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Raven vs Granola
A free, open-source Granola alternative with live in-call assist and unlimited local history - no 30-day free-tier lock, no cloud, no per-seat fee.
Granola proved people love bot-free notes, and its writing is excellent. Two things it doesn’t do: it has no live in-call assist, and on the free plan you can only open the last 30 days of your notes - older ones are stored but locked until you pay $14/user/mo. Raven is bot-free too, but adds real-time help during the call, keeps unlimited history locally and free, and is open source.
| Raven | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| Live in-call assist | Yes | No - notes only |
| Bot-free capture | Yes (Mac + Windows) | Yes (Mac + Windows) |
| Note history on the free plan | Unlimited, local | Last 30 days in-app (older stored but locked) |
| Where your meetings live | Local SQLite | Granola's cloud |
| Price | Free, open source (your own keys) | Free (30-day history); Business $14/user/mo, monthly only; Enterprise from $35 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Annual discount | n/a (free) | None - monthly billing only |
Granola’s free Basic plan is a real product, but its catch is time: only the last 30 days of notes are accessible in the app. To unlock full history (the main reason people upgrade) you’re on Business at $14/user/mo - and Granola bills monthly only, with no annual discount, so that’s ~$168/user/year.
Raven keeps all your history, locally, for free. Your only cost is your own API usage (a few dollars a month for regular use).
Both are calm and bot-free. The difference is ownership: Granola stores your notes in its cloud (older ones remain there, just gated on the free plan). Raven stores everything in a local SQLite database you own - no account, no server - and being open source, that’s auditable rather than promised.
What Granola does better (honestly)
A beautifully refined notes UX and template/recipe system.
Mature integrations (HubSpot, Notion, Slack, Attio, Zapier) and MCP/API access on Business.
Native mobile apps (iOS/Android) and cross-device sync; Raven is desktop-only (Mac + Windows).
Team workspace features.
If you want a polished hosted notes app with deep integrations and don’t need live help, Granola is lovely.
You want help during the call, not just a clean write-up after.
You want all your history, free, without a 30-day wall.
You want meetings on your machine and a tool you can audit.
You’d rather pay your AI provider cents of usage than $14/seat/mo to unlock full history.
In Granola, export a CSV of your notes (Settings → Profile → Generate CSV) so you keep your back catalog.
Download Raven, add your keys, and turn on meeting auto-start.
Run both for a week; cancel Granola once Raven covers your notes habit. (Importers are on the roadmap.)