Alternatives
7 best Fathom alternatives in 2026
Say the obvious thing first: Fathom gives away more on its free plan than anyone else here, unlimited recordings and unlimited transcription, and no alternative on this page beats that on volume alone. What you're trading for it is US cloud storage kept until you delete it, in-house AI training that runs unless you switch it off, and an intelligence layer that starts at Premium. Here are seven alternatives, ranked and honest about trade-offs.
Quick verdict
- Unlimited free cloud recording with no minute meterFathom itself
- On-device transcription on a MacHyprcore
- Meetings, dictation, walkthroughs, and notes in one appHyprcore
- Voice that runs commands, not just typesHyprcore
- A written no-training commitment on every planFireflies.ai
- Polished meeting notes where no audio is stored at allGranola
- CRM sync and conversation intelligenceFireflies.ai
- Zoom and Google Meet bot recordingtldv
- Mobile and web access everywhereOtter.ai
- Transcribing audio files you already haveMacWhisper
- Full control, built yourselfSelf-hosted Whisper
Why people leave Fathom
Every meeting lives in the US cloud
Fathom stores all data in the United States and retains it until you actively delete it, with deletion completed within 30 days of closing an account. There is no on-device mode. For teams under data-residency rules, or anyone who simply doesn't want a vendor holding the audio, that architecture is the dealbreaker rather than any single feature.
In-house AI training is the default
Fathom's privacy policy says it "may use and create de-identified data generated from Meeting Content Information to improve our Services by training, improving, and customizing our in-house artificial intelligence models". You can opt out in account settings, but it's on until you go and find it.
Retention control is a Business-plan feature
The retention policy feature is Team Edition Business Plan only, and it's a single policy per team that treats every call the same way. You can't keep sales calls for a year and purge legal calls in a week. On every cheaper plan, recordings sit there until someone deletes them by hand.
The AI you came for starts at Premium
Free covers unlimited recording and transcription, which is genuinely good. Advanced summaries, action items, and the conversational assistant sit on Premium at $20/mo ($16 annually). The free tier is a very generous recorder, not a free meeting-intelligence product.
Meeting-only
Fathom records calls. It doesn't dictate text into other apps, doesn't capture solo screen walkthroughs, and doesn't host structured notes. If you want dictation or a wiki alongside your meetings, you're buying a second tool.
Closed box
No self-hosting, no local model, nothing to audit. Compliance certifications, HIPAA, SOC2 Type II, GDPR, are real assurance, but they're assurance about someone else's servers.
How we ranked these
- Privacy — does data stay on the user's device by default, and what does the policy actually commit to?
- Pricing — free tier strength + paid tier value, stated in USD
- Platform coverage — macOS, Windows, Linux, mobile, web
- Feature parity — transcription, summaries, action items, speaker ID, search
- Trust signals — public privacy policy, on-device options, training commitments in writing
- Active maintenance over the last 12 months
The alternatives, ranked
Hyprcore
Best formacOS users who want one native app for meetings, dictation, walkthrough recordings, web captures, and an AI wiki — with on-device transcription as an option.
Hyprcore is a native macOS workspace rather than a single-purpose meeting recorder. It records meetings with a summary that rolls as the call happens, does streaming dictation into any app, and adds Action Mode: say "Hyper, make this shorter" and it runs the instruction against your selected text instead of typing it out. It also captures solo screen-and-mic walkthroughs as notes with chapters and a click-to-seek transcript, saves web pages and YouTube videos into the vault, and keeps all of it in an AI wiki you can search, ask, or have an agent write into. Where Fathom's answer to privacy is a compliance certificate, Hyprcore's is that the audio never has to leave the Mac.
- Pricing
- Free; Pro $19.99/mo; Team $39.99/mo (3 seats).
- Platforms
- macOS (Apple Silicon native).
- Privacy
- Free tier transcribes on-device with a local speech model. Pro adds seven local engines plus optional cloud STT (Deepgram, Groq), switchable per recording. Notes are portable markdown on disk. No bot ever joins a call.
