My Honest Fathom Review After Using It For +3 Months (2026)
Looking for a Fathom review based on real experience?
Here, I show you how it performed over the past 3 months across 10+ meetings, what you get for free, its main limitations, and three things I wish I had known before starting with Fathom.
My quick verdict after 10+ meetings
🎯 Best for: Simple AI note-taking with free core features
🚫 Not ideal for: If you require more advanced features
⭐ Biggest strength: Accurate transcriptions and well-structured meeting notes for free
⚠️ Biggest weakness: No mobile app
⚖️ Verdict: It is best for users who need the essential features for free and need a simple AI note-taker
🏆 Score: 4.4 / 5
✅ Tested with our review & scoring methodology ✅ Real-world testing ✅ Unbiased evaluation
Fathom Review
Summary
Fathom is an amazing AI meeting assistant that transcribes, records, and summarizes online meetings. It works with 38 languages, and Fathom will take notes on Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet calls. With its outstanding free plan and reliable transcriptions, it is among the top tools in the AI note-taker market.
Oustanding free plan | |
Accurate transcriptions | |
Top-notch customer service | |
Simple user interface | |
Useful meeting recordings | |
Ask Fathom |
You can access the meeting templates only with paid plans | |
Limited feature depth | |
Collaboration is less advanced | |
No mobile app |
So, What Do You Actually Use Fathom For?
Fathom is an AI meeting note-taker that records, transcribes, and summarizes your calls on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. It supports 38 languages and automatically identifies different speakers in the transcript.
Unlike more complex AI meeting assistants, Fathom focuses heavily on the essentials: accurate transcripts, video recordings, AI meeting notes, and action items, with more advanced features such as Ask Fathom available on paid plans.
One of its biggest differentiators is the free plan, which includes unlimited recordings, transcription, and storage, making Fathom particularly attractive if you need the core AI note-taking features without paying.
What I learned from these 3 months using Fathom
Fathom was a pleasant surprise after months of using it.
After testing almost all the AI note-taking apps on the market, I found Fathom’s free plan among the best. So, if you don’t want to spend a penny on AI note-takers, Fathom is a top choice. Alternatively, you can consider tl;dv, which also offers an excellent free version.
Fathom focuses on the core features and does it extremely well. It has solid transcription accuracy (85-90%), well-organized AI notes, and Ask Fathom works great.
While it does not offer as many features as Fellow or MeetGeek, Fathom’s focus on the basics makes it ideal for those looking for a lightweight, free AI note-taker.
What I Loved & What Could Be Better
| Where Fathom excels | Where it falls short |
|---|---|
| 🟢 Generous free plan: Unlimited recordings, transcriptions, and storage make it one of the strongest free plans I’ve tested. | 🔴 No mobile app: You can’t use Fathom to capture in-person conversations from your phone. |
| 🟢 Accurate transcription: I experienced around 85–90% accuracy across my test meetings, putting it ahead of several other AI note-takers I’ve used. | 🔴 Limited feature depth: It focuses on the essentials and lacks some advanced features available in tools like Fellow or MeetGeek. |
| 🟢 Simple meeting notes: AI summaries are short and easy to scan if you don’t want overly detailed meeting notes. | 🔴 Meeting templates are paywalled: Templates are reserved for paid plans |
| 🟢 Useful meeting recordings: Fathom records video alongside the transcript, and clicking the transcript lets you jump directly to that moment in the recording. | 🔴 Collaboration is less advanced: Its team and workflow features aren’t as extensive as more comprehensive meeting-management platforms. |
| 🟢 Ask Fathom works well: You can ask questions about meetings or generate things like follow-up emails without digging through the full transcript. |
Fathom’s score explained
Fathom achieved a high overall score, largely due to its solid key features (transcription, recording, and AI notes) and its great free plan.
Where it falls behind other AI note-takers is its collaboration tools (3.5/5) and feature depth (3/5). While I appreciate its outstanding and free core features, those who need more advanced features might find Fathom insufficient.
When Fathom makes the most sense
When to consider alternatives to Fathom
If you want to try out Fathom, use this link to get FREE 3 months of premium features without an extra cost. This way, you can have 3X more time to test Fathom’s advanced features and decide whether to upgrade or stay with the free plan.
