Aside vs Granola.
We used Granola, we liked Granola, and we built Aside because of the deal rather than the product.
- Granola$14/moper user, every month, for history that does not expire
- Granola30 daysis how far back Granola’s free plan lets you open a note
- Aside$79 onceand then Aside stops charging you
| What is being compared |  Aside |
Granola |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Plus. $8/mo all-in, or $79 once (cloud optional) | Limit. $14 / user / mo, $35 enterprise |
| Free | Limit. 10 meeting trial | Neither. Unlimited notes, 30 day history |
| Where notes live | Plus. Markdown in a folder you pick, Git and Obsidian friendly | Limit. Granola’s cloud |
| Transcription | Plus. On your Mac, an open speech model, ~99 languages | Neither. Cloud providers (Deepgram, Assembly) |
| Own model or API key | Plus. Yes. Free from us, your provider bills you, or Ollama for free | Limit. No, and advanced models start at $14/mo |
| MCP for agents | Plus. Included in the $79 | Neither. On every plan, raw transcripts paid only |
| Joins the call | Plus. Never, no bot and no attendee | Plus. No bot either |
| Platform | Limit. macOS only | Plus. macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
| Team features | Limit. None yet | Plus. Shared folders and templates free, integrations $14, SSO $35 |
| Maturity | Limit. Young, and built by one person | Plus. Mature, funded, wide user base |
Where the two actually differ.
1. The notes are files on your disk
Granola keeps your notes in its cloud, and you read them through Granola. The $14 plan lifts the 30 day limit and leaves the notes where they are. Aside writes each meeting as Markdown into a folder you pick, so the file goes into Git or Obsidian and still opens with Aside deleted.
2. Bring your own model and key
Aside lets you plug in an Anthropic, OpenAI, Kimi or GLM key. We charge nothing for it, and your provider bills you for what you use. Or run Ollama, and nothing leaves the machine and nothing is billed. Granola offers no bring-your-own-key path that we can find, and the better models sit behind $14 a month.
3. Transcription runs on your Mac
Aside transcribes with an open speech model on your own machine, so the audio has nowhere to go. Granola’s security page names Deepgram and Assembly as its transcription providers, so the audio goes out to be turned into text. They don’t keep it afterwards, and the transcript lands in their cloud.
Granola’s free plan doesn’t cap how many notes you take, it caps how far back you can read: anything older than 30 days is stored but not openable until you pay. That, and access to the raw transcript, is what the $14 a month buys.
Whether a model on your Mac keeps up with a cloud engine is a fair question, and we measured it instead of asserting it: the run is on the benchmark page.
Every meeting ends up as a Markdown file.
Summary, key points, decisions, action items with owners, open questions, your own notes and the timestamped transcript. All of it Markdown, all of it in the folder you pointed Aside at during setup.
On your disk
Commit it to Git. Open it in Obsidian. Grep it. There is no export button because there is nothing to export from.
In their database
An id, a row, and whatever the app will hand back to you. After thirty days on the free tier you cannot open your own note.
Where Granola is the better answer.
- You’re not only on a Mac. Granola runs on Windows, iOS and Android as well. Aside is a macOS app, and a Windows version is not something we are working on.
- You need a team layer. Shared folders and templates are in Granola’s free plan, SSO and central billing come with the paid tiers, and Aside has none of it. We are not ruling it out, we just have not built it, so if you need it now this is the wrong answer.
- You want the integrations. Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity and Zapier are built in on the business plan.
- You want a mature product. Granola has years, a team and a lot of users behind it. Aside is young and it is one person’s work, and that cuts both ways.
If none of those are you, and what you actually wanted was Granola’s no-bot experience with files you own at the end of it, that’s the thing Aside is.
Asked before switching.
What’s the best Granola alternative for Mac?
If what you liked about Granola was the no-bot, stays-out-of-the-way shape, and what you didn’t like was renting access to your own notes, Aside is the closest thing. macOS only, $79 once, transcription on your own machine, Markdown out the other end. If you need Windows, a phone or team features, Granola is still the right call.
How much is Granola in 2026?
Checked on 5 August 2026: basic is free, with as many notes as you like but only the last 30 days openable in the app. Business is $14 per user per month and lifts that limit. Enterprise is $35 and adds SSO and admin controls.
Can I use my own API key with Granola?
No. There’s no bring-your-own-model path, and the advanced models are part of the $14 plan. Aside takes an Anthropic, OpenAI, Kimi or GLM key and charges nothing for it, and your provider bills you for what you use. Ollama runs on your Mac, so nothing is billed at all.
Can I import my Granola notes into Aside?
Not automatically, no. Aside reads a folder of Markdown, so whatever you can get out of Granola you can drop in, but there’s no importer. Worth knowing before you switch.
Where does Granola store my meeting notes?
In Granola’s cloud, and on the free plan you can only open the last thirty days of them. Aside writes Markdown files into a folder on your own Mac, which you can put in Git or open in Obsidian, with no cap and no expiry.
Does either of them join the call?
No. Aside and Granola both capture your computer’s audio instead of sending a bot, so neither one shows up in the participant list. That’s the one thing the two products genuinely agree on, and by August 2026 Otter and Fathom can both do it too.