Fathom vs Granola

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.

The short answer

Entry price: Fathom from $20/mo, Granola from $14/seat/mo — different billing units, so no direct winner
Free plan: Both have one
Public API: Both have one
Best fit: Fathom: Individuals who want unlimited recording and summaries without paying anything · Granola: Founders, salespeople and consultants in back-to-back external meetings who want a brief before and a summary after
Platforms: Fathom: Web, macOS · Granola: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

FathomMeeting recorder with instant summaries and CRM write-back

GranolaMeeting notepad that captures computer audio without a bot and merges your typed notes with the transcript into a summary.

Side by side

Fact	Fathom	Granola
Category	Meeting Assistants	Meeting Assistants
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$20/mo	$14/seat/mo
Public API	Yes	Yes
Trust score	94 / 100	91 / 100
Platforms	Web, macOS, API	macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, API
Company	Fathom	Granola, Inc.
Launched	2020	—
Last verified	Sep 6, 2026	Sep 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

Granola

Granola is the note-taker for people who dislike note-taker bots: nothing joins the call, you keep writing your own shorthand, and the transcript fills in what you missed. The free tier is genuinely usable for an individual as long as you do not need notes older than a month; teams pay $14 a seat for history, integrations and the API, and anyone who wants a searchable archive of every call they ever had should budget for that from day one.

Pros

Bot-free capture through system audio works on every meeting platform and in person
Your typed notes stay the backbone; the AI enhances rather than overwrites them
Native apps on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android and Apple Watch
MCP connector and, on Business, an API and Notion/Zapier/HubSpot integrations
Free tier with unlimited notes and Slack sharing

Cons

Free plan keeps only 30 days of meeting history
Business and Enterprise prices are listed without saying whether they are annual or monthly rates
Model-training opt-out is per user below Enterprise, so a team cannot enforce it centrally
Captures only what the computer hears — a muted colleague's side on a phone call is lost

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 Granola if you need

Founders, salespeople and consultants in back-to-back external meetings who want a brief before and a summary after
People who take their own notes and want them enhanced, not replaced
Teams that cannot have a visible bot in client or candidate calls