Gong alternatives that don't record calls

If your buyers or your policy rule out recorded sales calls, the tools that fit are built on transcription rather than recording. Two take that approach in different ways: Aircover, a revenue agent platform that works from live transcription and does not record by default, and Granola, a general-purpose meeting notetaker that transcribes without a bot. Gong and most other conversation intelligence products record audio and video, so they are not options here. Here is how the two compare.

The shortlist

Two products come up when a team that can't record goes looking for a transcription-based option. Each description below uses only what the vendor states on its own public pages.

Aircover. An AI-native revenue agent platform. Specialist agents work before the call (account research, call prep, dynamic playbooks), during it (live guidance, battlecards, answers to technical questions), and after it (notes, follow-ups, scorecards, CRM sync to Salesforce, HubSpot, and ServiceNow, and conversation intelligence across deals). It runs on live transcription and does not record by default; recording is available as an opt-in. It can transcribe from your computer's audio without joining the meeting as a bot, or join as a bot, whichever the user prefers. It works across Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, dialers, and contact center solutions, and it is SOC 2 Type II certified.

Granola. Granola is a general-purpose AI notetaker, not a sales tool. It transcribes from your computer's audio without joining the meeting as a bot, then produces notes, summaries, action items, and follow-up emails, with a chat interface across your notes. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams and has mobile apps for in-person meetings. Its public pages do not describe sales coaching, battlecards, scorecards, deal qualification, or a Salesforce integration. Because no bot joins the call and nothing announces the tool to other participants, its notification practices are the subject of a pending lawsuit. Aircover, by contrast, has purpose-built notification controls for legal compliance, with configurable notice options tailored to your account. The question to ask is whether a notetaker with no sales functionality and no participant notice is what your revenue team, or your buyers, want in the meeting.

The table compares the two on the dimensions that decide this purchase. Competitor capabilities verified against public product pages, September 2026.

Where Granola is the better choice

Granola is the better choice if what you want is personal meeting notes rather than a sales system. For an individual who sits in back-to-back meetings and wants a clean summary and action items afterwards, with no bot in the call, it does that job well and cheaply, and its Enterprise plan adds admin controls and organization-wide notice of its use. It is not built to prep a rep, guide a call, score it against a methodology, or write structured fields to Salesforce, HubSpot, and ServiceNow, so a revenue team would be assembling those pieces elsewhere. One more thing to weigh: the same design that keeps Granola out of the meeting also means other participants get no notice from the tool, a practice now the subject of a pending lawsuit, whereas Aircover's purpose-built notification controls let you configure notice for legal compliance.

It also fits a team that is not ready to change how it sells. Granola asks nothing of a rep except to have it open, and a manager who wants to know what was discussed gets that without a rollout, a rubric, or a CRM mapping. If the problem you are solving is note-taking rather than selling, that is the right amount of tool, and its free tier means a team can find out for nothing whether notes alone are enough.

Where Aircover is the better choice

Aircover is the choice for teams that want a next-generation, AI-native revenue platform rather than a notetaker. Specialist agents work before, during, and after every call: account research, call prep, and dynamic playbooks beforehand; live guidance, battlecards, and technical answers while the customer is talking; and AI summaries, agent results, follow-ups, scorecards, and bi-directional sync to Salesforce, HubSpot, and ServiceNow afterwards. Granola produces a transcript and a summary; Aircover changes what happens on the call and then does the paperwork.

Transcription by default, with recording as an opt-in, is a large advantage on top of that. Adoption is higher when reps and customers know nothing is being recorded, regulated industries can run the full workflow on accounts that prohibit recorded sales calls, and international customers who work under stricter expectations about recording get the same coverage. Unlike Granola, Aircover pairs that with purpose-built notification controls for legal compliance. No-recording does not eliminate applicable notice, consent, privacy, or contractual requirements. Use your organization's approved notice and consent process for the jurisdictions and customers you serve.

Running both

There is little reason to run both. Granola's notes and Aircover's AI summaries cover the same ground after the call, and a rep would be choosing between two transcripts of one conversation. Teams that already have Granola on individual laptops usually keep it for internal meetings and use Aircover for customer conversations, where the prep, live guidance, scorecards, and CRM sync are the point.

If some of your accounts can't be recorded and you want to see what agent coverage looks like on those calls, book a demo and bring one of those accounts as the example.

Gong and Granola are trademarks of their respective owners; names are used here for identification only.

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