Fathom vs Fireflies: Which AI Note Taker is Best for Meeting Notes?

If you’re looking at adopt an AI note taker, you’re probably tired of taking manual notes during work meetings. Also called AI meeting assistants, these tools are able to join your online meetings to record, transcribe, and summarize every moment so all you have to worry about is the conversation at hand.

With multiple AI note taker apps now on the market, it can be difficult to figure out which is the right one for your unique needs. Two of the most common AI meeting assistants are Fathom AI and Fireflies AI and you may have already come across them if you’ve been looking at tools online. 

Both Fathom AI and Fireflies AI seem very similar at first glance. They are both able to turn your meeting data from popular video conferencing tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom into AI meeting notes and meeting transcripts. However, when you compare both their basic functions and advanced features, you’ll find there are key differences.

Here, we’ll take a closer look at the differences between core features to help you choose whether Fathom AI or Fireflies AI is the right fit for you. We’ll also look at a powerful third option that may be an even better choice for teams and organizations.

Fathom: An overview

 
Fathom AI is an note taker app that can transcribe and summarize meetings that take place in popular video conferencing tools like Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. Fathom also creates a library of your past meetings so you have records of your calls. From there, you can create clips of key points from the meeting to share or ask questions with the Ask Fathom chatbot.

Compared to other AI meeting assistants, Fathom AI is a lightweight note taking option and Fathom’s free plan is a popular option. More advanced features such as integrations with CRMs or project management tools are available, but only on their business plan or higher.

Fireflies: An overview

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Like Fathom, Fireflies AI is a straightforward option for meeting notes. It uses AI to transcribe, summarize, and record meetings in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. It also creates a library of past meetings so you can search through your transcripts as well as use AskFred, Fireflies’ built-in chatbot, to ask questions.

Again, similar to Fathom AI, Fireflies AI has a free plan that performs the basics of a meeting notes app, while advanced features are behind a paywall. Some of those features include conversation intelligence, which sets Fireflies apart. Fireflies also offers the ability to upload and transcribe audio and video files and integrations with common dialers.

Fathom vs Fireflies: The final verdict

We won’t make you wait — here’s our final verdict on Fathom vs Fireflies.

In a lot of ways, Fathom and Fireflies are evenly matched. But in the finer details of their more advanced features, we can pinpoint the use cases where either app makes the most sense.

In our evaluation:

Fathom is best suited for freelancers or students who are working solo and need a no frills app for note taking that includes transcriptions, summaries, and recordings.

Fireflies is best suited for a call centre environment due to its unique niche of integrating with popular dialer software.

If neither of those describe your needs, we have another suggestion after a closer look at how Fathom and Fireflies compare.

Fathom vs Fireflies: Comparing key differences between these AI meeting assistants

We know that both Fathom and Fireflies AI can provide AI meeting notes and keep track of your meeting data, but let’s take a closer look at what really sets these note-taking apps apart.\

Meeting workflow support

A great AI meeting assistant doesn’t just record and transcribe your meetings, it will also have advanced features that improve meeting efficiency, such as pre-meeting briefs. When it comes to Fathom vs Fireflies, can either help improve your meeting workflow?

Fathom, as we mentioned, is a lightweight option. Its focus is really on meeting recording, summarization, and transcription, so it offers few features beyond that. One feature it does have is integrations with CRMs including HubSpot, Salesforce, and Close that autosync meeting data to these platforms. 

Fireflies AI can also autofill fields in your CRM based on meeting notes and call logs. Its integrations are more extensive than Fathom and able to connect to project management apps like Asana for keeping track of tasks. Otherwise, like Fathom, Fireflies AI doesn’t offer further meeting management support.

Fireflies AI definitely has more integrations to fit into your workflow, but neither of these apps offer advanced features like meeting agendas, meeting guidelines, or other meeting support. If your goal is to not just record meetings but improve your meetings, neither option fits the bill. Keep reading because we’ll suggest a better AI meeting assistant alternative to these two AI meeting note takers.

Meeting notes and summaries

In the battle of Fathom vs Fireflies, comparing their ability to produce great meeting notes and summaries is top of mind. While this is the main function of both apps, access and quality varies.

Fathom’s free plan includes unlimited AI recordings and transcriptions, but there are limitations on summaries. Your first five recordings per month will have advanced AI summaries, but after that they’ll just be chronological. Some reviews point out that Fathom’s summaries are too simple. “The AI generated summary is often too generic or just... not quite right,” said one review on G2. According to other reviews on G2, users like that Fathom’s summaries link to corresponding timestamps in the video recording.

Fireflies AI also has limited AI summaries on its free plan, so the two are comparable there. For advanced features when it comes to summaries, Fireflies has more options with customizable summary formats that offer more specific details. Fireflies also brings in conversation intelligence which offers an extra layer of insights.

Overall, Fireflies AI has more specificity and options for summaries, giving the user more control over how they’re shown. 

