{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Dataset", "@id": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud#dataset", "schemaVersion": 4, "type": "SoftwareApplicationComparison", "slug": "fathom-vs-plaud", "url": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud", "canonicalUrl": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud", "title": "Fathom vs Plaud: pricing, features, and which is better", "description": "Compare Fathom vs Plaud: pricing, recording options, notes, action items, and integrations, with plan limits and first-party sources.", "inLanguage": "en-US", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "representations": { "html": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud", "markdown": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud.md", "json": "https://circleback.ai/compare/fathom-vs-plaud.json", "describedBy": "https://circleback.ai/compare/llms.txt" }, "editorialPerspective": "Neutral competitor comparison; Circleback is presented only as a labeled third option.", "verdict": "Fathom fits online calls, clips, and free unlimited base transcription. Plaud fits dedicated portable capture and reusable AI workflows, with transcription allowances and Agent credits to budget separately.", "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 offers unlimited base online recording and transcription for free, with summaries, clips, assigned action items, and CRM sync. Bot-free options are available on Mac; Windows uses the bot. Its official pages give conflicting information about iOS availability.", "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 confirmed iOS or Android availability, bot-free video across platforms, a workspace-wide task board, or shared history across meetings and email.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Free online recording, summaries, and 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.", "Summaries, highlights, clips, playlists, assigned action items, and CRM sharing for online meetings.", "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 using the bot when your platform does not support bot-free video." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac", "detail": "The bot supports the widest range of platforms and recording options. 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": "Bot-free options on Mac; bot-based recording on Windows", "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 availability is unclear; verify in-person speaker labels", "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 supports playback, clips, and sharing for online calls. Bot-free video is limited to Zoom on Mac; other supported platforms have different recording options.", "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. The cited docs do not establish shared person and company histories that combine meetings, email, and calendars across 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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "shortName": "Plaud", "logoPath": "/marketing/comparisons/logos/plaud.png", "website": "https://www.plaud.ai", "tagline": "Dedicated recorders with desktop capture and AI workflows.", "positioning": "Plaud combines dedicated phone-mounted and wearable recorders with desktop capture and an AI workspace. Its Note family records calls and room audio, while NotePin models focus on in-person conversations. Plaud Intelligence adds templates, search, Agent actions, Skills, and Routines; transcription minutes and Agent credits are separate allowances.", "bestFor": "People who prefer a dedicated recorder or wearable, and teams that want Plaud’s capture hardware, templates, and Agent workflows in one ecosystem.", "lessIdealFor": "People who want in-person recording directly from their existing phone or Watch, or organizations that require SSO and flexible external meeting access.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Dedicated recorders, templates, and Agent workflows", "chooseFor": [ "Phone-mounted and wearable recorders", "Templates, Skills, and Routines" ], "watchFor": [ "Separate Agent credit allowance", "Hardware for portable capture" ] }, "pricing": { "headline": "Devices list at $159–$189; AI plans priced separately", "detail": "Standard device prices are $159 for Note or NotePin, $179 for NotePin S, and $189 for Note Pro; promotions may lower these prices. Pro costs $99.99/year or $17.99/month; Unlimited costs $239.99/year or $29.99/month. Team requires at least two seats and costs $25/user/month with annual billing or $35 with monthly billing. Launch offers reduce those rates to $20 for the first year or $28 through November 30, 2026, respectively. Agent credits are separate from transcription.", "freePlan": "Starter is free with a device and includes 300 transcription minutes/month. Pro includes 1,200/month; Unlimited and Team allow up to 24 hours/day. Unused monthly minutes do not roll over. Paid Team users can record on desktop without buying hardware." }, "strengths": [ "Choose a phone-mounted recorder for calls and meetings or a wearable for in-person conversations. The devices capture independently and provide physical recording controls.", "Desktop capture combines audio, highlights, typed notes, and screenshots. Use templates to format summaries and ask questions across recordings.", "Plaud offers MCP and CLI access to recordings and transcripts, plus Skills, Routines, connected Agent actions, and a managed Team workspace." ], "tradeoffs": [ "Portable hardware capture adds a device to buy and charge. NotePin models do not record phone calls; that requires Note or Note Pro. Team desktop capture does not require hardware.", "An unlimited transcription plan does not mean unlimited Agent use. Ask Plaud, connected actions, Skills, and Routines consume separate credits; the launch grant does not renew monthly.", "Team sharing is limited to workspace members, and SSO is not yet supported. Existing AutoFlows do not migrate automatically to Routines." ], "chooseIf": [ "You want a dedicated phone-mounted or wearable recorder with physical controls.", "You value summary templates, highlights, screenshots, and Agent-generated documents.", "You want Plaud hardware and desktop recordings in a managed workspace with MCP and CLI access." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Dedicated recorders, bot-free desktop, and imports", "detail": "Press and hold a device’s recording control to start. Note and Note Pro capture calls and room audio; NotePin and NotePin S capture in-person conversations. Desktop records computer audio without a meeting bot and offers manual, prompted, or automatic recording. Team users can record on desktop without hardware; individual Starter activation requires a bound device.", "level": "strong" }, "platforms": { "summary": "Recorders, iOS, Android, web, macOS, and Windows", "detail": "Mobile apps manage devices and recordings; web and desktop provide access to the same account or workspace. Desktop records from a Mac or Windows computer. Without a Plaud device, Team capture is through desktop or audio imports. A native Apple Watch recorder is not documented; NotePin is separate wearable hardware.", "level": "available" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Portable hardware with automatic speaker labels", "detail": "All four Note/NotePin models record in-person conversations and support speaker-labeled transcription. NotePin S has a tactile button and highlight control; the original NotePin uses a pressure-sensitive control and lacks device highlights. Both need charging and transfer recordings for processing. Neither NotePin model supports phone-call recording.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "Saved audio, highlights, exports, and desktop screenshots", "detail": "Keep and play back audio, export recordings and text, and mark important moments. Desktop can attach screenshots and typed notes to enrich summaries. Screenshots are not a continuous meeting-video recording. MCP and CLI can retrieve audio download links, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and generated notes.", "level": "available" }, "notesAndSearch": { "summary": "Templates, action items, and questions across recordings", "detail": "Plaud generates speaker-labeled transcripts, default summaries, and action items. Template summaries offer different views of a conversation. Ask Plaud searches across transcribed files with references; Agent can create documents and take actions in connected apps. Default meeting outputs use transcription allowances, while Agent questions and new work use separate credits.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "Recording knowledge base and connected Agent context", "detail": "Plaud Intelligence organizes recordings into a searchable knowledge base. Agent can use shared Team recordings and connected tools to answer questions and complete tasks. The cited documentation does not establish dedicated person/company pages with rolling summaries and email relationship timelines.", "level": "available" }, "sharing": { "summary": "Personal sharing, Team member access, and Routines", "detail": "Personal plans include sharing and exports. Team files are private until shared with workspace members, with member-restricted links rather than public external links. Routines can deliver notes through connected tools, but this does not grant access to the source recording or establish workspace-wide sharing defaults.", "level": "available" }, "automations": { "summary": "Conditional Routines, Skills, and connected actions", "detail": "Plaud Intelligence replaces AutoFlow with Routines, which can run on schedules or conditions such as a completed recording. Skills define reusable tasks and can be shared on Team. Existing AutoFlows do not carry over automatically. Running Skills and Routines consumes Plaud Credits, separate from transcription minutes.", "level": "strong" }, "integrations": { "summary": "Agent connectors, Zapier, and developer tools", "detail": "Agent lists Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, and Zapier connectors. More Microsoft 365 integrations and a Salesforce note-sync connector are described as upcoming. Connected Agent actions use credits. MCP and CLI provide another route for assistants and custom workflows.", "level": "strong" }, "agentsAndApi": { "summary": "MCP and CLI retrieval; separate Embedded SDK/API", "detail": "Plaud MCP and CLI retrieve recording metadata, speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, and audio links. CLI search matches recording names across up to 500 recent files, rather than semantic transcript search. The Embedded device SDK and transcription API are separate offerings; the cited docs do not establish a full REST API for the consumer workspace.", "level": "available" }, "admin": { "summary": "Security certifications and Team administration", "detail": "Plaud lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701, GDPR, and HIPAA support. Team adds billing, seat and device management, secure offboarding, and workspace-level data residency. Content remains private until shared. The Team FAQ says SSO is not yet supported; a workspace has a two-seat minimum.", "level": "available" }, "languages": { "summary": "112 