yapyap vs Humla. Not another Granola clone.
Humla ships a sharp free Apple Silicon Mac notepad: MIT, no bot, on-device Whisper, optional BYO keys, optional Cloud sync at $5/user/mo. yapyap is for interviews and meetings you reopen for years, with lenses you shape, speakers you know, and a phone companion when the laptop stays home.
How we compare
We judge meeting notetakers on five questions: does the tape stay on hardware you control by default; does anything join the call as a guest bot; can one recording become several write-ups (lenses); do speaker names persist across sessions; and is the core price a seat you rent or a tool you own. We are the makers of yapyap — read the side-by-side as a clear product argument, then verify competitor packaging on their own sites before you buy.
- Local-first default: audio and transcripts do not require a cloud account to work.
- Empty guest list: capture from your device, not a bot invite.
- Lenses: reusable views of one recording (summary, actions, quotes, or your own).
- Speaker identity across sessions on your machine.
- Pricing model: pay-once core (€69) vs subscription or seat fees — confirm current vendor prices on their pages.
Background on on-device speech recognition: whisper.cpp is the open stack many local tools build on. For call-host privacy expectations, start from the vendor’s own help (for example Zoom’s security and privacy resources).
Which should you pick?
- Lenses you write and share, not only summary presets.
- Record with the phone you already carry (companion).
- Desktop on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
- Interview and research flows first.
- You want a free Mac-only notepad inspired by Granola this week, and open to inspect.
- Apple Silicon Mac is enough and you like their email-recap flow.
- You specifically want their optional team sync at $5/user/mo (or self-host).
Side by side
| Dimension | yapyap | Humla |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux (+ companion phone) | Apple Silicon Mac only (as of July 2026) |
| Main job | Archive + lenses + speakers | Notepad → email recap |
| Lenses / views | Write, reuse, share | Presets + custom prompts |
| Companion phone | Yes | No |
| Price | €69 once | Free app forever · optional Cloud ~$5/user/mo |
What Humla costs over five years
Every app here records a meeting and writes it up. Five years of that, for one person, at the cheapest plan that unlocks the product. Only one of the bills ever ends.
yapyap
€69
· €69 once, every future version included
Stop paying: Nothing. There is no licence to renew and no server to check in with — the copy you bought keeps recording, transcribing and writing.
Humla
$300
· Free Mac app · Cloud sync $5/user/month
Stop paying: Sync and the shared workspace. The local Mac app itself stays free and keeps working.
Otter
$500
· Pro $8.33/user/month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly)
Stop paying: You drop to 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, and your notes stay in their cloud.
Meetily
$600
· Free MIT Community · Pro $120/user/year, one device per licence
Stop paying: Speaker names, enhanced models and PDF/DOCX export switch off and the app falls back to free Community. Local, but rented.
Fireflies
$600
· Pro $10/seat/month billed yearly ($18 monthly)
Stop paying: The team drops to 400 minutes of storage, and a bot has been sitting in your meetings the whole time.
Prices as each vendor published them, July 2026. Bars compare the printed figures; currencies are not converted, and packaging changes — check the vendor’s own page before you buy. Ours is on the pricing page.
Honest overlap
Both are local-first, no-bot, Whisper-class Mac stories. Humla optimizes “meeting over → client recap” for consultants on Apple Silicon. yapyap optimizes a durable archive you re-lens, including field capture on a phone.
When to pick which
Pick Humla if you want a free Granola-shaped Mac notepad this week. Pick yapyap if the job is owning an interview and meeting archive you can re-open for years.
Looking for a Humla alternative?
Two reasons people move. The first is the platform: Humla is Apple Silicon Mac only as of July 2026, so Windows and Linux rule it out. The second is the job — lenses others can reuse, speakers recognised across sessions, and capture on the phone you already carry.
Keep Humla if you are on Apple Silicon and “meeting over → client recap” is the whole job.
What switching actually involves
- New recordings start local from the first one. There is no migration to finish first.
- Old audio files can come with you: yapyap imports recordings you already have.
- Old transcripts cannot. Export those from your current tool if they matter to you.
- Cancel the old seat when you are ready. Nothing here needs the other tool disabled.
FAQ
- Is Humla free?
- The Mac app is free forever with no account required. Humla Cloud sync is about $5 per user per month as of July 2026, with a self-host option.
- Does Humla run on Windows?
- Not as of our July 2026 audit. Apple Silicon Mac only. yapyap targets macOS, Windows, and Linux plus a companion phone.
When to pick Humla instead
yapyap is not for everyone. Choose Humla if:
- You want a free Mac-only notepad inspired by Granola this week, and open to inspect.
- Apple Silicon Mac is enough and you like their email-recap flow.
- You specifically want their optional team sync at $5/user/mo (or self-host).
Record your meetings. See who spoke. Turn one recording into the write-up you need, on your computer, with no cloud account.
Free to try. No card, no account.
Then €69, once. Yours forever, every update included.
Your recordings never leave your computer.