Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom: Meeting Notes
I logged 30 hours of meetings through Otter, Fireflies, and Fathom. Real comparison of transcription accuracy, summaries, and the best AI notetaker in 2026.
Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom
I ran all three on the same 30 hours of Zoom/Meet/Teams calls for a month. Here’s which AI notetaker actually saves you time.
Comparison Table
| Feature | Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai | Fathom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transcription accuracy | Very good | Very good | Very good |
| Summary quality | Excellent | Good | Excellent (best) |
| Bot joins meetings | Yes (OtterPilot) | Yes (Notetaker) | Yes |
| Action item extraction | Strong | Strong | Strong |
| CRM integration | Salesforce, HubSpot | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive | HubSpot, Salesforce, close.ai |
| Search across meetings | Yes | Yes (strong) | Yes |
| Price (starter) | $10/mo | $10/mo | Free tier (generous) |
My Real-World Testing
Otter is the veteran and it shows — OtterPilot live-captures in-meeting and you can chat with it during the call (“what did we agree on?”). Its summaries are the most detailed, with clear action items and speaker labels. For sales teams, the Salesforce integration is mature. The downside: the UX feels dated and the bot sometimes struggles on calls with heavy accents or crosstalk.
Fireflies is the analytics-minded pick. Beyond notes, it scores talk-time, sentiment, and keyword tracking across your meetings — useful for sales coaching (“you talked 70% of the time”). Search across all past meetings is its superpower (“when did we last discuss the Acme deal?”). Summaries are good but a touch more generic than Otter/Fathom. Best for revenue teams that want coaching data, not just notes.
Fathom is my personal favorite. Summaries are the cleanest and most skimmable — it nails the “what happened, what’s next” structure without fluff. The free tier is genuinely generous (unlimited recording, just limited AI features), which makes it the easy pick for solo users and small teams. CRM integrations are solid. The only gap: less of the coaching/analytics layer Fireflies has.
Verdict
Fathom for cleanest summaries and best free tier — my default recommendation for most people. Otter for in-meeting live chat and deep Salesforce workflows. Fireflies for sales teams that want coaching analytics. All three transcribe accurately; the difference is the surrounding workflow.