The best Grain alternatives depend on why you want to leave Grain, the AI meeting recorder at grain.com (the software, not the food). Grain Free caps each meeting at 45 minutes, Grain Pro costs $15 a month billed yearly, and Business costs $29 per seat billed yearly. Fathom has a free plan with unlimited recording and transcription. Otter Pro and Fireflies Pro cost $8.33 and $10 a month billed yearly. Avoma adds scorecards and CRM updates for sales teams. Plaud and Comu are recorders that capture in-person meetings and phone calls, and Comu Note Pro costs €139.99 for a device with a plan that transcribes without a minute limit. Comu prices are euro prices from the EU store (Nov 6, 2026); competitor prices are US dollar prices from each company's own site.
If you want the price comparison first, jump to the Grain alternatives price table. If you record in person or on the phone and want to compare costs, skip to Grain vs Comu AI for in-person meetings and calls.
What Grain includes before you compare
Grain records meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Slack huddles, either with a bot that joins the call or with Desktop Capture, which transcribes your computer's audio without a bot. Desktop Capture works on Macs with Apple Silicon and on Windows, and it records no video.
Grain Free costs $0 and records meetings of up to 45 minutes each. Pro costs $19 a month, or $15 billed yearly, for one person and adds longer meetings, full history, custom AI prompts and custom note templates. Business costs $39 per seat a month, or $29 billed yearly, with at least two paid seats. It adds AI coaching, custom AI follow-up emails and team interaction insights. Enterprise is priced through sales. Viewers are free on Business and Enterprise, so you pay only for the people who record.
Grain syncs with HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive and works with Slack and Zapier. Grain is SOC 2 Type II compliant, hosts data on AWS in the USA, and states that neither Grain nor its subprocessors use your data for model training.
Why people look for a Grain alternative
People look for a Grain alternative when the free plan runs out, the team plan needs two seats or the meetings happen away from a computer. Five details of the Grain plans send people to compare tools:
- Free caps each meeting at 45 minutes. Users with a personal email address can record 20 meetings with the Grain bot.
- Business needs two paid seats. The minimum is $696 a year on yearly billing, and Pro is a personal plan that cannot be mixed into a workspace.
- Coaching starts on Business. Custom AI follow-up emails and team interaction insights also start on Business, and Free leaves out CRM integrations.
- Desktop Capture has computer limits. It runs on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows, not on Intel Macs or Linux.
- The call happens away from a computer. A recorder you carry captures a room or a phone call without a laptop, a calendar or a meeting link.
Grain alternatives compared by price
The eight Grain alternatives in the table cost from $0 on a free plan to $19 a month for Avoma Startup billed yearly, and the two recorders add a device price.
| Tool | How it captures | Free option | Paid entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comu | Recorder you carry | Free plan with the device, unlimited transcription | €139.99 (Note Pro) or €179.99 (Action Pro) |
| Grain (baseline) | Bot, or Desktop Capture without a bot | Free, meetings up to 45 minutes | Pro $15 a month billed yearly |
| Otter | Bot, or desktop app | Basic, 300 minutes a month | Pro $8.33 a month billed yearly |
| Fathom | Bot, or bot-free in beta on Mac | Free, unlimited recording and transcription | Premium $16 a month billed yearly |
| Fireflies | Bot | Free, 400 minutes of storage per team | Pro $10 per seat a month billed yearly |
| Read AI | Assistant joins the call, or desktop app | Free, 5 meetings a month | Pro $15 a month billed yearly |
| Granola | Bot-free, computer audio | Basic, 30 days of history | Business $14 per user a month |
| Avoma | Bot | 14-day trial of the Organization plan | Startup $19 a month billed yearly |
| Plaud | Recorder you carry | Starter, 300 minutes a month | Plaud Note $159, Pro plan $8.33 a month billed yearly |
Competitor prices were checked Nov 9, 2026. Yearly prices are the yearly total divided by 12.
Fathom: unlimited recording on a free plan
Fathom Free costs $0 and has no end date. It includes unlimited recording, storage and transcription, an instant AI summary of each call, clips, playlists and search across calls. Fathom works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack huddles, and it offers a bot or a bot-free capture mode that is in beta for Mac. Every plan is broken down in Fathom AI pricing.
