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Sujith S for Zackriya Solutions

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Meetily: The Best Free & Open Source, Self-Hosted AI Meeting Note Taker – A Granola Alternative for Windows

Introduction

Meetings are essential for collaboration, but taking notes, summarizing discussions, and ensuring data privacy can be challenging. While AI-powered meeting assistants like Granola.ai and Otter.ai provide transcription and summarization, they come with cloud dependencies, privacy concerns, and recurring subscription costs.

At Meetily, we are building a fully open-source, privacy-first AI meeting assistant that works entirely on local hardware or via self-hosted cloud infrastructure, ensuring users retain complete control over their meeting data.

🚀 General Info:

1000+ GitHub Stars 🌟

800+ Downloads ⬇️

Growing Community & Positive Feedback

Screenshot of Meetily

🔗 GitHub: Meetily - AI Meeting Assistant

🌐 Website: Meetily Official Site

📌 Latest Release: Check Here

💡 AI MVP Development Services: Build with Zackriya


Why We Built Meetily

Why Meetily?

Many professionals, especially startup founders, project managers, engineers, and open-source advocates, prefer not to send confidential meeting data to third-party servers.

🔹 Cloud Dependence & Privacy Concerns – Most AI meeting assistants store meeting data in the cloud, raising issues about data security and compliance.

🔹 Expensive Subscription Models – AI-powered note-taking tools charge monthly fees ranging from $8 to $20 per user per month.

🔹 Lack of Customization & LLM Control – Many closed-source AI assistants do not allow fine-tuning of models or let users choose which LLMs to use.

Meetily’s Solution:

Transcribes meetings in real-time using Whisper.cpp.

Generates AI-powered summaries using local LLMs (Ollama) or external APIs (Claude, Groq, Llama 70B).

Stores meeting data locally for security & compliance.

Runs on local hardware to reduce cloud dependencies.

Is fully open-source, allowing users to customize and improve it.

Meetily ensures full data control and eliminates SaaS subscriptions, making it the best Granola alternative for Windows and a top self-hosted AI meeting note taker.


Meetily vs Other AI Meeting Assistants

Feature Meetily (Self-Hosted & Open-Source) Granola.ai (Mac-Only, Cloud-Based) Otter.ai (Cross-Platform, SaaS-Based)
Data Privacy 100% Local & Open-Source Cloud-Based Cloud-Based
Cost Free (Self-Hosted) / Paid (Hosted Option) $18/month $8.33/month
Customization Fully Customizable AI Models Limited Limited
LLM Summarization Local LLMs + API Support Closed Cloud AI Closed Cloud AI
Platform Support Windows, Mac OS Mac-Only Windows, Mac OS, Mobile
Best For Self-hosting, privacy-conscious users Mac users needing AI-enhanced notes Teams, Sales, and Remote Workflows

Technical Architecture & Implementation

Architecture of Meetily

Meetily is structured for modular, privacy-first AI processing:

  • Frontend: Tauri + Next.js (lightweight, cross-platform UI).
  • Backend: FastAPI (manages AI processing & local storage).
  • Transcription Engine: Whisper.cpp (high-accuracy local speech-to-text).
  • Summarization AI: Ollama (Local LLMs) + External LLM APIs (Claude, Groq, Llama 70B).
  • Database: SQLite (local storage) + VectorDB (semantic search for past meetings).
  • OS Integration: Rust-based audio capture for efficient processing.

How to Install Meetily

Frontend Installation

1️⃣ Download the latest version from GitHub Releases.

Windows Installation

2️⃣ Windows may warn about untrusted apps – Click More info → Run anyway.

Option 1: Using the Setup Executable (.exe) (Recommended)

  • Download nsis.zip, extract it, and run meeting-minutes-frontend_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe.

Option 2: Using the MSI Installer (.msi)

  • Download msi.zip, extract it, and run meeting-minutes-frontend_0.1.0_x64_en-US.msi.

macOS Installation

  • Download dmg_darwin_arch64.zip, extract it, and open meeting-minutes-frontend_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg.
  • Drag meeting-minutes-frontend.app to Applications.
  • Run the following command in Terminal:
xattr -c /Applications/meeting-minutes-frontend.app
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Backend Installation

git clone https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meeting-minutes
cd meeting-minutes/backend
chmod +x build_whisper.sh
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Build & Run the Backend

# On macOS/Linux:
./build_whisper.sh  
./clean_start_backend.sh  

# On Windows:
.\build_whisper.bat  
.\start_with_output.ps1
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How to Contribute to Meetily

1️⃣ Fork the Repository

2️⃣ Create a New Branch (git checkout -b feature-name)

3️⃣ Make Your Changes

4️⃣ Commit & Push Your Changes

5️⃣ Create a Pull Request to the devcontest branch


Introducing Subscription – Hosted Backend Option

📌 Why Subscribe?

✔️ No need for self-hosting – We handle the backend for you.

✔️ Scalability – Run the service continuously without infrastructure management.

🔗 Interested? Fill out the form here: Meetily Subscription Interest


Conclusion – Why Meetily is the Best Self-Hosted AI Meeting Note Taker

100% Open-Source & Free – No SaaS lock-in.

Self-Hosted or Hosted Option – Choose how you want to run it.

AI-Powered Transcription & Summaries – High-accuracy meeting notes.

Privacy-First & Local Execution – Full control over your data.

🔗 Try Meetily Today: GitHub | Website

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