Comparison · DIY stack
Klarity or your notebook and your memory
A notebook, a pen, and your memory: that's how most coaches actually work, and it has real merits. This comparison doesn't pretend it fails. It describes what it does very well, and the point, around fifteen clients in parallel, where it starts costing more than it gives back.
The short verdict
Keep the notebook if you follow few clients at a time and handwriting is part of your practice. Move to Klarity when pre-session re-reading keeps getting longer, threads get lost between spaced-out sessions, and your memory becomes the limiting factor of your coaching quality.
Choose your notebook if
The notebook is enough for you
You follow a handful of clients, your sessions are closely spaced, and handwriting is part of how you listen. As long as you pick up your threads effortlessly, there's no rush: the notebook is an excellent coaching tool.
Choose Klarity if
Your memory has become the bottleneck
You follow several engagements in parallel, some weeks apart. Pre-session re-reading keeps getting longer, commitments slip through, and you can feel that the quality of the thread depends on your memory that day. That's exactly the work Klarity takes over.
Line by line
Klarity vs the notebook, honestly
Line by line, without caricature: the notebook wins on cost and simplicity, Klarity on everything that requires memory.
| Criteria | Klarity | your notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Several clients in parallel, over time | Few clients, closely spaced sessions |
| Cost | Monthly subscription | Practically zero |
| During the session | Capture is optional: you stay in the exchange | Write while listening, or listen without a trace |
| Picking up the thread before a session | Yesbriefing ready in one minute | Re-reading your pages, hoping it's all there |
| Memory of an engagement over six months | Yesdated themes, tracked commitments | Whatever your memory kept, and distorted |
| Finding “when did we discuss X?” | Yesanswer cited to the session | Noleafing through, no guarantee |
| Loss, theft, spilled coffee | Encrypted data, hosted in France | Noa single physical copy |
“The notebook” here means handwritten notes and the practitioner's memory, with no other tool. It's the profession's baseline, not a straw man.
Fair play
What each does best
Where your notebook shines
The profession's historic gesture
- Free, immediate, with zero technical dependency
- Handwriting helps many practitioners think
- No data with any third party: confidentiality fits in a drawer
- But: nothing is queryable: finding a thread from May in September rests on your memory alone
- But: a single copy, neither backed up nor encrypted, that can be lost
- But: pre-session re-reading grows with your client list
Where Klarity fits coaches
The memory that writes itself
- Each client's thread kept up to date without re-reading: a briefing ready before every session
- Commitments made, kept or not, followed from one session to the next
- Any question about the history gets an answer cited to the session
- Your handwritten notes keep their place: dictate or type the essentials, the memory feeds on them
- Encrypted, hosted in France, with traceable client consent
What coaches ask us
Isn't my notebook more confidential than any tool?
Physically, yes: nothing leaves the drawer. But it's neither encrypted, nor backed up, nor recoverable if lost, and it holds no trace of your clients' consent. Klarity encrypts session contents, hosts them in France and keeps consent traceable: tooled confidentiality rather than physical.
Handwriting helps me think. Do I have to give it up?
No. Many coaches keep writing by hand during the session. The difference is what happens afterwards: you dictate or type the essentials in two minutes, and the client's memory grows without any re-reading. Audio capture stays a simple option.
At how many clients does the notebook stop being enough?
There's no universal threshold. The reliable signals: pre-session re-reading takes longer than you want, threads get lost between spaced-out sessions, and commitments made in session are no longer checked. When those three settle in, memory has become the limiting factor.
Can I bring years of paper notes into Klarity?
Your digital documents (PDFs, reports, exports) import client by client and enter the memory. For pure paper, no need to retype everything: a few lines of context per active client are enough to seed the memory, which then thickens with every session.
Other comparisons
All comparisonsvs
Klarity vs Granola
Granola is a great AI notepad for meetings. For coaching, Klarity adds longitudinal per-client memory, pre-session briefs and EU privacy.
Coaching platformvs
Klarity vs Delenta
Delenta is a capable all-in-one coaching platform. Klarity takes the opposite bet: memory at the core, admin left out. Here's how they compare for a solo coach.
AI note-takervs
Klarity vs Otter
Otter is great at live meeting transcription. Klarity is built for coaching: per-client memory, pre-session briefs, coaching-structured summaries, EU privacy.
The best comparison is a session.
Connect your calendar, hold one appointment, read the summary and ask the memory a question. Fourteen days are enough to decide.
Go further
The rest of the Klarity ecosystem
- 02FeatureYou open the session already knowing where you left off.Klarity prepares a brief before every coaching session: current goals, latest commitments, threads to reopen. No more last-minute review.
- 05FeatureOne living file per client,Client tracking for independent coaches: one file per client, kept by the sessions. Trajectory, goals, commitments, themes. You open the file and know where you stand.
Coaching practiceCoaching session notes: a method, and how AI helpsWhat to put in your coaching session notes, how to write them fast and well, and how AI can generate the summary for you, without compromising client privacy.
ToolsClient tracking tools for coaches: an honest comparisonSpreadsheet, Notion, or dedicated software? A frank comparison of client tracking tools for solo coaches: criteria, trade-offs, and what holds up long-term.