Fathom free version: What’s included & what’s missing
Fathom pricing
Plan | Price (Annual) | Best For | Key Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
Free | Free | Individuals who need unlimited meeting recording, transcription, and basic AI features | Limited team collaboration and advanced features |
Premium | $16/user/month | Individuals & professionals who want more advanced AI features | Lacks team-focused collaboration and advanced business features |
Team | $15/user/month | Small teams that need collaboration features | 2-user minimum; lacks advanced CRM, coaching, and enterprise controls |
Business | $25/user/month | Sales and customer-facing teams needing coaching metrics and CRM workflows | 2-user minimum; lacks enterprise-level security and administration |
Enterprise | $35/user/month | Larger organizations needing advanced security and administration | 2-user minimum; highest-cost plan |
How my experience compares with other Fathom users
Fathom scores highly (4.8 out of 5) on Trustpilot and has the maximum score (5 out of 5) on G2. These are among the highest scores I have seen in the AI note-taking niche, so they’re pretty impressive.
While browsing Reddit, this comment caught my attention because it describes one of Fathom’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. Many people consider Fathom one of the best Otter AI alternatives because of its generous free plan, affordable pricing, and responsive customer support team.
On the other hand, the lack of a mobile app means that you can’t use it for in-person meetings, which is a huge drawback for me.
This one is also interesting. A Reddit user, danilo_ai, highlights the extensive free tier, and I agree. Fathom is one of the best free AI note-takers currently.
On the downside, I think meeting bots are more accepted than they were a few years back, and it’s not weird. At least that is how I feel, since I also bring my AI note-taker (bot-based) to my meetings, though it depends on the area you work in.
Fathom features worth highlighting
After using Fathom across my own meetings, these are the features that mattered most in practice and the limitations I noticed along the way.
Transcription
TL;DR: Fathom delivered around 85–90% transcription accuracy in my meetings, and its transcript-to-recording navigation is one of the features I found most useful.
When you join online meetings on Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, you can let Fathom’s bot into the call, and it will automatically transcribe the meetings.
But do not worry, you can customize this.
Just go to the settings menu, where you can decide if you want Fathom to auto-join and record all your internal or external meetings. It is also great that you can edit the name of your bot.
Fathom is among the more accurate AI note-takers. When tested across numerous meetings, it was not as accurate as Fellow or MeetGeek, but it offered a solid 85%-90% transcription accuracy, which was higher than I experienced with Fireflies AI or Otter AI.
However, this also depends on the audio quality and your accent, I reached this accuracy with the built-in microphone of my PC.
Once the call is over, Fathom will send you the transcription. I love Fathom for how it designed its transcription feature.
What I particularly liked wasn’t just the accuracy. Clicking any part of the transcript jumps directly to that moment in the recording. You can also edit incorrect text, change the identified speaker, or delete a section of the transcript.
I recommend downloading its Google extensions to join the Google Meet calls more easily. Also, if you have Zoom calls, connecting Fathom with your Zoom account makes sense before the meeting.
What’s good:
What’s missing:
Recording
TL;DR: Fathom gives you a full video recording alongside the transcript, and you can highlight important moments.
When Fathom joins a meeting, it works in the background and records the conversation. A small widget lets you pause or stop recording without leaving the call.
One feature I found particularly useful is Highlights. During a meeting, you can mark an important moment, create an action item, or capture what the current speaker is saying instead of trying to find that part afterward.
What I like:
Where it struggles:
AI summary
TL;DR: Fathom’s summaries are shorter and easier to scan than many AI note-takers I’ve tested, while templates let you change what information the AI prioritizes.
Once the call ends, Fathom generates a structured meeting summary. I generally found its notes shorter than those from Fellow or Bluedot, which can be either a strength or limitation depending on how much detail you want.
The useful part is that you can change the meeting template depending on the call. For example, you can use different structures for sales calls, interviews, Q&As, and other meeting types, and Fathom restructures the summary accordingly.
What shines:
Where it falls short:
Ask Fathom
TL;DR: Ask Fathom was more useful than simply searching a transcript because I could turn meeting information directly into answers, follow-ups, and analysis.
