User reviews of Fathom consistently highlight its accuracy and ease of use, with the platform receiving high ratings across multiple review sites. Users praise its seamless integration capabilities and ability to work quietly in the background while delivering clear meeting summaries and action points after calls. The transcription accuracy is reported to be between 85-90%, with users appreciating the ability to manually edit transcriptions and the hyper-text links to video segments.

Otter.ai receives mixed reviews from users, with some finding it to be an easy-to-use recording and transcription service while others report significant limitations. Users specifically criticize its performance with multi-speaker transcripts, describing it as "absolutely horrible" at capturing conversations with multiple participants. However, some users appreciate its comprehensive summaries and find them quick and accurate, though the service appears to have hard limits on capabilities and usage.

For more detailed information, readers can explore these sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Fathom offers accurate transcription and AI summaries with a notably generous free plan, making it popular among sales professionals and meeting participants who want to stay focused on conversations. The tool provides quick, reliable transcripts in 25+ languages with an intuitive interface that doesn't overwhelm users. However, it's limited to scheduled online meetings only, lacks mobile apps, and while it offers basic CRM integrations, the depth of workflow automation remains somewhat surface-level for users seeking comprehensive meeting follow-through.

Otter.ai provides versatile transcription capabilities that work for both live meetings and uploaded audio files, with mobile apps that enable in-person conversation recording. The platform captures extensive meeting information and offers real-time transcript highlighting, making it useful for students, interviewers, and business professionals across various contexts. The transcripts can be overly verbose and lack structure, transcription accuracy suffers with complex audio, and despite having integrations with popular platforms, the tool still requires significant manual effort to transform meeting insights into actionable workflows.

Both tools serve different audiences effectively: Fathom suits sales teams and professionals who primarily use video conferencing platforms and want polished, concise meeting summaries with minimal setup. Otter.ai appeals to a broader user base including students, researchers, and professionals who need flexible recording options across various environments and devices. Sales professionals may prefer Fathom's focused approach and superior free tier, while academic users and field professionals benefit more from Otter.ai's mobile capabilities and audio file support.

Neither tool fully delivers on the promise of turning meeting insights into completed tasks, as both require users to manually process and act on the generated summaries and action items. While both offer integrations with popular productivity platforms, the connections tend to be basic data pushes rather than sophisticated workflow automation. Users often find themselves still needing to manually follow up on action items and translate meeting outcomes into concrete next steps.

Why users switch away from Fathom or Otter.ai

Users switch away from Fathom due to limited platform compatibility and recording flexibility. Fathom cannot import external audio files for transcription and only works for scheduled online meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. This restricts users who need to transcribe pre-recorded audio, phone calls, or in-person conversations, unlike competitors such as Otter.ai which supports audio uploads and live in-person transcription via mobile apps.

The absence of mobile applications creates accessibility limitations for users who need meeting transcription on mobile devices. Fathom requires a desktop app for Mac/Windows and cannot be used on iOS or Android platforms. This forces users to rely solely on desktop access, while alternatives like Otter.ai provide native mobile apps that allow transcription and meeting participation from smartphones and tablets.

Advanced features are restricted to higher-tier paid plans, creating cost barriers for users with specific needs. Meeting templates with structured note sections are only available in the Team edition at $19 per user per month, while the free plan limits AI summaries to 5 meetings per month. Additionally, some users find the on-screen widgets, live transcripts, and pop-ups distracting during calls, though these elements can typically be hidden.

Users switch away from Otter.ai due to transcript quality issues. The transcripts are often overly verbose and lack structure, making it difficult to quickly identify key takeaways from meetings. Additionally, transcription accuracy suffers with complex audio situations, resulting in mistakes in both the transcribed content and speaker identification.

Meeting management problems drive users to seek alternatives. Otter.ai's assistant can spam calendar invites and join unwanted meetings when not properly configured. Users report frustration with the tool's meeting management functionality, which creates workflow disruptions rather than streamlining the process.

The free version limitations restrict usability for many users. Otter.ai imposes a 40-minute cap on free Zoom meetings, which forces users to upgrade to paid plans or switch to competitors with more generous free tiers. The 600 minutes per month transcription limit on the free plan also constrains regular users who need consistent access to transcription services.

FAQs

Would Fathom work for in-person meetings? What about Otter.ai?

Fathom would not work for in-person meetings - it only works for scheduled online meetings on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. Otter.ai, however, can transcribe live in-person conversations through its app.

What do users say about the quality of transcriptions?

For Fathom, users praise the transcriptions as quick and accurate. For Otter.ai, users find it extremely easy to use for transcribing, but some note that accuracy can suffer with complex audio, with mistakes sometimes occurring in transcription or speaker identification. Some users also find Otter.ai transcripts can be overly verbose and lack structure.

Do these tools help a user follow up with action items from the meeting? How so?

Yes, both tools help with follow-up. Fathom automatically produces action items and can even draft follow-up emails after meetings. It auto-generates summaries and action items and can push them to CRM deals. Otter.ai's "OtterPilot" feature auto-generates summaries, follow-up emails, and CRM updates.

Do these tools integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, both tools offer integrations. Fathom integrates with CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce to sync call notes, plus Slack and Notion. Otter.ai integrates with platforms like Zoom and Slack, and can push notes to HubSpot and Notion via its OtterPilot feature.

Another alternative: Circleback

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps