Sales teams don't need another generic note-taker. They need tools that log calls to Salesforce or HubSpot automatically, surface objection patterns across deals, help managers coach reps at scale, and keep pipeline data clean without adding hours of manual CRM entry to every rep's week.
The challenge is that the market splits into two distinct categories: conversation intelligence platforms like Gong and Chorus that specialize in deal analytics, coaching scorecards, and revenue forecasting, and AI meeting assistants like Fellow, Fathom, and tl;dv that focus on recording, transcription, and workflow automation at a fraction of the price. Choosing the right tool depends on whether your team needs deep revenue analytics or efficient meeting capture with CRM integration.
We evaluated 10 tools against sales-specific criteria — CRM sync quality, coaching and analytics features, bot-free recording options for client calls, deal intelligence capabilities, and per-seat pricing — to help you find the right fit.
Best for teams using Salesforce or HubSpot: Gong, Fellow, Avoma
Best for large organizations with 3+ Revenue Operations professionals: Gong
Best balance of price and sales features: Fellow
Best for privacy-conscious calls (bot-free recording): Fellow, Krisp
Best free option: Fathom
How We Evaluated These Tools
Every tool was assessed against five criteria weighted for sales team workflows:
- CRM integration depth: Does it push structured data to Salesforce and HubSpot, or just dump transcript text? Does it auto-match contacts and update deal fields?
- Sales coaching and analytics: Talk-time ratios, objection tracking, call scoring, methodology adherence (MEDDIC, BANT, SPICED), and manager review tools.
- Bot-free recording option: For client-facing calls where a visible bot can disrupt rapport, can the tool record without announcing itself?
- Deal intelligence: Competitor mention tracking, pipeline risk signals, cross-meeting search, and trend analysis.
- Pricing transparency and value: Per-seat cost, platform fees, contract requirements, and what's actually included vs. upsold.
Conversation Intelligence vs. AI Note-Takers: Know the Difference
Before diving into individual reviews, it's worth understanding the category split. Conversation intelligence platforms (Gong, Chorus) are purpose-built for revenue teams. They analyze patterns across thousands of calls, flag deal risks, score reps, and feed insights into forecasting models. They also cost significantly more — often $1,200–$2,000+ per user annually with mandatory platform fees.
AI meeting assistants (Fellow, Fathom, Fireflies, tl;dv, Krisp) started as transcription and note-taking tools but have steadily added sales features like CRM sync, methodology templates, and basic coaching analytics. They typically run $7–$59 per user per month with transparent pricing and no platform fees.
If your sales org runs 50+ reps, closes enterprise deals with six-month cycles, and has a dedicated enablement team to operationalize insights, conversation intelligence platforms can justify their cost. If you're a growing team that needs solid CRM automation, meeting capture, and lightweight coaching without a six-figure annual commitment, an AI meeting assistant will get you most of the way there.
Individual Tool Reviews
Fellow
Pricing: Free plan available · Team: $7/user/mo · Business: $15/user/mo · Enterprise: $25/user/mo (billed annually)
Fellow is an AI meeting assistant that covers the full meeting lifecycle — agendas, recording, transcription, summaries, and action item tracking. For sales teams, its relevant strengths are native Salesforce and HubSpot integrations (on Business plan and above), customizable recap templates aligned to sales methodologies like MEDDIC and SPICED, and a botless recording option that lets reps capture client calls without a visible bot joining the meeting.
The Ask Fellow feature searches across your entire meeting history, which is useful for pulling context before renewal calls or tracking what a prospect said three meetings ago. Fellow also offers mid-meeting pause controls and post-meeting transcript redaction — genuinely useful for sales teams that discuss pricing or competitive information they don't want broadly shared.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Botless recording for client-facing calls
- Salesforce and HubSpot CRM sync with AI field mapping
- MEDDIC/SPICED/BANT recap templates
- Transcript redaction and selective sharing
- Cross-meeting search via Ask Fellow
- SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant
Limitations:
- Not a conversation intelligence platform — no deal analytics, win/loss analysis, or pipeline forecasting
- CRM integrations require Business plan ($15/user/mo)
- Unlimited AI recordings require a paid add-on on lower tiers
Best for: Sales teams that need strong privacy controls for client calls, structured CRM sync, and a tool that handles both internal and external meetings.
Gong
Pricing: Custom pricing · Estimated ~$1,600/user/year + $5,000–$50,000 annual platform fee
Gong is the dominant conversation intelligence platform and the benchmark for sales-specific meeting analytics. It goes well beyond transcription — analyzing patterns across all customer interactions to surface deal risks, flag pipeline issues, score rep performance, and feed data into forecasting models. Gong tracks competitor mentions, objection patterns, talk-time ratios, and engagement signals across email, calls, and meetings.
