Anarlog vs Shadow
We give Anarlog a 3.4 GPA and Shadow a 2.6, out of 4.0. Anarlog grades higher on the free plan, features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Anarlog
Open-source, local-first AI meeting notepad with no bot
Free plan · from $14/mo
Shadow
Bot-free Mac meeting recorder that runs your own AI prompts
Free plan · from $8/mo
How we grade them
| 3.4GPAAnarlogVery good | 2.6GPAShadowGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPro is $14 a person a month, or $140 for the year, a little above where notetakers usually start. It buys hosted transcription and AI, system-wide dictation, encrypted sync across 3 personal devices, sharing and automations. Plenty of people won't need it, since Free already does the notes. | BPlus is $8 a month on the yearly plan, a little under what notetakers typically start at, or $12 monthly. It buys unlimited AI meeting notes, Meeting Skills, Action Skills and AI chat, with no minutes to count. Fair money for an app that lives on one Mac, if not a steal. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree covers unlimited on-device transcription, local recordings, notes, templates, chat and exports, plus a local API, CLI and MCP server. Most people could stay here. The catch is that you supply the AI: local models, or your own paid API keys. | BTranscription, audio recording and Smart Screenshots are unlimited and described as free forever. But AI notes, Skills and AI chat are only listed as unlimited on Plus, and what the free plan gets of them isn't spelled out. You do get 2 weeks of Plus with the download, no card. |
| Features | AIt records system audio and the microphone, then merges what you typed with the transcript into an editable summary. Chat searches across your meetings, and the same data is open to a CLI, an MCP server and webhooks. Pro adds automations that post to Slack, Notion and Linear. | BIt records mic and system audio with no bot, starts and stops by itself, labels speakers on the device and screenshots the meeting window as it changes. Skills are prompts you can edit, and a shortcut gives you voice typing. But everything lives on one Mac, with no sync yet. |
| Ease of use | BNo account needed, no calendar access and nothing to invite to the call. On Free you do bring the AI yourself, through Ollama, LM Studio or your own API keys, where Pro's hosted AI skips that step. There's no rating on record to go by, so a B. | BAutopilot spots a supported meeting and starts and stops listening on its own. There's no rating on record to show how people get on with it, so it stops at a B. |
| Platforms and integrations | BMac, Windows and Linux. It connects to Slack, Notion, Linear, HubSpot, Attio and Pipedrive, with a CLI and an MCP server on top. But there's no mobile app yet: the download page says iPhone, iPad and Android apps launch in October. | DMac only, and it needs Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later. Windows and other devices are on a waitlist. It does connect to Google Calendar, and a Skill can send its result to a webhook for Zapier, n8n or Make. |
| Best for | meeting notes that stay on your own computer | Mac users who like writing their own prompts |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Anarlog and Shadow. How we grade
Where they differ
- Anarlog starts at $14 per person / month, or $140 per person / year. Shadow starts at $8 per month, billed annually.
- Only Anarlog lists Windows and Linux apps.
- Anarlog is open source, according to its own site.
- Shadow also covers dictation and Markdown.
In commonFree planmacOSLocal-firstAI featuresMeeting notesTranscriptionChat assistant
At a glance
| Anarlog | Shadow | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $14 per person / month, or $140 per person / year | $8 per month, billed annually |
| Free plan | Unlimited on-device transcription using local models or your own API keys, local recordings, notes, templates, chat and exports, plus a local API, CLI and MCP. | Unlimited on-device transcription, audio recording and Smart Screenshots. AI meeting notes, Skills and AI chat are listed as unlimited only on Plus. |
| Free trial | 2-week Pro trial that does not charge automatically when it ends | 2 weeks of Plus included free with the download, no card required |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Fastrepl | Taper Labs, Inc. |
| Price read from | anarlog.so | shadow.do |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Anarlog
- People who need meeting notes kept on their own device
- Organizations that do not allow meeting bots or cloud notetakers
- Developers who want open-source code, a CLI and an MCP server
- Teams that work on Linux as well as macOS and Windows
Shadow
- Mac users who want meeting notes without a bot in the call
- People who want to write their own prompts for notes and follow-ups
- Keeping transcripts as Markdown files on their own disk
- Using one app for meeting notes and voice typing
Worth knowing
Anarlog
- There is no mobile app yet. The download page says the iPhone, iPad and Android apps launch in October.
