CallNote vs Smartnote at a glance
| Feature | CallNote | Smartnote |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Live. 14-day free trial, no credit card | Private beta. Join a waitlist (per their site, September 2026) |
| How it gets the conversation | Receives a transcript that already exists: paste, .vtt/.txt upload, Email-in, Dialpad, Aircall, or a dictated voice memo | "Sits in on every meeting". Works with calls, video and in-person meetings. The capture method is not described on their site |
| Records or stores call audio | No. Never records calls, never joins as a bot, never stores call audio | Not stated on their site |
| Built for | Australian client-facing professionals, including law firms, financial advisers and mortgage brokers | Lawyers only. "Built by lawyers, for lawyers" |
| Note format | Your own. Paste a past attendance note and we build a template with your headings and shorthand. A legal attendance note system template is included | "Comprehensive, timestamp-aware file notes". Template options are not described on their site |
| Follow-up work | Action items and next steps inside the note | Tasks, deadlines, follow-up letters and client updates extracted and "made ready to action" |
| Locking the record | Publish: SHA-256 checksum, immutable, append-only amendments, full audit log, PDF export | Not described on their site |
| Practice management integrations | None with LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep. HubSpot, Notion, Slack, plus Zapier. PDF or copy and paste into the matter | None named. Their site says it "fits around your existing systems" |
| Data hosting | Sydney (AWS ap-southeast-2), encrypted, not used to train AI | Hosting location not stated. Security page describes least-privilege access and controlled deployments |
| Pricing (AUD) | Solo $149/month. Team $99 per seat/month | $0/month during beta. Practice and Enterprise plans are "Custom". Paid pricing not published |
| Onboarding | Self-serve. Sign up and generate a note the same day | Guided onboarding and rollout calls with the product team |
Which one to choose
When Smartnote is the better choice
- You want the tool to capture the meeting for you. Smartnote is designed to sit in on calls, video meetings and in-person conferences, so you do not need a transcript from anywhere else. CallNote is transcript-only by design.
- You want a product built by lawyers for lawyers and nothing else. Smartnote was created in Melbourne by practitioners and is aimed purely at legal workflows, including mediations and conferences.
- You want follow-up work drafted as well as the note. Smartnote says it extracts tasks, deadlines, follow-up letters and client updates and makes them ready to action. CallNote lists action items and next steps in the note, and it does not draft letters.
- You want a guided, firm-wide rollout. Smartnote's plans are built around onboarding calls, workflow configuration and security review with their team, which suits a firm that wants a hand-held adoption.
- You are happy to be an early beta firm. Access is $0 per month during the private beta and beta firms get a direct line to the product team.
When CallNote is the better choice
- You need something you can use this week. CallNote is live with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Smartnote is a waitlist at the time of writing.
- Your firm does not want a third-party tool recording clients or sitting in on a conference. CallNote never records, never joins a meeting and never stores call audio. It only sees the transcript you give it.
- You already have transcripts. Teams, Zoom and Meet produce them, and Dialpad and Aircall send them to CallNote automatically. There is no second capture tool to approve.
- You want the note to look like your firm's notes. Paste one of your own past attendance notes and CallNote builds a template with your headings and your shorthand (ATT, TC, CL, INS, ADV).
- You want a record that cannot be quietly edited. A published note is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum. Amendments are append-only and every action is in the audit log.
- You want published pricing. Solo is $149 a month and Team is $99 per seat a month in AUD.
If you searched for a Smartnote alternative, the short answer is this. Smartnote is a Melbourne-built AI note-taker for lawyers that sits in on the meeting and writes the file note. As at September 2026 its site says it is in private beta and the only call to action is a waitlist. CallNote is an Australian tool that is live now, never records, and writes the attendance note from a transcript you already have.
We make CallNote, so read this with that in mind. Everything we say about Smartnote comes from its own website on the date this page was updated. Where their site is silent, we say so and we do not guess. A beta product changes quickly, so check their site before you decide.
What Smartnote is
Smartnote describes itself as "the AI assistant that sits in on every meeting, writes your file notes, and takes care of the next steps". The founders are practitioners, and the pitch will be familiar to any solicitor: you are meant to file note every call, conference and mediation, real practice gets in the way, and the result is incomplete notes and lost billable time.