Premium costs $20 a month, or $16 billed yearly, and adds advanced summaries, AI action items, a conversational meeting assistant and a custom meeting bot. Team costs $15 a seat billed yearly and Business costs $25, $4 less than Grain Business, both with a two-user minimum. Business adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics and AI scorecards. Choose Fathom if you want a free plan to start on or coaching metrics at a lower seat price.
Otter: live transcripts and a lower yearly price
Otter Pro costs $8.33 a month billed yearly, $6.67 less than Grain Pro, and gives 1,200 transcription minutes a month and conversations of up to 90 minutes. Pro costs $16.99 billed monthly. Business costs $30 billed monthly, or $19.99 billed yearly. The plans are compared in Otter AI pricing.
Otter Basic costs $0 and gives 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation and the 25 most recent conversations. Otter joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings from a connected calendar, runs a desktop app for bot-free meetings, transcribes in six languages and records in person through its iOS and Android apps. Choose Otter if you want live transcripts in online meetings at a lower yearly price.
Fireflies: conversation intelligence at $19 a seat
Fireflies Business costs $19 per seat a month billed yearly, $10 less than Grain Business, and adds unlimited storage, conversation intelligence and team analytics. It costs $29 billed monthly. Fireflies Enterprise costs $39 billed yearly.
Fireflies Free costs $0 and includes real-time notes, meeting search, limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits once. Pro costs $18 a month, or $10 billed yearly, with unlimited AI summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording and unlimited integrations. AI credits pay for advanced tools such as AI Skills and CRM autofill. A Fireflies bot joins meetings from a calendar or an invite, and Fireflies transcribes in 100+ languages. Choose Fireflies if you want a searchable library and team analytics at a lower seat price.
Read AI: playback and highlights
Read AI adds audio and video playback and video highlights on Enterprise, which costs $29.75 a month, or $22.50 billed yearly. Read AI Free covers 5 meetings a month, with meetings up to 1 hour.
Pro costs $19.75 a month, or $15 billed yearly, with unlimited meeting transcription, 100 minutes of file uploads a month and premium integrations with Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, Confluence and Zapier. Enterprise+ costs $29.75 a seat billed yearly with at least five licenses, and it adds HIPAA, SAML and SCIM. Choose Read AI if you want playback and highlights.
Granola: bot-free notes shaped by what you type
Granola captures your computer's audio, so no bot joins the call, and it combines the notes you type with the transcript. Granola Basic costs $0 and keeps 30 days of meeting history. Business costs $14 per user a month and adds unlimited history, pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails and integrations with Attio, Notion, HubSpot, Affinity and Zapier. Enterprise costs $35 per user a month.
Granola runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, and its mobile apps take notes at walking meetings and conferences and cover phone calls. Choose Granola if you want bot-free notes shaped around what you type.
Avoma: scorecards and CRM updates for sales teams
Avoma Startup costs $19 per recorder seat a month billed yearly, or $29 billed monthly. Like Grain, Avoma charges for the seats that record, and viewers watch recordings, read notes and comment for free. Startup includes unlimited real-time transcription, unlimited AI summary notes, automatic video recording, Ask Avoma, AI follow-up emails, notes saved to CRM records and a dialer integration, for up to 25 recorder seats.
Enterprise costs $39 per seat billed yearly with at least 10 paid seats and a designated success manager. Revenue add-ons cover AI coaching, automatic call scoring, scorecards for SPICED, Sandler and MEDDICC, sales forecasting and two-way CRM field updates. Avoma offers a 14-day trial of the Organization plan with all add-ons and no credit card. Choose Avoma if you run a sales team and want scorecards.
Plaud: a recorder alternative to Grain
Plaud is a recorder that captures in-person meetings and phone calls and comes with a plan. Plaud Note costs $159 and Plaud Note Pro costs $189. Each comes with a free Starter plan of 300 transcription minutes a month. Pro costs $17.99 a month, or $8.33 billed yearly, with 1,200 minutes a month, and Unlimited costs $29.99 a month, or $20.00 billed yearly. Plaud pricing adds up the real costs.
