Circleback review
Bot or bot-free meeting notes at a low seat price, backed by a review base too thin to call a track record
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ToolsGavel verdict
Circleback's $15-a-seat Pro tier and real free plan sit near the cheap end of this category, and its integration set once on Pro matches Fireflies at a lower price. The catch is confidence: the only third-party reviews available, four on Trustpilot and nine on Product Hunt, are too few to call a pattern, and the handful that exist include a report of the app failing to record notes mid-meeting with no way to reach a human. Test it on the free plan first rather than leaning on review volume it doesn't yet have.
Best for: Teams that want a real, ongoing free plan and a broad integration set near the cheap end of this category, and who can tolerate a thin third-party review base while the company builds a longer track record
What we liked
- The free plan is real and ongoing rather than a time-boxed trial: AI notes and action items, Ask Circleback search, bot or bot-free desktop capture, mobile and Apple Watch apps, speaker-labeled transcripts and 30-day meeting history, with no card requirement stated on the pricing page (circleback.ai/pricing, checked 2026-11-06)
- Pro costs $15 a user a month, the second-cheapest paid entry point in this category, just above [Granola](/tools/granola/)'s $14 and below [Fireflies](/tools/fireflies/)'s $18, [Fathom](/tools/fathom/)'s $20 and [Claap](/tools/claap/)'s $40 (circleback.ai/pricing, checked 2026-11-06)
- Once on Pro, the integration set, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio and webhooks, matches Fireflies' integration strength at a lower seat price (circleback.ai/pricing, checked 2026-11-06)
- Y Combinator-backed (Winter 2024 batch) with named founders who have a checkable background, Ali Haghani, CEO, previously worked on LLM integrations at Stripe, and Kevin Jacyna, CPO, previously a senior engineer at Tableau (ycombinator.com/companies/circleback, checked 2026-11-06)
- Covers bot and bot-free capture, plus in-person, virtual and imported meetings, with desktop apps for macOS and Windows alongside mobile and Apple Watch apps (circleback.ai, checked 2026-11-06)
What to watch
- The one dated Trustpilot review describing a core-function problem says the app 'keeps crashing or simply failing to take notes' mid-meeting, discovered only after the call ends, about the worst failure mode possible for a notetaker, even though it's a single review inside a four-review sample (Trustpilot, 2026-09-01 review, checked 2026-11-06)
- A separate one-star review reports the support chatbot rejects custom messages and blocks ticket creation entirely, with no stated path to reach a person (Trustpilot, 2026-06-17 review, checked 2026-11-06)
- Both review platforms checked are too thin to call representative: Trustpilot has 4 reviews total and Product Hunt has 9, far below the sample size this site treats as meaningful for Granola or Fireflies, and no G2 or Capterra listing could be located at all (Trustpilot; Product Hunt; g2.com; capterra.com, checked 2026-11-06)
- Circleback names TikTok, Samsung, Cisco, Deloitte, Harvard and Stanford as customers on its own site; none of those claims are independently confirmed (circleback.ai, checked 2026-11-06)
How much does Circleback really cost?
| Starting price | $15/user/mo, Pro plan (no annual discount disclosed) |
|---|---|
| Permanent free tier | Yes |
| Price last verified | November 6, 2026, against the live pricing page at circleback.ai |
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Circleback is a meeting notetaker that transcribes with speaker identification in more than 100 languages, writes notes and action items with assignees, and automates results into connected apps like Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce and Attio. It’s Y Combinator-backed (Winter 2024), founded in 2023, and unlike most of the tools in this category it offers both a visible-bot mode and a bot-free desktop capture mode, so a buyer isn’t locked into one approach. Pro costs $15 a user a month, the second-cheapest paid entry in this category. The catch is review volume: Trustpilot has only 4 reviews and Product Hunt has only 9, and the few that exist include a report of the app failing to record a meeting at all.
What Circleback is for
Circleback works across in-person, virtual and imported meetings, with desktop apps for macOS and Windows plus mobile and Apple Watch apps. Transcription includes speaker labels in over 100 languages, and the AI generates notes and action items with assignees automatically. “Ask Circleback” lets you search across past meetings instead of re-reading a transcript, and workflow automations push results into Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio or any webhook-connected app. It supports both a bot that joins a call as a visible participant and a bot-free desktop-capture mode, a choice most of the other tools in this category don’t offer side by side.
What you get on each plan
| Plan | Price | Key limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/user/mo | Limited automations, 30-day meeting history, 2 teams |
| Pro | $15/user/mo | Unlimited history, 1-year recording storage, full integrations, 5 teams |
| Business | $25/user/mo | Admin roles, unlimited free viewers, 2-year storage, usage dashboard |
| Enterprise | $35/user/mo + volume pricing | SSO, SCIM, invoice billing, unlimited storage, HIPAA compliance |
No plan layers a credit meter on top of the per-seat price, and none of the tiers disclose an overage charge; limits gate by feature and retention window rather than by usage minutes.
What users say in reviews
The review picture here is thin on both sides most buyers would check. 
Trustpilot shows 2.9 out of 5, but from only 4 reviews total, 3 of them inside the last 12 months. 
