how fiddlehead compares
meeting notes tools compared — pricing, privacy, output format, and ai-agent readiness.
| fiddlehead | granola | otter.ai | fireflies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $29 one-time | $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 | 10 recordings | 25 meetings | 300 min/mo | 800 min storage |
| Language support | English | 10+ | 3 languages | 100+ |
why fiddlehead
✓
no subscription
$29 once vs $216+/year for competitors. you own the license forever, including all future updates.
✓
your files, your machine
plain markdown files saved locally. no export button because there's nothing to export — they're already files on your mac.
✓
ai-agent native
structured YAML frontmatter with date, speakers, topics, and tags. your AI agents can query meeting notes directly.
✓
named speakers
real names in every transcript — not "Me" and "Them." granola doesn't even do speaker diarization.
free — 10 recordings included, no account required.