Shiyin
Open-source alternatives to Granola and Otter for Mac
Granola and Otter are the best-known AI meeting note takers, but both process audio in the cloud and charge for their full plans. These open-source apps record and transcribe on your own computer. Here is how they compare, including where Shiyin isn’t the best fit.
The short answer
For free, local meeting notes on a Mac with automatic speaker identification, in English, Chinese or Japanese, Shiyin fits well. If you need Windows or many more languages, Meetily and Minutes run on more platforms. Anarlog adds hosted sync and collaboration on its paid plan.
Open-source apps that run locally
| App | Price | Transcription | Speaker identification | Notes written by | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiyin | Free (MIT) | On your Mac: Breeze ASR 25, or Whisper large-v3-turbo for Japanese | Automatic and free; remembers voices across meetings | Your Claude or ChatGPT subscription (Claude Code, Codex), an API key, or a local model | macOS 26, Apple Silicon; Windows in development |
| Meetily | Community edition free (MIT); Pro $10/user/month billed annually | On your computer: Whisper or Parakeet | Pro only | Claude, Groq, OpenAI API or local Ollama | macOS, Windows; Linux from source |
| Anarlog (formerly Hyprnote) | Free (MIT); Pro $14/person/month | On-device on the free plan; cloud transcription on Pro | Manual labels free; automatic on Pro | On-device models or your own API keys | Apple Silicon Mac |
| Minutes | Free (MIT) | On your computer: Whisper or Parakeet | Yes (pyannote) | Any LLM; can use your Claude subscription through MCP | Mac, Windows |
The cloud tools they replace
| App | Price | Where audio is processed | Meeting bot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | Free with 30 days of history; Business $14/user/month | Streamed to transcription providers (Deepgram, AssemblyAI); audio isn’t kept | No |
| Otter | Free with 300 minutes a month; Pro $8.33/month billed annually | Otter’s cloud | Yes, joins Zoom, Teams and Meet |
Prices and features come from each vendor’s own pricing page, documentation or llms.txt, checked on 21 October 2026. They change, so check the links below before deciding.
Where Shiyin is different
- Speaker identification is free. Speakers are separated automatically, voices are remembered for later meetings, and you can merge speakers or reassign single lines.
- Built for Mandarin mixed with English. Breeze ASR 25 cuts the error rate by about 56% against Whisper large-v2 on a code-switching test set (model card).
- Notes you can check. Every item has a timestamp that plays the original audio, and names or dates the AI isn’t sure about are listed under “To confirm” instead of guessed.
- Your own subscription. Notes are written by the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for (how it works).
- No bot, no virtual audio driver. It records the Mac’s audio directly (how to record calls).
When another app fits better
- You use Windows or Linux. Meetily and Minutes support Windows; Shiyin’s Windows version is still in development.
- You meet in languages other than English, Chinese or Japanese. Meetily and Minutes use Whisper or Parakeet, which cover many more languages.
- You have an Intel Mac or an older macOS. Shiyin needs macOS 26 on Apple Silicon.
- Your team wants shared, synced notes. Anarlog Pro and Granola are built for that.
- You record on your phone. Granola and Otter have mobile apps.
Sources
- Meetily: llms.txt, GitHub
- Anarlog: pricing
- Minutes: website
- Granola: pricing, security
- Otter: pricing
Questions
Is Shiyin really free?
Yes. It’s free and open source with no account and no usage limits. The only cost is your own AI subscription or API usage, if you choose to use one.
Which is the most accurate?
We haven’t tested every app on the same recordings, so we don’t rank them. Try one of your own meetings in each.
Can I import transcripts from another app?
Yes. Shiyin imports srt, vtt and txt transcripts and writes meeting notes from them.
Does Shiyin work on Windows?
Not yet. A Windows version is in development.