detail": "Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." } ] } } ], "directComparison": { "shortVerdict": "Granola builds notes around what you write and deletes the source audio. Circleback creates detailed notes, assigns action items, and shares the meeting record across your team.", "competitorFit": "Pick Granola if you like writing a few notes during a meeting and having AI expand them, with no source recording kept afterward.", "circlebackFit": "Pick Circleback for detailed notes that stand alone, auto-created and assigned action items, automatic sharing, and the full speaker-labeled record through its API, MCP, and CLI.", "worthKnowing": "Granola extracts action-item text, but does not create and assign native tasks or track them workspace-wide. MCP is on every plan, transcripts and API on paid plans, with no CLI; bulk exports omit transcripts." }, "thirdOption": null, "faqs": [ { "question": "Which is better: Granola or Circleback?", "answer": "Granola builds notes around what you write and deletes the source audio. Circleback creates detailed notes, assigns action items, and shares the meeting record across your team." }, { "question": "Which is less expensive, Granola or Circleback?", "answer": "Granola: Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly. Circleback: Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need." }, { "question": "Can Granola and Circleback record without a bot?", "answer": "Granola: Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. Circleback: Online meetings with or without a bot; in-person recording too. Check whether your preferred recording method preserves video and speaker labels." }, { "question": "Which is better for a whole company?", "answer": "Compare automatic sharing, permissions, retention, and the defaults admins can enforce. Granola: Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder. Circleback: Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards." }, { "question": "Can I access and move the full meeting data?", "answer": "Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available in the product is also available through API, MCP, and CLI. Granola: MCP on every plan, API on Business+; material export and scope limits. Compare transcript, export, plan, and retention limits." }, { "question": "Can I start recording in Circleback with one tap or button press?", "answer": "Yes. On desktop, click Record in the detected-meeting prompt. For in-person recording, tap the Circleback Lock Screen widget on your phone (iOS or Android) or Apple Watch complication, or press and hold your configured iPhone Action button. No separate recorder to buy, carry, or charge." }, { "question": "Do all Circleback recordings get the same features?", "answer": "Yes. Online meetings, in-person recordings, and imports all get speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, assigned action items, search, sharing, and automations. To capture a phone call, import an existing call recording; the Circleback mobile app does not record calls directly." }, { "question": "How was this comparison researched?", "answer": "We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. Links appear in each feature comparison and in the Sources section." } ], "variableMeasured": [ "Capture options", "Desktop and mobile", "In-person capture and speaker labels", "Recordings, playback, and clips", "Notes, action items, and search", "People, companies, and context", "Automatic sharing and workspace defaults", "Automations", "Integrations", "API, MCP, CLI, and data portability", "Security, privacy, and admin", "Languages" ], "sources": [ { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and public workspace notes on Business." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback pricing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/pricing", "note": "Current plan prices, included features, Business controls, Enterprise options, and free viewer seats." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback desktop recording", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/desktop-app/record-meetings-with-the-desktop-app", "note": "Detected-meeting recording prompts, automatic recording, and bot-free desktop audio and video capture." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback mobile recording shortcuts", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/record-meetings-with-the-mobile-app", "note": "Mobile recording and links to widget and Action button setup guides." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback iPhone Action button", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/start-recording-with-the-action-button-on-iphone", "note": "Configure Controls → Circleback → Record, then press and hold to start recording." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback Apple Watch complication", "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/circleback-ai-meeting-notes/id6738971048", "note": "Publisher description documents one-tap Watch complication recording and the same transcript and notes as other meetings." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback optional recording storage", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved", "note": "Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback public API", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/api", "note": "Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback MCP documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-mcp", "note": "Access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags, plus write tools for meetings, tags, sharing, and action items." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback CLI documentation", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/circleback-cli", "note": "Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback Assistant connectors", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/assistant/ask-circleback-assistant", "note": "Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback automatic sharing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace", "note": "Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback enforced workspace settings", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/workspace-and-teams/default-and-enforced-workspace-settings", "note": "Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback security and data processing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/dpa", "note": "Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback security overview", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/security/security", "note": "Encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, no-training commitment, GDPR support, HIPAA compliance and BAA availability, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, and an external infrastructure pentest." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback security portal", "url": "https://security.circleback.ai/", "note": "Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report." }, { "productId": "circleback", "productName": "Circleback", "label": "Circleback action items in Linear", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/integrations/integrate-with-linear", "note": "Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee." } ], "methodology": { "approach": "First-party pricing, product documentation, help-center articles, and release notes. Capability levels describe documented breadth, not overall product quality. Competitor strengths and material plan or capture-mode limits are both included. No pay-to-play rankings.", "ratingLabels": { "strong": "Broad support", "available": "Available with limits", "limited": "Narrow or indirect", "not-available": "Not documented" }, "ratingScale": { "strong": "Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans.", "available": "Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits.", "limited": "Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support.", "not-available": "No current first-party documentation for a native option." }, "claimLevelEvidence": "Each feature dimension includes the exact first-party sources used for both products.", "limitations": "Prices and features change. Check the linked sources and test both products on real calls." } }