Every Plaud plan includes speaker labels, Ask Plaud and AutoFlow, and Plaud does not support real-time transcription. Ask Plaud work modes run on credits sold separately in the Plaud app, at $12.99 for 1,000 credits. Choose Plaud if you want a recorder and are fine with a monthly plan.
Grain alternative for in-person meetings and calls: Comu AI
Comu is a Grain alternative for in-person meetings and phone calls: a pocket recorder with an app that captures the room and the call without a meeting link, a calendar connection or a computer. Comu Note Pro is €139.99 and Comu Action Pro is €179.99 (Nov 6, 2026), and Grain Pro billed yearly costs $540 over three years. Comu has a bone-conduction microphone, so placing the device against the phone records the call.
The free plan that comes with the device includes unlimited transcription, unlimited real-time transcription, speaker identification, AI summaries, action items and Comu AI for questions across your recordings. It has 30+ built-in templates and unlimited custom templates, supports 113 languages and imports external audio files. Comu exports text as TXT, Markdown, Word and PDF and audio as MP3 and WAV, and Comu is GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant.
| What you get | Comu (included with the device) | Grain Free | Grain Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | €139.99 (Note Pro) or €179.99 (Action Pro) | $0 | $15 a month billed yearly |
| Meeting length | No minute limit | Up to 45 minutes per meeting | Longer meetings |
| Where it records | A recorder you carry, in person and on the phone | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Slack huddles, plus computer audio | Same as Free |
Grain Pro billed monthly costs $19 a month, and billed yearly it costs $180 in year 1.
Comu records the room and the phone from a device you carry, so it works for an in-person interview, a client visit, a lecture or a call. To see every feature in the included plan, read our guide to the features that come with Comu, or look at Comu Note Pro and Comu Action Pro.
Grain competitors by team size
One person should start on a free plan, a team of five should compare per-seat totals, and a larger team should compare admin features.
One person. Fathom Free has unlimited recording, Otter Basic gives 300 minutes a month, Fireflies Free stores 400 minutes per team and Read AI Free covers 5 meetings a month. The lowest paid yearly prices are Otter Pro at $8.33, Fireflies Pro at $10 and Read AI Pro at $15, the same as Grain Pro.
Two to five people. Grain Business at its two-seat minimum costs $696 a year on yearly billing, and five Business seats cost $1,740 a year. Five Fathom Team seats cost $900 a year, five Fireflies Business seats cost $1,140 and five Avoma Startup seats cost $1,140. Five Otter Pro seats cost $499.80 a year. Five Comu Note Pro devices with the included plan cost €699.95, and each person carries their own.
Ten or more people. Admin features matter: SSO, SCIM, audit logs and a success manager. Grain Enterprise includes SSO and dedicated account management. Fireflies Enterprise ($39 a seat billed yearly) and Fathom Enterprise include SSO and SCIM, Avoma Enterprise includes a designated success manager, and Comu is GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant.
Grain AI alternatives free: what each free plan includes
Fathom Free has unlimited recording, storage and transcription, and Comu's included plan has unlimited transcription with a device. Grain Free records meetings of up to 45 minutes each.
| Free plan | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Comu, included with the device | Unlimited transcription and real-time transcription, speaker identification, summaries, action items, 30+ templates plus unlimited custom templates |
| Grain Free | Unlimited recordings of up to 45 minutes each, AI meeting notes, one recording seat per workspace |
| Fathom Free | Unlimited recording, storage and transcription, instant AI summary, clips, playlists, search across calls |
| Fireflies Free | 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits once, limited AI summaries, 100+ languages |
| Otter Basic | 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 25 most recent conversations, six languages |
| Read AI Free | 5 meetings a month, meetings up to 1 hour |
| Granola Basic | 30 days of meeting history, AI meeting notes, speaker tagging, Slack integration |
| Avoma trial | 14 days of the Organization plan with all add-ons, no credit card |
| Plaud Starter | 300 transcription minutes a month with the device |
Grain Free leaves out AI coaching, CRM integrations and API access. Comu's included plan transcribes without a minute cap. Grain Free stops each meeting at 45 minutes, Otter Basic at 300 minutes a month, Fireflies Free at 400 minutes of storage per team, Read AI Free at 5 meetings a month and Plaud Starter at 300 minutes a month. Fathom Free also transcribes without a minute cap. Comu's included plan records the room and phone calls from a device you carry and transcribes in real time.