The Ask Fathom feature is a conversational AI tool that allows users to interact with their meeting recordings by asking questions in natural language, much like a chatbot.
It provides instant answers, summaries of key decisions, drafts follow-up emails, and can even give feedback on speaking style.
Here are some of the prompts I regularly used for sales calls:
- Was there a buying signal during the call? If so, when?
- What are the biggest risks that could stall or kill this deal?
- On a scale of 1 to 100, how likely is this deal to close?
- Identify decision makers and their level of influence
What’s good:
What’s missing:
Meeting templates
Rather than generating the same type of notes after every meeting, Fathom lets you apply templates for different calls. In my testing, changing the template also changed how Fathom structured the resulting meeting summary.
What shines:
Where it falls short:
Team collaboration features
Fathom offers some useful team features to improve collaboration when it comes to online meetings. You can organize your meeting notes and recordings into different folders that your team can access. Also, you can mention and add comments to the meeting notes.
If we look at the advanced team collaboration features, you can access the coaching feature and the deal view. Both of them are great for improving your sales process.
Integrations
Integrations are crucial for me, so I always check whether I can integrate the app with other tools. During my Fathom review, I was pleased to find that you can connect Fathom with Zapier. Thanks to the Zapier integration, you can integrate Fathom with over 7000 apps.
Nevertheless, using the Premium or Team Edition plan, you only have limited access to Zapier integrations. Beyond Zapier, you can connect Fathom with Asana, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Close, and more.
User interface
The first word that comes to my mind when I look at Fathom’s user interface is simplicity. Everything is in one place, and you can access all the features with one click.
On the homepage, you can find your previous recordings. If you click on one of your meetings, you will instantly see the meeting transcription, recording, and meeting notes.
Overall, Fathom has an intuitive and simple user interface with a short learning curve.
3 things I wish I had set up before using Fathom
1. Set your auto-recording rules before your first call
Decide whether Fathom should automatically join all meetings, only internal/external calls, or only meetings you select manually.
Otherwise, you may end up with Fathom joining calls you didn’t intend to record.
2. Configure sharing and recording consent
Check whether Fathom automatically sends recordings and notes to participants. For external calls, you can also enable advanced recording consent, which can save you from handling this manually before every meeting.
3. Choose the right meeting template
Don’t use the General template for everything. Fathom has templates for different meeting types, such as sales calls, interviews, and Q&As, and the template changes how your AI summary is structured. In my experience, choosing the right one makes the resulting notes much more useful.
Is Fathom AI safe?
Fathom is HIPAA-, SOC 2 Type II-, and GDPR-compliant. Fathom also states that its AI subprocessors, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, are not permitted to train their models on user data.
Another question I had was how Fathom can offer such a generous free plan without selling user data.
They confirmed here that it does not sell user data to third parties; instead, the free product helps generate awareness and leads for its paid team offering.
If you delete your account, Fathom says your recordings and associated metadata are removed, with the remaining backup data deleted after an additional seven days.
Overall, I didn’t uncover any obvious privacy red flags during my research, and Fathom covers the major security and compliance standards I look for when reviewing AI note-takers.