The platform recently introduced AI agents for follow-ups, pipeline edits, and forecast corrections, though availability and rollout timelines vary by tier. Gong integrates deeply with Salesforce, HubSpot, and most major CRM and sales engagement platforms.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Deep deal analytics and pipeline risk detection
- Coaching scorecards with real call examples
- Competitor mention and objection tracking at scale
- Revenue forecasting powered by conversation data
- Recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader (2025)
Limitations:
- Opaque, quote-based pricing — budget $28K–$170K+ in year one depending on team size
- Mandatory platform fees and multi-year contracts with auto-renewal uplifts
- No bot-free recording option
- Complex onboarding — budget 2–3 months for full deployment
- Overkill for teams under 20 reps or deals under $25K ACV
Best for: Enterprise sales organizations with 50+ reps, dedicated enablement teams, and deal cycles long enough to justify the investment. If your team primarily needs meeting notes with CRM sync, Gong is likely more than you need.
Chorus (ZoomInfo)
Pricing: Custom pricing · Estimated ~$1,200/user/year · Typically bundled with ZoomInfo
Chorus is ZoomInfo's conversation intelligence platform, and its main differentiator is deep integration with ZoomInfo's B2B contact database. It records and analyzes sales calls, tracks talk-time ratios, surfaces coaching opportunities, and syncs insights to CRM systems. For teams already invested in ZoomInfo for prospecting, Chorus adds a natural layer of conversation analytics on top of contact intelligence.
Sales-specific strengths:
- ZoomInfo integration enriches call data with contact and company intelligence
- Talk-time ratios, competitor mentions, and coaching insights
- 40+ language transcription support
- Deal intelligence with CRM sync
Limitations:
- Best value is bundled with ZoomInfo — standalone adoption is less common
- Steep learning curve and complex integration process
- Transcription accuracy can be inconsistent per user reviews
- Custom pricing only — no self-serve option
- Less development momentum than Gong in the conversation intelligence category
Best for: Sales teams already using ZoomInfo that want conversation intelligence integrated with their existing contact data. If you're not a ZoomInfo customer, Gong offers a more robust standalone platform.
Fireflies
Pricing: Free plan available · Pro: $10/user/mo · Business: $19/user/mo · Enterprise: custom (billed annually)
Fireflies is a well-established AI meeting assistant with a broad feature set including transcription in 100+ languages, topic tracking, smart search across transcripts, and CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot. Its AskFred assistant lets users query individual meeting transcripts, and the Business plan adds conversation intelligence dashboards with speaker analytics.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Salesforce and HubSpot integration on Business plan
- 100+ language transcription — strong for international teams
- Topic trackers for competitor mentions and objections
- Generous free tier for testing
Limitations:
- CRM sync and video recording locked behind Business tier ($19/mo)
- AI credit system on some features can create unexpected costs
- Transcription accuracy drops with accents and background noise
- No bot-free recording option
- AskFred searches individual meetings, not across full history
Best for: Multilingual sales teams or organizations that need broad integration support at a moderate price point. Less suited for teams that prioritize privacy on client calls.
Avoma
Pricing: AI Meeting Assistant: $19/user/mo · Conversation Intelligence add-on: $29/user/mo · Revenue Intelligence add-on: $39/user/mo (billed annually)
Avoma positions itself as a modular alternative to Gong for mid-market revenue teams. The base plan covers recording, transcription, and CRM sync. Add-on modules layer in conversation intelligence (call scoring, smart trackers, coaching scorecards) and revenue intelligence (deal risk alerts, win/loss analysis, pipeline inspection). This modular approach lets teams pay only for what they need.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Modular pricing — add coaching or revenue intelligence only when needed
- MEDDIC, SPICED, and custom CRM field auto-population
- AI call scoring and coaching scorecards
- Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM integration
- Botless recording option available
- Free viewer seats for collaborators
Limitations:
- Full-featured setup ($19 base + $29 CI + $39 RI) reaches $87/user/mo — approaching Gong territory
- Some users report recorder reliability issues (late joins, mid-meeting drops)
- Base plan transcription accuracy varies with audio quality
- Smaller user community than Gong or Fellow
Best for: Mid-market revenue teams that want Gong-like capabilities with more pricing flexibility and no platform fees. Particularly suited for teams using MEDDIC or similar structured methodologies.
