Cluely publishes its prices in the open, which makes this an easy one to take apart. Its Pro plan is $19.99 a month. The next step up is $149.99 a month, and the only thing it adds, according to their own table, is being “completely undetectable to screen-sharing software”. Seven and a half times the price for a single feature.
The gap between those two tiers isn't about what the tool can do. It's about who gets to see it. And that's where the question that sends people looking for an alternative comes in: if what you need is something feeding you the right figure halfway through a sales call, an interview or a board meeting, are you paying for the help or for the cover?
This piece compares Cluely with Saelyx on that specific ground. Cluely's figures come from their own pricing page, checked on 25 July 2026. Where Cluely wins, it says so.
01What Cluely sells, according to Cluely
Their offer has three tiers and the ladder is transparent. The jump from free to $19.99 lifts limits: unlimited answers, unlimited meeting note taking, access to their newest models and priority support. So far, an ordinary freemium setup.
The jump from $19.99 to $149.99 is the one that catches the eye. In the comparison table on their own site, a single row separates one tier from the other: “Undetectability to Screen Share”. No new work capability. No extra limit lifted.
| Tier | Price | What it adds over the one below |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free | Limited answers, limited note taking, up to 3 files, custom instructions and questions about past meetings |
| Pro | $19.99/mo | Unlimited answers and notes, their newest models, priority support |
| Pro + Undetectability | $149.99/mo | Being completely undetectable to screen-sharing software. Nothing else |
Their page also advertises annual billing: the title and description of that same page read “Pro from $11.99/mo billed annually”, checked on 25 July 2026. The amounts the annual toggle returns, and the ones in their mobile app, are generated in the browser, so we're leaving them out of the table.
The figure worth holding on to before comparing anything else: on Cluely's most expensive plan, 87% of the bill doesn't buy capability. It buys invisibility.
02Where Cluely wins
We'll start here, because it's the part almost nobody puts in a comparison.
It runs in more places
Cluely downloads for macOS and for Windows —their own downloads page says “Available for macOS and Windows”— and they have an iPhone app on the App Store as well. Saelyx today is a native Mac app, macOS 13 or later, plus voice in the browser from any computer. iPhone and iPad are targeted for Q4 2026, Android for 2027. Those are target dates and they can move. If you work on Windows, or mostly from your phone, they reach you today and we don't.
Their front door is more generous
Cluely's free Starter already includes meeting note taking, limited but real, and lets you upload up to three files: you download the app and by this afternoon you've seen how it behaves on a live call. Saelyx has no such door. You have to request access, wait for us to review it and hope there's room. To try the exact feature this article is about, they let you look today and we don't.
You can buy theirs, and you can't buy ours yet
Their Pro is $19.99 a month with unlimited meetings, and with that number in front of you it takes a minute to decide whether it's worth it. Saelyx has no published price: while access is invite-only, putting up a figure would mean making one up, and nobody is charged anything today. It's an honest answer and an uncomfortable one, because if you're comparing in order to decide this week, the missing number works in their favor.
And they do one thing we don't
If what you literally want is a panel that screen-sharing software can't see during a technical interview or a test, Saelyx is no use to you. We haven't built it and we're not going to pretend otherwise. It's a different product decision from ours, and anyone who needs that should go with them and not think twice about it.
03What Saelyx does while you talk
Meeting Mode listens to the conversation and drops suggestions into a floating panel on your Mac. You're the only one who sees that panel, because it sits outside the window you're sharing, not because it's camouflaged. There's no watermark. When it's over, the summary can go to your inbox.
A status note before we go on: Meeting Mode is the youngest thing we have and it's being actively polished with the people who already have access. It works, but it isn't as finished as the rest of the product.
One architectural detail changes the experience more than it sounds like it should: Saelyx is an app running on your computer, not a guest that joins the call. Nobody new appears in the participant list, nobody reads an “X has joined the meeting”, and you don't have to ask the organizer's permission to bring in an extra attendee. Anyone who has tried to slip a note-taker into a big client's video call knows what that negotiation costs.
While it listens, the agent also sees. It sees your screen and sees you through the camera, at the same time, with a single train of thought behind both. In a meeting where you're sharing a spreadsheet, that means the suggestion can point at the cell in front of you and not just at the last sentence anyone said. Live camera and screen vision ships in the same app as Meeting Mode.
Two different clocks are easy to mix up here. Talking to the agent, the engine starts the answer in 776 ms measured in production. The meeting panel doesn't run at that pace: it goes back over what's been said every few seconds and puts whatever it finds there, so the note usually lands shortly after the sentence that prompted it, not on top of it.
Two more things on the same side that Cluely doesn't sell on its pricing page. The 12 specialist roles change the register the agent answers you in, which helps when your meeting is with the tax advisor and not with the product team. And you can dictate formatted documents —PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint— which is where a real meeting usually ends up: in minutes or in a proposal.