From their site, the product has three parts:
- Capture. It "works with calls, video, and in-person meetings" and aims to turn the conversation into "usable billable records".
- Next steps. "Tasks, deadlines, follow-up letters, and client updates are extracted from your conversation and made ready to action."
- Risk. "Comprehensive, timestamp-aware file notes across your whole practice" to help with complaints, disputes and missed follow-up.
What their site does not tell you yet: how the capture works (a meeting bot, a desktop app or a phone app), whether audio is kept, where data is hosted, which practice management systems it connects to, and what it will cost after the beta. Their pricing page lists Private Beta at $0 a month, with Practice and Enterprise plans marked "Custom" and the line "Pricing will be confirmed before general availability". Those gaps are normal for a product at this stage. They are also the questions your firm's risk partner will ask, so put them to Smartnote directly.
The main difference: in the room, or working from the transcript
Smartnote is a capture tool. It is present for the conversation and produces the note from what it hears. That is the right design if you have no transcript today, especially for in-person conferences and mediations.
CallNote does not capture anything. It receives a transcript that your own systems already made and turns it into a structured attendance note in about two minutes. There are five ways in:
- Paste the transcript.
- Upload the .vtt or .txt file that Teams, Zoom or Google Meet exports.
- Forward the transcript text to your CallNote Email-in address.
- Connect Dialpad or Aircall so each call transcript arrives automatically.
- Dictate a voice memo after an in-person attendance. You talk through what happened, and that dictation becomes the note.
The practical effect for a law firm is that approving CallNote does not mean approving a new recording tool. The recording and transcription decision stays with the platforms your firm has already vetted, such as Teams. We cover the wider trade-off in meeting bots vs transcript-only note tools.
Confidentiality and where the conversation goes
Rule 9 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules says a solicitor must not disclose information that is confidential to a client and acquired during the engagement, subject to the listed exceptions. Putting a client conference through any outside service is a decision about that information. Most firms handle it with due diligence on the provider and a line in the costs agreement or engagement letter.
Questions worth asking any AI note tool, including ours:
- Does the tool record audio, and is the audio kept? For how long?
- Where is the data hosted?
- Is client data used to train AI models?
- Who inside the firm can see each note?
- Can a note be changed after it goes on the file, and is there a log of the change?
- What happens to our data if we leave?
Our answers: CallNote never records calls and never stores call audio. Data is hosted in Sydney (AWS ap-southeast-2), encrypted, and not used to train AI. On a Team plan, owners and admins see all notes and members see only their own. A published note cannot be edited. Smartnote's security page talks about least-privilege access, restricted administrative access, logged operational changes and conservative selection of third-party services. It does not yet state a hosting location or a retention period for audio, so ask.
Your firm's note format
Most firms already have a house style for attendance notes, and supervising partners notice when a note does not follow it. In CallNote you paste one of your own past notes and we build a template that matches its headings and shorthand. There is also a system template for legal attendance notes if you would rather start from ours. If you are setting a format for the first time, see how to write a legal attendance note or try the free attendance note generator.
Here is the kind of note that comes out. The client and matter are invented.
- Client's instructions
- Dana wants to go ahead with the purchase.
- The building and pest report has come back. It shows minor roof repairs only, and Dana is not worried about them.
- Dana asked whether settlement can move from 60 days to 45 days.
- Advice given
- Vendor's statement (section 32): reviewed it. The easement along the back boundary is for drainage and does not affect her planned extension.
- Earlier settlement: needs the vendor to agree. We will ask.
- Cooling-off period: explained that it ends on Thursday.
- Costs
Signed costs agreement received on Monday. No change to our estimate.
- Next steps
- JM: write to the vendor's solicitor today about a 45-day settlement.
- Dana: send her finance approval letter by Friday.
- Then: call Dana once the vendor's solicitor replies.
Smartnote says its notes are "timestamp-aware" and comprehensive, which suits long conferences where you need to find the point where something was said. Its site does not describe custom templates yet. If format control matters to your firm, ask to see a sample note during their beta.
After the note is written: Publish
A file note earns its keep years later, in a costs dispute, a complaint or a negligence claim. At that point the question is whether the note was made at the time and whether it has been changed. We wrote about this in file notes as evidence.
