What's the best Fathom alternative that doesn't join the meeting?

On macOS, Nod — it captures your Mac's audio, never appears as a participant, and stores no recording. Granola and Jamie are the other bot-free options worth comparing; see our Fathom alternatives roundup.

Is there a free Fathom alternative?

Fathom's own free tier is hard to beat on price. Nod isn't free — 14 days with no card, then $12–$24 a month billed annually — so if zero cost is the requirement, stay with Fathom. Nod's argument is one consistent bot-free, no-stored-audio contract, not the price.

Does Fathom record my meetings?

It depends on the selected mode and rollout eligibility. Fathom 3.0+ documents transcript-only with no saved recording, audio-only with local audio capture and no video, and audio-plus-video with a participant bot. Its guide currently limits these modes to Mac users with English-language meetings and does not establish audio-only retention. Nod never writes an audio file: sound is held in memory long enough to transcribe and then discarded.

Fathom Alternative: Always Bot-Free, No Stored Audio

A Fathom Alternative That Stays Out of the Call

Fathom is a well-liked AI notetaker with a generous free tier. Fathom 3.0+ documents bot-free transcript-only and audio-only modes alongside a bot-based audio-and-video mode, but its current first-party guide limits that rollout to Mac users with English-language meetings. Nod takes a narrower path on macOS: it is always bot-free and stores no audio in any mode. The right choice depends on the capture, retention, CRM, and team workflow you need.

Download for Mac

14-day free trial · no card

Compare the exact Fathom mode

Fathom's 3.0+ modes have different bot behavior. Its guide says transcript-only is bot-free and saves no recording, audio-only is bot-free and captures audio locally with no video, and audio plus video uses the Fathom bot. The guide does not establish how long audio-only media is retained. Nod has one capture contract: no participant and no retained audio.

Transcript-only. Fathom documents bot-free capture with no retained recording.
Audio-only. Fathom documents bot-free local audio capture with no video; verify retention separately.
Audio and video. Fathom documents a participant bot that records full audio and video.
Nod. One macOS mode: bot-free system-audio capture with no audio stored.

What you get with Nod

A macOS menu-bar app that turns any conversation your Mac can hear into a structured recap you can search across months later. Capture is local on your Mac; transcription isn't. Each audio segment is sent through a European proxy to hosted transcription, and Nod discards it when the text returns. No model trains on the data. Groq may retain transient error or abuse logs for up to 30 days unless Zero Data Retention is enabled. Only the transcript and summary are saved by Nod, encrypted at rest in the EU (AWS eu-west-1). See the security page.

Nothing in the participant list, on any platform
No stored audio; transcript and summary encrypted in the EU, no model training
"Ask Nod" across every meeting, in 35 languages
Live answers mid-call, not only a summary afterwards
Read-only ChatGPT and Claude connectors are built but await directory approval

Where Fathom still wins

Choose Fathom when its free tier, CRM integrations, sharing, administration, or selectable capture modes matter more and you are eligible for the current Fathom 3.0+ rollout. Its first-party guide currently says Mac and English-language meetings only; broader Fathom platform availability does not mean every account has these bot-free modes. Choose Nod when one always-bot-free, no-stored-audio Mac workflow and EU-hosted notes are the requirement.

Fathom's first-party capture-mode documentation is the source of truth: review the current modes before choosing.

See the rest of the field in our Fathom alternatives roundup.

Try it against your own week

14 days free, no card, then $12–$24 a month billed annually (pricing). Download Nod for Mac and compare it with the Fathom mode you would actually use.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best Fathom alternative that doesn't join the meeting?
On macOS, Nod — it captures your Mac's audio, never appears as a participant, and stores no recording. Granola and Jamie are the other bot-free options worth comparing; see our Fathom alternatives roundup.
Is there a free Fathom alternative?
Fathom's own free tier is hard to beat on price. Nod isn't free — 14 days with no card, then $12–$24 a month billed annually — so if zero cost is the requirement, stay with Fathom. Nod's argument is one consistent bot-free, no-stored-audio contract, not the price.
Does Fathom record my meetings?
It depends on the selected mode and rollout eligibility. Fathom 3.0+ documents transcript-only with no saved recording, audio-only with local audio capture and no video, and audio-plus-video with a participant bot. Its guide currently limits these modes to Mac users with English-language meetings and does not establish audio-only retention. Nod never writes an audio file: sound is held in memory long enough to transcribe and then discarded.