# Fathom vs Circleback: pricing, features, and which is better > Fathom and Circleback compared across pricing, capture, speaker labels, recordings, notes, sharing, automations, integrations, AI-agent access, and administration. - Canonical HTML: https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-circleback - Structured JSON: https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-circleback.json - Comparison directory: https://circleback.ai/compare - Language: en-US - Editorial perspective: Circleback-authored direct comparison. The point of view is explicit, and each product gets credit for what it does well. ## Short answer Fathom is unusually generous for free online meetings. Circleback is built for every meeting and the context around it. The useful buying test is to run both products on the same external call, internal planning session, and noisy in-person meeting. Compare the result, the sharing defaults, and the work that still has to happen by hand. ## Fathom at a glance Fathom is easy to love for online calls: unlimited free recordings and transcripts, quick summaries, clips, assigned action items, CRM sync, and a focused interface. Its new Mac experience adds useful bot-free modes, while Windows parity and a generally available in-person app are still arriving. **Best for:** Individuals and sales teams that live in Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams and want a generous free plan, fast summaries, clips, and CRM-friendly workflows. **Less ideal for:** Companies that need proven iOS/Android or in-person capture today, broad cross-platform botless video, a workspace-wide task board, or a cross-channel context graph. **Price:** Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually Free includes unlimited recordings and transcripts but only five advanced AI summaries per month. Paid prices are per user/month: Premium is $16 with annual billing or $20 month-to-month; Team is $15 or $19 with a two-seat minimum; Business is $25 or $34. Enterprise is custom. **Free option:** Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with five advanced summaries per month. ### Fathom strengths - Unlimited free recording and transcription is unusually generous for a solo online-meeting workflow. - Fast, polished summaries, highlights, clips, playlists, assigned action items, and CRM sharing. - Public API and MCP support make the meeting library available to custom tools and agents. - Action items include assignees and transcript evidence, and an Asana integration can synchronize assigned work automatically or on demand. ### Fathom tradeoffs - Fathom’s current pages disagree about iOS availability: the product overview says in-person capture is live, while the help center and launch page still describe the official app as pre-download or coming soon. Treat it as a staged rollout until your account can use it. - Chromebook, Linux, Android, tablet, phone call, webinar, and breakout support remains limited or absent. The current Fathom 3.0 bot-free experience is Mac- and English-only; Windows users remain on the older experience for now. - Bot-free video is currently available for Zoom on Mac. Google Meet support is still described as coming, Teams support depends on how the call is joined, and the bot remains the broadest cross-platform path. - The free plan’s advanced AI summaries are capped even though raw recordings and transcripts are unlimited. - Fathom may use de-identified meeting data to improve its in-house AI models unless the user or Team Edition administrator opts out. Third-party model providers are prohibited from training on it. - All Fathom data is US-hosted. Custom retention is Enterprise-only, applies one policy to the whole team, and is currently configured through support rather than self-service. ### Choose Fathom when - You want a generous free online-meeting recorder and rarely need in-person capture. - Clips, highlights, fast summaries, and simple CRM delivery are the center of the workflow. - You are comfortable keeping the bot for video and named-speaker fidelity. ## Circleback at a glance Circleback turns online meetings, in-person conversations, and imported calls into one shared company memory. Record with a bot, with the botless desktop app, from an iPhone or Android phone, or on Apple Watch. Every route produces the same speaker-labeled record, detailed notes designed to stand alone, and automatically assigned action items. Sharing rules and automations carry the useful parts into the teams and tools that need them. Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available to a person is also available programmatically through its API, MCP, and CLI. **Best for:** Companies that want one shared meeting system across sales, product, engineering, recruiting, customer success, and leadership—with automatic sharing, function-specific workflows, and complete data for people, agents, and their own software. **Less ideal for:** A team that only wants a cheap transcript now and then, or a sales organization buying mainly for forecasting and rep coaching. **Price:** Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually Free includes unlimited meetings and members with 30 days of meeting and recording history. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $15 with annual billing or $18 month-to-month; Business is $25 or $29; Enterprise is $35 with annual billing only. See https://circleback.ai/pricing for current plan packaging. **Free option:** Free includes unlimited meetings and members, with 30 days of meeting and recording history and limited API, MCP, CLI, and automation access. ### Circleback strengths - Online, in-person, phone, desktop, mobile, Watch, bot, and botless capture all produce a speaker-labeled transcript; every route can keep its recording or discard it after notes are made. - The notes are detailed enough to stand alone, while automatically assigned action items stay trackable across the workspace and can become issues in Linear or another work tracker. - Conditional automatic sharing, company context, free viewers, enforced defaults, and actions in connected apps make each meeting useful beyond the person who recorded it. - Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record available to a person—including the recording, full speaker-labeled transcript, notes, action items, attendees, people, and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. - Industry-leading security practices include encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, GDPR support, and HIPAA compliance. Customer data is never used to train models, and an external infrastructure pentest report is available through the security portal. ### Circleback tradeoffs - The Free plan has shorter history and limited platform access. A solo user who only wants occasional transcripts may