- Hosted transcription and AI, dictation, sync, sharing and automations need Pro. Free relies on local models or your own paid API keys.
- Shared notes and the Cloud API keep a server-readable copy, unlike Cloud Sync, which is end-to-end encrypted.
- Speaker labeling is manual on the Free plan; better speaker identification is a Pro feature.
Shadow
- Mac only: it requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later. Windows and other devices are on a waitlist.
- Data is stored only on the one Mac. Sync across devices is on the roadmap but not available.
- The Free plan lists transcription, recording and screenshots; unlimited AI meeting notes, Skills and AI chat need Plus.
- Skills, Ask and automatic titles send transcripts or screen context to OpenAI, Google or Anthropic. Capture, transcription and storage stay on the Mac.
Key features
Anarlog
- Bot-free capture
- Records system audio and the microphone directly, so nothing appears in the participant list and no calendar access is needed. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and in-person talks.
- Local-first storage
- Notes and transcripts live in a SQLite database on your device and recordings are local files. You can use it without an account and export to Markdown.
- Your choice of AI
- Run local models through Ollama or LM Studio, bring your own keys for providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Deepgram, or use hosted AI on Pro. Local models work offline.
- Summaries built on your notes
- After a meeting, Anarlog merges what you typed with the transcript into an editable summary. Pro adds custom summary formats and custom dictionaries.
- Chat, CLI and MCP
- Search across meetings and ask questions of your transcripts in chat. The same data is reachable from a command-line tool, an MCP server and webhooks on the Free plan.
- Sync, sharing and automations
- Pro adds end-to-end encrypted sync across 3 personal devices, shareable notes, shared workspaces, and automations that post to Slack, Notion and Linear.
Shadow
- Bot-free capture with Autopilot
- Shadow records the microphone and system audio from the Mac, so nothing joins the call. Autopilot detects supported meetings and starts and stops listening on its own.
- On-device transcription
- Transcription and speaker labeling run on the Mac, and raw audio is not sent to an outside provider. The vendor lists around 100 languages and says English works best.
- Smart Screenshots
- Shadow finds the meeting window and captures it as the visuals change, so questions asked afterwards can cover what was shown as well as what was said.
- Meeting Skills
- Each Skill is an editable prompt that produces notes, action items, a follow-up email or a BANT breakdown. A Skill can run automatically after a meeting and send its result to a webhook.
- Action Skills and voice typing
- A keyboard shortcut in any app runs a Skill on what you say, what is on screen or the text you selected, then pastes the result at the cursor.
- Local Markdown vault
- Transcripts and Skill outputs are saved as Markdown files, with media, in a vault folder you choose on the Mac. You can keep or discard meeting audio.
Plans
Anarlog
Free$0
Unlimited on-device transcription, local recordings, your own keys for speech-to-text and AI, notes, templates, chat, exports, and a local API, CLI and MCP.
Pro$14
per person / month, or $140 per person / year
Hosted transcription and AI, system-wide dictation, end-to-end encrypted cloud sync, note sharing, integrations, automations and shared workspaces.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Pro, plus domain SSO and SCIM, sharing, retention and consent policies, audit visibility and a customer-hosted data plane.
Shadow
Free$0
Unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited Smart Screenshots, described as free forever.
Plus$8
per month, billed annually; $12 billed monthly
Everything in Free, plus unlimited AI meeting notes, Meeting Skills, Action Skills and AI chat.
Ways to pay less
Anarlog
- Annual discount
Yearly Pro costs $140 instead of $168
Pro is listed at $14 per person a month or $140 per person a year, so paying yearly costs the same as ten months at the monthly rate.
Shadow
- Annual discount
Annual billing lowers Plus to $8 a month
The pricing page's billing toggle shows Plus at $8 a month on annual billing and $12 a month on monthly billing, about a third less.
