Comparison · Updated August 2026
Bot-free AI note takers, compared honestly.
Nine tools that record a meeting without joining it as a participant. We make one of them, so read this with that in mind. Everything below is what each vendor publishes about itself, and we have said plainly where another tool is the better answer.
The short version: Granola for the cleanest notes on any app. Fellow or Circleback if you need SOC 2. Jamie if data residency decides it. Tactiq or Scribbl if you want a Chrome extension rather than a desktop install. Scribbl if you move between Google Meet, Zoom and Teams and want all three in one library.
| Tool | How it avoids a bot | Platforms | Free | Paid | Best for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scribblours | Chrome extension on Google Meet; desktop app on Zoom and Teams | Meet, Zoom, Teams | 10 meetings a month | $13/user/mo billed annually, $29 monthly | People who move between Meet, Zoom and Teams and want one library for all three | The desktop app needs Apple Silicon on Mac, so no Intel Macs, and 64-bit Windows. No SOC 2 Type II today. |
| Granola | Desktop app capturing system audio | Any app with audio, incl. in-person | Free tier, 30-day history | ~$14–18/mo | The cleanest notes experience, and the tool that made bot-free a category | Speaker attribution is weaker outside Meet and Zoom. No raw audio library. |
| Fellow | Desktop app for bot-free mode | Mac, Windows, iOS for in-person | 5 recordings | $7–15/user/mo | Teams that need governance: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA on Enterprise, transcript redaction | Bot-free mode requires the desktop app, so it is not a pure Chrome extension. |
| Krisp | Virtual audio device, so it works at the driver layer | Any calling app | Unlimited transcription on free | $8–15/mo | Anyone who wants noise cancellation and notes from one tool | Summaries are less developed than Granola or Fellow. Generic speaker labels. |
| Jamie | Desktop app using device audio | Any, incl. in-person | Trial only | €25–47/mo | The strongest privacy posture: ISO 27001, EU data residency, audio deleted after transcription | The most expensive option here, and few integrations. |
| Tactiq | Chrome extension reading the browser meeting session | Meet, Zoom web, Teams web | Limited transcripts | ~$8/mo | Zero install beyond the extension, 100+ languages, live transcript | Browser only, and it depends on captions being available. |
| Fathom | Desktop app; bot-free mode still described as beta on Mac | Meet, Zoom, Teams | Unlimited recordings | $9–16/mo | The most generous free tier in the category | Bot-free capture is newer than the rest of the product and Mac-first. |
| tl;dv | Desktop app, toggled per meeting | Meet, Zoom, Teams | 10 notes a month | ~$18/mo | Cross-meeting search and CRM mapping, 30+ languages | No video without the bot, and speaker ID is weaker in bot-free mode. |
| Circleback | Desktop and mobile app | Meet, Zoom, Teams, in-person | None | $20.83–25/mo | Follow-up automation, with SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR | No free plan at all. |
Compiled August 2026 from each vendor's own documentation and store listings. Pricing and capabilities move quickly in this category; check the vendor before you buy. Tell us if something here is wrong and we will fix it.
The distinction almost every comparison gets wrong
"Bot-free" and "private" are not the same claim, and they get used interchangeably everywhere.
Bot-free is about what the other people in the call see. No extra participant, no announcement, nothing to admit. That is a social property, not a security one.
Where the audio goes afterwards is a separate question. Most bot-free tools, including ours, send audio to the cloud to transcribe it. If you need the recording never to leave your machine, you want a local-first tool such as Meetily or Hyprnote, and you should accept the trade in summary quality that comes with it.
Anyone selling you bot-free as though it were the same as on-device is either confused or hoping you are.
Common questions
What does bot-free actually mean?
That nothing joins your call as a participant. No extra name in the list, no "X has joined" announcement, and nobody has to admit anything. The tool captures the audio your own computer already has, either from inside the browser tab or from the system audio on your machine.
Does bot-free mean the recording stays on my computer?
No, and this is the most common confusion in this category. Bot-free describes what the other people in the meeting see. It says nothing about where the audio goes afterwards. Most bot-free tools, Scribbl included, send audio to the cloud for transcription. If you need processing to happen entirely on your device, look at local-first tools like Meetily or Hyprnote instead.
Do I still need to tell people I am recording?
Yes. Recording laws vary by region and a bot-free tool removes the visible signal that would otherwise tell people a recording is happening. That makes telling them more important, not less.
Which of these works on Google Meet without installing an app?
Scribbl and Tactiq are the two Chrome extensions here. Everything else needs a desktop app for bot-free capture, including Fellow and Granola. If avoiding an install is the priority, that narrows it to two.
Which has the strongest compliance story?
Fellow and Circleback have SOC 2 Type II, and Jamie has ISO 27001 with EU data residency. Scribbl does not have SOC 2 Type II today. If your procurement process requires it, those are the honest answers.
If Meet, Zoom and Teams all matter, try ours.
Free for 10 meetings a month, no card. If one of the other tools above suits you better, use that one instead. We would rather you had the right tool than ours.