now recording vs circleback

Start with the honest part: where Circleback is better

Circleback is a more finished product than this one, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Its free plan includes things now recording does not have at any price: native mobile and Apple Watch apps for in-person conversations, a desktop app that captures online meetings without sending a bot, an assistant that drafts emails from your meetings, API, MCP and CLI access, and automatic tagging and sharing. Two teams are included free.

On paid plans the gap widens in the direction most teams care about. Pro at $15 per user per month adds automations into Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio and webhooks, custom AI insights, and unlimited meeting history. Business at $25 adds admin and member roles, enforceable default settings, custom data retention and unlimited free viewers. Enterprise at $35 adds SSO via SAML or OIDC, SCIM provisioning, and HIPAA compliance — Circleback publishes a BAA. now recording has none of that, and if your meeting notes need to land in a CRM or your organisation needs a signed BAA, this is a short comparison: use Circleback.

The structural difference: no bot is not the same as no upload

Both products solve the awkward-bot problem. Circleback's desktop app captures an online meeting without adding a participant to the call, and its mobile and watch apps handle in-person conversations. now recording does the same thing from a browser tab. Removing the bot is where the similarity ends.

Circleback's privacy policy, under Communication Data, lists the Personal Data it collects as "Meeting recording", "Meeting transcript" and "Meeting calendar event information", and names the third parties it shares that data with as "Service Providers (including AI model and transcription providers, strictly on a transactional basis for providing the Services)". That is a normal, well-run cloud architecture, and it is stated plainly rather than buried — but it means the recording of your meeting exists on someone else's infrastructure and passes through a transcription vendor.

now recording never produces that copy. The Whisper speech model downloads to your browser once and runs there, so the audio becomes text on your own machine. There is no upload to inspect, no retention window to negotiate and no sub-processor list to review, because there is no recording on our side to govern. The difference is verifiable rather than promised: open DevTools, watch the Network tab, and record. The model comes down; nothing goes up.

The 30-day cliff on the free plan

Circleback's free tier removed the price barrier, and it is the most capable free plan in this category. It carries one limit that matters more than it first appears: 30-day meeting and recording history. Notes from a project kickoff in March are not there in May unless you have upgraded.

That is a reasonable way to build a business, and it is the same shape as most free tiers here — Otter meters minutes, Granola caps how many notes you keep. It is worth knowing before you make it the system of record for anything you will want to look back on. now recording has no such cliff, for a structural rather than a generous reason: your meetings are stored on your own device, so there is no storage cost for us to recover. Signing in adds cloud sync of the meeting text — never the audio — and the published pricing promise commits to never metering minutes and never paywalling your history.

Where now recording is better

Three things, and they are narrow. Audio never leaves your device, which is the whole reason this product exists and the one claim a competitor cannot match by adding a feature. Nothing expires, because nothing is stored on our side to expire. And there is nothing to install and no account required to begin — open the page, press record, and the transcript appears as you talk, which makes it usable on a locked-down work laptop where you cannot install software or sign into a new vendor.

File import is the quiet fourth. Drop an MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or the audio of an MP4 onto the recorder and it is transcribed on-device, free and unlimited, with speaker labels and a summary — useful for recordings you already have and do not want to upload anywhere.

Which one to pick

If your meetings are routine team business, you want them flowing into Notion or Salesforce, and cloud processing is acceptable to you, Circleback is the better product and its free tier is a genuinely good offer. If you are in the meetings where the audio itself is the sensitive thing — legal, clinical, HR, journalism, security review, anything under an NDA without an AI-vendor carve-out — the question is not which tool has more features but whether a recording of that conversation should exist on a third party's servers at all.

That is the only question this product answers better, and it answers it structurally rather than contractually.

frequently asked questions

Does Circleback record my meeting audio to the cloud?

Circleback's privacy policy lists "Meeting recording" among the Communication Data it collects, and names "AI model and transcription providers" among the service providers it shares that data with. Its bot-free desktop app removes the visible participant from the call; it does not change where the audio is processed. now recording transcribes on your device, so no recording is created on any server.

Is Circleback's free plan really free?

Yes, at $0 per user per month, and it is more capable than ours in features — it includes the bot-free desktop app, mobile and Apple Watch apps, speaker-labeled transcripts, API, MCP and CLI access, and 2 teams. The limit is time rather than money: meeting and recording history is kept for 30 days, and automations are limited until you reach the $15 Pro plan.

Which one works without installing anything?

now recording. It is a web page — any current Chrome or Edge, including managed work profiles, with no GPU needed and no account required to start. Circleback's bot-free capture needs its desktop app, and its in-person capture needs the mobile or Apple Watch app.

Can I use now recording for patient or client meetings covered by HIPAA?

No. now recording does not offer HIPAA compliance and does not sign a BAA — Circleback does, on its Enterprise plan. Audio staying on your device is a strong privacy property, but it is not the same thing as a compliance programme, and you should not treat it as one.

What does now recording cost?

Nothing, and nothing is for sale today. Unlimited recording, on-device transcription, file import, speaker labels and AI summaries need no account; signing in — also free — adds cloud sync of meeting text, search, "Ask your meetings" and share links.