Skip to content
effecthub

Fathom vs Fireflies.ai

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Fathom starts at $20, Fireflies.ai at $10. Both have a free tier. Both ship a public API.

Side by side

FactFathomFireflies.ai
CategoryMeeting AssistantsMeeting Assistants
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$20 month$10 month
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, macOS, APIWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome Ext, API, Slack App
CompanyFathomFireflies.ai Corp.
Launched20202016
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Fathom

The best free notetaker on the market, and the paid tiers are cheap enough that most sales teams can skip a dedicated revenue-intelligence platform. Pick it unless you need deep conversation analytics, in which case Gong is still a different class of product.

Pros

  • Free tier includes unlimited recordings, transcripts and clips, which competitors gate
  • Bot-free capture avoids the awkward third participant in the call
  • Public API and MCP server on paid plans, plus native Claude and ChatGPT integrations
  • Aggressive switching offers: free Business for Gong contract holders, 10 free nonprofit seats

Cons

  • CRM sync is capped at three users per domain on lower tiers
  • Team plan requires a two-seat minimum, so a solo user pays the $20 Premium rate
  • Advanced and custom summary templates sit behind the higher tiers
  • Account-wide Ask Fathom search is still marked beta and has lookback limits by tier

Fireflies.ai

Unlimited transcription on the free tier is the hook and it is genuinely unlimited — the meter sits on storage and AI credits, which is where any team of real size ends up on a paid seat.

Pros

  • Transcription minutes are unlimited on every tier, including Free
  • API access is not paywalled — it starts on the free plan
  • Pro at $10/seat undercuts most rival meeting assistants
  • Storage becomes unlimited from the $19 Business tier

Cons

  • Monthly billing is about 1.8x the annual rate on Pro and 1.5x on Business
  • AI credits, not transcription, are the real ration — 20 a month on both Free and Pro
  • Free storage is 400 minutes for the entire team, not per person
  • Enterprise is annual-only at $39/seat

Which one fits

Choose Fathom if you need

  • Individuals who want unlimited recording and summaries without paying anything
  • Small sales teams that need CRM notes written automatically after every call
  • Anyone who wants meeting context piped into ChatGPT or Claude via API/MCP

Choose Fireflies.ai if you need

  • Sales and success teams who want call notes landing in the CRM by themselves
  • Distributed teams searching across months of past meetings
  • Developers pulling meeting data out through an API on any plan

All Fathom alternatives →All Fireflies.ai alternatives →Browse all Meeting Assistants