{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Dataset", "@id": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola#dataset", "schemaVersion": 4, "type": "SoftwareApplicationComparison", "slug": "fathom-vs-granola", "url": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola", "canonicalUrl": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola", "title": "Fathom vs Granola: pricing, features, and which is better", "description": "Compare Fathom vs Granola on pricing, notes, action items, recordings, capture, and integrations. Source-backed research with candid tradeoffs.", "inLanguage": "en-US", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "representations": { "html": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola", "markdown": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola.md", "json": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-granola.json", "describedBy": "https://circleback.ai/compare/llms.txt" }, "editorialPerspective": "Neutral competitor comparison; Circleback is presented only as a labeled third option.", "verdict": "Fathom is for durable online recordings, highlights, and clips. Granola is for actively written notes and a polished document with no retained source media.", "products": [ { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "shortName": "Fathom", "logoPath": "/logos/fathom.svg", "website": "https://www.fathom.ai", "tagline": "Fast summaries, strong clips, and an unusually generous free plan for online meetings.", "positioning": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "lessIdealFor": "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.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Free online recording with fast summaries and polished clips", "chooseFor": [ "Online meetings on a budget", "Clips and CRM delivery" ], "watchFor": [ "iOS docs contradict each other", "Bot-free video is Zoom-on-Mac only" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually", "detail": "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.", "freePlan": "Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with five advanced summaries per month." }, "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." ], "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." ], "chooseIf": [ "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." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac", "detail": "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.", "level": "available" }, "platforms": { "summary": "Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path", "detail": "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.", "level": "limited" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers", "detail": "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.", "level": "limited" }, "recordings": { "summary": "Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "Meeting and customer-call library", "detail": "Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments.", "level": "available" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "automations": { "summary": "CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through", "detail": "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.", "level": "available" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections", "detail": "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.", "level": "available" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "admin": { "summary": "Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting", "detail": "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.", "level": "available" }, "languages": { "summary": "38 languages on the free plan", "detail": "Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode.", "level": "available" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom supported systems", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576", "note": "Computer, platform, mobile, phone call, webinar, and breakout limitations." }, { "label": "Fathom in-person meetings", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225", "note": "Current workaround, speaker limitation, and upcoming iOS path." }, { "label": "Fathom bot-free recording", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049", "note": "Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status." }, { "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." }, { "label": "Fathom 3.0 rollout", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345", "note": "Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience." }, { "label": "Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025", "note": "Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings." }, { "label": "Fathom attendee auto-share", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785", "note": "Automatic delivery of summaries, recordings, or both to every calendar invitee, including no-shows." }, { "label": "Fathom public API", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart", "note": "User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits." }, { "label": "Fathom MCP", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs", "note": "Official authenticated MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, and other compatible clients." }, { "label": "Fathom AI action items", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768", "note": "AI detection of action items and their assignees plus follow-up email generation." }, { "label": "Fathom Asana integration", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617", "note": "Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links." }, { "label": "Fathom release notes", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097", "note": "July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes." }, { "label": "Fathom security and AI training", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512", "note": "US data hosting, de-identified in-house model training and opt-out controls, plus third-party no-training terms." }, { "label": "Fathom retention policies", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089", "note": "Enterprise-only, support-managed retention with one policy per team." } ] }, { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "shortName": "Granola", "logoPath": "/logos/granola.svg", "website": "https://www.granola.ai", "tagline": "A thoughtful, bot-free notepad that blends your notes with a clean AI summary.", "positioning": "Granola is intentionally calm: no meeting bot, no recording library, and a polished collaborative notepad. It now has Windows, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, integrations, an API, and MCP—so the old “Mac-only solo app” framing is wrong—but it remains a personal, document-first layer rather than an automatic company-wide meeting system.", "bestFor": "People and small teams who actively take lightweight notes during calls and want AI to expand them into polished documents without saving audio or video.", "lessIdealFor": "Companies that need recordings and clips, automatic capture, consistent named-speaker transcripts across every device, workspace-enforced sharing, bulk transcript export, service-account agent access, or operational automations across every function.