Fathom vs Sembly 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.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan: Sembly AI — $17/mo vs $20/mo for Fathom
Free plan: Only Fathom (Sembly AI has paid plans only)
Public API: Fathom has one; not confirmed by us for Sembly AI
Best fit: Fathom: Individuals who want unlimited recording and summaries without paying anything · Sembly AI: PMOs and consultancies tracking commitments across dozens of calls
Platforms: Fathom: Web, macOS · Sembly AI: Web

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

Sembly AIMeeting recorder producing summaries, tasks and searchable transcripts

Side by side

Fact	Fathom	Sembly AI
Category	Meeting Assistants	Meeting Assistants
Pricing model	Freemium	Paid
Starts at	$20/mo	$17/mo
Public API	Yes	Not confirmed
Trust score	94 / 100	91 / 100
Platforms	Web, macOS, API	Web
Company	Fathom (part of Superhuman)	Sembly AI, Inc.
Launched	2020	2019
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

Fathom

Still one of the most generous free notetakers we have looked at: unlimited recordings and transcripts with no paywall on the basics, and the paid tiers stay cheap for small sales teams. Since September 2026 Fathom belongs to Superhuman (the former Grammarly), so buyers signing annual contracts should expect the product to be pulled toward that suite. Teams that need deep revenue analytics are still better served by Gong-class platforms.

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 and Business both require two seats, so a solo user pays the $20 Premium rate
Business costs $34 per user on monthly billing, $25 only when paid annually
Account-wide Ask Fathom search is still marked beta and has lookback limits by tier

Sembly AI

Worth the premium when you need meetings turned into structured commitments — tasks, risks, decisions — rather than a searchable transcript. If a transcript plus a summary paragraph is all you want, this is priced well above what you need.

Pros

Extracts risks, decisions and tasks as separate items rather than one summary blob
Multi-meeting chat, AI-generated documents and insights from the Pro tier upward
Captures Zoom, Teams, Meet and Webex rather than a single platform
MCP access on Pro and MAX lets external agent clients reach the meeting data

Cons

No standing free tier — every plan's free option is a time-limited trial
Single-user Basic at $17/month sits above several competitors' entry price
The differentiating features all start at Pro, so Basic is a weak comparison point
No public developer API; the /api path resolves to a sales demo form

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 Sembly AI if you need

PMOs and consultancies tracking commitments across dozens of calls
Teams that need to interrogate several meetings at once, not one at a time
Regulated environments needing HIPAA handling, custom SSO and audit logs