QuickTime Player
Right for a quick, silent screencast — it is already installed and costs nothing. When the Mac's own sound needs to be in the file, it has no path to it.
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How kilde compares
Prices and features confirmed October 17, 2026
If you arrived here looking for an Audio Hijack alternative, a Granola alternative, or because the screen recorder in QuickTime Player would not capture the sound your Mac plays — this page lines kilde up against those tools. kilde records a meeting the way it happens: the screen together with both sides of the conversation, in one file, transcribed on your Mac. Every claim below links to the vendor's own page, with the date we confirmed it. These are the highlights that matter for meeting recording, not exhaustive feature lists, and other tools may fit other jobs better.
| Criterion | kilde | QuickTime Player | OBS Studio | Audio Hijack | Granola |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price 1 | Free — the menu bar app is open source (MIT); the recording engine and CLI are proprietary — free to use, included in the released app bundles and the CLI binary | Included with macOS | Free, open source | US$69 single-user license; free trial with limitations | Free plan (notes kept 30 days) · Business $14/user/month · Enterprise $35/user/month |
| Screen + system audio + mic, in one recording 2 | Yes — display or single window with system audio and your mic in one file, mixed or on separate tracks. No virtual audio device. | Microphone only — a screen recording captures the mic you choose; the audio your Mac plays is not recorded | Yes — mic plus app or desktop audio capture on macOS 13 or later (OBS 28 or later) | Audio only — system audio and mic; it does not record the screen | Audio only, no recording file — device-audio capture for meeting notes; no bot joins the call |
| Transcription 3 | Built in, on your Mac (macOS 26 or later) | — | — | Built in, on your Mac — no ongoing charges | Meeting notes with AI summaries — audio is captured on the device, notes are generated with cloud AI |
| Where recordings and text live 4 | Your Mac — recordings, transcripts and summaries are never uploaded | Your Mac — a local file | Your Mac — a local file | Your Mac — a local file | Cloud (US) — audio discarded after transcription; transcripts and notes stored encrypted in AWS; summaries generated by third-party AI services |
Prices are each vendor's listed USD prices as of the confirmation date above.
Which tool fits which job
OBS Studio
A broad studio for live streaming and scene compositing. Powerful, and heavier than a meeting needs; app audio capture on macOS needs macOS 13 or later and OBS 28 or later.
Audio Hijack
Audio-first production: per-app capture, effects and recording chains for podcasts. A fine choice when the screen is not part of what you are keeping.
Granola
Meeting notes synced through the cloud, on every device — when the notes matter more than the recording itself. Your transcripts and notes live in its cloud, not on your Mac.
kilde
Meetings: the screen with both sides of the conversation in one file, transcribed on your Mac. No bot joins the call, nothing is uploaded, and no virtual audio driver is installed.
Sources
Each entry links to the vendor's own page the claims were taken from.
- Price. kilde: free — the menu bar app is MIT-licensed; the recording engine and CLI are proprietary (license, Mac App Store) · OBS Studio: free, open source (obsproject.com) · Audio Hijack: US$69 single-user license (rogueamoeba.com) · Granola: Basic free with 30-day note history, Business $14/user/month, Enterprise $35/user/month (granola.ai/pricing) · QuickTime Player: included with macOS (Apple). Confirmed 2026-10-17.
- Screen + system audio + microphone. QuickTime Player: the macOS User Guide documents choosing a microphone for screen recordings and no system-audio input (Apple) · OBS Studio: app and desktop audio capture via the macOS Screen Capture source (OBS 28 or later), plus the dedicated macOS Audio Capture source (OBS 30); requires macOS 13 or later (obsproject.com KB) · Audio Hijack: “Use the System Audio source to capture all the audio heard on your Mac at once” (rogueamoeba.com) · Granola: “Bot-free, device-audio capture” (granola.ai/pricing) · kilde: features on this site. Confirmed 2026-10-17.
- Transcription. Audio Hijack: transcription “all done locally, with zero ongoing charges” (rogueamoeba.com) · Granola: meeting notes are generated from audio captured on the device; summaries are generated with third-party AI providers (granola.ai/security) · QuickTime Player and OBS Studio: no transcription feature described in the vendors' own documentation (Apple, obsproject.com) · kilde: on-device transcription described in the privacy policy (macOS 26 or later). Confirmed 2026-10-17.
- Where recordings and text live. Granola: audio is not stored from meetings, transcripts and notes are kept in a US-hosted AWS Virtual Private Cloud, encrypted, and summaries use providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic (granola.ai/security) · QuickTime Player, OBS Studio, Audio Hijack: recordings are written as local files (vendor pages above) · kilde: everything stays on your Mac (privacy policy). Confirmed 2026-10-17.
QuickTime Player and Mac App Store are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. Audio Hijack is a trademark of Rogue Amoeba Software, LLC. OBS Studio and Granola are trademarks of their respective owners. They are referred to here for identification only, and those references do not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by their owners. This page is an independent comparison and none of the vendors reviewed it.
Related guides
- How to record system audio on a Mac — with the screen, or alone
- Record an online meeting on your Mac — both sides of the call, in one file
- Transcribe a meeting without a bot joining the call
- Record your Mac without notification sounds ruining the take
- Record only one app's audio on a Mac — the meeting app's sound, nothing else
