Granola
Focus: action items and no bot. Shares meeting notes and transcription with Fathom. A desktop app, not an AI tool. Adds iOS. Same 4.7 rating.
Desktop AppFree planmacOS, iOS
4.7Visit
AI Tool
Fathom
Free AI notetaker for meetings you would rather not rewatch.
Rating
4.7 / 5
Pricing
Freemium
Difficulty
Beginner
Works on
Web, macOS, Windows
Built with love by Shushant Lakhyani. Building bestproductivityresources.com
What is Fathom?
Fathom joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, records and transcribes them, then produces summaries, action items and timestamped highlights within a minute of hanging up. The free plan is unusually generous, and clips can be shared without sending anyone a full recording.
Pros: what Fathom does well
- Free plan covers unlimited recordings
- Summaries arrive almost instantly
- Syncs neatly with CRMs
Cons: where it falls short
- Joins the call as a visible bot
- Support for smaller meeting apps is limited
Who Fathom is for
People on back-to-back calls who need reliable notes for free.
Who can skip it
Anyone whose workplace bans meeting bots.
What people use Fathom for
- Automatic notes, summaries and action items for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls
- Sharing short clips of key moments instead of a full recording
- Sales and customer calls synced to a CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce on higher plans
- Searching past calls to find what was agreed and who owns the next step
How to get started
- 1Sign up free with your work Google or Microsoft account and connect your calendar.
- 2Let Fathom join a test call, then check the summary and action items it sends afterwards.
- 3Choose which meetings it should record automatically, so private calls stay off the list.
- 4Tell attendees the call is being recorded, and check your workplace allows meeting bots.
Fathom pricing
Fathom has a free plan with unlimited recordings but limited AI summaries, paid Premium, Team and Business plans billed per user, and an Enterprise option for larger organisations. See current prices on Fathom's site
Checked 2026-10-10. Prices change, so double-check before you pay.
Fathom FAQ: quick answers
- Is Fathom free?
- Yes. The free plan records and transcribes calls without a cap, but its AI summaries are limited each month. Paid plans remove that limit and add team and CRM features.
- Which meeting apps does Fathom work with?
- Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. It joins the call as a visible participant, so everyone can see it is recording.
- What are good alternatives to Fathom?
- Otter, Fireflies and tl;dv do similar meeting notes. See the alternatives on this page for more options.
Compare Fathom
See how Fathom stacks up, side by side, plus the lists it made.
Fathom alternatives
Not sold on Fathom? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.
Fireflies.ai
Focus: search. Shares transcription and meeting notes with Fathom. Adds Chrome, iOS and Android. Rated 4.5 (Fathom: 4.7).
AI ToolFree planWeb, Chrome
4.5Visit
Otter.ai
Focus: speaker labels and search. Shares transcription and summaries with Fathom. A web app, not an AI tool. Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.2 (Fathom: 4.7).
Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.2Visit
Meetily
Focus: local ai, open source and otter alternative. Shares meeting notes and transcription with Fathom. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Rated 4.4 (Fathom: 4.7).
AI ToolFreemacOS, Windows
4.4Visit
Read AI
Focus: meetings, action items and ai notetaker. Shares transcription and summaries with Fathom. Adds Chrome. Rated 4.4 (Fathom: 4.7).
AI ToolFree planWeb, Chrome
4.4Visit
anarlog
Focus: local first, open source and github. Shares meeting notes and transcription with Fathom. A desktop app, not an AI tool. Adds Linux. Rated 4.5 (Fathom: 4.7).
Desktop AppFree planmacOS, Windows
4.5Visit
Free alternatives to Fathom
Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.
whisper.cpp
Focus: speech to text, local ai and open source. Shares transcription with Fathom. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Adds Linux and Offline. Same 4.7 rating.
AI ToolFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit
Vibe
Focus: speech to text, local ai and open source. Shares transcription with Fathom. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Adds Linux and Offline. Rated 4.6 (Fathom: 4.7).
AI ToolFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit
VoiceStudio
Focus: voice ai, text to speech and voice cloning. Shares transcription with Fathom. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Fathom: 4.7).
AI ToolFreeCross-Platform
4.6Visit
Jitsi Meet
Focus: video calls, open source and self-hosted. Also in Meetings and Communication, like Fathom. A web app, not an AI tool. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Adds Android and iOS. Rated 4.3 (Fathom: 4.7).
Web AppFreeWeb, Android
4.3Visit
Buzz
Focus: whisper, offline and open source. Shares transcription with Fathom. A desktop app, not an AI tool. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Adds Linux. Rated 4.5 (Fathom: 4.7).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.5Visit
Obsidian Second Brain
Focus: obsidian, memory and claude code. Also in Note-Taking and AI Productivity, like Fathom. Free (Fathom: Freemium). Adds Linux. Same 4.7 rating.
AI ToolFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit
Fathom is a Best Productivity Resources Awards: August 2026 winner
Picked by our published rubric from the resources added in August 2026. Makers can add this badge to their site or README; it links back to this page.
<a href="https://bestproductivityresources.com/resources/fathom" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="Fathom: Best Productivity Resources Award, August 2026"><img src="https://bestproductivityresources.com/badges/awards/2026-08/fathom.svg" alt="Fathom: Best Productivity Resources Award, August 2026" width="280" height="60" /></a>Are you the maker of Fathom?Get a free Featured badge for your site, a share image and ready-to-paste posts. No sign-up.
New · updated daily
What people are actually doing with AI
Real use cases shared on Reddit, Hacker News, X, GitHub and blogs, summarised in plain words with a link to every original post.
Free Notion database
1,100+ ways people are making money online
Real online businesses, creators and projects, broken down by how they make money: apps, online stores, AI tools and more. Free on Gumroad.
Get the free databaseFree Notion database
399+ ways to make money online
Hundreds of online income methods in one place, so you can compare options and pick one to try. Free on Gumroad.
Get the free listFor research and ideas only. Results vary and nothing here is a promise of income. See our Disclaimer.
Weekly newsletter
Everything new, every Monday.
One short email every Monday with everything shipped that week: new free tools and websites, new guides, new free browser tools and what's new in my free Gumroad libraries, plus how the site is growing. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Join the newsletterYou sign up on Gumroad, which stores your email to send the newsletter. See our Privacy Policy.