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HOL Guard vs Gemini Notebook

Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, side by side.

Gemini Notebook logo

Gemini Notebook

Google's Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM, answers questions and builds summaries from your own sources

Freemium
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Verdict

HOL Guard is listed under Coding AI and Gemini Notebook under AI Assistants. Gemini Notebook scores higher in FinderAtlas's editorial review (8.7 vs 7.8 out of 10). Both have a free plan or trial. Only HOL Guard is available on macOS, Linux and CLI. Only Gemini Notebook is available on Web, iOS and Android.

Best overall

Gemini Notebook

  • Students
  • Researchers
  • Educators
  • Analysts

Choose HOL Guard if

  • You want a tool built for approving risky agent actions locally, Protecting secrets from coding agents, Reviewing MCP servers, skills and plugins before use.
  • Open source under Apache-2.0 with public code and release history.
  • Works offline with no account on the free local tier.

Choose Gemini Notebook if

  • You want a tool built for summarizing and questioning your own documents.
  • Answers cite the uploaded sources, so claims can be checked against the original text.
  • Free Standard tier with 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook.
Best for beginners
HOL Guard
Best for business
HOL Guard

Features

18 features compared.

  • Pre-action interception
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Policy outcomes
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Local audit trail
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • MCP, skills and plugin inspection
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Layered policy
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Plugin scanner
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Risk check
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Coverage matrix
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Broad agent support
    HOL Guard
    Available
    Gemini Notebook
    Not available
  • Source-grounded chat
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Audio Overviews
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Video Overviews
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Study tools
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Reports, slide decks and infographics
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Multiple source types
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Cloud computer
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Gemini app sync
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available
  • Sharing and public notebooks
    HOL Guard
    Not available
    Gemini Notebook
    Available

Pricing

Plans as listed by each vendor. Check their sites for current prices.

  • Pricing model
    HOL Guard
    Freemium
    Gemini Notebook
    Freemium
  • Free plan
    HOL Guard
    Yes
    Gemini Notebook
    Yes
  • Starting price
    HOL Guard
    $0
    Gemini Notebook
    $0
  • Plans
    HOL Guard
    5 plans
    Gemini Notebook
    5 plans

HOL Guard plans

  • Free

    $0

    Local protection on one machine, no account required

    • Local scanning and command interception
    • On-device decisions and change diffs
    • Local policy
    • Offline support
    • Local leaked-secret scanning

  • Solo

    $4.99/month

    Personal Cloud memory across two devices

    • 2 devices
    • 30-day retention
    • 1 GB storage
    • Monitoring of up to 5 GitHub repositories
    • 250 credential validity checks per month

  • Pro

    $15/month

    Longer history and alerts for one person

    • 5 devices
    • 180-day retention
    • 5 GB storage
    • Audit log sync
    • Alert notifications
    • Policy versioning

  • Team

    $30/user/mo

    Shared policy and fleet visibility for teams

    • Up to 25 devices
    • 365-day retention
    • 25 GB plus 5 GB per seat
    • Shared policy
    • Owner queues
    • Fleet dashboards

  • Enterprise

    Custom/custom

    Identity review, evidence export and self-hosted deployment review

    • Identity and access review
    • Redacted evidence export via webhook
    • Volume pricing
    • Self-hosted or VPC deployment review

Gemini Notebook plans

  • Standard

    $0

    Free with a Google Account

    • 100 notebooks
    • 50 sources per notebook
    • Audio Overviews
    • Chat with citations

  • Plus

    $4.99/month

    Through the Google AI Plus subscription

    • 200 notebooks
    • 100 sources per notebook
    • Early access to features
    • 2x higher usage than Free

  • Pro

    Most popular

    $19.99/month

    Through the Google AI Pro subscription

    • 500 notebooks
    • 300 sources per notebook
    • Higher Gemini model access
    • Priority access to new features
    • Watermark removal
    • 4x higher usage than Free

  • Ultra 5x

    $99.99/month

    Through the Google AI Ultra subscription

    • 500 notebooks
    • 500 sources per notebook
    • Highest Gemini model access
    • 5x higher usage limits than AI Pro
    • Cloud computer for code execution

  • Ultra 20x

    $199.99/month

    Through the Google AI Ultra subscription at the higher tier

    • 500 notebooks
    • 600 sources per notebook
    • Highest Gemini model access
    • 20x higher usage limits than AI Pro
    • Cloud computer for code execution

Our ratings

Scored out of 10 by the Finder Atlas editorial team. Last reviewed November 2026.

