Seal
A Granola alternative that never sends your audio anywhere
Granola got one big thing right: no bot in your call. But your meeting still leaves your machine. Here's exactly where it goes — and what a fully on-device app does instead.
Granola captures audio locally, then streams it to third-party transcription services, writes your notes with cloud AI models, and stores the results in its own US cloud. Seal does all three stages — transcription, note-writing, storage — on your Mac, with no account and no server to send anything to.
Where Granola is genuinely good
A comparison worth reading has to start with what the other product does well, so here it is. Granola is not a bot-based note-taker, and that matters. It doesn't appear in the participant list, it doesn't ask your guests to consent to a stranger in the room, and it doesn't fail when someone declines to admit it from the waiting room. It captures your computer's audio directly, the way a native app should.
Granola also states that it does not retain your audio after transcribing it, holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification, and contractually bars its AI providers from training on your data. For a cloud product, that is a responsible posture, and plenty of teams will be satisfied by it.
If a bot in the call was your only objection to AI note-takers, Granola solves it. This page is for people whose objection goes one layer deeper.
Where your meeting actually travels
"Bot-free" and "on-device" are two different claims, and the gap between them is where most of the confusion in this category lives. A meeting passes through four stages, and a tool can be local at one and remote at the next:
- Capture — the app reads your microphone and the call's audio. Granola does this on your machine. So does Seal.
- Transcription — speech becomes text. Granola sends the audio over an encrypted connection to external transcription providers. Seal runs Whisper on your Mac; the audio never reaches a network interface.
- Note generation — the transcript becomes a write-up. Granola uses cloud AI providers. Seal runs a language model on your Mac.
- Storage — where the result lives afterwards. Granola stores transcripts and notes in its US-hosted cloud. Seal writes files to your disk.
Encryption in transit protects your audio from a stranger on the network. It does not change the fact that a copy arrives at somebody else's computer and is processed there. For most meetings that distinction is academic. For a client call under privilege, a therapy session, an HR conversation, an unannounced acquisition, or a conversation held under an NDA that names permitted processors, it is the entire question.
A test worth applying to any tool, including ours. Turn off your Wi-Fi and start a meeting recording. If the transcript still appears, the speech model is on your machine. If it doesn't, it never was. Seal is designed to pass this test — it is the reason on-device is a design constraint rather than a marketing line.
Granola vs Seal, line by line
| Seal | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| Bot in the call | Never | Never — same approach |
| Where audio is transcribed | On your Mac, by Whisper | Sent to third-party transcription providers |
| Where notes are written | On your Mac | Cloud AI providers |
| Where notes are stored | Files on your Mac | Granola's US-hosted cloud |
| Account required | None | Yes, sign-up first |
| Works with no internet | Fully | No — transcription needs a connection |
| Free tier history | Unlimited, kept forever | Limited meeting history |
| Price | Free core; $49 once, or $149 lifetime | $14/user/mo Business; $35/user/mo Enterprise |
| Data residency outside the US | Wherever your Mac is | Not offered at this time |
| If the company shuts down | The app keeps working | The service stops |
The pricing shape is different, not just the number
Granola charges monthly because it has to. Every minute you record costs it money in transcription and inference, so the meter has to keep running. That is an honest consequence of a cloud architecture, not a trick.
Seal costs nothing to run once it's on your Mac, because your Mac is doing the work. So the pricing can be shaped the old way: the core is free with unlimited meetings and unlimited history, and Pro is a licence you buy once — $49 including a year of updates, covering two Macs, or $149 for updates forever. Two things stay true in every state, paid or unpaid: your meeting history is never locked, and Markdown and PDF export are never taken away.
Over three years, a single Granola Business seat comes to roughly $504. Seal Pro is $49.
Where Granola is the better choice
Being straight about this makes the rest of the page worth believing.
- You need Windows, iOS, or Android. Seal is a Mac app and nothing else. Granola covers Windows and mobile.
- You need a shared team workspace. Granola has shared folders, org billing, admin controls and SSO. Seal keeps notes on one person's machine by design, which is the point — but it is a limitation if your team needs a common library.
- You need deep SaaS integrations. Notion, Slack, HubSpot and Zapier connections are cloud-native features; Seal exports files instead.
- You need a vendor with SOC 2 to satisfy procurement. A one-person Mac app is a different kind of answer to that question, even if the data never moves.
- You have an Intel Mac. Seal's on-device note generation needs Apple silicon.
If none of those apply, and the thing that bothers you is that your meetings are processed and stored on somebody else's computer, that's the gap Seal exists to close.
Switching
There's no migration to do, because there's no account to move. Download Seal, give it microphone and system-audio permission, and it will notice the next time Zoom, Meet, or Teams starts using your microphone and offer to record. Your Granola history stays where it is; you can export it from Granola if you want a copy on disk. Nothing about installing Seal disturbs it.
Questions people ask
Is Granola on-device?
Partly. Granola captures audio on your computer and does not put a bot in the call, which is genuinely better than bot-based note-takers. But the audio is streamed to third-party transcription providers, the notes are written by cloud AI models, and the resulting transcripts and notes are stored in Granola's US-hosted cloud. Capture is local; transcription, generation, and storage are not.
What is the most private Granola alternative on Mac?
An app that runs all three stages — recording, transcription, and note generation — on your own machine, with no account and no server. Seal is built that way: audio is transcribed by Whisper running on your Mac, notes are written by a model running on your Mac, and everything is saved as files on your disk. Seal has no server to send a meeting to.
Does Granola require an account?
Yes — Granola requires you to sign up before you can use it, because your notes are synced to and stored in its cloud. Seal requires no account at all; there is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign in to.
How much does Granola cost compared with Seal?
Granola is a subscription: a free tier with limited meeting history, then $14 per user per month for Business and $35 per user per month for Enterprise. Seal's core is free forever with unlimited meetings and full history, and Pro is a one-time $49 licence covering two Macs, or $149 for lifetime updates.
Does Seal work offline?
Yes, completely. Because the speech model and the note-writing model both run on your Mac, Seal records, transcribes, and writes up a meeting with no internet connection at all. Cloud tools cannot transcribe without a connection, because the transcription happens on their servers.
Keep reading
Try it against your next real meeting
Free to download, unlimited meetings, no account. Turn off your Wi-Fi and watch the transcript appear anyway.