# ctrlhq vs Granola: Meeting notes that never leave your Mac.

> ctrlhq vs Granola: private meeting notes for Mac. On-device transcription and summaries for Zoom, Meet and Teams calls, no bot, no cloud, no monthly fee.

- ctrlhq: $19 once (launch price, regular $49), no subscription, 14-day money-back guarantee. Native, about 12 MB. macOS 26 Tahoe or later.
- Granola: AI meeting notes app. Price: Free (30 days of history), Business $14/user/month. Source: https://www.granola.ai
- Facts checked September 2026. Also relevant if you're looking at Otter, Fireflies.

Granola is a great AI notepad for meetings, with shared notes, chat over your meetings and integrations with Notion and CRMs. It runs in the cloud and, past the free tier, costs a monthly fee per person.

ctrlhq takes meeting notes entirely on your Mac. Apple's on-device speech engine transcribes you and the other side separately, Apple Intelligence writes the summary and action items, and none of the audio or text leaves your laptop. Action items go straight to your task list. You pay once.

## ctrlhq vs Granola at a glance

| | ctrlhq | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19 once (launch price, then $49) | Free tier, then $14 per user a month |
| No bot joins the call | Yes | Yes |
| Transcription | On your Mac | In the cloud |
| Summary and action items | On-device (Apple Intelligence) | Cloud AI |
| Audio and transcripts leave your Mac | No | Yes |
| Unlimited history | Yes | Paid plans |
| Action items to your task list | Yes | No |
| Team sharing and CRM integrations | No | Yes |
| Markdown export | Yes | Yes |

## Choose Granola if

- You share meeting notes with a team or push them into a CRM.
- You want to chat with an AI across months of meetings.

## Choose ctrlhq if

- Your calls are confidential and shouldn't go to anyone's server.
- You want notes without a monthly bill.
- You want action items to land in your task list.

## Lightweight by design

ctrlhq is a native Swift app, about 12 MB to download, with no background daemons. It replaces a handful of single-purpose apps with one that's already running in your notch.

## The ctrlhq features that cover Granola

- [Meeting notes](https://ctrlhq.app/features/meeting-notes): ctrlhq notices a call and offers to take notes. Transcribed on-device, with a summary and action items.
- [Time tracking](https://ctrlhq.app/features/time-tracking): Your tasks and the running timer live in the notch, so you never forget to start or stop.

## FAQ

### Does audio leave my Mac?

No. Transcription and summaries run on-device.

### Which call apps work?

Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, FaceTime, Webex, Discord and calls in the browser.

### Do I need Apple Intelligence?

For the summary and action items, yes. The transcript works without it.

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Granola is a trademark of its owner. ctrlhq isn't affiliated with it. Download ctrlhq: https://ctrlhq.app/download · All comparisons: https://ctrlhq.app/compare