tl;dv
Pricing: Free plan (unlimited recordings) · Pro: $18/user/mo · Business: $59/user/mo (billed annually)
tl;dv offers one of the most generous free tiers in this category — unlimited recordings and transcriptions in 30+ languages at no cost. The Business plan adds sales playbook monitoring, objection handling analytics, coaching tools, and deeply customizable CRM integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Unlimited free recordings make it easy to trial across a team
- Sales playbook monitoring with MEDDIC/BANT scorecards (Business plan)
- Objection handling analytics across calls
- Multi-meeting intelligence — analyze patterns across conversations
- Video clip creation for sharing key moments
Limitations:
- Steep jump from Pro ($18) to Business ($59) for coaching features
- CRM integrations on Business plan limited to deal/company level with open text fields
- Playbook setup requires 10–15 hours of sales leader configuration
- No bot-free recording option
- GDPR-focused (EU data storage) — may be a plus or consideration depending on your team
Best for: Sales teams that want to start free and scale into coaching features. The generous free tier makes it easy to get buy-in before committing budget. Strong for teams that value multi-meeting pattern analysis.
Fathom
Pricing: Free (unlimited recordings) · Premium: $19/user/mo · Team: $29/user/mo · Team Pro: $39/user/mo (billed monthly; ~25% less annually)
Fathom has built a strong reputation for fast, accurate summaries and one of the best free plans in the category. It delivers meeting summaries within 30 seconds of a call ending and integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Close CRM for automatic contact matching and deal logging. The Team Pro plan adds coaching scorecards and deal views.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Unlimited free recordings and transcription — no monthly caps
- Instant AI summaries (within ~30 seconds of call end)
- HubSpot and Salesforce auto-logging with field mapping
- 5.0 average rating on G2 (6,500+ reviews)
- Real-time coaching alerts (talk-time, monologue detection)
Limitations:
- Free plan limits AI summaries to 5/month — most users need to upgrade
- Coaching and deal views locked behind Team Pro ($39/mo)
- Bot joins meetings as a visible participant — no bot-free option
- Primarily focused on virtual meetings; limited in-person support
- Keyword alerts and advanced search require paid plans
Best for: Individual reps and small teams on a budget who want reliable transcription and CRM sync without paying anything upfront. The free tier is the most generous for unlimited recording.
Otter.ai
Pricing: Free (300 min/mo) · Pro: $8.33/user/mo · Business: $20/user/mo · Enterprise: custom (billed annually)
Otter is a well-known transcription tool that has expanded into meeting intelligence. It offers real-time transcription, live collaborative notes, and channel-based organization. Its OtterPilot for Sales feature — available only on the Enterprise plan — extracts sales insights, drafts follow-up emails, and syncs to Salesforce and HubSpot.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Real-time collaborative transcription during meetings
- Bot-free recording option via Chrome extension (Google Meet)
- Clean, searchable interface for reviewing past conversations
- Affordable entry-level pricing
Limitations:
- Sales-specific features (OtterPilot for Sales) require Enterprise plan
- Free plan caps meetings at 30 minutes each
- Supports only English, French, and Spanish
- Minute-based caps on all plans can be restrictive for high-volume teams
- Users report account management and billing friction
Best for: Teams that prioritize real-time collaborative transcription and already use Google Meet. Less suited for sales-specific workflows unless you're on the Enterprise plan.
Cirrus Insight
Pricing: Salesforce Sync: $10/user/mo · Pro: $21/user/mo · Expert: $29/user/mo
Cirrus Insight takes a different approach from the other tools on this list. Rather than starting with meeting recording, it's built around Salesforce integration — syncing emails, calendar events, and activities directly from Gmail or Outlook into Salesforce without reps ever leaving their inbox. It has recently added meeting AI for pre-call research, transcription, and conversation intelligence features.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Deepest native Salesforce integration on this list
- Inbox-native workflows — reps never leave Gmail/Outlook
- Email tracking, attachment tracking, and buyer signals
- Smart scheduling with automated lead routing
- Transparent, flexible per-feature pricing with no platform fees
Limitations:
- Salesforce-only — no HubSpot, Pipedrive, or other CRM support
- Meeting intelligence and conversation features are newer and less mature
- Better suited to Gmail/Outlook users — limited standalone value
- Users report occasional sync issues and bugs requiring reauthorization
- Smaller market presence than other tools on this list
Best for: Salesforce-centric sales teams that need CRM data hygiene and email/calendar sync more than call recording. Pairs well with a dedicated meeting recorder.
Krisp
Pricing: Free (limited) · Pro: $12/user/mo · Business: $15/user/mo · Enterprise: custom
Krisp built its reputation on AI noise cancellation, and that remains its strongest feature. The platform has expanded into meeting transcription, summaries, and CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive via Zapier), but its meeting intelligence capabilities are less developed than purpose-built alternatives. Its fully bot-free, on-device processing approach makes it appealing for privacy-sensitive client calls.