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Fathom’s alternatives
If you are still not sure about Fathom or are wondering what other options you have, here is my list of the best AI note-takers:
App | Best for | Description |
|---|---|---|
Fellow | Best for professionals | A top AI note-taker for professionals and teams. This is the one I use for online meetings. |
Fireflies AI | Best budget-friendly option | A popular and budget-friendly AI meeting assistant for individuals and teams. |
Notta | Best for multi-language transcription | A unique AI note-taker that allows multi-language transcription, enabling people to speak two different languages during online meetings. |
MeetGeek | Best for meeting analytics | A versatile AI note-taking app with solid AI analytics |
tl;dv | Best simple AI note-taker | A simple option for individuals with a feature-rich free plan. |
Radiant | Best free AI note-taker for Mac | It is a 100% free AI bot-less note-taker for Mac users for in-person and online meetings. |
Otter AI | A popular AI note-taker | One of the most popular AI note-takers for Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. |
Granola | Best for users need a simple bot-less AI note-taker | Granola is a lightweight AI note-taking app that transcribes and summarizes meetings without bots, with a generous free tier, but it’s basic and lacks advanced features. |
Krisp | Best bot-less AI note-taker supporting high audio quality | Krisp is a Voice AI platform for clearer communication and more productive meetings, combining real-time audio enhancements with AI note-taking. |
Bluedot | An easy-to-use bot-less AI note-taker | Bluedot is a straightforward and easy-to-use bot-free AI note-taker. |
Zoom AI Companion | Best for Zoom users needing built-in AI note-taking | A solid built-in AI assistant for Zoom that offers meeting summaries, basic transcription, and action items, but lacks advanced features. Full Zoom AI Companion review | Quick Zoom AI Companion overview |
Tactiq | Best for individuals and workflow automation | Tactiq is an AI meeting assistant that provides real-time transcription, customizable summaries, and workflow automation. |
Read AI | Best for teams & individuals who want an all-in-one AI meeting assistant | Read AI is an AI meeting assistant with solid transcription, summaries, and search, but limited features on lower plans and privacy concerns make it hard to rely on. |
Plaud | Best for in-person conversations | A unique AI note-taker with dedicated hardware for recording meetings, phone calls, and ideas wherever you are. |
Fathom vs alternatives
Otter AI VS Fathom
Fathom VS tl;dv
Fellow VS Fathom
Fireflies AI VS Fathom
Fathom VS MeetGeek
Wrap-up: Fathom review
After using Fathom continuously for three months, I think its biggest appeal is still straightforward: it does the AI note-taking essentials very well without requiring you to pay. I’d choose it if you primarily want accurate transcripts, recordings, and concise AI notes.
If you need deeper collaboration, more advanced workflows, or regularly capture in-person meetings, I’d consider one of the alternatives above instead.
Related articles:
- 6 Best Fathom Alternatives After Testing 20+ AI Note-Takers (2026)
- Best 9 AI-Note Takers | My Top Picks After +2 Years Testing (2026)
If you want to try out Fathom, use this link to get FREE 3 months of premium features without an extra cost. This way, you can have 3X more time to test Fathom’s advanced features and decide whether to upgrade or stay with the free plan.
Looking for similar tools?
Visit our AI note-takers library to explore other apps we’ve reviewed in this space and how they compare.
How We Test AI Note-Takers
To keep our reviews and final scores fair and consistent, we evaluate every AI note-taking tool using a standardized testing framework built on real-world usage and hands-on experience.
Our scoring breakdown after testing 20+ AI note-takers:
🤖 Features & functionality — 50%
🖥️ User interface — 10%
💰 Pricing — 20%
🔐 Security — 10%
👥 Real-world experience — 10%
Want a detailed breakdown of how we test each category?
Learn exactly how we test tools → Review methodology
Short on time? Here’s a quick overview of Fathom
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Our mission? No fluff, no shortcuts—just honest, hands-on insights from productivity pros.
Discover how we stay transparent, read our review methodology, and let us know about any tools we missed.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom AI free?
Fathom has a generous free plan with unlimited recordings, transcriptions, and storage capacity. Based on my 2+ years of experience with AI note-takers, it has one of the best free plans on the market.
Is Fathom legit?
Yes, Fathom is a legit and safe tool.. This AI note-taker is HIPAA, SOC2 Type II, and GDPR-compliant and has passed extensive security reviews by Zoom. Fathom does not train AI models on your data, including meeting recordings and transcripts.
Can I use Fathom for Zoom meetings?
Yes, Fathom is a great solution for taking notes on Zoom meetings. After your Zoom call, Fathom will send you the transcriptions, AI summaries, and recordings of the conversation.
Is Fathom good for customer success teams?
Fathom will probably be a game-changing tool for customer success teams. Using Fathom, you can dedicate your full attention to your customers, and its features make it easy to review meetings.
Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission. Read the full privacy policy here.
Hey there! I am Aron, the founder of Thebusinessdive. I have been testing productivity apps for almost three years now. I reach 25.000 -50.000 people monthly with the mission to help you find the perfect productivity apps. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, newsletter, and social media to hear more about the best productivity tools. Let’s dive in!