Standout
- On-device transcription with a local speech model on the Free tier, no cloud round trip
- Action Mode — voice commands that run against your selected text, not just dictation
- Live rolling meeting summary that builds during the call, plus speaker identification
- Recording notes: screen + mic walkthroughs become notes with chapters, a click-to-seek transcript, an AI-written doc, and an Ask chat
- Captures: save any web page or YouTube video into the vault with its own Ask chat
- Notes stored as portable markdown on disk, not locked in a vendor database
- Global ⌘K palette, an agent that searches and writes the vault, and MCP integration into Claude Desktop
Trade-offs
- macOS only — no Windows, no mobile, no web app
- No HIPAA BAA, which Fathom does offer
- No Zoom / Meet / Teams bots, so nothing gets recorded when you're not on the Mac
- No CRM field sync or Deal View equivalent for sales teams
- Smaller team than Fathom; younger product
Granola
Best forPeople who want the most polished meeting note-taker and would rather no audio existed at all.
Granola sits in the meeting and turns the transcript into structured notes from opinionated templates, without adding a bot to the call. The detail that matters against Fathom is that Granola keeps no audio file at all, only the transcript, which removes an entire category of exposure. The UX is among the best in the category. The catch on the free plan is visibility: older notes are retained but only the last 30 days are reachable in-app until you upgrade.
- Pricing
- Basic $0; Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mo. Monthly billing only, no annual option.
- Platforms
- macOS and Windows desktop, plus iPhone and Android.
- Privacy
- US AWS VPC, encrypted at rest and in transit, backed up daily. Stores no audio, transcript only. Trains on anonymised data by default with a one-click opt-out on every plan, and Enterprise is opted out by default. Third parties including OpenAI and Anthropic are barred from training. Not HIPAA compliant, with no stated timeline.
Standout
- Stores no audio whatsoever, transcript only
- One-click training opt-out on every plan, off by default on Enterprise
- Joins meetings without a bot in the participant list
- Genuinely excellent desktop UX, plus iPhone and Android apps
- SOC 2 Type 2, encrypted at rest and in transit, daily backups
Trade-offs
- Free plan only surfaces the last 30 days of notes in-app
- Cloud-only transcription, no on-device option
- Trains on your anonymised data unless you opt out
- Not HIPAA compliant, and no timeline for it
- Monthly billing only, so no annual discount to offset the per-seat price
- No dictation, no wiki
Fireflies.ai
Best forTeams that need transcripts in HubSpot, Salesforce, and Slack, and want the training question settled in writing.
Fireflies is the enterprise-leaning choice, with deep CRM integrations, conversation intelligence, team workspaces, and a real API. It also has the strongest no-training commitment in this list, and it belongs in the Terms rather than a settings toggle you have to remember to flip. That is the direct answer to the thing that makes people leave Fathom. The costs are product complexity and a free tier that is much tighter than Fathom's.
- Pricing
- Free $0; Pro $18/seat/mo ($10 annually); Business $29 ($19); Enterprise $39, annual only.
- Platforms
- Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension.
- Privacy
- US cloud on AWS and GCP. Its Terms of Service state it "will not use your User Content to train, retrain, fine-tune or otherwise improve any generative artificial intelligence models", on every tier. Zero Data Retention with processing partners. SOC 2 Type II and GDPR. Auto-delete and a HIPAA BAA are Enterprise-only.
Standout
- Terms of Service bar training generative models on your content, on every plan including free
- Zero Data Retention arrangements with processing partners
- 50+ integrations available on every plan, free included
- Widest platform coverage here: web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome
- Bot-free desktop capture on Windows and Mac when you need it
Trade-offs
- Free storage is a 400-minute total cap that never resets, against Fathom's unlimited free recording
- Bot-free capture loses named speakers, labelling everyone Speaker 1 and Speaker 2, and saves no audio or video file
- When the bot is used it is always visible and cannot be hidden
- Meeting length caps of 2h on Free and Pro, 3h Business, 4h Enterprise
- Downloading transcripts requires a paid plan
- Auto-delete and the HIPAA BAA are Enterprise-only
- No dictation, no wiki
Otter.ai
Best forPeople who need meeting notes on a phone, a tablet, and a browser as much as on a laptop.
Otter is the most widely available product here, with a real mobile story that Fathom doesn't match. It is also the one whose training default is hardest to escape: opting out is documented at the Enterprise workspace level, and nothing published covers the cheaper tiers. The free plan is restrictive next to Fathom's, with 300 minutes a month that never roll over and a 30-minute ceiling on any single conversation.
- Pricing
- Basic free; Pro $16.99/user/mo ($8.33 annually); Business $30/user/mo ($19.99 annually); Enterprise on request. USD.
