Fathom Alternatives: Bot-Free Note Takers Compared

The best Fathom alternatives for people who'd rather not have a recorder bot in the call are Nod, Granola, Jamie, and Tactiq. Fathom is a popular free notetaker, but it works by joining your meeting as a bot and storing a cloud recording. The tools below capture audio on your device instead, and differ most on whether any recording is kept and where your data is hosted.

Why look for a Fathom alternative?

Fathom is well-liked, especially for its free tier. Common reasons people compare it anyway:

• The visible bot. Fathom joins the call as a participant — noticeable on sales calls, interviews, and sensitive conversations.
• Cloud recordings. It stores recordings of your meetings; not every team wants that.
• Hosting region. EU-based teams often want data in the EU rather than the US.
• Platform fit. Some want a Mac-native tool that also captures phone calls on speaker, not just video meetings.

These are priorities, not knocks — and the category now serves each.

How we compared these alternatives

Each tool is scored on whether it sends a bot into the call, whether it stores audio, where data is hosted, the platforms it supports, and pricing. Competitor details reflect common documentation as of this article's publish date; verify specifics on each vendor's page. The Nod row is first-party.

Comparison table

The alternatives, one by one

Nod

Nod captures your Mac's own audio, so it never joins the meeting as a participant. The headline difference from Fathom is no stored audio: it's held in memory about five seconds to transcribe, then discarded — only the transcript and summary are saved, encrypted in the EU with no model training. Capture is local; transcription runs in the EU cloud with Zero Data Retention. You get structured recaps (topics, decisions, action items, open questions) plus cross-meeting "Ask Nod" search, and it captures phone calls on speaker too. Honest limits: macOS only, with fewer integrations than Fathom.

Granola

Granola is a strong pick if you want bot-free capture on Mac or Windows and are comfortable with US cloud AI; it deletes audio after transcribing. Detail in our Granola comparison.

Jamie

Jamie pairs a botless desktop app with EU servers on some plans — the natural choice if you need cross-platform desktop coverage with EU hosting.

Tactiq

Tactiq reads live captions in the browser, capturing text only and no audio stream — clean for browser-based calls, dependent on platform captions.

Which should you pick?

• Maximum privacy on Mac (no stored audio, EU hosting): Nod.
• Cross-platform desktop + EU hosting: Jamie.
• Browser-only, text-only: Tactiq.
• A free, bot-based tool you're fine having in the call: Fathom itself is a reasonable pick.

More context in Nod vs traditional meeting bots and meeting notes without a bot.