Granola vs Shadow
A side-by-side comparison of Granola and Shadow, two Meeting tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
Granola
MeetingAI notepad for back-to-back meetings — captures your Mac's audio, no meeting bot.
View GranolaAt a glance
| Attribute | Granola | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Meeting | Meeting |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Deployment (differs) | Cloud | Local |
| Platforms (differs) | macOS, Windows, iOS | macOS |
| Model support | — | — |
| Vendor (differs) | Granola | Taper Labs |
| Capabilities (differs) |
|
|
The honest brief
Granola
Captures system audio with no bot in the call, then blends your raw notes into the AI summary.
- No bot joins the meeting
- Works with any video platform
- Polished notes from your own context
- AI chat across your notes
- Stores transcript, not audio/video replay
- Free tier limits history and integrations
- Desktop-app dependent capture
Shadow
Captures meetings at the OS level without joining as a bot, with transcription kept on-device — unlike notetakers that send a visible participant into the call.
- On-device transcription for privacy
- Smart screenshots and post-meeting Skills
- Auto-detects calls across many apps
- Generous free tier; Plus is just $8/mo
- Mac only — no Windows/web
- AI features require the paid Plus tier
- Younger product, smaller review base
When to pick which
Both cover Transcription (STT), Summarization, and Meeting notes.
Pick Granola if you need Chat with documents.
- Chat with documents (secondary capability)
Pick Shadow if you need Dictation and Task management.
- Dictation (secondary capability)
- Task management (secondary capability)
They also differ on:
- Deployment
- Cloud · Local
- Platforms
- macOS, Windows, iOS · macOS