- Platforms
- Web, macOS and Windows desktop, iOS, Android, Chrome extension.
- Privacy
- AWS S3 in the US, AES-256. Trains proprietary AI on de-identified audio and transcriptions by default; the opt-out is documented only as an Enterprise workspace property, where it is the default, and no self-serve opt-out is documented for Basic, Pro, or Business. Third-party LLMs are barred from training. HIPAA is an Enterprise-only add-on.
Standout
- Broadest platform reach: web, desktop, iOS, Android, Chrome extension
- Mature search across a long back catalogue of conversations
- Third-party LLMs are barred from training on your content
- Steep annual discounts, with Pro at $8.33/user/mo
Trade-offs
- Free plan caps at 300 min/month with no rollover, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 file imports for the life of the account, and only the 25 most recent conversations visible
- Deleted conversations still count against the monthly minute cap
- Trains on de-identified audio and transcripts by default, with no documented self-serve opt-out below Enterprise
- No published default retention window; custom retention is Enterprise-only, and trash auto-deletes after 30 days
- HIPAA is an Enterprise-only add-on via an account manager
- No dictation, no wiki
tldv
Best forTeams whose calls all happen in Zoom or Google Meet and who want a simple bot recorder.
tldv is a meeting bot for Zoom and Google Meet with a reputation for a generous free tier. It's lighter on conversation intelligence than Fireflies and lighter on free recording volume than Fathom, but it is simple and it does the one job cleanly. It is the least verified entry on this page, which is why it sits here rather than higher.
- Pricing
- Free tier plus paid plans, historically generous on the free end.
- Platforms
- Web, Chrome extension, meeting bots for Zoom and Google Meet.
- Privacy
- Cloud-based. We have not independently verified its current data-handling or training terms, so treat the privacy question as open until you read the policy yourself.
Standout
- Straightforward bot recording for Zoom and Google Meet
- Free tier with a long-standing reputation for generosity
- Simple, focused UX with little to learn
Trade-offs
- Cloud-only, with a bot in the participant list
- Lighter on conversation intelligence than Fireflies
- Data handling and training terms not verified here
- No dictation, no wiki
MacWhisper
Best formacOS users who want to transcribe audio files they already have, entirely on-device.
MacWhisper runs Whisper locally against audio files on your machine. It isn't a live meeting product in the way the rest of this list is, so it won't replace Fathom for calls. As a private transcription workbench for recordings you already hold, it's excellent and it costs nothing to start.
- Pricing
- Free tier plus a paid Pro licence.
- Platforms
- macOS only.
- Privacy
- Fully local. Whisper runs on your Mac, and nothing is uploaded.
Standout
- Fully local transcription with no account and no upload
- Multiple Whisper model sizes to trade speed against accuracy
- Drop-in file transcription that just works
Trade-offs
- macOS only
- File-transcription focus, not continuous meeting capture
- No meeting intelligence layer, no CRM anything
- No dictation, no wiki
Self-hosted Whisper
Best forDevelopers who want total control and are willing to build everything around the model.
Whisper is OpenAI's open speech recognition model, and running it yourself is the only option here where no vendor sees anything. There is no app, no shortcuts, no meeting capture, and no summary layer unless you write them. That's the trade: complete control in exchange for becoming the engineering team.
- Pricing
- Free. Compute is your responsibility.
- Platforms
- Anywhere you can run Python or whisper.cpp.
- Privacy
- Fully local if you run it locally. Nobody's policy applies but your own.
Standout
- Total control over models, storage, and retention
- Open source
- Free to run on your own hardware
Trade-offs
- You are the engineering team
- No app, no shortcuts, no meeting capture
- Significant setup and ongoing maintenance
All seven, side by side
Verified July 15, 2026.
| Feature | Hyprcore | Fathom | Granola | Fireflies | Otter | tldv | MacWhisper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | ✓ | Unlimited | 30-day history | 400 min total | 300 min/mo | ✓ | Limited |
| On-device transcription | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Trains on your data by default | — | Yes — settings opt-out | Yes — 1-click opt-out | No — barred in Terms | Yes — Enterprise opt-out | Unverified | — |
| Stores audio | Local only | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | Unverified | Local only |
| Records without a bot | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | — | — | n/a |
| Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Windows | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Web | — |
| iOS / Android | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Unverified | — |
| HIPAA | — | ✓ | — | Enterprise | Enterprise | Unverified | n/a |
| Custom retention / auto-delete | Local files | Business | Enterprise | Enterprise | Enterprise | Unverified | n/a |
| Live transcription | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| AI summaries | ✓ | Premium | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Pro |
| Speaker ID | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cross-meeting search | ✓ | Partial | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | — |
| System-wide dictation | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Voice commands (Action Mode) | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Screen + mic recording notes | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Web / YouTube captures | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| AI wiki / pages | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Zoom / Meet bots | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| CRM integrations | Limited | ✓ | Limited | ✓ | Business+ | Unverified | — |
Frequently asked questions
Does any Fathom alternative have a better free plan?
