Gong receives generally positive reviews from users, with ratings of 4.8 out of 5 on major review platforms like Gartner and G2. Users appreciate its versatility and ease of use, particularly praising its ability to analyze call content for coaching sales representatives and improving messaging strategies. However, some users express frustration with technical issues, noting that recorded calls can take up to 60 minutes to become available after recording, and the AI integration, while generally well-implemented, still has room for improvement.

Fathom users report high satisfaction with the platform's speed and accuracy, giving it ratings between 4.4 and 5.0 stars across review sites. The transcription accuracy is noted to be between 85-90%, with users appreciating the ability to manually edit transcriptions and the seamless integration with other applications. Users particularly value features like hypertext links to videos and the platform's ability to work quietly in the background while delivering clear meeting summaries and action points immediately after calls.

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Gong is a comprehensive conversation intelligence platform designed primarily for sales teams, offering deep analytics on calls, emails, and meetings to improve coaching and deal forecasting. Its strengths include rich call analytics, seamless CRM integration, and powerful sales coaching capabilities that many users consider transformative. However, it comes with enterprise-level pricing that can be prohibitive for smaller teams, occasional transcription delays, and privacy features that sometimes obscure useful information.

Gong is best suited for established sales organizations with substantial budgets who need comprehensive conversation analytics and sales coaching capabilities. The platform requires significant investment but delivers advanced features like deal intelligence and pipeline forecasting. Teams looking for basic meeting transcription or operating on tight budgets should consider alternatives.

Fathom focuses on straightforward meeting note-taking and transcription, offering an intuitive interface with quick, accurate AI summaries and a generous free plan. Its main advantages are simplicity, fast processing, excellent customer service, and the ability to generate various summary formats without overwhelming users. The primary limitations include restricted advanced features on free plans, lack of external audio file support, and absence of mobile applications.

Fathom works well for individuals, small teams, or anyone seeking simple meeting documentation without complex sales analytics requirements. It's particularly attractive for budget-conscious users who want reliable transcription and basic CRM integration. Organizations needing comprehensive conversation intelligence or mobile access should look elsewhere.

Why users switch away from Gong or Fathom

Users switch away from Gong primarily due to its high cost structure. The platform requires a significant financial commitment with annual platform fees around $5,000 for small teams plus $1,400-$1,600 per user annually, with additional onboarding services costing approximately $7,500. This enterprise-level pricing with no monthly payment options and custom-quote-only structure makes it inaccessible for smaller teams or organizations with limited budgets.

Technical performance issues drive users to seek alternatives, particularly delays in call processing and transcription inaccuracies that affect the reliability of the core conversation intelligence features. These processing lags can impact the timeliness of sales insights and coaching feedback that teams depend on for their workflows.

The platform's privacy features create operational limitations that frustrate users in their daily work. Phone number redaction and other privacy controls sometimes hide useful information from calls, reducing the practical value of recorded conversations and potentially impacting deal intelligence and customer interaction analysis.

Users switch away from Fathom due to limited meeting platform flexibility. The tool only works with scheduled online meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, and cannot record in-person meetings or import external audio files for transcription. This restricts users who need to capture face-to-face conversations or process audio recordings from other sources.

The absence of mobile app functionality drives users to seek alternatives. Fathom requires desktop access and cannot be used on iOS or Android devices, limiting accessibility for users who need to manage meeting content while mobile or prefer smartphone-based workflows.

Advanced features are restricted to higher-tier paid plans, creating barriers for users who outgrow the free version. While the free plan offers unlimited meeting recordings, AI summaries are limited to 5 meetings per month, and features like meeting templates are only available in the Team edition at $19 per user monthly.

FAQs

Would Gong work for in-person meetings? What about Fathom?

• Gong: Yes, it supports capturing in-person meetings via its mobile app, making it useful for live meetings or field sales.

• Fathom: No, it cannot handle in-person meetings and only works for scheduled online meetings on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams.

What do users say about the quality of transcriptions?

• Gong: Some users report occasional transcription inaccuracies.

• Fathom: Users praise the transcriptions as quick and accurate.

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

• Gong: Yes, it includes an automation engine that can generate follow-up tasks automatically and provides AI recommendations to streamline processes.

• Fathom: Yes, it produces AI summaries that include action items and can even draft follow-up emails. It auto-generates summaries and action items and pushes them to CRM deals.

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

• Gong: Yes, it has extensive integrations with 250+ tools, including Salesforce and HubSpot CRM, among many others.

• Fathom: Yes, it integrates with CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce to sync call notes, plus connects with Slack and Notion via Zapier.

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