Fathom AI alternatives: bot-free note takers compared
Last updated
Fathom’s free plan is generous, with no cap on recordings or transcriptions, which is why so many people search for a Fathom AI alternative only after the bot shows up in a client call. Fathom does offer bot-free capture, but it is a beta feature for Mac. Here is what Fathom costs, what happens to your recordings, and the alternatives if you want notes without a participant in the list, or without your audio leaving your computer.
Why people look for a Fathom alternative
- The bot, most of the time: Fathom’s notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls as a participant. Bot-free capture exists but is labelled beta and only available on Mac, and bot-free video is a “limited beta”.
- Data stays in the United States: Fathom’s help centre says all data is stored in the US. EU and UK customers get a DPA, but not EU hosting.
- Training on your meetings: Fathom uses de-identified customer data to improve its own models unless you opt out in settings.
- A cloud account for everything: recordings, transcripts and summaries live in Fathom’s service. If you want plain files on your own disk, that is not what it offers.
- Team minimums: Team and Business plans need at least two users, so a single person pays for two seats to get team features.
What Fathom costs
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, choice of bot or bot-free capture (beta, Mac), instant call summaries, clips and search; some features marked “Limited use” |
| Premium | $16 per user / month billed yearly ($20 monthly) | Advanced summaries, AI action items, a conversational meeting assistant and a custom meeting bot |
| Team | $15 per user / month billed yearly ($19 monthly), 2-user minimum | Global search across the team’s calls, playlists, comments, folders and keyword alerts |
| Business | $25 per user / month billed yearly ($34 monthly), 2-user minimum | CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics, AI scorecards and custom summaries |
| Enterprise | Talk to sales | SSO and SCIM, organisation-wide security controls, custom data retention, onboarding programme and a success manager |
The pricing page has a Monthly / Annually toggle and says annual billing saves “25%+”. The yearly figures above are per user per month; Team and Business need at least two users.
Every plan is covered on the Fathom AI pricing page, including the free plan’s limits.
How Fathom handles your data
- Storage: all Fathom data is stored in the United States, and the service is hosted there. The help centre doesn’t name a region beyond that.
- Training: de-identified customer data improves Fathom’s proprietary models; you can opt out in My Settings, and team admins can opt out an organisation. Its AI sub-processors (Anthropic, OpenAI and Google) are not permitted to train on your data.
- Compliance: Fathom reports SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR compliance, with a BAA available. It does not hold ISO 27001.
- Deleting: deleting your account removes recordings and metadata, and backups are cleared after a further 7 days. The privacy policy commits to “commercially reasonable efforts” within 30 days, and on Team, Business or Enterprise plans deletion goes through your administrator.
- Encryption: the pages we checked defer to Fathom’s Trust Center, which we couldn’t read, so we don’t list encryption details here.
Fathom alternatives and their prices
Prices below are each vendor’s own starting paid plan, checked on the date at the top of this page. They change often — follow the sources at the end before you decide.
| Tool | How it works | Paid plans from | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | Bot-free; captures audio from your device | $14 per user / month | Basic plan, notes from the last 30 days |
| Otter | A notetaker joins your calls | $8.33 per user / month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly) | 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation |
| Fireflies | A notetaker (Fred) joins your calls; the Chrome extension records without it | $10 per seat / month billed yearly ($18 monthly) | 400 minutes of stored meetings per team, limited summaries |
| Read AI | A notetaker joins your calls, often from another invitee’s calendar | $15 per user / month billed yearly ($19.75 monthly) | 5 meetings a month, up to 1 hour each |
| QuietNote | Bot-free; records and transcribes on your computer (Mac; Windows planned) | €8 / month or €79 / year (half price for waitlist members) | No free plan |
How to choose
- Bot or no bot: if the participant list is the problem, check whether a tool’s bot-free mode is out of beta on your platform. Fathom’s is Mac-only beta; Granola and QuietNote capture from the device by design.
- Where the audio goes: Fathom stores everything in the US. If your contracts care about that, look at a tool with EU hosting or one that keeps transcription on your Mac.
- What you pay for: Fathom’s free plan has no minute cap, so the question is whether you need advanced summaries or team features. With Otter or Read AI the free plan runs out of minutes or meetings first.
- Model training: Fathom trains on de-identified data unless you opt out. Read the training line on each vendor’s page before you decide.
If a bot-free note taker is what you’re after, see how it works. Switching but Fathom keeps showing up in meetings? Our guide shows how to remove AI meeting bots.
Related guides
- Fathom AI pricingFathom’s plans and prices, where the free plan stops, and what it does with your meetings.
- Granola AI alternativesWhy people look for an alternative to Granola, what it costs, and bot-free options with their prices.
- Otter AI alternativesWhy people look for an alternative to Otter, what it costs, and bot-free options with their prices.
- Best AI note takersOtter, Fireflies, Fathom, Read AI, Granola and QuietNote side by side: how each records, the free plan and the price.
- Remove meeting botsStop Read AI, Otter and Fireflies from joining Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, and block bots when you host.
- Record a Zoom meetingZoom's local and cloud recording, who can start them, what participants see, and how to record a Zoom call on a Mac without a bot.
- Record a Google MeetMeet's built-in recording needs a paid Workspace plan and notifies everyone; here's how it works and how to record locally on a Mac instead.
- Recording consentWho has to agree before you record a meeting in the US, the UK, the EU and the Netherlands, and how to tell people.
Questions
Does Fathom use a bot?
By default, yes: the Fathom notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls as a participant. A bot-free capture mode is available from the Mac desktop app and is labelled beta on the pricing page; bot-free video is a “limited beta”. Windows is listed as next.
Is Fathom AI safe to use?
Fathom reports SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR compliance and signs DPAs for EU and UK users. All data is stored in the United States, and de-identified customer data is used to improve Fathom’s own models unless you opt out. Whether that is acceptable depends on who else is in your meetings and what your contracts say about data location.
Does Fathom train AI on my meetings?
Fathom’s help centre says it uses de-identified customer data to improve its proprietary models, and that you can opt out in My Settings (or organisation-wide on a team plan). Its AI sub-processors, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, are not permitted to train on your data.
Is there a free Fathom alternative?
Granola’s Basic plan is $0 and captures from your device. Otter’s free plan has 300 minutes a month. QuietNote records and transcribes on your Mac and never joins the call. See the alternatives table above for current prices.
Which Fathom alternatives don’t use a bot?
Granola captures from your device. QuietNote records the microphone and the computer’s audio on your Mac and transcribes there, so nothing joins the meeting and nothing is uploaded. Fathom’s own bot-free mode is a third option if you are on a Mac and are fine with the beta label.
Sources
Checked on the “Last updated” date above. Vendors change their settings and prices often; follow the links for the current version.