Our verdict
Fathom and Otter.ai are both general-notetaker tools for restaurants. On our independent rubric, Fathom scores 4.5/5 versus 4.4/5 for Otter.ai. Otter.ai is the cheaper entry point (Free (Basic); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly)). Choose Fathom if you're Individuals who want unlimited free recording and transcription or Sales teams wanting CRM sync, Deal View, and AI scorecards; choose Otter.ai if you're Teams running mostly Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls or Users who want to search and query a large meeting archive by chat.
Side-by-side comparison
| Metric | Fathom | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 4.5/5 | 4.4/5 |
| G2 rating | — | — |
| Capterra rating | — | — |
| Starting price | Free; Premium $16/mo annual ($20 monthly) | Free (Basic); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly) |
| Free tier | ||
| Free trial | ||
| Integrations | 8 · Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams… | 7 · Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet… |
| Best for | Individuals who want unlimited free recording and transcription, Sales teams wanting CRM sync, Deal View, and AI scorecards, Users who want a choice of bot-free or bot capture | Teams running mostly Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls, Users who want to search and query a large meeting archive by chat, Buyers who want a free tier to evaluate before paying |
| Category | general-notetaker | general-notetaker |
| Founded | 2020 | 2016 |
| HQ | San Francisco, California, USA | Mountain View, California, USA |
A teal check marks the stronger option on each measurable row. Ratings are sourced from G2/Capterra with attribution on each listing.
Fathom
- Unlimited free recording, transcription, and storage
- Choice of bot-free or bot capture
- Strong sales tooling (Deal View, AI scorecards, CRM sync)
- Affordable Premium tier (~$16/mo annual)
- Free plan limited to 5 AI summaries per month
- Team tiers require a 2-user minimum
- Multilingual coverage trails the broadest competitors
Otter.ai
- Free Basic tier with 300 monthly minutes for evaluation
- Mature natural-language chat across all past meetings
- Live shared notes visible to all participants
- Affordable annual Pro pricing (~$8.33/user/mo)
- Pro plan is capped at 1,200 recording minutes per month
- Bot-based capture only; no fully bot-free mode
- Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted via demo
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