Product Hunt’s most recent launch (April 2025) scored 4.9 out of 5 from 9 reviews and 371 upvotes. Neither sample is large enough to trust on its own, and no 
G2 or 
Capterra listing could be located at all, removing two of the four cross-checks this site normally uses for meeting-note tools.
What the three dated Trustpilot reviews do say is specific rather than generic. One, from September 2026, describes the app “crashing or simply failing to take notes” during a meeting, with the problem only surfacing after the call ends, and criticizes the company for shipping new features ahead of stabilizing the core recording function. Another, from June 2026, calls it “the best AI notetaker with worst customer support,” reporting that the support chatbot rejects custom messages and blocks ticket creation, with no way to escalate to a person. A third, from February 2026, describes a confusing first-run experience with no setup documentation and says the reviewer deleted their account within ten minutes. With only 4 total reviews, these three negative ones make up most of the visible sample, which reads as “the current sample skews negative” rather than a statistically reliable complaint rate in either direction.
Who should buy it, and who should skip it
Circleback fits a team that wants to try bot and bot-free capture side by side, wants a real free plan to test with before paying, and is comfortable being an early-ish adopter of a tool that hasn’t yet built the review volume that Fireflies or Granola have. The $15 Pro tier is a genuinely competitive price once you need the Notion, HubSpot or Salesforce integrations, and the named YC pedigree is a real signal next to Circleback’s self-reported enterprise logo list, which isn’t independently confirmed.
It’s a weaker fit for a team that leans on third-party review volume to make a safe choice, or for anyone who can’t tolerate even a small risk of a missed recording on an important call; the one documented complaint about that is a single review, but it’s the most damaging kind for this category. For a larger, steadier review base, compare Fireflies or Fathom directly, or see the full field in Best AI Meeting Note Takers.
Pricing note: Free costs $0 per user a month and includes AI notes and action items, the Ask Circleback search feature, bot or bot-free desktop capture, mobile and Apple Watch apps, speaker-labeled transcripts, limited automations, API/MCP/CLI access, and 30-day meeting history across 2 teams. Pro runs $15 per user a month, the same rate whether billed monthly or annually since no annual discount is disclosed, and adds unlimited meeting history, 1-year recording storage, full automations and integrations (Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks), custom AI insights, a personalized notetaker and 5 teams. Business runs $25 per user a month and adds admin and member roles, unlimited free viewers, custom data retention, 2-year recording storage, a usage dashboard and unlimited teams. Enterprise runs $35 per user a month plus volume pricing, adding SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM provisioning, invoice billing, unlimited recording storage, priority support and HIPAA compliance. Verified against circleback.ai/pricing, raw text pulled 2026-11-06.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Circleback cost?
Free costs $0 a user a month with AI notes, action items, speaker-labeled transcripts and 30-day meeting history. Pro costs $15 a user a month and unlocks unlimited history and full integrations (Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks); the same rate applies whether billed monthly or annually, since no annual discount is disclosed. Business runs $25 a user a month, and Enterprise runs $35 a user a month plus volume pricing.
Does Circleback have a free plan?
Yes, and it's ongoing rather than a trial. It includes AI notes and action items, the Ask Circleback search feature, bot or bot-free capture, mobile and Apple Watch apps, and speaker-labeled transcripts. The main limits are 30-day meeting history and 'limited automations' rather than a minutes cap, and the pricing page states no card requirement for Free.
Is Circleback reliable, or does it ever fail to record a meeting?
The only dated Trustpilot review that addresses this directly, from September 2026, describes the app crashing or failing to take notes mid-meeting, with the failure only discovered after the call ends. That's a single review in a four-review sample, too small to call a rate, but it's a serious enough complaint type that it's worth weighing against the thin review base rather than assuming it's rare just because it's the only report found.
How does Circleback compare to Granola or Fireflies?
Granola is cheaper at $14 a seat but offers only bot-free capture, not both modes. Fireflies charges more at $18 a seat but has a far larger, more established Trustpilot base (836 reviews) to check sentiment against. Circleback's integration set on Pro is comparable to Fireflies', and it's the only one of the three that lets you choose bot or bot-free capture per meeting, but it's also the newest and least reviewed of the three.
What's the best Circleback alternative?
If a larger, steadier review base matters more than price, Fireflies or Fathom both have hundreds of third-party reviews to check against. If a permanent, unlimited free plan matters most, Fathom's free tier never expires and isn't capped by history length. See the full comparison in Best AI Meeting Note Takers.
Bottom line
Circleback's $15-a-seat Pro tier and real free plan sit near the cheap end of this category, and its integration set once on Pro matches Fireflies at a lower price. The catch is confidence: the only third-party reviews available, four on Trustpilot and nine on Product Hunt, are too few to call a pattern, and the handful that exist include a report of the app failing to record notes mid-meeting with no way to reach a human. Test it on the free plan first rather than leaning on review volume it doesn't yet have.
Alternatives in AI Meeting Note Takers
AI meeting notes without a bot in your calls
Real-time noise cancellation for live calls across any app, not a fix for files you've already recorded
Bot-free meeting notes built for sales teams, priced well above general-purpose notetakers