fiddlehead vs granola, otter, and fireflies
a local-first, private alternative to cloud meeting note takers. no subscription, no meeting bot, ai-agent ready.
fiddlehead is a local-first ai meeting note taker for macos and a privacy-focused alternative to granola. it records meeting audio, transcribes with speaker diarization, and saves structured markdown notes on your mac — not in the cloud. if you're looking for an ai meeting transcription app that doesn't require a subscription, a meeting bot, or an account, here's how fiddlehead compares.
| fiddlehead | granola | otter.ai | fireflies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / Open source | $18/mo | $8–17/mo | $10–18/mo |
| Subscription required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting bot joins call | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Speaker diarization | Named speakers | No | Business+ only | Yes |
| Output format | Markdown + YAML | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Data storage | Local (your Mac) | Cloud | Cloud | Cloud |
| AI-agent ready | Yes (YAML frontmatter) | MCP only | No | No |
| Platform | macOS | macOS, Windows, Web | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| File ownership | Plain .md files | Cloud-locked | Cloud-locked | Cloud-locked |
| Free tier | Unlimited | 25 meetings | 300 min/mo | 800 min storage |
| Language support | English | 10+ | 3 languages | 100+ |
why fiddlehead
mit licensed. no subscription, no license key, no vendor. fork it, ship it, run it forever.
plain markdown files saved locally. no export button because there's nothing to export — they're already files on your mac.
structured YAML frontmatter with date, speakers, topics, and tags. your AI agents can query meeting notes directly.
real names in every transcript — not "Me" and "Them." granola doesn't even do speaker diarization.
choose fiddlehead if
fiddlehead saves plain markdown files on your mac. no cloud lock-in, no export button needed — they're already yours.
free and open source instead of $216+/year for granola or $96–204/year for otter. no subscription, no renewal, no vendor.
structured yaml frontmatter means claude, cursor, or any ai agent can read and query your meeting history directly.
audio is transcribed and discarded. notes never leave your mac. no account required, no data on our servers.
fiddlehead uses speaker diarization with real names in every transcript. granola doesn't identify speakers at all.
free and open source — bring your own api key, no account required.