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "A calm personal notepad without saved recordings", "chooseFor": [ "Writing notes as you meet", "A polished final document" ], "watchFor": [ "Thin notes assume you attended", "No auto-created, assigned action items" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly", "detail": "Granola currently bills monthly rather than offering an annual discount. Basic is free but only the last 30 days of history remain accessible. Business adds unlimited history, advanced AI, integrations, MCP, API, billing, and user management. Enterprise adds SSO, retention, organization sharing/API controls, training defaults, and participant notifications. A workspace uses one tier and every active member of a paid workspace is a paid seat, although someone who only opens a shared note link does not need a seat.", "freePlan": "Yes, with a rolling 30-day accessible history." }, "strengths": [ "A calm bot-free experience that combines human notes with AI-generated structure.", "No durable source recording: audio is processed for transcription and then deleted, which some privacy-sensitive teams prefer.", "Windows, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, person/company pages, cross-meeting chat, integrations, API, and MCP make it much more capable than early reviews imply.", "Granola can extract source-linked action-item text with owner and date labels, and paid users can route note output into task systems through Zapier." ], "tradeoffs": [ "No replayable audio/video, timestamped moments, or clips after processing.", "Android and Apple Watch now cover in-person capture, but their launch pages do not document the same multi-speaker labeling that Granola explicitly documents for iPhone. iPhone also cannot capture audio from another calling app; integrations and several settings remain desktop-oriented.", "Automatic start for all meetings is still under consideration. Transcript segments can now be copied and redacted, which corrects an older product limitation.", "Bulk CSV export omits transcripts, and admins cannot export the entire workspace; each person exports only their own notes.", "MCP is OAuth-only, has no service-account/API-key path, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Users must move a note to My Notes and share it explicitly, which changes its default visibility.", "Free and Business accounts permit anonymized customer data to be used for Granola model improvements by default unless users opt out. An administrator-enforced organization-wide opt-out is an Enterprise feature.", "Notes and transcripts are retained indefinitely by default. Configurable transcript retention is Enterprise-only; SSO is also Enterprise-only and documented for organizations with at least 50 seats.", "Granola deliberately aims for a concise collaborative document. In our editorial judgment, the result is often too thin for a coworker who was not in the meeting and needs the notes to stand alone.", "Granola can extract owner and date text into a note, but it does not automatically create and assign native action items to users. Actions remain note content unless a team builds a Zapier handoff; there is no workspace-wide task board with assignees, status, due dates, and completion tracking." ], "chooseIf": [ "You want a notepad first and do not want to retain source recordings.", "Your users are on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch and are happy to start notes themselves.", "The quality and feel of the final note matters more than a large automation and media system." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture", "detail": "Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.", "level": "available" }, "platforms": { "summary": "macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.", "level": "strong" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture", "detail": "The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "No retained audio or video", "detail": "Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.", "level": "not-available" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat", "detail": "Human notes influence the generated document, and paid plans support broad chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Our editorial judgment is that the output is polished but thin and assumes the reader attended, rather than documenting enough context to stand alone. Granola can extract owner- and deadline-aware action-item text with transcript citations, but it does not create and assign native tasks to users. Those actions remain note content rather than a workspace task system, and there is still no source recording for playback.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "People and company pages built from calendar contacts", "detail": "Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.", "level": "available" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder", "detail": "Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.", "level": "limited" }, "automations": { "summary": "Folder and manual Zapier triggers; less of a native workflow canvas", "detail": "Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.", "level": "limited" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP", "detail": "The catalog is now credible, particularly on Business. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps, while the native catalog remains smaller and more destination-oriented than systems with broad action libraries.", "level": "available" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits", "detail": "Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP also has a transcript tool, but uses OAuth, has no service-account key, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.", "level": "available" }, "admin": { "summary": "User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise", "detail": "SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.", "level": "available" }, "languages": { "summary": "Multilingual transcription", "detail": "Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.", "level": "available" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." }, { "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." }, { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." }, { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." }, { "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and Team-space folder limitation." }, { "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." } ] } ], "dimensions": [ { "key": "capture", "label": "Capture options", "lead": "Both products support capture options, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac", "detail": "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.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom bot-free recording", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049", "note": "Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status." }, { "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." }, { "label": "Fathom 3.0 rollout", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345", "note": "Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience." }, { "label": "Fathom release notes", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097", "note": "July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture", "detail": "Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." } ] } }, { "key": "platforms", "label": "Desktop and mobile", "lead": "Granola has broader documented support for desktop and mobile.