Sales-specific strengths:
- Best-in-class noise cancellation improves audio quality for all calls
- Completely bot-free — processes audio on-device
- Works across any conferencing app (Zoom, Teams, Meet, Slack)
- CRM integration via Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier
- Supports in-person meetings via mobile app
Limitations:
- Meeting notes and summaries are basic compared to competitors
- No conversation intelligence, coaching, or deal analytics
- Limited customization of AI output
- Free plan restricted to 60 minutes of noise cancellation and 2 AI summaries daily
- Smaller integration ecosystem than Fellow or Fireflies
Best for: Sales reps working from noisy environments or who need completely invisible recording for sensitive client calls. Best paired with another tool for deeper meeting intelligence.
When to Choose a Conversation Intelligence Platform vs. an AI Note-Taker
Choose Gong or Chorus when: You have 50+ reps, deals over $50K ACV with multi-month cycles, a dedicated enablement team, and budget for $1,200–$2,000+ per user annually. You need pipeline forecasting powered by conversation data, structured coaching programs, and cross-organizational deal analytics.
Choose an AI meeting assistant like Fellow when: You're a growing sales team that needs CRM sync, reliable meeting capture, and basic coaching features without a six-figure annual commitment. Tools like Fellow, Avoma, tl;dv, and Fathom cover 80% of what most sales teams need at 10–20% of the cost of Gong.
Consider combining tools when: Some teams pair a lightweight meeting assistant (Fellow or Fathom for daily capture and CRM sync) with a Salesforce-native tool like Cirrus Insight for data hygiene, or use Krisp for noise cancellation alongside any other recorder.
Comparison at a Glance
- Gong — Full conversation intelligence, coaching, and deal analytics. Premium pricing, no bot-free option. Best for enterprise.
- Chorus — Conversation intelligence bundled with ZoomInfo's contact database. Best for existing ZoomInfo customers.
- Fellow — AI meeting assistant with strong privacy controls, bot and botless recording options, and CRM sync.
- Avoma — Modular pricing lets you add coaching and revenue intelligence as needed. Approaches Gong cost at full stack.
- tl;dv — Most generous free tier with unlimited recordings. Sales coaching on Business plan ($59/mo).
- Fathom — Best free option for individual reps. Fast summaries and solid CRM integration. Bot-based only.
- Fireflies — Broad language support and integrations. Sales features require Business plan.
- Otter — Strong real-time transcription. Sales features locked behind Enterprise plan.
- Cirrus Insight — Deepest Salesforce integration. CRM-first, meeting intelligence second.
- Krisp — Best noise cancellation and fully bot-free recording. Basic meeting intelligence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between conversation intelligence and an AI meeting assistant?
Conversation intelligence platforms (Gong, Chorus) analyze sales interactions at scale — tracking deal risks, coaching reps, scoring calls, and feeding data into revenue forecasts. AI meeting assistants (Fellow, Fathom, tl;dv) focus on recording, transcribing, and summarizing meetings with CRM sync. The former costs 5–10x more but provides deeper analytics. Many teams find an AI meeting assistant covers their needs unless they're running a large enterprise sales org.
Do I need bot-free recording for sales calls?
It depends on your buyers. Some prospects are uncomfortable when a bot named "Fathom Notetaker" or "Fireflies.ai" joins the call as a visible participant. If you sell to privacy-conscious industries (healthcare, finance, legal) or senior executives, bot-free recording from Fellow, Krisp, or Avoma can help maintain a natural conversation. For internal team meetings and less formal calls, a visible bot is usually fine.
Can an AI meeting assistant replace Gong?
For recording, transcription, CRM sync, and basic methodology tracking — yes. Tools like Fellow and Avoma handle these workflows well. Where Gong remains ahead is in cross-deal analytics at scale, pipeline forecasting powered by conversation data, and structured coaching programs with scorecards. If your team has fewer than 30–40 reps and doesn't need pipeline forecasting from call data, an AI meeting assistant likely covers your needs.
Which tool is best for a small sales team just starting out?
Once you need CRM integration, Fellow's Team plan at $7/user/month or Fathom's Premium at $15/month (annual) are cost-effective next steps. Avoid over-investing in conversation intelligence platforms until your team has enough call volume to make pattern analysis meaningful.
How important is CRM integration for sales teams?
Extremely important. The primary value of these tools for sales teams isn't the transcript itself — it's eliminating manual CRM data entry. Look for tools that auto-match contacts, populate deal fields (not just dump text), and support your specific methodology fields. Fellow, Avoma, and Fathom all offer structured CRM field mapping, which is significantly more useful than simple transcript logging.
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