find a more generous free recorder elsewhere. - It is not a sales forecasting suite. Gong goes further on deal inspection, rep coaching, and forecasting. - It is not a live meeting coach. Read AI goes further on real-time engagement and sentiment signals, while Krisp specializes in cleaning up audio before it reaches the transcript. - Circleback’s primary processing operations are in the United States. A company with a hard regional-hosting or on-premises requirement should confirm fit during security review. ### Choose Circleback when - You want the same speaker-labeled record from an online call, a room, a phone recording, or your Watch. - You want notes designed to stand alone and follow-through that does not disappear inside each meeting: assigned action items, one workspace-wide list, and a path into your issue tracker. - You want Circleback to look things up and do the next step in the apps where your team works. - You want coworkers, ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and your own tools to use the same company context. ## Feature comparison | What matters | Fathom | Circleback | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture options | Available with limits — Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. The bot remains the broadest mature path. Eligible Mac users can choose bot-free transcript-only, audio plus transcript, or Zoom video; Google Meet bot-free video is still coming and Teams behavior varies by how the call is joined. Fathom says the bot-free modes preserve speaker attribution and action items. | Broad support — Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. Use the meeting bot for scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls; record locally from macOS or Windows with no bot; use iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch in person; or import a phone call or existing file. Whichever path you take, Circleback processes it into a speaker-labeled transcript, notes, and action items in the same workspace. | | Desktop and mobile | Narrow or indirect — Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path. Fathom supports major online platforms on computers, but its current 3.0 rollout is limited to Mac and English-language meetings. Windows remains supported through the older bot-based experience. Official pages conflict on whether iOS in-person capture is already live; Android, Chromebook, Linux, phone calls, webinars, and breakout rooms are not normal supported paths. | Broad support — Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch. Desktop apps handle bot-free system audio and video. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch can record from your wrist without the iPhone nearby, then sends the meeting through the same transcription and notes pipeline. | | In-person capture and speaker labels | Narrow or indirect — iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers. Fathom’s marketing overview says its iOS app captures in-person meetings, but the help center and current launch page still call it coming soon or pre-download. In the older workaround, every room voice is attributed to the Fathom user rather than separated. Verify iOS access and room-speaker labeling in the actual account before rollout. | Broad support — Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels. Record an in-person meeting from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. Circleback separates and labels the speakers instead of returning one undifferentiated wall of text. Imported phone recordings get the same treatment. | | Recordings, playback, and clips | Broad support — Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips. Fathom has polished review and sharing for online calls. Video no longer universally requires the bot, but the current bot-free video path is limited to Zoom on Mac rather than equivalent across every supported platform. | Broad support — A recording when you want one; notes-only when you do not. Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off. | | Notes, action items, and search | Broad support — Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search. Summary quality and speed are core strengths. Paid AI action items identify assignees and link to the source moment; the API also returns completion state and assignee metadata. Fathom presents action items inside each meeting rather than documenting a workspace-wide task dashboard. Advanced summary types and some AI capabilities are plan-limited even while base transcription is free. | Broad support — Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search. Our editorial judgment is that Circleback’s notes are more detailed and need less transcript archaeology than the short recaps common in meeting tools. It automatically creates action items, assigns each one to an owner when the conversation makes the owner clear, and gathers work from every meeting in a workspace-wide view where it can be filtered and marked done. Custom insights extract the fields a team cares about, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations. | | People, companies, and context | Available with limits — Meeting and customer-call library. Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments. | Broad support — A shared company memory, not isolated meeting pages. Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team. | | Automatic sharing and workspace defaults | Broad support — Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Admins can set auto-capture and visibility separately for external, internal, and unscheduled meetings at organization or team level, including whether users may override the default. Individuals can also send a summary, a recording, or both automatically—but the audience is every calendar invitee, including people who did not attend. | Broad support — Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations. | | Automations | Available with limits — CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through. Fathom handles common customer-facing follow-through well. Assigned action items can sync automatically or manually to Asana, webhooks can deliver action-item payloads, and Zapier or CRM integrations extend delivery. It does not document the same broad native trigger/condition/action builder for arbitrary work systems. | Broad support — One automation layer for every function. Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings. | | Integrations | Available with limits — Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections. CRM delivery and collaboration integrations cover the common sales workflow, while Asana turns assigned meeting actions into trackable tasks. Broader issue-tracker coverage and custom operational actions are less central. | Broad support — Search other apps, then do the work there. Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, and Intercom. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Zapier, Make, webhooks, and custom MCP servers cover the long tail. | | API, MCP, CLI, and data portability | Broad support — Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. The REST API can return speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, action items with assignees and completion state, attendees, CRM matches, playback metadata, and recording downloads. Its official MCP connects authorized meeting data to ChatGPT, Claude, and other clients. Both follow what the authenticated user owns or can see through team sharing; an administrator key does not automatically reach private meetings across the organization. | Broad support — The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents. Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI are read-only and add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags. Use the stack from ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting payloads by webhook. | | Security, privacy, and admin | Available with limits — Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and custom retention. Fathom currently supports one retention policy per team and asks customers to configure it through support. All data is US-hosted; de-identified data may improve Fathom’s in-house models unless users or a Team Edition admin opt out. | Broad support — Industry-leading security, privacy, and governance. Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SSO), configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats. | | Languages | Available with limits — 38 languages on the free plan. Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. | Broad support — 100+ transcription languages. Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes. | Ratings describe documented breadth rather than overall product quality: - **Broad support:** Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans. - **Available with limits:** Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits. - **Narrow or indirect:** Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support. - **Not documented:** No current first-party documentation for a native option. ## Detailed analysis ### Capture options **Circleback has broader documented support for capture options.** **Fathom:** Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. The bot remains the broadest mature path. Eligible Mac users can choose bot-free transcript-only, audio plus transcript, or Zoom video; Google Meet bot-free video is still coming and Teams behavior varies by how the call is joined. Fathom says the bot-free modes preserve speaker attribution and action items. Evidence: [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview), [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345), [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097). **Circleback:** Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. Use the meeting bot for scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls; record locally from macOS or Windows with no bot; use iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch in person; or import a phone call or existing file. Whichever path you take, Circleback processes it into a speaker-labeled transcript, notes, and action items in the same workspace. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording). ### Desktop and mobile **Circleback has broader documented support for desktop and mobile.** **Fathom:** Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path. Fathom supports major online platforms on computers, but its current 3.0 rollout is limited to Mac and English-language meetings. Windows remains supported through the older bot-based experience. Official pages conflict on whether iOS in-person capture is already live; Android, Chromebook, Linux, phone calls, webinars, and breakout rooms are not normal supported paths. Evidence: [Fathom supported systems](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576), [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345). **Circleback:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch. Desktop apps handle bot-free system audio and video. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch can record from your wrist without the iPhone nearby, then sends the meeting through the same transcription and notes pipeline. Evidence: [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording), [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile). ### In-person capture and speaker labels **Circleback has broader documented support for in-person capture and speaker labels.** **Fathom:** iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers. Fathom’s marketing overview says its iOS app captures in-person meetings, but the help center and current launch page still call it coming soon or pre-download. In the older workaround, every room voice is attributed to the Fathom user rather than separated. Verify iOS access and room-speaker labeling in the actual account before rollout. Evidence: [Fathom in-person meetings](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview). **Circleback:** Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels. Record an in-person meeting from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. Circleback separates and labels the speakers instead of returning one undifferentiated wall of text. Imported phone recordings get the same treatment. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile). ### Recordings, playback, and clips **Both products document broad support for recordings, playback, and clips, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fathom:** Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips. Fathom has polished review and sharing for online calls. Video no longer universally requires the bot, but the current bot-free video path is limited to Zoom on Mac rather than equivalent across every supported platform. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview). **Circleback:** A recording when you want one; notes-only when you do not. Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off. Evidence: [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording), [Circleback optional recording storage](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10581965-configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved). ### Notes, action items, and search **Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fathom:** Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search. Summary quality and speed are core strengths. Paid AI action items identify assignees and link to the source moment; the API also returns completion state and assignee metadata. Fathom presents action items inside each meeting rather than documenting a workspace-wide task dashboard. Advanced summary types and some AI capabilities are plan-limited even while base transcription is free. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview), [Fathom AI action items](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768). **Circleback:** Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search. Our editorial judgment is that Circleback’s notes are more detailed and need less transcript archaeology than the short recaps common in meeting tools. It automatically creates action items, assigns each one to an owner when the conversation makes the owner clear, and gathers work from every meeting in a workspace-wide view where it can be filtered and marked done. Custom insights extract the fields a team cares about, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback action items in Linear](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13622158-integrate-with-linear), [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli). ### People, companies, and context **Circleback has broader documented support for people, companies, and context.** **Fathom:** Meeting and customer-call library. Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing). **Circleback:** A shared company memory, not isolated meeting pages. Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ### Automatic sharing and workspace defaults **Both products document broad support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fathom:** Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Admins can set auto-capture and visibility separately for external, internal, and unscheduled meetings at organization or team level, including whether users may override the default. Individuals can also send a summary, a recording, or both automatically—but the audience is every calendar invitee, including people who did not attend. Evidence: [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025), [Fathom attendee auto-share](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785). **Circleback:** Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations. Evidence: [Circleback automatic sharing](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460582-automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace), [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings). ### Automations **Circleback has broader documented support for automations.** **Fathom:** CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through. Fathom handles common customer-facing follow-through well. Assigned action items can sync automatically or manually to Asana, webhooks can deliver action-item payloads, and Zapier or CRM integrations extend delivery. It does not document the same broad native trigger/condition/action builder for arbitrary work systems. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617), [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart). **Circleback:** One automation layer for every function. Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ### Integrations **Circleback has broader documented support for integrations.** **Fathom:** Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections. CRM delivery and collaboration integrations cover the common sales workflow, while Asana turns assigned meeting actions into trackable tasks. Broader issue-tracker coverage and custom operational actions are less central. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617). **Circleback:** Search other apps, then do the work there. Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, and Intercom. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Zapier, Make, webhooks, and custom MCP servers cover the long tail. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback Assistant connectors](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13615023-ask-circleback-assistant). ### API, MCP, CLI, and data portability **Both products document broad support for API, MCP, CLI, and data portability, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fathom:** Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. The REST API can return speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, action items with assignees and completion state, attendees, CRM matches, playback metadata, and recording downloads. Its official MCP connects authorized meeting data to ChatGPT, Claude, and other clients. Both follow what the authenticated user owns or can see through team sharing; an administrator key does not automatically reach private meetings across the organization. Evidence: [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart), [Fathom MCP](https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs), [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097). **Circleback:** The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents. Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI are read-only and add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags. Use the stack from ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting payloads by webhook. Evidence: [Circleback public API](https://circleback.ai/docs/api), [Circleback MCP documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13249081-circleback-mcp), [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli). ### Security, privacy, and admin **Circleback has broader documented support for security, privacy, and admin.** **Fathom:** Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and custom retention. Fathom currently supports one retention policy per team and asks customers to configure it through support. All data is US-hosted; de-identified data may improve Fathom’s in-house models unless users or a Team Edition admin opt out. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025), [Fathom security and AI training](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512), [Fathom retention policies](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089). **Circleback:** Industry-leading security, privacy, and governance. Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SSO), configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats. Evidence: [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings), [Circleback security and data processing](https://circleback.ai/dpa), [Circleback security overview](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460553-security), [Circleback security portal](https://security.circleback.ai/). ### Languages **Circleback has broader documented support for languages.** **Fathom:** 38 languages on the free plan. Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049). **Circleback:** 100+ transcription languages. Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ## Where each one fits **Fathom:** Pick Fathom if free online recording, polished clips, fast summaries, assigned action items, and simple CRM workflows cover the job. **Circleback:** Pick Circleback for every kind of meeting, notes designed to stand alone, assigned actions tracked across the workspace, and conditional sharing by participant, domain, title, or tag. **Worth knowing:** A solo user who lives in Zoom, Meet, or Teams can get a lot from Fathom for free. Fathom’s current pages conflict on whether its iOS in-person app is generally available, so verify access before treating it as a settled mobile option. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better: Fathom or Circleback? Fathom is unusually generous for free online meetings. Circleback is built for every meeting and the context around it. ### Which is less expensive, Fathom or Circleback? Fathom: Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually. Circleback: Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need. ### Can Fathom and Circleback record without a bot? Fathom: Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. Circleback: Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names. ### Which is better for a whole company? First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. Fathom: Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Circleback: Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. ### Can I access and move the full meeting data? Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available in the product is also available through API, MCP, and CLI. Fathom: Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. Compare transcript, export, plan, and retention limits. ### How was this comparison researched? We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below. ## Methodology Circleback reviews first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes. Prices and capabilities move, so check the linked sources when a detail is important to your decision. Every feature dimension links to the exact first-party documents used for that claim. Ratings describe documented breadth, not an overall score or winner. This page is a disclosed Circleback-authored direct comparison. There are no paid placements or affiliate rankings. ## First-party sources ### Fathom sources - [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing): Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates. - [Fathom supported systems](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576): Computer, platform, mobile, phone call, webinar, and breakout limitations. - [Fathom in-person meetings](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225): Current workaround, speaker limitation, and upcoming iOS path. - [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049): Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status. - [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview): Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available. - [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345): Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience. - [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025): Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings. - [Fathom attendee auto-share](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785): Automatic delivery of summaries, recordings, or both to every calendar invitee, including no-shows. - [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart): User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits. - [Fathom MCP](https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs): Official authenticated MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, and other compatible clients. - [Fathom AI action items](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768): AI detection of action items and their assignees plus follow-up email generation. - [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617): Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links. - [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097): July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes. - [Fathom security and AI training](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512): US data hosting, de-identified in-house model training and opt-out controls, plus third-party no-training terms. - [Fathom retention policies](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089): Enterprise-only, support-managed retention with one policy per team. ### Circleback sources - [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt): Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources. - [Circleback pricing](https://circleback.ai/pricing): Current plan prices, included features, Business controls, Enterprise options, and free viewer seats. - [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording): Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations. - [Circleback optional recording storage](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10581965-configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved): Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video. - [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile): iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations. - [Circleback public API](https://circleback.ai/docs/api): Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies. - [Circleback MCP documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13249081-circleback-mcp): Read-only access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags. - [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli): Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search. - [Circleback Assistant connectors](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13615023-ask-circleback-assistant): Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant. - [Circleback automatic sharing](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460582-automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace): Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace. - [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings): Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings. - [Circleback security and data processing](https://circleback.ai/dpa): Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations. - [Circleback security overview](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460553-security): Encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, no-training commitment, GDPR support, HIPAA compliance and BAA availability, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, and an external infrastructure pentest. - [Circleback security portal](https://security.circleback.ai/): Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report. - [Circleback action items in Linear](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13622158-integrate-with-linear): Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee.