# tl;dv vs Fathom: pricing, features, and which is better > tl;dv and Fathom compared across pricing, capture, speaker labels, recordings, notes, sharing, automations, integrations, AI-agent access, and administration. - Canonical HTML: https://circleback.ai/compare/tldv-vs-fathom - Structured JSON: https://circleback.ai/compare/tldv-vs-fathom.json - Comparison directory: https://circleback.ai/compare - Language: en-US - Editorial perspective: Neutral competitor comparison. Circleback appears only as a clearly labeled third option. ## Short answer Both are generous online recorders. tl;dv leans into reels, reports, and playbooks; Fathom feels simpler and has polished clips, fast summaries, and CRM delivery. The useful buying test is to run both products on the same external call, internal planning session, and noisy in-person meeting. Compare the result, the sharing defaults, and the work that still has to happen by hand. ## tl;dv at a glance tl;dv combines unlimited meeting recording on its free tier with clips, reels, recurring reports, playbooks, and sales coaching. Its newer bot-free desktop mode broadens capture, but that mode is audio-only and drops video, screen share, and chat. **Best for:** Individuals and customer-facing teams that want a generous free recorder, easy clips, recurring multi-meeting reports, and optional sales playbooks. **Less ideal for:** Teams that need a mature mobile rollout, video in bot-free mode, stable API contracts, durable free-plan retention, or one cross-functional company context layer. **Price:** Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually Free includes unlimited recordings and transcripts, but recordings are retained for three months, older recordings are archived shortly after processing, advanced AI credits are lifetime-limited, and after the first ten meetings generated notes cover only the first ten minutes. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $18 with annual billing or $29 month-to-month; Business is $29 or $39. Enterprise is quoted separately. **Free option:** Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with retention, archive, AI-note, credit, duration, and concurrency limits. ### tl;dv strengths - One of the broadest free recording and transcription allowances, despite meaningful retention and AI-output limits. - Strong clips, reels, highlights, multi-meeting reports, playbooks, and sales coaching workflows. - Bot and bot-free macOS/Windows capture now sit beside an early mobile recorder for in-person conversations. - Recurring AI reports and conditional Slack workflows are particularly good at turning many calls into a compact digest with decisions and owner/deadline action lists. ### tl;dv tradeoffs - Bot-free capture is audio-only: no video, screen sharing, or meeting chat is preserved. - The newly documented mobile recorder is still described as an early-stage testing experience rather than a mature production path. - Free recordings are retained for three months and quickly archived; after the first ten meetings, generated notes cover only the first ten minutes. - The public API is labeled v1alpha1, and MCP searches typically return at most 50 meetings per query. - There is no bulk meeting export in the product. Individual recording downloads require both owner and downloader to be on a paid plan, plus editor or admin access. - The domain-level Organization is automatic rather than a governed tenant: any same-domain user can join it and the Organization itself cannot be deleted. Paid Teams provide the actual admin hierarchy. - Several advanced AI, sales, and multilingual capabilities are reserved for higher plans. - tl;dv can extract assigned action lists and send them elsewhere, but it does not document a native workspace-wide task system with assignee queues, status, due dates, and completion tracking. ### Choose tl;dv when - Unlimited free recording matters more than unlimited AI notes. - Your workflow revolves around clips, playlists, sales playbooks, and recurring topic reports. - You are comfortable using a bot when video, screen share, and chat need to be retained. ## Fathom at a glance Fathom is easy to love for online calls: unlimited free recordings and transcripts, quick summaries, clips, assigned action items, CRM sync, and a focused interface. Its new Mac experience adds useful bot-free modes, while Windows parity and a generally available in-person app are still arriving. **Best for:** Individuals and sales teams that live in Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams and want a generous free plan, fast summaries, clips, and CRM-friendly workflows. **Less ideal for:** Companies that need proven iOS/Android or in-person capture today, broad cross-platform botless video, a workspace-wide task board, or a cross-channel context graph. **Price:** Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually Free includes unlimited recordings and transcripts but only five advanced AI summaries per month. Paid prices are per user/month: Premium is $16 with annual billing or $20 month-to-month; Team is $15 or $19 with a two-seat minimum; Business is $25 or $34. Enterprise is custom. **Free option:** Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with five advanced summaries per month. ### Fathom strengths - Unlimited free recording and transcription is unusually generous for a solo online-meeting workflow. - Fast, polished summaries, highlights, clips, playlists, assigned action items, and CRM sharing. - Public API and MCP support make the meeting library available to custom tools and agents. - Action items include assignees and transcript evidence, and an Asana integration can synchronize assigned work automatically or on demand. ### Fathom tradeoffs - Fathom’s current pages disagree about iOS availability: the product overview says in-person capture is live, while the help center and launch page still describe the official app as pre-download or coming soon. Treat it as a staged rollout until your account can use it. - Chromebook, Linux, Android, tablet, phone call, webinar, and breakout support remains limited or absent. The current Fathom 3.0 bot-free experience is Mac- and English-only; Windows users remain on the older experience for now. - Bot-free video is currently available for Zoom on Mac. Google Meet support is still described as coming, Teams support depends on how the call is joined, and the bot remains the broadest cross-platform path. - The free plan’s advanced AI summaries are capped even though raw recordings and transcripts are unlimited. - Fathom may use de-identified meeting data to improve its in-house AI models unless the user or Team Edition administrator opts out. Third-party model providers are prohibited from training on it. - All Fathom data is US-hosted. Custom retention is Enterprise-only, applies one policy to the whole team, and is currently configured through support rather than self-service. ### Choose Fathom when - You want a generous free online-meeting recorder and rarely need in-person capture. - Clips, highlights, fast summaries, and simple CRM delivery are the center of the workflow. - You are comfortable keeping the bot for video and named-speaker fidelity. ## Feature comparison | What matters | tl;dv | Fathom | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture options | Broad support — Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. macOS and Windows can capture system audio from any meeting platform without a bot. The bot remains the richer mode for supported conferencing platforms. | Available with limits — Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. The bot remains the broadest mature path. Eligible Mac users can choose bot-free transcript-only, audio plus transcript, or Zoom video; Google Meet bot-free video is still coming and Teams behavior varies by how the call is joined. Fathom says the bot-free modes preserve speaker attribution and action items. | | Desktop and mobile | Available with limits — Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, and an early mobile app. Desktop capture is broad. tl;dv now documents a mobile app for in-person meetings, but describes it as recently launched, early-stage, and available for testing. | Narrow or indirect — Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path. Fathom supports major online platforms on computers, but its current 3.0 rollout is limited to Mac and English-language meetings. Windows remains supported through the older bot-based experience. Official pages conflict on whether iOS in-person capture is already live; Android, Chromebook, Linux, phone calls, webinars, and breakout rooms are not normal supported paths. | | In-person capture and speaker labels | Available with limits — Desktop microphone or early-stage mobile recording. A laptop can capture room audio and the newer mobile app can record in-person meetings. tl;dv documents speaker identification generally but does not explain whether the early mobile path preserves the same naming behavior, so test it before a broad rollout. There is no documented Watch capture. | Narrow or indirect — iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers. Fathom’s marketing overview says its iOS app captures in-person meetings, but the help center and current launch page still call it coming soon or pre-download. In the older workaround, every room voice is attributed to the Fathom user rather than separated. Verify iOS access and room-speaker labeling in the actual account before rollout. | | Recordings, playback, and clips | Broad support — Rich playback, clips, and reels—with a botless video caveat. Bot recordings support video, transcript, clips, reels, and shareable moments. Bot-free recordings are audio-only and omit video, screen sharing, and chat. | Broad support — Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips. Fathom has polished review and sharing for online calls. Video no longer universally requires the bot, but the current bot-free video path is limited to Zoom on Mac rather than equivalent across every supported platform. | | Notes, action items, and search | Broad support — AI notes, action digests, multi-meeting reports, and topic tracking. The product is particularly good at synthesizing multiple meetings and turning recurring prompts into reports, including action lists grouped by person and date. Those are report or checklist outputs rather than a native task lifecycle with workspace queues and completion state. Free accounts get a limited number of AI notes. | Broad support — Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search. Summary quality and speed are core strengths. Paid AI action items identify assignees and link to the source moment; the API also returns completion state and assignee metadata. Fathom presents action items inside each meeting rather than documenting a workspace-wide task dashboard. Advanced summary types and some AI capabilities are plan-limited even while base transcription is free. | | People, companies, and context | Available with limits — Meeting library and multi-meeting synthesis. tl;dv can query and report across accessible meetings, but it does not present a broader email/calendar/person/company relationship memory as its core model. | Available with limits — Meeting and customer-call library. Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments. | | Automatic sharing and workspace defaults | Broad support — Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Teams can automatically share with participants, publish to a team or organization library, and apply admin privacy rules using meeting context such as title, internal or external type, and team role. Sensitive categories can remain private by rule. | Broad support — Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Admins can set auto-capture and visibility separately for external, internal, and unscheduled meetings at organization or team level, including whether users may override the default. Individuals can also send a summary, a recording, or both automatically—but the audience is every calendar invitee, including people who did not attend. | | Automations | Broad support — Recurring AI reports and sales workflows. Automated multi-meeting reports, playbooks, CRM updates, and conditional Slack posts are useful, especially for customer-facing teams. Slack workflows can format decisions and action items with owners and deadlines, but team workflow scope excludes team admins and billing-group admins, and the overall system is less open-ended than a general meeting condition/action builder. | Available with limits — CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through. Fathom handles common customer-facing follow-through well. Assigned action items can sync automatically or manually to Asana, webhooks can deliver action-item payloads, and Zapier or CRM integrations extend delivery. It does not document the same broad native trigger/condition/action builder for arbitrary work systems. | | Integrations | Available with limits — CRM and collaboration integrations on paid plans. tl;dv connects to common CRMs and work tools; exact access varies by plan. The catalog is oriented around GTM and collaboration workflows. | Available with limits — Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections. CRM delivery and collaboration integrations cover the common sales workflow, while Asana turns assigned meeting actions into trackable tasks. Broader issue-tracker coverage and custom operational actions are less central. | | API, MCP, CLI, and data portability | Available with limits — MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. MCP can search meetings and participants, with typical result sets capped at 50. A subtle access rule matters: viewing a shared meeting is not enough if its organizer is on Free—the organizer must have Pro or higher before that meeting is available through MCP or the API. The API is documented as v1alpha1 and includes recording downloads, so integration teams should expect contract evolution. | Broad support — Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. The REST API can return speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, action items with assignees and completion state, attendees, CRM matches, playback metadata, and recording downloads. Its official MCP connects authorized meeting data to ChatGPT, Claude, and other clients. Both follow what the authenticated user owns or can see through team sharing; an administrator key does not automatically reach private meetings across the organization. | | Security, privacy, and admin | Available with limits — Paid Team controls, with a looser domain Organization layer. Paid Teams add roles, billing administration, and forward-looking defaults; team settings do not override Team Admins. The separate domain-based Organization has no organization-wide admin defaults, any same-domain user can join it, and it cannot be deleted. Multi-team management is Business-only. | Available with limits — Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and custom retention. Fathom currently supports one retention policy per team and asks customers to configure it through support. All data is US-hosted; de-identified data may improve Fathom’s in-house models unless users or a Team Edition admin opt out. | | Languages | Available with limits — Multilingual transcription; advanced multilingual mode is plan-gated. Language selection behavior varies by capture mode, and the multilingual Whisper option is documented for Business and Enterprise. | Available with limits — 38 languages on the free plan. Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. | Ratings describe documented breadth rather than overall product quality: - **Broad support:** Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans. - **Available with limits:** Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits. - **Narrow or indirect:** Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support. - **Not documented:** No current first-party documentation for a native option. ## Detailed analysis ### Capture options **tl;dv has broader documented support for capture options.** **tl;dv:** Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. macOS and Windows can capture system audio from any meeting platform without a bot. The bot remains the richer mode for supported conferencing platforms. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot). **Fathom:** Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. The bot remains the broadest mature path. Eligible Mac users can choose bot-free transcript-only, audio plus transcript, or Zoom video; Google Meet bot-free video is still coming and Teams behavior varies by how the call is joined. Fathom says the bot-free modes preserve speaker attribution and action items. Evidence: [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview), [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345), [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097). ### Desktop and mobile **tl;dv has broader documented support for desktop and mobile.** **tl;dv:** Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, and an early mobile app. Desktop capture is broad. tl;dv now documents a mobile app for in-person meetings, but describes it as recently launched, early-stage, and available for testing. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot), [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app). **Fathom:** Mac for the new bot-free experience; Windows on the older path. Fathom supports major online platforms on computers, but its current 3.0 rollout is limited to Mac and English-language meetings. Windows remains supported through the older bot-based experience. Official pages conflict on whether iOS in-person capture is already live; Android, Chromebook, Linux, phone calls, webinars, and breakout rooms are not normal supported paths. Evidence: [Fathom supported systems](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576), [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345). ### In-person capture and speaker labels **tl;dv has broader documented support for in-person capture and speaker labels.