transcription languages", "detail": "Plaud documents transcription in 112 languages with speaker labeling and custom vocabulary. Validate performance on the languages, accents, and specialized terminology you use; the supported-language count is not an independent accuracy comparison.", "level": "strong" } }, "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud devices", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-device-comparison", "note": "Model-specific controls, phone-call/in-person capture, charging, storage, and list prices." }, { "label": "Plaud recording controls", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/55643286546329-How-to-Record", "note": "Press-and-hold recording and model-specific highlight controls." }, { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-desktop", "note": "Bot-free capture, meeting detection, recording modes, screenshots, highlights, and typed notes." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/53795026112409-Device-binding-required-notice-on-Plaud-Desktop", "note": "Individual Starter activation requires a device bound to the account." }, { "label": "Plaud Team requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57466295856537-What-is-Plaud-Team", "note": "Two-seat minimum, roles, privacy, and Team desktop capture without hardware." }, { "label": "Plaud Team administration", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-team", "note": "Team management, data residency, and the FAQ stating SSO is not yet supported." }, { "label": "Plaud Team sharing", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57138357578649-Sharing-content-in-Plaud-Team", "note": "Private-by-default recordings and member-only file sharing and links." }, { "label": "Plaud cross-recording questions", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51041335681689-Ask-Across-All-Files-Ask-Plaud", "note": "Questions across transcribed recordings and source-file references." }, { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." }, { "label": "Plaud Intelligence Team update", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/get-ready-new-plaud-intelligence-for-team", "note": "Shared Agent context, launch connectors, forthcoming integrations, and account updates." }, { "label": "Plaud Agent credits", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/piplcrinto", "note": "Transcription versus Agent usage, nonrenewing launch grants, and paid credit top-ups." }, { "label": "Plaud MCP", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/mcp", "note": "Recording, summary, transcript, and audio-link retrieval through authenticated MCP." }, { "label": "Plaud CLI", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/cli", "note": "Command-line retrieval and name-based search limited to 500 recent recordings." }, { "label": "Plaud developer platform", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/overview", "note": "Distinguishes the Embedded device SDK/transcription API from access to Plaud account data." } ] } ], "dimensions": [ { "key": "capture", "label": "Capture options", "lead": "Plaud has broader documented support for capture options.", "analysis": "Fathom: The bot supports the widest range of platforms and recording options. 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. Plaud: Press and hold a device’s recording control to start. Note and Note Pro capture calls and room audio; NotePin and NotePin S capture in-person conversations. Desktop records computer audio without a meeting bot and offers manual, prompted, or automatic recording. Team users can record on desktop without hardware; individual Starter activation requires a bound device.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac", "detail": "The bot supports the widest range of platforms and recording options. 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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Dedicated recorders, bot-free desktop, and imports", "detail": "Press and hold a device’s recording control to start. Note and Note Pro capture calls and room audio; NotePin and NotePin S capture in-person conversations. Desktop records computer audio without a meeting bot and offers manual, prompted, or automatic recording. Team users can record on desktop without hardware; individual Starter activation requires a bound device.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud devices", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-device-comparison", "note": "Model-specific controls, phone-call/in-person capture, charging, storage, and list prices." }, { "label": "Plaud recording controls", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/55643286546329-How-to-Record", "note": "Press-and-hold recording and model-specific highlight controls." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-desktop", "note": "Bot-free capture, meeting detection, recording modes, screenshots, highlights, and typed notes." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/53795026112409-Device-binding-required-notice-on-Plaud-Desktop", "note": "Individual Starter activation requires a device bound to the account." }, { "label": "Plaud Team requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57466295856537-What-is-Plaud-Team", "note": "Two-seat minimum, roles, privacy, and Team desktop capture without hardware." } ] } }, { "key": "platforms", "label": "Desktop and mobile", "lead": "Plaud 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. Plaud: Mobile apps manage devices and recordings; web and desktop provide access to the same account or workspace. Desktop records from a Mac or Windows computer. Without a Plaud device, Team capture is through desktop or audio imports. A native Apple Watch recorder is not documented; NotePin is separate wearable hardware.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Bot-free options on Mac; bot-based recording on Windows", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Recorders, iOS, Android, web, macOS, and Windows", "detail": "Mobile apps manage devices and recordings; web and desktop provide access to the same account or workspace. Desktop records from a Mac or Windows computer. Without a Plaud device, Team capture is through desktop or audio imports. A native Apple Watch recorder is not documented; NotePin is separate wearable hardware.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud desktop", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-desktop", "note": "Bot-free capture, meeting detection, recording modes, screenshots, highlights, and typed notes." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/53795026112409-Device-binding-required-notice-on-Plaud-Desktop", "note": "Individual Starter activation requires a device bound to the account." }, { "label": "Plaud Team requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57466295856537-What-is-Plaud-Team", "note": "Two-seat minimum, roles, privacy, and Team desktop capture without hardware." } ] } }, { "key": "inPerson", "label": "In-person capture and speaker labels", "lead": "Plaud 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. Plaud: All four Note/NotePin models record in-person conversations and support speaker-labeled transcription. NotePin S has a tactile button and highlight control; the original NotePin uses a pressure-sensitive control and lacks device highlights. Both need charging and transfer recordings for processing. Neither NotePin model supports phone-call recording.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "iOS availability is unclear; verify in-person speaker labels", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Portable hardware with automatic speaker labels", "detail": "All four Note/NotePin models record in-person conversations and support speaker-labeled transcription. NotePin S has a tactile button and highlight control; the original NotePin uses a pressure-sensitive control and lacks device highlights. Both need charging and transfer recordings for processing. Neither NotePin model supports phone-call recording.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud devices", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-device-comparison", "note": "Model-specific controls, phone-call/in-person capture, charging, storage, and list prices." }, { "label": "Plaud recording controls", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/55643286546329-How-to-Record", "note": "Press-and-hold recording and model-specific highlight controls." }, { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." } ] } }, { "key": "recordings", "label": "Recordings, playback, and clips", "lead": "Fathom has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.", "analysis": "Fathom: Fathom supports playback, clips, and sharing for online calls. Bot-free video is limited to Zoom on Mac; other supported platforms have different recording options. Plaud: Keep and play back audio, export recordings and text, and mark important moments. Desktop can attach screenshots and typed notes to enrich summaries. Screenshots are not a continuous meeting-video recording. MCP and CLI can retrieve audio download links, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and generated notes.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips", "detail": "Fathom supports playback, clips, and sharing for online calls. Bot-free video is limited to Zoom on Mac; other supported platforms have different recording options.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Saved audio, highlights, exports, and desktop screenshots", "detail": "Keep and play back audio, export recordings and text, and mark important moments. Desktop can attach screenshots and typed notes to enrich summaries. Screenshots are not a continuous meeting-video recording. MCP and CLI can retrieve audio download links, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and generated notes.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud devices", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-device-comparison", "note": "Model-specific controls, phone-call/in-person capture, charging, storage, and list prices." }, { "label": "Plaud desktop", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-desktop", "note": "Bot-free capture, meeting detection, recording modes, screenshots, highlights, and typed notes." }, { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." }, { "label": "Plaud Agent credits", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/piplcrinto", "note": "Transcription versus Agent usage, nonrenewing launch grants, and paid credit top-ups." }, { "label": "Plaud MCP", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/mcp", "note": "Recording, summary, transcript, and audio-link retrieval through authenticated MCP." }, { "label": "Plaud CLI", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/cli", "note": "Command-line retrieval and name-based search limited to 500 recent recordings." } ] } }, { "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. Plaud: Plaud generates speaker-labeled transcripts, default summaries, and action items. Template summaries offer different views of a conversation. Ask Plaud searches across transcribed files with references; Agent can create documents and take actions in connected apps. Default meeting outputs use transcription allowances, while Agent questions and new work use separate credits.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Templates, action items, and questions across recordings", "detail": "Plaud generates speaker-labeled transcripts, default summaries, and action items. Template summaries offer different views of a conversation. Ask Plaud searches across transcribed files with references; Agent can create documents and take actions in connected apps. Default meeting outputs use transcription allowances, while Agent questions and new work use separate credits.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." }, { "label": "Plaud cross-recording questions", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51041335681689-Ask-Across-All-Files-Ask-Plaud", "note": "Questions across transcribed recordings and source-file references." }, { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." }, { "label": "Plaud Agent credits", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/piplcrinto", "note": "Transcription versus Agent usage, nonrenewing launch grants, and paid credit top-ups." } ] } }, { "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. The cited docs do not establish shared person and company histories that combine meetings, email, and calendars across departments. Plaud: Plaud Intelligence organizes recordings into a searchable knowledge base. Agent can use shared Team recordings and connected tools to answer questions and complete tasks. The cited documentation does not establish dedicated person/company pages with rolling summaries and email relationship timelines.", "productA": { "id": "fathom", "name": "Fathom", "summary": "Meeting and customer-call library", "detail": "Fathom organizes team calls and customer context. The cited docs do not establish shared person and company histories that combine meetings, email, and calendars across 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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Recording knowledge base and connected Agent context", "detail": "Plaud Intelligence organizes recordings into a searchable knowledge base. Agent can use shared Team recordings and connected tools to answer questions and complete tasks. The cited documentation does not establish dedicated person/company pages with rolling summaries and email relationship timelines.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud cross-recording questions", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51041335681689-Ask-Across-All-Files-Ask-Plaud", "note": "Questions across transcribed recordings and source-file references." }, { "label": "Plaud Intelligence Team update", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/get-ready-new-plaud-intelligence-for-team", "note": "Shared Agent context, launch connectors, forthcoming integrations, and account updates." }, { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." } ] } }, { "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. Plaud: Personal plans include sharing and exports. Team files are private until shared with workspace members, with member-restricted links rather than public external links. Routines can deliver notes through connected tools, but this does not grant access to the source recording or establish workspace-wide sharing defaults.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Personal sharing, Team member access, and Routines", "detail": "Personal plans include sharing and exports. Team files are private until shared with workspace members, with member-restricted links rather than public external links. Routines can deliver notes through connected tools, but this does not grant access to the source recording or establish workspace-wide sharing defaults.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." }, { "label": "Plaud Team sharing", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57138357578649-Sharing-content-in-Plaud-Team", "note": "Private-by-default recordings and member-only file sharing and links." }, { "label": "Plaud Intelligence Team update", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/get-ready-new-plaud-intelligence-for-team", "note": "Shared Agent context, launch connectors, forthcoming integrations, and account updates." }, { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." } ] } }, { "key": "automations", "label": "Automations", "lead": "Plaud 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. Plaud: Plaud Intelligence replaces AutoFlow with Routines, which can run on schedules or conditions such as a completed recording. Skills define reusable tasks and can be shared on Team. Existing AutoFlows do not carry over automatically. Running Skills and Routines consumes Plaud Credits, separate from transcription minutes.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Conditional Routines, Skills, and connected actions", "detail": "Plaud Intelligence replaces AutoFlow with Routines, which can run on schedules or conditions such as a completed recording. Skills define reusable tasks and can be shared on Team. Existing AutoFlows do not carry over automatically. Running Skills and Routines consumes Plaud Credits, separate from transcription minutes.