Comparison
Fathom is a good AI notetaker with a generous free plan, but it records to the cloud, usually with a bot in your meeting. echo99 keeps recording, transcription, and speaker labels on your Mac, with no bot and no account.
Fathom is a cloud AI meeting assistant: it records, transcribes, and summarizes your Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls, extracts action items, and syncs them to your CRM. It is best known for a generous free tier and high-quality summaries. A bot joins the meeting by default; a newer Mac desktop app adds bot-free capture in beta. It runs on the web, macOS, and Windows. If polished AI notes pushed straight into HubSpot or Salesforce are your priority, Fathom is a strong pick, provided cloud processing of your calls is acceptable.
| Feature | echo99 | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| How it records | Captures your mic and your Mac's audio output locally, with no bot in the call | A bot joins Zoom / Meet / Teams by default; a newer Mac desktop app adds bot-free capture (beta) |
| Transcription | On-device after the call, in 25 languages; works offline after a one-time model download | Cloud transcription after the call (a live summary only in the new Mac app); no on-device or offline mode |
| AI notes | On-device summaries (overview, key points, decisions, action items, open questions) written by a local language model; the transcript never leaves your Mac | Fathom's strongest area: instant summaries, action items, and an 'Ask Fathom' assistant, processed in the cloud |
| Raw audio | Keeps mic.wav + system.wav as separate tracks you own | Recordings are stored in Fathom's cloud (transcript-only, audio, or full video), not as local files by default |
| Speaker labels | Me + Them-1, Them-2, … plus on-device speaker recognition that remembers the names you assign across recordings | Speaker attribution in the cloud, including in bot-free recordings |
| Account | None | Account required (Google / Microsoft sign-in, usually with calendar access) |
| Price | Free | Free 'forever' plan (advanced AI summaries limited per month); Premium from $16/user/month, Team from $15/user/month, Business from $25/user/month (billed annually; Team and Business need 2+ users) |
| Platform | macOS 14.4+, Apple silicon and Intel | Web, macOS, Windows, Chrome; for Zoom, Meet, Teams |
| Sharing & integrations | Local WAV + JSON transcripts; Markdown export; no built-in integrations | HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Gmail, and hand-offs to ChatGPT / Claude |
Comparison last verified September 2026. Check both products for current details.
You’re on a sales or customer-success team that needs meetings to record and summarize themselves, AI action items pushed into HubSpot or Salesforce, and shareable, searchable recordings your teammates (including Windows users, or people who missed the call) can open from anywhere. Fathom’s free tier is generous.
You’d rather not sign in with Google or Microsoft, and usually connect your calendar, just to record a call. echo99 needs no account and no calendar; it records whatever plays through your Mac, with no bot, keeps the raw recordings as separate WAV tracks, and transcribes them offline. It is free.
Compare echo99 with other tools: Otter alternative, tl;dv alternative, Granola alternative
Related guides: Speaker identification, Meeting summaries, Local transcription
Free download. No account. Recording and transcription stay on your Mac.
Free · macOS 14.4+ · Apple silicon & Intel · Notarized by Apple