Not on recording volume. Fathom's free plan includes unlimited recordings and unlimited transcription, and nothing else here matches that: Otter caps at 300 minutes a month, Fireflies gives you 400 minutes total that never reset, and Granola's free plan only surfaces the last 30 days of notes. What the alternatives offer instead is a different shape of free. Hyprcore's Free tier runs a local speech model on your Mac, so there is no cloud meter to run down and no server holding the audio.
Does Fathom train AI on my meetings?
Yes, by default. Its privacy policy says Fathom may use and create de-identified data from Meeting Content Information to train, improve, and customise its in-house AI models, and you opt out in account settings. Credit where it's due: Fathom explicitly does not authorise third parties such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google to train on your personal information or meeting content. Fireflies goes one step further and writes a no-training commitment for generative models into its Terms of Service on every tier.
Is Fathom HIPAA compliant?
Yes. Fathom states HIPAA, SOC2 Type II, and GDPR compliance, which is more than most of this list can say. Fireflies offers a BAA on Enterprise only, Otter treats HIPAA as an Enterprise add-on arranged through an account manager, and Granola states it is not HIPAA compliant with no timeline. Hyprcore does not offer a BAA either. What it offers instead is a local speech model that keeps the audio off any server in the first place, which is a different answer to the same worry.
Can Fathom record meetings without a bot?
Yes. The Fathom 3.0 desktop app on macOS and Windows captures with Capture Now, so nothing appears in the participant list. Granola and Hyprcore also record without a bot, and Fireflies has bot-free desktop capture on Windows and Mac, though that mode drops named speakers down to Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 and saves no audio or video file.
How long does Fathom keep my recordings?
Until you actively delete them. All data is stored in the United States and retained until deletion, with account closure triggering deletion within 30 days. Automatic retention policies exist only on the Team Edition Business Plan, and it's a single policy per team that treats every call identically. Otter, Fireflies, and Granola all reserve custom retention for Enterprise too. Hyprcore sidesteps the question by storing notes as markdown files on your own disk.
What's the best Fathom alternative for privacy?
It depends what you're protecting against. If you want the audio never to leave your machine, Hyprcore's local speech model or MacWhisper are the practical answers on macOS, and self-hosted Whisper is the absolute one. If your concern is contractual rather than architectural, Fireflies has the strongest written commitment here, and Granola keeps no audio at all.
What's the cheapest Fathom alternative for a small team?
Hyprcore Team is $39.99/mo for up to 3 seats flat, which undercuts per-seat pricing at that size. Per seat, Fireflies Pro is $10/seat/mo billed annually, Granola Business is $14/user/mo with no annual option, and Otter Pro is $8.33/user/mo annually. Fathom's own free plan remains the cheapest way to record unlimited calls if you can live with US cloud storage and the training default.
Sources
Every claim we make about a competitor on this page comes from their own pricing page, privacy policy, security page, or documentation — checked on July 15, 2026. Products change. If you find something here that has gone stale, tell us and we will fix it.
- Fathom pricing (Free, Premium, Team, Business)
- Fathom privacy policy — in-house AI training, US storage, retention
- Fathom help centre — data storage, retention, and deletion
- Fathom help centre — retention policies are Business-plan only
- Fathom help centre — desktop capture without a bot
- Granola pricing and plans
- Granola security — no audio stored, AWS US, retention
- Granola privacy policy
- Fireflies pricing
- Fireflies Terms of Service — no generative-model training
- Fireflies guide — meeting storage limits
- Otter pricing (prices in USD)
- Otter privacy policy — training on de-identified data
- Otter help centre — Basic free plan limits
More comparisons and guides
Try it
Try Hyprcore free.
The Mac-native alternative to Fathom. Free tier transcribes on-device — no credit card required.
Native macOS · On-device dictation · No credit card