HOL Guard
7.8overall
Gemini Notebook
8.7overall

  • Action Interception

    HOL Guard
    8.0
    Gemini Notebook
    Not rated

  • Agent Coverage

    HOL Guard
    7.8
    Gemini Notebook
    Not rated

  • Ease of Setup

    HOL Guard
    7.5
    Gemini Notebook
    Not rated

  • Transparency & Openness

    HOL Guard
    8.6
    Gemini Notebook
    Not rated

  • Pricing Clarity

    HOL Guard
    7.2
    Gemini Notebook
    Not rated

  • Grounded Citation Fidelity

    HOL Guard
    Not rated
    Gemini Notebook
    8.8

  • Audio Overview Quality

    HOL Guard
    Not rated
    Gemini Notebook
    8.7

  • Source Handling

    HOL Guard
    Not rated
    Gemini Notebook
    8.6

  • Output Formats

    HOL Guard
    Not rated
    Gemini Notebook
    8.8

  • Value for Money

    HOL Guard
    Not rated
    Gemini Notebook
    8.5

Scores weigh documented features, plan value, platform coverage, integrations and user feedback. A missing score means we have not rated that area yet.

Pros and cons

HOL Guard

Pros

  • Open source under Apache-2.0 with public code and release history
  • Works offline with no account on the free local tier
  • Lets you approve or block actions instead of only logging them
  • Covers MCP servers, skills, plugins and package installs, not just shell commands
  • Publishes a coverage matrix and states its limits openly

Cons

  • Coverage depth varies by agent and event type, and some integrations are alpha
  • Install instructions cover macOS and Linux; Windows support is not stated
  • Cloud tiers add cost, and annual prices are not listed
  • Site has no visible terms or company address on the product page

Gemini Notebook

Pros

  • Answers cite the uploaded sources, so claims can be checked against the original text
  • Free Standard tier with 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook
  • Wide range of outputs, including Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes and slide decks
  • Accepts PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs and Google Slides
  • Available on web, iOS and Android, and synced with the Gemini app

Cons

  • Works from the sources you add and is not built for live web news search
  • Higher limits require a Google AI subscription; Ultra starts at $99.99 per month
  • The cloud computer for code execution started with Ultra and Workspace AI Ultra Access customers, with Pro rollout still described as upcoming
  • No public API for the consumer product, and the renamed brand can make older guides and app listings confusing

Platforms

  • Web
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Supported
  • Windows
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported
  • macOS
    HOL Guard
    Supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported
  • iOS
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Supported
  • Android
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Supported
  • API
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported
  • Browser Extension
    HOL Guard
    Not supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported
  • Linux
    HOL Guard
    Supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported
  • CLI
    HOL Guard
    Supported
    Gemini Notebook
    Not supported

Integrations

HOL Guard

7 integrations
  • Claude Code
  • Codex
  • Cursor
  • OpenCode
  • GitHub Copilot CLI
  • GitHub Actions
  • MCP servers

Gemini Notebook

4 integrations
  • Google Docs
  • Google Slides
  • YouTube
  • Gemini app

Company

  • Company
    HOL Guard
    Hashgraph Online DAO LLC
    Gemini Notebook
    Google LLC
  • Founded
    HOL Guard
    Not listed
    Gemini Notebook
    1998
  • Headquarters
    HOL Guard
    Not listed
    Gemini Notebook
    Mountain View, CA
  • Monthly users
    HOL Guard
    Not listed
    Gemini Notebook
    30M+
  • Listing
    HOL Guard
    Claimed
    Gemini Notebook
    Claimed

Frequently asked questions

Is HOL Guard better than Gemini Notebook?

It depends on your workflow. HOL Guard is built for approving risky agent actions locally, Protecting secrets from coding agents, Reviewing MCP servers, skills and plugins before use. Gemini Notebook is built for summarizing and questioning your own documents.

What are the key feature differences between HOL Guard and Gemini Notebook?

HOL Guard: Local approvals for AI coding agent actions before they touch your machine. Gemini Notebook: Google's Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM, answers questions and builds summaries from your own sources.

Does HOL Guard or Gemini Notebook have a free plan?

Yes, both do. HOL Guard is freemium and Gemini Notebook is freemium, and each has a free plan or trial.

Which is cheaper, HOL Guard or Gemini Notebook?

Both can be used for free. Paid plans differ in limits and features, so compare the tiers in the pricing table above.