Comparison
A Granola alternative that never uploads your audio
Last updated
Granola is a good product. It captures meetings without sending a bot into the call, the notes are clean, and the integrations are deep. If you want a shared notes layer across a team, it works well.
But Granola is a cloud service. Your meeting audio is captured on your device and then sent to third-party providers for transcription, and your transcripts live on Granola's servers. For most people that is fine. For lawyers, clinicians, journalists, HR teams, and anyone under an NDA, it rules the product out.
Silkwave Voice works the other way. Transcription runs on your Mac using Apple's built-in speech models. Your audio never leaves the device, not for transcription, not for storage, not for backup. No account, no server, no subscription. You pay once.
Quick verdict
Choose Silkwave Voice if
Your audio cannot go to a third-party server, you are on a Mac, and you would rather pay once than monthly.
Choose Granola if
You need Windows or iOS, shared team folders, or CRM integrations.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Silkwave Voice | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| Where transcription happens | On your Mac, offline | Cloud |
| Does your audio leave the device? | No | Yes, sent for transcription then deleted |
| Where transcripts are stored | Your Mac only | Granola's cloud |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | No |
| Pricing | $24.99 one-time | $0 / $14 / $35 per user per month |
| Annual discount | Not applicable | None, monthly billing only |
| Free option | 7-day full trial | Free tier, limited note history |
| Platforms | macOS 26 or later | macOS, Windows, iOS |
| Bot joins your call | No | No |
| Audio captured | Mic, system, or both | Mic and system audio |
| Speaker identification | On-device, optional | Inferred from context |
| Languages | 10 | Multi-language |
| Team sharing and folders | No | Yes |
| Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Zapier | No | Yes, paid plans |
| Trains on your data | No data collected | On by default, opt out in settings |
Granola details reflect its published pricing and documentation as checked on August 30, 2026.
Where your audio goes
Granola captures your microphone and system audio on your device, then sends that audio to third-party transcription services to be turned into text. Granola states it deletes the audio once transcription finishes and keeps only the transcript. It also states it does not let its AI providers train on customer data. Those are real commitments. But the audio still leaves your machine and passes through vendors you did not pick, and the transcripts are stored in Granola's cloud. Granola has been open about the reason: it tried local processing and found it too slow on typical hardware.
Silkwave Voice never makes that trip. Recording, transcription, and speaker identification all happen on your Mac using Apple's on-device speech models. Turn off Wi-Fi and it still works. There is no Silkwave Voice server to store anything on. Our privacy policy is short because we do not collect, store, or transmit your data.
One caveat, stated plainly. Silkwave Voice's optional AI summary and chat features send your transcript text, never your audio, through Apple Intelligence to ChatGPT. Those features are off until you turn them on, and you are prompted before anything is sent. Skip them and recording, transcription, speaker ID, and search all run with no network connection at all.
For the longer version of this argument, independent of either product, see on-device vs cloud transcription.
Pricing
Granola charges per user per month, billed monthly, with no annual option. The free tier gives you unlimited meetings, but note history is limited: older notes are still stored and stop being visible in the app, and Granola's documentation puts that window at 30 days. Paid plans are $14 and $35 per user per month.
Silkwave Voice is $24.99 once, with a 7-day free trial. No per-minute charge, no meeting cap, no seat count, no renewal. One year on Granola's entry paid plan costs about seven times what Silkwave Voice costs in total.
We can price this way because your Mac does the transcription. There are no processing bills to pass on to you, and Silkwave is one developer, with no investors to grow a subscription line for.
What Silkwave Voice does
- Records mic, system audio, or both, with no third-party loopback drivers to install
- Real-time on-device transcription in 10 languages, with downloadable language packs
- Automatic meeting detection for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, Slack, and browser calls
- On-device speaker identification, off by default
- Optional AI summaries and chat through Apple Intelligence
- Imports MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, MP4, MOV, and M4V
- Exports audio, transcript, and summary as a single .zip
- Full-text search across everything you have recorded
- Transcript-only mode, so you can skip saving audio entirely
- Menu bar app with a dark theme
No bot ever joins your call. The audio is captured at the system level instead, which is how recording Zoom, Teams, and Meet without a bot works. The full feature list, with screenshots, is on the Silkwave Voice product page, and every feature above is written up in the Silkwave Voice documentation.
Where Granola is the better tool
Granola wins if you need Windows or iOS. Silkwave Voice is Mac-only and requires macOS 26 or later.
It wins if you need shared team spaces, where a company's notes are searchable in one place.
It wins on integrations: Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity, and Zapier on paid plans.
Silkwave Voice is a single-user tool for people who care more about where their audio lives than about collaboration. If that is not you, Granola is a good product and you should use it.
If you are weighing local tools against each other instead, the other comparison is Silkwave Voice vs MacWhisper.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Silkwave Voice work without an internet connection?
- Yes. Recording, transcription, speaker identification, and search all run offline on your Mac. Only the optional AI summary and chat features need a connection.
- Does Granola upload my audio?
- Yes. Granola captures audio on your device and sends it to third-party transcription providers. Granola states it deletes the audio after transcription and keeps only the transcript.
- Can Granola run entirely on-device?
- No. Granola caches notes locally so you can read them offline, but transcription and AI summaries require its cloud.
- What are the limits on Granola's free plan?
- Unlimited meetings, but limited note history. Older notes stay stored and become inaccessible in the app until you upgrade. Granola's documentation puts the window at 30 days.
- Is Silkwave Voice a subscription?
- No. $24.99 once, with a 7-day free trial. No renewals, no per-minute fees, no seat pricing.
- Does Silkwave Voice work on Windows?
- No. macOS only, and it requires macOS 26 or later. If you need Windows, use Granola.
- Where are my recordings stored?
- In your own filesystem on your Mac. There is no Silkwave Voice server, no sync, and no account. You can also turn off audio saving and keep transcripts only.
- How many languages does Silkwave Voice support?
- Ten: Cantonese, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Your meetings should not need a server.
Try Silkwave Voice free for 7 days. Keep it and you pay $24.99 once.
$24.99one-time
7-day free trial
Requires macOS 26 or later
US pricing. Apple may adjust prices in other regions.