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path", "detail": "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.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom supported systems", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576", "note": "Computer, platform, mobile, phone call, webinar, and breakout limitations." }, { "label": "Fathom 3.0 rollout", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345", "note": "Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] } }, { "key": "inPerson", "label": "In-person capture and speaker labels", "lead": "Granola has broader documented support for in-person capture and speaker labels.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers", "detail": "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.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom in-person meetings", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225", "note": "Current workaround, speaker limitation, and upcoming iOS path." }, { "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture", "detail": "The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] } }, { "key": "recordings", "label": "Recordings, playback, and clips", "lead": "Fathom has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom bot-free recording", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049", "note": "Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status." }, { "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "No retained audio or video", "detail": "Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.", "level": "not-available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] } }, { "key": "notesAndSearch", "label": "Notes, action items, and search", "lead": "Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Human notes influence the generated document, and paid plans support broad chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Our editorial judgment is that the output is polished but thin and assumes the reader attended, rather than documenting enough context to stand alone. Granola can extract owner- and deadline-aware action-item text with transcript citations, but it does not create and assign native tasks to users. Those actions remain note content rather than a workspace task system, and there is still no source recording for playback.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." }, { "label": "Fathom AI action items", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768", "note": "AI detection of action items and their assignees plus follow-up email generation." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat", "detail": "Human notes influence the generated document, and paid plans support broad chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Our editorial judgment is that the output is polished but thin and assumes the reader attended, rather than documenting enough context to stand alone. Granola can extract owner- and deadline-aware action-item text with transcript citations, but it does not create and assign native tasks to users. Those actions remain note content rather than a workspace task system, and there is still no source recording for playback.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." } ] } }, { "key": "companyMemory", "label": "People, companies, and context", "lead": "Both products support people, companies, and context, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments. Granola: Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Meeting and customer-call library", "detail": "Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "People and company pages built from calendar contacts", "detail": "Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." } ] } }, { "key": "sharing", "label": "Automatic sharing and workspace defaults", "lead": "Fathom has broader documented support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025", "note": "Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings." }, { "label": "Fathom attendee auto-share", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785", "note": "Automatic delivery of summaries, recordings, or both to every calendar invitee, including no-shows." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder", "detail": "Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." } ] } }, { "key": "automations", "label": "Automations", "lead": "Fathom has broader documented support for automations.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through", "detail": "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.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom Asana integration", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617", "note": "Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links." }, { "label": "Fathom public API", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart", "note": "User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Folder and manual Zapier triggers; less of a native workflow canvas", "detail": "Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.", "level": "limited", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." } ] } }, { "key": "integrations", "label": "Integrations", "lead": "Both products support integrations, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: The catalog is now credible, particularly on Business. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps, while the native catalog remains smaller and more destination-oriented than systems with broad action libraries.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections", "detail": "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.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom Asana integration", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617", "note": "Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP", "detail": "The catalog is now credible, particularly on Business. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps, while the native catalog remains smaller and more destination-oriented than systems with broad action libraries.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." } ] } }, { "key": "agentsAndApi", "label": "API, MCP, CLI, and data portability", "lead": "Fathom has broader documented support for API, MCP, CLI, and data portability.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP also has a transcript tool, but uses OAuth, has no service-account key, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom public API", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart", "note": "User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits." }, { "label": "Fathom MCP", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs", "note": "Official authenticated MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, and other compatible clients." }, { "label": "Fathom release notes", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097", "note": "July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits", "detail": "Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP also has a transcript tool, but uses OAuth, has no service-account key, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and Team-space folder limitation." }, { "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." } ] } }, { "key": "admin", "label": "Security, privacy, and admin", "lead": "Both products support security, privacy, and admin, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: 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. Granola: SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting", "detail": "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.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025", "note": "Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings." }, { "label": "Fathom security and AI training", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512", "note": "US data hosting, de-identified in-house model training and opt-out controls, plus third-party no-training terms." }, { "label": "Fathom retention policies", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089", "note": "Enterprise-only, support-managed retention with one policy per team." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise", "detail": "SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." } ] } }, { "key": "languages", "label": "Languages", "lead": "Both products support languages, with different scope and plan limits.", "analysis": "Fathom: Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. Granola: Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "38 languages on the free plan", "detail": "Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "label": "Fathom bot-free recording", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049", "note": "Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status." } ] }, "productB": { "id": "granola", "name": "Granola", "summary": "Multilingual transcription", "detail": "Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." } ] } } ], "directComparison": null, "thirdOption": { "product": { "id": "circleback", "name": "Circleback", "shortName": "Circleback", "logoPath": "/logos/circleback_square.png", "website": "https://circleback.ai", "tagline": "Every meeting becomes useful company memory.", "positioning": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "lessIdealFor": "A team that only wants a cheap transcript now and then, or a sales organization buying mainly for forecasting and rep coaching.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Every meeting becomes shared, useful company memory", "chooseFor": [ "Detailed notes; always speaker-labeled", "People and AI agents; leading security" ], "watchFor": [ "Paid plans are per user", "Not a forecasting suite" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually", "detail": "Free includes unlimited meetings and members with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. 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.", "freePlan": "Free includes unlimited meetings and members, with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access." }, "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." ], "tradeoffs": [ "The Free plan has shorter history and limited automations. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. 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." ], "chooseIf": [ "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." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "platforms": { "summary": "Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "A recording when you want one; notes-only when you do not", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "A shared company memory, not isolated meeting pages", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "automations": { "summary": "One automation layer for every function", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Search other apps, then do the work there", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents", "detail": "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.", "level": "strong" }, "admin": { "summary": "Industry-leading security, privacy, and governance", "detail": "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 (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, 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.", "level": "strong" }, "languages": { "summary": "100+ transcription languages", "detail": "Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes.", "level": "strong" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Circleback product guide", "url": "https://circleback.ai/llms.txt", "note": "Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources." }, { "label": "Circleback pricing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/pricing", "note": "Current plan prices, included features, Business controls, Enterprise options, and free viewer seats." }, { "label": "Circleback recording guide", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback optional recording storage", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10581965-configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved", "note": "Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps", "url": "https://circleback.ai/mobile", "note": "iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback public API", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/api", "note": "Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies." }, { "label": "Circleback MCP documentation", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13249081-circleback-mcp", "note": "Read-only access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags." }, { "label": "Circleback CLI documentation", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli", "note": "Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search." }, { "label": "Circleback Assistant connectors", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13615023-ask-circleback-assistant", "note": "Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant." }, { "label": "Circleback automatic sharing", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460582-automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace", "note": "Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace." }, { "label": "Circleback enforced workspace settings", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings", "note": "Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings." }, { "label": "Circleback security and data processing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/dpa", "note": "Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations." }, { "label": "Circleback security overview", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460553-security", "note": "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." }, { "label": "Circleback security portal", "url": "https://security.circleback.ai/", "note": "Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report." }, { "label": "Circleback action items in Linear", "url": "https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13622158-integrate-with-linear", "note": "Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee." } ] }, "label": "A third option to consider" }, "faqs": [ { "question": "Which is better: Fathom or Granola?", "answer": "Fathom is for durable online recordings, highlights, and clips. Granola is for actively written notes and a polished document with no retained source media." }, { "question": "Which is less expensive, Fathom or Granola?", "answer": "Fathom: Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually. Granola: Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need." }, { "question": "Can Fathom and Granola record without a bot?", "answer": "Fathom: Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. Granola: Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names." }, { "question": "Which