04The difference shows up in the second meeting
Cluely lets you ask about your past meetings, and it does so on the free plan already. That's a real feature and it's worth saying. The difference is in the scope of what gets kept.
Saelyx's persistent memory isn't limited to a call history: it remembers names, context and preferences across sessions, citing the exact source when it answers from your knowledge base. What it learns in one meeting is still there when you ask it for an email two days later, or when you open the document that came out of it. On top of that there's visual memory, which recognizes faces, always with explicit and revocable consent.
The practical effect is boring to describe and very visible to use: the second conversation doesn't start from zero, which is exactly where a teleprompter stops being any use to you.
05The two of them, side by side
| What | Saelyx | Cluely |
|---|---|---|
| How you try it without paying | Invite-only; while it lasts, nothing is charged | Free Starter, direct download · limited answers and notes |
| Published price for in-meeting help | Not yet | Pro, $19.99/mo |
| Cost of staying hidden from screen sharing | Not offered | $149.99/mo |
| Platforms today | Mac (macOS 13+) and voice in the browser | Mac, Windows and an iPhone app |
| Questions about past meetings | Yes, persistent memory across sessions | Yes, included from Starter |
| Sees your screen and your camera while it listens | Yes, live screen and camera vision | Not published |
| Recognizes faces and remembers them | Yes, with explicit consent | Not published |
| Generates formatted documents by voice | Yes: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint | Not published |
| Dictation in any app on the system | Yes, on Mac | Not published |
| How you get it | Invite-only, every request reviewed by hand | Direct download |
06What happens to what gets said in that meeting
A work meeting contains prices, client names and sometimes things that shouldn't leave the room at all. It's worth looking at where the audio ends up before you install anything, and that goes for both tools.
On our side, audio and screen are not stored on Saelyx's systems and are not used to train models. The exception is written in these same words in the privacy policy: free access runs on an engine where live data can be used. The raw transcript of a meeting is kept for 30 days; the summary, for as long as your account is active. The infrastructure is in the European Union, in Ireland. You can export your data and delete your account from the app, with cascading deletion. If you withdraw consent for face recognition, the image, the features and the index are deleted immediately.
Cluely publishes its privacy policy and its sub-processor list on its own site. Read them and compare for yourself. We're not going to summarize somebody else's legal document here.
07Who each one is for
With the figures in front of you, the decision is fairly mechanical.
- You want to go unnoticed in a test or an interview. Cluely, and specifically its $149.99 tier. We don't do that.
- You work on Windows, or mostly from your phone. Cluely, today. Come back to us when iPhone ships; for Windows we have no date.
- You want the cheapest possible way to have your meetings written down. Cluely Pro at $19.99, or their free Starter if the limits are enough for you.
- You live on the Mac and you want a single tool that hears the meeting, sees what's on your screen, remembers the people and leaves the minutes written. Saelyx, bearing in mind that you have to ask for access and wait for an answer.
- You care that your meeting audio isn't stored or used to train models, and that the infrastructure sits in the EU. Saelyx, with the caveat about free access spelled out a few lines up.
08Frequently asked questions
How much does Cluely cost?
According to their pricing page on 25 July 2026: Starter free, with limited answers and note taking and up to three files; Pro at $19.99 a month with unlimited answers and notes; and Pro + Undetectability at $149.99 a month, whose only addition over Pro is being completely undetectable to screen-sharing software.
Is Saelyx undetectable on a shared screen?
No. We don't hide the panel from screen-sharing software and we don't sell that as a feature. You're the only one who sees the Meeting Mode panel because it sits outside the window you're sharing, not because it's camouflaged. Anyone who needs to be invisible to the other side's software has to look for a different tool.
Does a bot have to join the meeting?
No. Saelyx runs on your Mac and listens from there. No participant is added to the video call, so nothing new appears in the participant list and there's nobody to ask for permission.
Does it work on Windows or on mobile?
The native app today is Mac, macOS 13 or later. From Windows, Linux or a Chromebook you can use voice in the browser. iPhone and iPad are targeted for Q4 2026 and Android for 2027, with those dates subject to change. Meeting Mode today exists on Mac only.
How do you get Meeting Mode?
It comes inside the Mac app, along with live vision, visual memory, memory across sessions and documents by voice. You get to it by invitation: you ask at request access and I review it myself. There's no price yet, and when there is one it will go up on pricing before anyone is charged anything.
Cluely has put an explicit price on hiding and made that its product. It's a legitimate position and anyone who needs it knows where to find it. We've bet on the opposite: that the help is good in the first meeting, and that by the tenth it already knows who is who and what was agreed last time. If staying out of sight is your main requirement, this isn't your place. If the quality of the note is, request access and we'll take it from there.