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." }, { "label": "Plaud Agent credits", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/piplcrinto", "note": "Transcription versus Agent usage, nonrenewing launch grants, and paid credit top-ups." } ] } }, { "key": "integrations", "label": "Integrations", "lead": "Plaud has broader documented support for integrations.", "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. Plaud: Agent lists Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, and Zapier connectors. More Microsoft 365 integrations and a Salesforce note-sync connector are described as upcoming. Connected Agent actions use credits. MCP and CLI provide another route for assistants and custom workflows.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Agent connectors, Zapier, and developer tools", "detail": "Agent lists Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Outlook, Notion, Linear, and Zapier connectors. More Microsoft 365 integrations and a Salesforce note-sync connector are described as upcoming. Connected Agent actions use credits. MCP and CLI provide another route for assistants and custom workflows.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud Intelligence Team update", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/get-ready-new-plaud-intelligence-for-team", "note": "Shared Agent context, launch connectors, forthcoming integrations, and account updates." }, { "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." } ] } }, { "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. Plaud: Plaud MCP and CLI retrieve recording metadata, speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, and audio links. CLI search matches recording names across up to 500 recent files, rather than semantic transcript search. The Embedded device SDK and transcription API are separate offerings; the cited docs do not establish a full REST API for the consumer workspace.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "MCP and CLI retrieval; separate Embedded SDK/API", "detail": "Plaud MCP and CLI retrieve recording metadata, speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, and audio links. CLI search matches recording names across up to 500 recent files, rather than semantic transcript search. The Embedded device SDK and transcription API are separate offerings; the cited docs do not establish a full REST API for the consumer workspace.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud MCP", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/mcp", "note": "Recording, summary, transcript, and audio-link retrieval through authenticated MCP." }, { "label": "Plaud CLI", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/cli", "note": "Command-line retrieval and name-based search limited to 500 recent recordings." }, { "label": "Plaud developer platform", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/overview", "note": "Distinguishes the Embedded device SDK/transcription API from access to Plaud account data." } ] } }, { "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. Plaud: Plaud lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701, GDPR, and HIPAA support. Team adds billing, seat and device management, secure offboarding, and workspace-level data residency. Content remains private until shared. The Team FAQ says SSO is not yet supported; a workspace has a two-seat minimum.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "Security certifications and Team administration", "detail": "Plaud lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701, GDPR, and HIPAA support. Team adds billing, seat and device management, secure offboarding, and workspace-level data residency. Content remains private until shared. The Team FAQ says SSO is not yet supported; a workspace has a two-seat minimum.", "level": "available", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud Team requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57466295856537-What-is-Plaud-Team", "note": "Two-seat minimum, roles, privacy, and Team desktop capture without hardware." }, { "label": "Plaud Team administration", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-team", "note": "Team management, data residency, and the FAQ stating SSO is not yet supported." }, { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." } ] } }, { "key": "languages", "label": "Languages", "lead": "Plaud has broader documented support for languages.", "analysis": "Fathom: Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. Plaud: Plaud documents transcription in 112 languages with speaker labeling and custom vocabulary. Validate performance on the languages, accents, and specialized terminology you use; the supported-language count is not an independent accuracy comparison.", "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": "plaud", "name": "Plaud", "summary": "112 transcription languages", "detail": "Plaud documents transcription in 112 languages with speaker labeling and custom vocabulary. Validate performance on the languages, accents, and specialized terminology you use; the supported-language count is not an independent accuracy comparison.", "level": "strong", "sources": [ { "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." } ] } } ], "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 records online meetings with a meeting bot or bot-free desktop app, then turns them into detailed notes, speaker-labeled transcripts, and automatically assigned action items. Automatic sharing, search, and automations turn those meetings into shared company memory. People and AI agents can use the same complete record through the app, API, MCP, and CLI. In-person conversations captured on mobile or Apple Watch, plus imported recordings, flow through the same system.", "bestFor": "Teams across sales, product, engineering, recruiting, customer success, and leadership that need shared meeting notes, assigned follow-up, and automations—with the full record available to people and AI agents.", "lessIdealFor": "People who only need occasional transcripts, or sales organizations buying primarily for forecasting and rep coaching.", "decisionSummary": { "fit": "Online meeting notes, follow-through, and shared company memory", "chooseFor": [ "Detailed notes and labeled transcripts", "Full meeting data via API, MCP, and CLI" ], "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": [ "Record online meetings with a meeting bot or bot-free desktop app. In-person and imported recordings get the same speaker-labeled transcripts. Keep the recording for playback, or retain just the notes and transcript.", "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.", "Security controls 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.", "For in-person conversations, one tap on your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication starts recording; a configured iPhone Action button starts it with a press and hold. There is no separate recorder to buy, carry, or charge." ], "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 online meetings captured with or without a bot, with the same speaker-labeled record for in-person conversations and imported recordings.", "You want notes that explain the meeting to someone who missed it, plus assigned action items in one shared list and 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.", "You also want quick in-person recording from your phone or Watch without a separate recorder." ], "features": { "capture": { "summary": "Online meetings with or without a bot; in-person recording too", "detail": "Use the meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls, or record online meetings locally on macOS or Windows without a bot. On desktop, click Record in the detected-meeting prompt. In-person recording on mobile or Apple Watch and imported phone calls join the same system. Every route produces speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, and assigned action items, with search, sharing, and automations in one workspace.", "level": "strong" }, "platforms": { "summary": "Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch", "detail": "macOS and Windows apps capture online meetings without a bot, including system audio and video, with recording from the detected-meeting prompt. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch records from your wrist without the iPhone nearby. Every app sends recordings into the same Circleback meeting system.", "level": "strong" }, "inPerson": { "summary": "Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels", "detail": "Record in-person conversations from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. For quick capture, tap your phone’s Lock Screen widget or Apple Watch complication, or press and hold your configured iPhone Action button. No separate recorder is needed. Recordings get the same speaker labels, notes, assigned action items, search, sharing, and automations as online meetings. Phone calls use an existing call recording imported into Circleback.", "level": "strong" }, "recordings": { "summary": "Optional recordings with playback, downloads, and clips", "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": "Circleback’s notes are designed to give someone who missed the meeting its context, decisions, and next steps. It automatically creates action items and assigns them when the conversation makes the owner clear. One workspace-wide list lets teams filter and complete tasks across meetings. Custom insights extract the fields a team needs, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations.", "level": "strong" }, "companyMemory": { "summary": "Meeting and email history for each person and company", "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": "Conditional sharing, CRM updates, and task creation", "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. Connect additional tools through Zapier, Make, webhooks, or custom MCP servers.", "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. Connect ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting data by webhook.", "level": "strong" }, "admin": { "summary": "Security, privacy, and workspace controls", "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://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/getting-started-with-recording", "note": "Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations." }, { "label": "Circleback desktop recording", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/desktop-app/record-meetings-with-the-desktop-app", "note": "Detected-meeting recording prompts, automatic recording, and bot-free desktop audio and video capture." }, { "label": "Circleback mobile recording shortcuts", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/record-meetings-with-the-mobile-app", "note": "Mobile recording and links to widget and Action button setup guides." }, { "label": "Circleback iPhone Action button", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/mobile-app/start-recording-with-the-action-button-on-iphone", "note": "Configure Controls → Circleback → Record, then press and hold to start recording." }, { "label": "Circleback Apple Watch complication", "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/circleback-ai-meeting-notes/id6738971048", "note": "Publisher description documents one-tap Watch complication recording and the same transcript and notes as other meetings." }, { "label": "Circleback optional recording storage", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/recording/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/platform/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/assistant/ask-circleback-assistant", "note": "Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant." }, { "label": "Circleback automatic sharing", "url": "https://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/workspace-and-teams/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/security/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://circleback.ai/docs/support/automations/integrations/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 Plaud?", "answer": "Fathom fits online calls, clips, and free unlimited base transcription. Plaud fits dedicated portable capture and reusable AI workflows, with transcription allowances and Agent credits to budget separately." }, { "question": "Which is less expensive, Fathom or Plaud?", "answer": "Fathom: Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually. Plaud: Devices list at $159–$189; AI plans priced separately. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need." }, { "question": "Can Fathom and Plaud record without a bot?", "answer": "Fathom: Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. Plaud: Dedicated recorders, bot-free desktop, and imports. Check whether your preferred recording method preserves video and speaker labels." }, { "question": "Which is better for a whole company?", "answer": "Compare automatic sharing, permissions, retention, and the defaults admins can enforce. Fathom: Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Plaud: Personal sharing, Team member access, and Routines." }, { "question": "Can I access and move the full meeting data?", "answer": "Fathom: Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. Plaud: MCP and CLI retrieval; separate Embedded SDK/API. 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. Links appear in each feature comparison and in the Sources section." } ], "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": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud devices", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-device-comparison", "note": "Model-specific controls, phone-call/in-person capture, charging, storage, and list prices." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud recording controls", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/55643286546329-How-to-Record", "note": "Press-and-hold recording and model-specific highlight controls." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud plans", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-ai-plan-pricing", "note": "Individual and Team prices, transcription allowances, launch offers, and included features." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud desktop", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-desktop", "note": "Bot-free capture, meeting detection, recording modes, screenshots, highlights, and typed notes." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud desktop requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/53795026112409-Device-binding-required-notice-on-Plaud-Desktop", "note": "Individual Starter activation requires a device bound to the account." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Team requirements", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57466295856537-What-is-Plaud-Team", "note": "Two-seat minimum, roles, privacy, and Team desktop capture without hardware." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Team administration", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/plaud-team", "note": "Team management, data residency, and the FAQ stating SSO is not yet supported." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Team sharing", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/57138357578649-Sharing-content-in-Plaud-Team", "note": "Private-by-default recordings and member-only file sharing and links." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud cross-recording questions", "url": "https://support.plaud.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51041335681689-Ask-Across-All-Files-Ask-Plaud", "note": "Questions across transcribed recordings and source-file references." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Skills and Routines", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/plaud-intelligence-skills-routines", "note": "Conditional automation, shared Skills, Agent credit costs, and AutoFlow migration limits." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Intelligence Team update", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/get-ready-new-plaud-intelligence-for-team", "note": "Shared Agent context, launch connectors, forthcoming integrations, and account updates." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud Agent credits", "url": "https://www.plaud.ai/pages/piplcrinto", "note": "Transcription versus Agent usage, nonrenewing launch grants, and paid credit top-ups." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud MCP", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/mcp", "note": "Recording, summary, transcript, and audio-link retrieval through authenticated MCP." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud CLI", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/plaud-mcp-cli/cli", "note": "Command-line retrieval and name-based search limited to 500 recent recordings." }, { "productId": "plaud", "productName": "Plaud", "label": "Plaud developer platform", "url": "https://docs.plaud.ai/overview", "note": "Distinguishes the Embedded device SDK/transcription API from access to Plaud account data." } ], "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." } }