AI accuracy

It’s very important that a note taker app’s AI is able to produce highly-accurate transcriptions. You need to be able to trust that your meetings are transcribed exactly as they happened so that your records are useful. Those transcriptions also influence the summary, so they need to be just right.

Fathom’s AI accuracy has generally been praised in reviews.However, there are also reviews on G2 that say Fathom AI can sometimes struggle with accents or correct speaker identification. In terms of the languages Fathom can transcribe in, it currently supports only 29 languages.

Fireflies AI, right off the bat, is able to transcribe in 116 languages. Like Fathom, reviews of its AI accuracy are generally positive, with one review on G2 saying the “transcriptions are high quality, also in Dutch. It's very useful and saves tons of time.” Again, some others have complained about speaker accuracy issues or Fireflies AI having trouble understanding accents.

Overall, when it comes to Fathom vs Fireflies, both are very comparable on AI accuracy and you can expect 90% to 95% accuracy from both. With all AI meeting assistants, background noise or poor internet connectivity can create less accurate AI transcriptions, so that’s something to look for. Fireflies takes the edge on language support for AI transcriptions, however.

Ease of use

When you’ve downloaded a new AI note taker, you want to be able to dive in and start using it right away. That’s why we’re also going to assess the ease of use of both Fathom and Fireflies AI.

Fathom’s ease of use is perhaps the most talked-about feature of this AI meeting assistant in reviews. Fathom also has intuitive settings for its basic uses, such as having Fathom auto-join meetings or choosing to manually enable video recording. It’s also simple to download recordings, create clips of key points, or set up keyword alerts.

Fireflies AI, on the other hand, can be a bit more complex because it can simply do more. However, reviews still say it's easy enough to use and configure for simple AI recording, meeting transcripts, and summarizing. Like Fathom you can choose to manually enable video recording or have Fireflies AI join meetings automatically. However, reviews do say it can be difficult to navigate and filter through the recording library.

Fathom is a simpler app. While Fireflies AI has more of a learning curve, that’s only because it has more functions. Therefore, it comes down to a trade off between ease of use and which advanced features are a must-have for your needs.

Pricing

Now the big question — how much does it cost to use Fathom or Fireflies? And how does each app’s free version compare?

Fathom’s free plan includes unlimited recording time, storage, and transcriptions, but there are limits on AI summaries, AI action items, customizable summaries, and the Ask Fathom chatbot. Fathom’s CRM and Zapier integrations are also limited on free and lower-tier plans. Here’s how the paid plans break down:

• Premium plan: $15 per user per month, billed annually.
• Team edition plan: $19 per user per month, billed annually.
• Team edition pro plan: $29 per user per month, billed annually.

Fireflies’ free version also has unlimited transcriptions and AI summaries, but is limited to 800 minutes of storage per seat. The free version also allows users to upload and transcribe audio and video files. Features like tasks, average talk time analytics, downloads, clipping key moments, and video recording come at higher tiers. Here’s how the paid plans break down:

• Pro plan: $10 per user per month, billed annually.
• Business plan: $19 per user per month, billed annually.
• Enterprise plan: $39 per user per month, billed annually.

If all you need is the basics, Fathom’s generous free plan is the winner here. At higher tiers, Fireflies offers more features for your money. Therefore, it comes down to what you’ll be using each of these AI note-taking apps for.

A better AI meeting assistant for teams

If Fireflies or Fathom don’t fully meet your team’s needs, Fellow is the smarter choice for organizations and teams in work settings.

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Like Fireflies and Fathom, Fellow integrates with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams to record meetings and provide highly-accurate meeting transcriptions and AI meeting summaries. But unlike those tools, Fellow is more than just a transcription service — it’s a comprehensive meeting efficiency platform designed to help teams collaborate before, during, and after meetings.

From collaborative meeting agendas to automated action items, Fellow ensures your meetings are structured, effective, and impactful. It also offers advanced integrations, robust security, and AI-powered enhancements that help teams work smarter — without compromising privacy.

Why Fellow is better for teams than Fireflies and Fathom:

• Pre-meeting support with collaborative agendas and a library of meeting templates
• AI-powered pre-meeting briefs and post-meeting recaps for better follow-ups
• Pause and resume recordings anytime for better control
• Built-in redaction features to remove sensitive details from transcripts and summaries
• A centralized library for recordings, transcriptions, and AI-generated summaries—available across all plans
• Highly accurate transcription with support for 99+ languages
• 50+ integrations, including AI-powered HubSpot suggestions for sales and customer success teams
• Enterprise-grade security & privacy controls — your data is never used to train AI models
• More value for money: Fellow offers a generous free plan, with paid plans starting at just $7 per user per month

See Fellow’s pricing here

If your team needs more than just a transcript, give Fellow a try and experience how AI-powered meeting productivity can transform the way you work.

Try Fellow for free today.

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