Granola vs Gong

Granola is a meeting recorder tool that doesn't require those annoying bots to join. In-fact the people you're on the call with don't even have to know you're using it.

Interestingly enough, this isn't any different than just having a note taker on the call, because they don't allow you to playback the audio. What you can do is ask Granola's AI Chatbot questions about the call, or any calls you've had across the company.

You can even ask Granola questions mid-call, which uses full context of the call up to that point, or can even come up with contextual questions to ask to help the conversation flowing. It's really as if you have an active note taking assistant on the call alongside you, helping you keep the conversation flowing, and researching further context details when needed.

We make sure to always have Granola recording our meetings (even in-person team meetings and brainstorming meetings), even if we have one of the best AI note taker bots joining the call as well. It's just a more lightweight solution that can't be kicked from calls and is less invasive.

• Incredibly easy to use
• AI notes save a lot of cleanup after calls
• Records more than just scheduled meetings
• Less invasive than meeting bots that join calls
• Full transcripts are searchable and actually useful
• You can add your own notes and Granola will build around them
• Great for founders and small teams documenting ideas, meetings, and processes

• iOS only right now (Android coming soon)
• Integrations are limited
• No audio or video recording (if you care about that)

This is the first thing that made Granola click for us. When we use meeting bots, there's usually friction involved. They have to join your call and announce itself, and sometimes they accidentally get kicked out. Granola is just always available. You bring it up, you click record, and you can go. It'll just sit quietly in the background and record your transcript. The whole thing just feels way lighter and way less invasive.

We still use meeting bots when we need full recordings, but day to day, Granola's what actually gets used.

When we first started using Granola, it was for scheduled meetings, but then we started using it for in-person meetings and chats.

Just the other day, Alex and I were out on a walk when we started brainstorming. I literally paused to pull out Granola so we could start recording our conversation. Later, I took those notes and dropped them into AI to quickly turn them into a deck for a team presentation.

And that's exactly why we always say, "If it's not in granola, it didn't happen!"

Granola transcribes everything everyone says, live, word for word, and then turns it into organized notes once I hit Generate Notes. And I love that it still gives me the full transcript too. It's really useful for when I need to pull exact quotes or check on what was actually said, or if I need to go back and drop parts of the conversation into a document later.

We also really like that Granola's AI doesn't take too much control away from you. I always pop in notes while a meeting is happening, and Granola builds around them instead of replacing them. So your final notes still feel like your notes, just way more organized.

The AI here is actually useful. The AI assistant in Granola has actually saved me a couple of times. Sometimes during a meeting, I might need to pop out for a couple of seconds, and instead of having to interrupt everyone and play catch-up, I can just pop into Granola's chat and ask, "What did I miss?" and it'll give me a quick recap. That's the kind of thing that is genuinely helpful.

Granola watches your calendar for meetings or even Slack huddles, and it'll pop up when a meeting starts and ask if you want to record. It's a nice little nudge that makes a huge difference because it's one less thing to remember.

Where we still feel the gap is deeper integrations. The big one we want is Linear. We'd love to finish an engineering call and have Granola recommend tickets or push action items somewhere useful without us having to manually copy and paste everything over. Right now, you can still ask the AI what tickets it would recommend, which is helpful, but it's not as proactive as we'd like.

• Basic: $0 per month. Best for individuals who want to try Granola and see if it fits into their workflow before committing.
• Business: $14/user/mo. Best for individuals or small teams who want unlimited meetings and collaboration within a shared space.
• Enterprise: $35/user/mo. Best for larger teams that need more admin permissions and privacy control options.

Gong used to be a meeting recorder. It would record sales calls, transcribe them, and let managers review what happened. But then with the rise of AI they pivoted.

Now recording is just the input layer. Gong captures calls, emails, and meetings, then builds a data model around your deals and customer interactions. On top of that, it runs analysis, surfaces risks, and suggests what to do next.

So instead of being a tool that tells you "here’s your call," it’s trying to tell you "this deal is slipping, here’s why, and here’s how to fix it."

The simplest way to think about it now is: Gong is an AI layer on top of your sales process, and recording is just how it gets the data.