AI Notetakers
Ulpaso
Ulpaso is a Mac app that records your meeting — microphone plus system audio — transcribes it on your machine, organizes it by speaker, and drops the result into your Documents folder as an ordinary Markdown file you can edit, search, and keep. It launched on 30 August 2026, finishing #9 of the day on Product Hunt with 115 points and 5 comments. The maker is named — Minkyu Lee of Snapdeck — and the app is open source under an MIT license, free forever, with no account and no telemetry.
The entire pitch is what it refuses to do: no cloud workspace, no proprietary format, no subscription, no bot joining your call. In the launch thread, a consultant picked out the real reason this matters — client calls where account numbers get said out loud, which should not sit in someone else's cloud transcription history. That is the decision this tool exists for.
- Website
- ulpaso.app
- Category
- AI Notetakers
- Pricing
- Free
- Starts at
- Free, open source (MIT)
- Best for
- Mac-using consultants and founders whose calls include sensitive details and who want notes as plain files they own forever.
- Profile updated
- September 1, 2026
Independent profile — no affiliate links or sponsored placement.
Key features
- Records microphone and system audio together, so both sides of a call are captured without a meeting bot
- On-device transcription, organized by speaker
- Output is an editable Markdown file saved to ~/Documents — a real file, not a database row in someone's SaaS
- No account, no cloud, no telemetry, no subscription
- Open source under an MIT license, so the free claim is verifiable in the code
- Native Mac app
Pricing
Read from the maker's Product Hunt launch post and the site on 1 September 2026:
- Free — $0, forever: the whole product. MIT-licensed open source, no paid tier, no account required.
That is the entire pricing section — there is nothing to upgrade to.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Nothing leaves your machine — the differentiator for client calls, HR conversations, and anything sensitive
- Plain Markdown files in your Documents folder are greppable, backable up, and readable in two years without this app
- Free and open source, so there is no pricing cliff and no lock-in
Cons
- Mac only — no Windows, no mobile, no web version
- A young solo project with no company behind it: durability depends on one maintainer's attention
- Transcription only — no AI summaries, action items, or CRM sync that cloud notetakers bundle; a launch-thread question about speaker separation on phone-speaker audio also went unanswered when we read it
Who should use Ulpaso?
Ulpaso fits a Mac-using consultant, founder, or contractor who takes calls where the content is sensitive enough that a third-party transcript is a liability — or who simply wants meeting notes to be files they own, searchable with the same tools as everything else on disk. The price makes trying it a zero-cost decision.
It is the wrong tool if you need what cloud notetakers sell: automatic summaries, action-item extraction, cross-device sync, or sharing with a team — those require sending your audio somewhere, which is precisely what Ulpaso declines to do. Its Product Hunt standing (#9 of 30 August 2026, 115 points, 5 comments) is launch-day community interest, not reviews, and the small comment count means thin evidence either way; the open-source license is the stronger guarantee here.
FAQs
Is Ulpaso really free?+
Yes — entirely. It is open source under an MIT license with no paid tier, no account, and no telemetry, per the maker's launch post in August 2026.
What platforms does Ulpaso run on?+
macOS only. There was no Windows, mobile, or web version when we read the site on 1 September 2026.
Where do my meeting notes go?+
Into editable Markdown files in your Documents folder, organized by speaker. They are ordinary files — open them in any editor, search them with anything, back them up however you back up your Mac.
Ulpaso or a cloud notetaker like Otter or Granola?+
Cloud notetakers add AI summaries, sync, and sharing — at the cost of your conversations living on their servers. Ulpaso records and transcribes locally and does nothing else. If your calls are sensitive or you just want to own the files, Ulpaso; if you need summaries and team features, accept the cloud trade-off.
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