Grain alternatives: what each costs over three years
Over three years, one seat costs $540 on Grain Pro billed yearly, and the other paid plans in the table fall between $299.88 and $684.
The Comu rows use only the free plan that comes with the device: unlimited transcription, unlimited real-time transcription, speaker identification, AI summaries, action items and templates. Grain Free caps each meeting at 45 minutes and leaves out AI coaching and CRM integrations. Fathom Free has no AI action items, and Fireflies Free limits AI summaries and stores 400 minutes per team. Otter Basic stops at 300 minutes a month, Read AI Free covers 5 meetings a month and Granola Basic keeps 30 days of history. Plaud Starter stops at 300 minutes a month, and Avoma has a 14-day trial instead of a free plan. The table therefore prices the paid plan of each tool.
| Cost for one person | Year 1 | Year 2 (total) | Year 3 (total) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comu Note Pro, free plan | €139.99 | €139.99 | €139.99 |
| Comu Action Pro, free plan | €179.99 | €179.99 | €179.99 |
| Grain Pro, $15 a month billed yearly | $180.00 | $360.00 | $540.00 |
| Otter Pro, $8.33 a month billed yearly | $99.96 | $199.92 | $299.88 |
| Fireflies Pro, $10 a month billed yearly | $120.00 | $240.00 | $360.00 |
| Plaud Note with Pro plan, $99.99 a year | $258.99 | $358.98 | $458.97 |
| Plaud Note Pro with Pro plan, $99.99 a year | $288.99 | $388.98 | $488.97 |
| Granola Business, $14 a month | $168.00 | $336.00 | $504.00 |
| Read AI Pro, $15 a month billed yearly | $180.00 | $360.00 | $540.00 |
| Fathom Premium, $16 a month billed yearly | $192.00 | $384.00 | $576.00 |
| Avoma Startup, $19 a month billed yearly | $228.00 | $456.00 | $684.00 |
Billed monthly at $19, Grain Pro costs $684 over three years.
For a team of five over three years, five Grain Business seats billed yearly cost $5,220 and five Grain Pro subscriptions cost $2,700, while five Comu Note Pro devices with the included free plan cost €699.95.
Grain replacement checklist: what to compare before you switch
Compare where you meet, bot or bot-free capture, meeting length, CRM and coaching, seat minimums, privacy and total cost before you replace Grain.
- Where you meet. Online meetings suit app-based tools. Rooms, client visits and calls suit a recorder.
- Bot or bot-free. Granola, Grain's Desktop Capture, Otter's desktop app, Read AI's desktop app and Fathom's Mac beta capture without a bot. Fireflies and Avoma use a meeting bot, and OtterPilot joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings from a connected calendar.
- Meeting length. Grain Free stops at 45 minutes, Read AI Free at 1 hour and Otter Basic at 30 minutes per conversation. Fathom Free and Comu's included plan have no minute cap.
- CRM and coaching. Avoma and Fathom Business offer CRM sync, Fireflies charges AI credits for CRM autofill, and Avoma adds call scoring and scorecards.
- Seat minimums. Grain Business and Fathom Team and Business need two users, Read AI Enterprise+ needs five licenses and Avoma Enterprise needs ten paid seats.
- Privacy. Grain, Fathom and Fireflies are SOC 2 Type II compliant, and Comu is GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant.
- Total cost. Compare the three-year total, not the monthly price.
To switch, export the Grain recordings and transcripts you need, because older recordings stay locked after you cancel a paid plan until you buy a plan again. Run the new tool on its free plan next to Grain for a week. Tell the other person you are recording. Laws on recording calls differ by country, and you are responsible for following them.