is better for a whole company?", "answer": "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. Granola: Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder." }, { "question": "Can I access and move the full meeting data?", "answer": "Fathom: Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. Granola: MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need." }, { "question": "How was this comparison researched?", "answer": "We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below." } ], "variableMeasured": [ "Capture options", "Desktop and mobile", "In-person capture and speaker labels", "Recordings, playback, and clips", "Notes, action items, and search", "People, companies, and context", "Automatic sharing and workspace defaults", "Automations", "Integrations", "API, MCP, CLI, and data portability", "Security, privacy, and admin", "Languages" ], "sources": [ { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom pricing", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing", "note": "Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom supported systems", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576", "note": "Computer, platform, mobile, phone call, webinar, and breakout limitations." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom in-person meetings", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225", "note": "Current workaround, speaker limitation, and upcoming iOS path." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom bot-free recording", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049", "note": "Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom product overview", "url": "https://www.fathom.ai/overview", "note": "Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom 3.0 rollout", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345", "note": "Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025", "note": "Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom attendee auto-share", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785", "note": "Automatic delivery of summaries, recordings, or both to every calendar invitee, including no-shows." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom public API", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart", "note": "User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom MCP", "url": "https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs", "note": "Official authenticated MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, and other compatible clients." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom AI action items", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768", "note": "AI detection of action items and their assignees plus follow-up email generation." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom Asana integration", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617", "note": "Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom release notes", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097", "note": "July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom security and AI training", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512", "note": "US data hosting, de-identified in-house model training and opt-out controls, plus third-party no-training terms." }, { "productId": "fathom", "productName": "Fathom", "label": "Fathom retention policies", "url": "https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089", "note": "Enterprise-only, support-managed retention with one policy per team." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola pricing", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing", "note": "Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola subscriptions and billing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing", "note": "30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola integrations", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola", "note": "Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Zapier", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier", "note": "Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola action-item extraction", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction", "note": "Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola workspaces", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces", "note": "Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola sharing controls", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls", "note": "Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola note sharing", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes", "note": "No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola spaces and folders", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders", "note": "Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola feature requests", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests", "note": "Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola iOS", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started", "note": "In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Android launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android", "note": "Android in-person capture and cross-device note access." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola Apple Watch launch", "url": "https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch", "note": "One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola transcription", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription", "note": "Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola data export", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes", "note": "Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola MCP", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp", "note": "OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and Team-space folder limitation." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola API", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/introduction", "note": "Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data." }, { "productId": "granola", "productName": "Granola", "label": "Granola security and data FAQ", "url": "https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs", "note": "Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement." } ], "methodology": { "approach": "First-party pricing, product documentation, help-center articles, and release notes. Capability levels describe documented breadth, not overall product quality. Competitor strengths and material plan or capture-mode limits are both included. No pay-to-play rankings.", "ratingLabels": { "strong": "Broad support", "available": "Available with limits", "limited": "Narrow or indirect", "not-available": "Not documented" }, "ratingScale": { "strong": "Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans.", "available": "Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits.", "limited": "Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support.", "not-available": "No current first-party documentation for a native option." }, "claimLevelEvidence": "Each feature dimension includes the exact first-party sources used for both products.", "limitations": "Prices and features change. Check the linked sources and test both products on real calls." } }