** **tl;dv:** Desktop microphone or early-stage mobile recording. A laptop can capture room audio and the newer mobile app can record in-person meetings. tl;dv documents speaker identification generally but does not explain whether the early mobile path preserves the same naming behavior, so test it before a broad rollout. There is no documented Watch capture. Evidence: [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app), [tl;dv speaker identification](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6171907-speaker-identification-in-transcript). **Fathom:** iOS is staged; the old room workaround cannot separate speakers. Fathom’s marketing overview says its iOS app captures in-person meetings, but the help center and current launch page still call it coming soon or pre-download. In the older workaround, every room voice is attributed to the Fathom user rather than separated. Verify iOS access and room-speaker labeling in the actual account before rollout. Evidence: [Fathom in-person meetings](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview). ### Recordings, playback, and clips **Both products document broad support for recordings, playback, and clips, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Rich playback, clips, and reels—with a botless video caveat. Bot recordings support video, transcript, clips, reels, and shareable moments. Bot-free recordings are audio-only and omit video, screen sharing, and chat. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot), [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan). **Fathom:** Unlimited AV, playback, highlights, and clips. Fathom has polished review and sharing for online calls. Video no longer universally requires the bot, but the current bot-free video path is limited to Zoom on Mac rather than equivalent across every supported platform. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview). ### Notes, action items, and search **Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** AI notes, action digests, multi-meeting reports, and topic tracking. The product is particularly good at synthesizing multiple meetings and turning recurring prompts into reports, including action lists grouped by person and date. Those are report or checklist outputs rather than a native task lifecycle with workspace queues and completion state. Free accounts get a limited number of AI notes. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan), [tl;dv AI prompts](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/9235713-ai-prompts-inspiration). **Fathom:** Fast summaries, assigned action items, Ask Fathom, and team search. Summary quality and speed are core strengths. Paid AI action items identify assignees and link to the source moment; the API also returns completion state and assignee metadata. Fathom presents action items inside each meeting rather than documenting a workspace-wide task dashboard. Advanced summary types and some AI capabilities are plan-limited even while base transcription is free. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview), [Fathom AI action items](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768). ### People, companies, and context **Both products support people, companies, and context, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Meeting library and multi-meeting synthesis. tl;dv can query and report across accessible meetings, but it does not present a broader email/calendar/person/company relationship memory as its core model. Evidence: [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp). **Fathom:** Meeting and customer-call library. Fathom organizes team calls and customer context well, but does not center a broader email/calendar/person/company knowledge layer for all departments. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing). ### Automatic sharing and workspace defaults **Both products document broad support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Teams can automatically share with participants, publish to a team or organization library, and apply admin privacy rules using meeting context such as title, internal or external type, and team role. Sensitive categories can remain private by rule. Evidence: [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults). **Fathom:** Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. Admins can set auto-capture and visibility separately for external, internal, and unscheduled meetings at organization or team level, including whether users may override the default. Individuals can also send a summary, a recording, or both automatically—but the audience is every calendar invitee, including people who did not attend. Evidence: [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025), [Fathom attendee auto-share](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785). ### Automations **tl;dv has broader documented support for automations.** **tl;dv:** Recurring AI reports and sales workflows. Automated multi-meeting reports, playbooks, CRM updates, and conditional Slack posts are useful, especially for customer-facing teams. Slack workflows can format decisions and action items with owners and deadlines, but team workflow scope excludes team admins and billing-group admins, and the overall system is less open-ended than a general meeting condition/action builder. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv Slack workflows](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946410-set-up-the-slack-integration). **Fathom:** CRM, webhook, Zapier, and Asana follow-through. Fathom handles common customer-facing follow-through well. Assigned action items can sync automatically or manually to Asana, webhooks can deliver action-item payloads, and Zapier or CRM integrations extend delivery. It does not document the same broad native trigger/condition/action builder for arbitrary work systems. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617), [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart). ### Integrations **Both products support integrations, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** CRM and collaboration integrations on paid plans. tl;dv connects to common CRMs and work tools; exact access varies by plan. The catalog is oriented around GTM and collaboration workflows. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing). **Fathom:** Strong CRM, Asana, Zapier, and common work-tool connections. CRM delivery and collaboration integrations cover the common sales workflow, while Asana turns assigned meeting actions into trackable tasks. Broader issue-tracker coverage and custom operational actions are less central. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617). ### API, MCP, CLI, and data portability **Fathom has broader documented support for API, MCP, CLI, and data portability.** **tl;dv:** MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. MCP can search meetings and participants, with typical result sets capped at 50. A subtle access rule matters: viewing a shared meeting is not enough if its organizer is on Free—the organizer must have Pro or higher before that meeting is available through MCP or the API. The API is documented as v1alpha1 and includes recording downloads, so integration teams should expect contract evolution. Evidence: [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp), [tl;dv API](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/11583137-api), [tl;dv download limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946213-how-to-download-your-recording). **Fathom:** Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. The REST API can return speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, action items with assignees and completion state, attendees, CRM matches, playback metadata, and recording downloads. Its official MCP connects authorized meeting data to ChatGPT, Claude, and other clients. Both follow what the authenticated user owns or can see through team sharing; an administrator key does not automatically reach private meetings across the organization. Evidence: [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart), [Fathom MCP](https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs), [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097). ### Security, privacy, and admin **Both products support security, privacy, and admin, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Paid Team controls, with a looser domain Organization layer. Paid Teams add roles, billing administration, and forward-looking defaults; team settings do not override Team Admins. The separate domain-based Organization has no organization-wide admin defaults, any same-domain user can join it, and it cannot be deleted. Multi-team management is Business-only. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults), [tl;dv organization and team model](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8975481-organization-vs-team-what-s-the-difference), [tl;dv permission levels](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/10131073-understanding-permission-levels). **Fathom:** Strong upper-tier controls, with US-only hosting. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and custom retention. Fathom currently supports one retention policy per team and asks customers to configure it through support. All data is US-hosted; de-identified data may improve Fathom’s in-house models unless users or a Team Edition admin opt out. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025), [Fathom security and AI training](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512), [Fathom retention policies](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089). ### Languages **Both products support languages, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Multilingual transcription; advanced multilingual mode is plan-gated. Language selection behavior varies by capture mode, and the multilingual Whisper option is documented for Business and Enterprise. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot). **Fathom:** 38 languages on the free plan. Fathom documents 38 supported languages. Bot-free rollout is currently narrower, so language support should be checked per capture mode. Evidence: [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing), [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049). ## A third option to consider: Circleback Circleback turns online meetings, in-person conversations, and imported calls into one shared company memory. Record with a bot, with the botless desktop app, from an iPhone or Android phone, or on Apple Watch. Every route produces the same speaker-labeled record, detailed notes designed to stand alone, and automatically assigned action items. Sharing rules and automations carry the useful parts into the teams and tools that need them. Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available to a person is also available programmatically through its API, MCP, and CLI. Circleback can also search connected apps and take action in them. It is built for people and AI agents: the same complete meeting data available to a person is available programmatically to ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and internal tools through the API, MCP, and CLI. Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better: tl;dv or Fathom? Both are generous online recorders. tl;dv leans into reels, reports, and playbooks; Fathom feels simpler and has polished clips, fast summaries, and CRM delivery. ### Which is less expensive, tl;dv or Fathom? tl;dv: Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually. Fathom: Free; Premium from $16/user/month annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need. ### Can tl;dv and Fathom record without a bot? tl;dv: Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. Fathom: Meeting bot or bot-free transcript, audio, and Zoom video on Mac. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names. ### Which is better for a whole company? First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. tl;dv: Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Fathom: Organization and team visibility defaults, plus attendee auto-share. ### Can I access and move the full meeting data? tl;dv: MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. Fathom: Rich public API and MCP, scoped to the connected user. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need. ### How was this comparison researched? We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below. ## Methodology Circleback reviews first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes. Prices and capabilities move, so check the linked sources when a detail is important to your decision. Every feature dimension links to the exact first-party documents used for that claim. Ratings describe documented breadth, not an overall score or winner. This page is a neutral competitor-to-competitor comparison. There are no paid placements or affiliate rankings. ## First-party sources ### tl;dv sources - [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing): Official Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise pricing and plan scope. - [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan): Recording retention, archive behavior, AI-note coverage, lifetime credits, meeting duration, and concurrency. - [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app): Recently launched early-stage mobile recording for in-person meetings. - [tl;dv speaker identification](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6171907-speaker-identification-in-transcript): General automatic speaker identification; the article does not document mobile-mode parity. - [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot): Desktop capture and the audio-only limitation. - [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp): Plan eligibility, tools, access model, and result behavior. - [tl;dv API](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/11583137-api): Pro/Business eligibility and v1alpha1 status. - [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults): Admin-controlled automatic sharing, workspace-library publishing, and privacy rules for sensitive meetings. - [tl;dv download limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946213-how-to-download-your-recording): No bulk export plus paid-plan, ownership, and permission requirements for individual recording downloads. - [tl;dv organization and team model](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8975481-organization-vs-team-what-s-the-difference): Automatic same-domain Organization membership, absence of Organization-wide admin defaults, and the paid Team hierarchy. - [tl;dv permission levels](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/10131073-understanding-permission-levels): Team roles, admin behavior, and the non-deletable domain Organization. - [tl;dv AI prompts](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/9235713-ai-prompts-inspiration): Cross-meeting action-item reports grouped by participant and date plus common analysis workflows. - [tl;dv Slack workflows](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946410-set-up-the-slack-integration): Conditional automatic summaries, decisions, and owner/deadline action lists plus the team-admin scope exception. ### Fathom sources - [Fathom pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing): Free, Premium, Team, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates. - [Fathom supported systems](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296576): Computer, platform, mobile, phone call, webinar, and breakout limitations. - [Fathom in-person meetings](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/5500225): Current workaround, speaker limitation, and upcoming iOS path. - [Fathom bot-free recording](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11578049): Current Zoom-on-Mac bot-free video and Google Meet/Teams rollout status. - [Fathom product overview](https://www.fathom.ai/overview): Current bot-free capture modes, speaker attribution, action items, Ask Fathom, programmatic access, and the marketing claim that iOS capture is available. - [Fathom 3.0 rollout](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/11577345): Current Mac-only, English-only eligibility and staged rollout behavior for the new bot-free experience. - [Fathom auto-capture and visibility controls](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/13729025): Organization and team defaults for capture and visibility across external, internal, and unscheduled meetings. - [Fathom attendee auto-share](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7574785): Automatic delivery of summaries, recordings, or both to every calendar invitee, including no-shows. - [Fathom public API](https://developers.fathom.ai/quickstart): User-scoped API keys plus meeting metadata, speaker-attributed transcripts, summaries, assigned action items, CRM matches, pagination, and administrator visibility limits. - [Fathom MCP](https://developers.fathom.ai/mcp-docs): Official authenticated MCP access from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, and other compatible clients. - [Fathom AI action items](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/640768): AI detection of action items and their assignees plus follow-up email generation. - [Fathom Asana integration](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/7639617): Automatic or manual synchronization of assigned meeting actions into Asana with source links. - [Fathom release notes](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6220097): July 2026 API recording-download support and current product changes. - [Fathom security and AI training](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/296512): US data hosting, de-identified in-house model training and opt-out controls, plus third-party no-training terms. - [Fathom retention policies](https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/6057089): Enterprise-only, support-managed retention with one policy per team.