Looking for a Cluely alternative?
Cluely and Cuecard share an idea: an assistant that watches a meeting and helps you in the moment, in an overlay only you can see. Past that idea, the two products are built on opposite architectures. Cluely is a subscription cloud service with an account; Cuecard is a Mac app you buy once, where transcription happens on your own hardware and your transcripts live in local files. Which one you want mostly comes down to how you feel about that sentence.
The comparison
| Cuecard | Cluely | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $30 once, everything included | Free tier with limits; Pro $19.99/month; invisibility to screen sharing sold on a $149.99/month tier |
| Invisible to screen sharing | Included, toggleable | Only on the $149.99/month tier |
| Where audio goes | Nowhere - transcription runs on your Mac; only text prompts go to the model provider you configure | Processed by Cluely's cloud service under your account |
| Transcript storage | Local files on your Mac | Cluely's servers |
| Prompts | Every prompt the app uses is exposed and editable - no hidden prompts | Not user-visible |
| Model choice | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint including local models | Cluely's hosted models |
| Dictation | Yes - hold-to-talk dictation and AI reply writing in any app, on-device | No |
| Account | None - the license key verifies offline and the app never phones home | Required |
| Platforms | macOS 14.4+ on Apple silicon | macOS and Windows |
Cluely details checked July 2026 - see cluely.com for current pricing.
Where Cluely is the better fit
Cluely works with zero setup - the models are hosted, so there is no API key to configure - and it runs on Windows. It also has team and enterprise plans. If you want a managed service and someone else operating the AI, that is what it is.
Where Cuecard is the better fit
If the meetings you want help with are ones you would not upload to someone else's servers, architecture is the feature. Cuecard's transcription never leaves your Mac, there is no account tying sessions to you, and there is no vendor database of your conversations because there is no vendor server involved at all. The overlay is invisible to screen sharing as a built-in, not a $149.99-per-month add-on, and the same purchase includes on-device dictation for everything else you type. One payment of $30 covers all of it.
Cuecard is $30, once - with a 14-day full trial and no account.
Get CuecardAlso comparing: Superwhisper · Wispr Flow · Mac dictation without a subscription