In CallNote you review the draft, edit it, then publish it. The published note is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum and becomes immutable. If you need to correct it, you add an amendment. The original stays, the amendment is appended, and the audit log records who did what and when. You can export the note as a PDF for the matter file.
Smartnote's site talks about risk mitigation through comprehensive notes. It does not describe sealing, versioning or an audit trail at this stage. That may simply not be published yet.
Getting the note into LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep
Neither product claims a native integration with a legal practice management system today. Smartnote's site says it "fits around your existing systems" and names none. CallNote has no native integration with LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep. The honest route is to copy the note in, save the PDF to the matter, or use Zapier where your system supports it. CallNote does push notes to HubSpot, Notion and Slack.
If a direct practice management integration is the deciding factor, check what your PMS vendor offers natively, and ask Smartnote what is planned. Our round-up of attendance note software for law firms covers the PMS-native options.
Billable time
Smartnote talks directly about lost billable time and turning conversations into billable records. Their site does not explain how that works, for example whether it creates time entries. CallNote does not create time entries. The note records the date, the duration where the transcript has it, and the author, which is what you need to enter the time yourself. There is more on this in capturing billable time from client calls.
Pricing and access
| CallNote | Smartnote | |
|---|---|---|
| Can you sign up today? | Yes | Waitlist only |
| Trial | 14 days, no credit card | Private beta at $0/month for accepted firms |
| Paid plans (AUD) | Solo $149/month. Team $99 per seat/month | Pricing not published. Practice and Enterprise are "Custom" |
| Setup | Self-serve | Guided onboarding and rollout calls |
Which one should you pick?
Pick Smartnote if you want a lawyer-only tool that attends the meeting for you, you like the idea of follow-up letters and tasks being drafted from the conversation, and you are comfortable joining a beta and shaping the product with its founders. Ask them the capture, hosting and retention questions above before you put client matters through it.
Pick CallNote if you need attendance notes this week, your firm would rather not add another tool that records clients, you want the note in your own format, and you want a sealed record with an audit trail. The law firm page has the detail, and the law firm file note compliance checklist is a quick way to test your current notes.
Nothing stops you doing both: join Smartnote's waitlist, and run your next few transcripts through a CallNote trial while you wait. For more tools side by side, see CallNote vs Jamie and the comparison hub.
Common questions
What is Smartnote?
Smartnote is an AI-powered legal meeting note-taker built in Melbourne by practising lawyers. Its site describes an assistant that sits in on calls, video meetings and in-person meetings, writes the file note, and extracts tasks, deadlines, follow-up letters and client updates. As at September 2026 it is in private beta and firms join through a waitlist.
Is Smartnote available now, and what does it cost?
At the time of writing Smartnote's site says it is in private beta, and the main call to action is a waitlist. The pricing page lists the beta at $0 per month, with Practice and Enterprise plans marked Custom. It says paid pricing will be confirmed before general availability, so paid pricing is not published yet.
Does CallNote record client calls or meetings?
No. CallNote never records calls, never joins a meeting as a bot and never stores call audio. It works from a transcript that already exists. You can paste it, upload a .vtt or .txt export from Teams, Zoom or Meet, forward it by email, or connect Dialpad or Aircall. For in-person attendances you can dictate a voice memo afterwards and CallNote turns that into the note.
Does CallNote or Smartnote integrate with LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep?
CallNote has no native integration with LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep. You copy the note in, save the PDF to the matter, or use Zapier where your system supports it. CallNote does push notes to HubSpot, Notion and Slack. Smartnote's site says it fits around your existing systems and does not name any practice management integrations, so ask them directly.
Can an AI-written attendance note be relied on as a file record?
An attendance note is only as good as the lawyer's review of it. Read the draft against your memory of the call, correct it, then put it on the file. In CallNote that last step is Publish, which seals the note with a SHA-256 checksum, makes it immutable, and records any later amendment as an append-only entry in the audit log. That gives you a clear answer if anyone later asks when the note was made and whether it changed.
Do I need client consent to use an AI note tool?
If a conversation is recorded, state and territory law applies. NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT broadly require all parties to consent. Victoria, Queensland and the NT allow a party to the conversation to record, with limits on sharing. The federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 also prohibits intercepting calls. Separately, rule 9 of the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules covers client confidentiality when you send information to an outside provider. Many firms deal with both in the engagement letter. This is general information, not legal advice.