Which alternative to Grain should you choose?
Choose Fathom for unlimited free recording, Otter or Fireflies for a lower price than Grain Pro, Avoma for scorecards, Granola for bot-free notes, Read AI for playback, and Comu or Plaud for in-person meetings and calls.
| If you | Choose |
|---|---|
| Record in person or on the phone and want unlimited transcription with the device | Comu |
| Want unlimited free recording for online meetings | Fathom |
| Want a lower yearly price and a free plan to start on | Otter |
| Want conversation intelligence at $19 a seat | Fireflies |
| Run a sales team and want scorecards and CRM updates | Avoma |
| Want bot-free notes in your own structure | Granola |
| Want audio and video playback with highlights | Read AI |
| Want a recorder and are fine with a monthly plan | Plaud |
| Want video clips, coaching and CRM sync with free viewer seats | Stay on Grain |
Common questions about Grain alternatives
What is the best alternative to Grain?
Choose Fathom for unlimited free recording, Otter or Fireflies for a lower price than Grain Pro, Avoma for sales scorecards, Granola for bot-free notes, and Comu for in-person and phone conversations. Comu's included plan has unlimited transcription.
Is there a free alternative to Grain?
Yes. Fathom Free costs $0 with unlimited recording, storage and transcription. Otter Basic, Fireflies Free, Read AI Free and Granola Basic also cost $0, and Comu's included plan has unlimited transcription with a device.
Is there a Grain AI alternative that does not join the call as a bot?
Yes. Granola captures your computer's audio, Fathom offers a bot-free capture mode in beta for Mac, Otter and Read AI have desktop apps, and recorders such as Comu record the room and need no bot at all. Grain's Desktop Capture is also bot-free on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows.
Is there a Grain alternative for in-person meetings and phone calls?
Yes. Plaud and Comu are recorders that capture in-person conversations and phone calls without a computer. Comu Note Pro is €139.99 (Nov 6, 2026) and its included plan has unlimited transcription, speaker identification and AI summaries.
How much does Grain cost?
Grain Free costs $0, Pro costs $19 a month or $15 billed yearly, and Business costs $39 per seat a month or $29 billed yearly with at least two paid seats. Enterprise is priced through sales, and viewer seats are free on Business and Enterprise.
Which Grain competitors are cheaper?
Otter Pro at $8.33 a month billed yearly and Fireflies Pro at $10 cost less than Grain Pro at $15. Fireflies Business at $19 and Fathom Business at $25 cost less per seat than Grain Business at $29.
Which Grain alternative syncs with a CRM?
Avoma Startup saves notes to CRM records at $19 per recorder seat billed yearly, and Fathom Business syncs CRM fields at $25 per seat billed yearly. Fireflies charges AI credits for CRM autofill with HubSpot and Salesforce, and Granola Business integrates with HubSpot and Attio.
Can I replace Grain with a recorder?
Yes, if your meetings happen in person or on the phone. A pocket recorder captures the room and the call, and the app produces the transcript, summary and action items.
Related reading
- Gong Alternatives (2026): 7 Gong Competitors Compared by Price and Use Case
- Read AI Alternatives (2026): 8 Tools Compared by Price and Use Case
- Fathom AI Alternatives (2026): 8 Tools Compared by Price and Use Case
- Granola Alternatives (2026): 7 AI Note Takers Compared by Price and Use Case
- AI Notetaker for In Person Meetings (2026): 7 Options Compared by Price and Use Case
Sources
Competitor pages were checked on Nov 9, 2026. Comu prices were checked on Nov 6, 2026.
- Grain, Home page, Pricing, Billing, Plans, Desktop Capture and Integrations
- Otter, Pricing; Fathom, Pricing and Free vs. Premium for Individuals; Fireflies, Pricing; Read AI, Pricing; Avoma, Pricing; Granola, Pricing
- Plaud, plans and pricing, Plaud Note and Plaud Note Pro
- Plaud, plan comparison and real-time transcription
- Comu, Comu Action Pro, Comu Note Pro, and app downloads
