now recording vs fathom

The structural difference: cloud service vs on-device app

Fathom is a cloud notetaker. Whether it captures your meeting with a bot that joins the call or with its newer bot-free desktop capture (added April 2026, currently beta on Mac), the recording is sent to Fathom's servers, where transcription, summarization, and storage happen. That architecture is what enables Fathom's strongest features: video recording with clips and playlists, a conversational meeting assistant, team-wide search, and CRM sync on its Business plan.

now recording inverts this. The Whisper speech-recognition model runs inside your browser — in any current Chrome or Edge, including managed work profiles, with no GPU needed and the model ready in about two seconds (or in the iOS app) — so recording, transcription, speaker identification, and the high-accuracy polish pass all happen on your own hardware. There is no bot, no calendar access, and nothing to integrate — it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or an in-person conversation because it simply captures audio locally, and it can also transcribe existing recordings you drop on the page. The trade-off is real: there is no video recording, and team features are limited to public share links (which do carry the evidence-anchored summary, chapters, speaker stats, transcript, and full exports).

Neither approach is universally better. The question is whether you want a full-featured cloud meeting platform or a private transcription tool.

Privacy: where does your audio actually go?

With Fathom, your meeting audio and video are uploaded to and stored on Fathom's servers. Fathom is a reputable company with standard security practices, but structurally your conversations exist as recordings in someone else's cloud. The April 2026 bot-free capture changes how audio is collected — no visible bot in the participant list — but not where it is processed: the recording still goes to Fathom's cloud.

With now recording, audio never leaves your device. This is not a policy promise; it is an architectural fact you can verify yourself: open your browser's DevTools network tab during a recording and observe that no audio data is transmitted. There is no server that stores audio, because no server ever receives it.

One precise caveat: if you request an AI summary, the transcript text (never the audio) is sent to an LLM API for that one operation. Everything else — transcription, speaker ID, polish pass, speaker stats, export — happens entirely on-device, and imported files (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, MP4 audio) are handled the same way: transcribed on your device, never uploaded. The optional cloud backup for signed-in accounts syncs transcript text only, never audio. The full "what leaves your device" breakdown, with sources, is published at nowrecording.com/trust. If your meetings involve client confidences, health information, legal matters, or anything covered by an NDA, this is the deciding difference between the two products.

Pricing compared (as of July 2026)

Fathom Premium costs $20/mo, or $16/mo billed annually. Team Edition is $19/user/mo ($15 annual, 2-user minimum) and Business Edition is $34/user/mo ($25 annual). Fathom's free plan is genuinely strong — unlimited recordings, transcription, and storage — with advanced AI summaries capped at 5 per month, after which summaries fall back to a generic format.

now recording is currently free for everyone in early access: unlimited recording and live transcription in 29 languages, file import for existing recordings, on-device speaker identification with per-speaker stats, the high-accuracy polish pass, evidence-anchored AI summaries with 7 note templates, and full exports (Markdown, plain text, .srt/.vtt subtitles, JSON, original audio), plus — signed in — cloud text backup, cross-device sync, full-text search across meetings, public share links, and "Ask your meetings", a cross-meeting AI Q&A with cited sources. A paid Pro plan is planned at $8/mo ($5/mo billed annually) but is not purchasable today; the published pricing promise (nowrecording.com/pricing-promise) commits to never metering minutes and never paywalling your history.

Today now recording costs $0 outright; even the planned Pro plan would be $60/year at annual billing versus Fathom Premium's $192/year. If you mostly need transcripts rather than AI summaries, both products are free without limits — the choice then rests on privacy and features, not price.

Where Fathom is better

Fathom records video, not just audio — if you want to rewatch a demo, clip a customer quote, or build playlists for onboarding, now recording cannot do that. Fathom's team features (shared call libraries, comments, keyword alerts, coaching scorecards, CRM field sync) make it the clear choice for sales teams and managers. Its mobile and desktop apps are more mature, its conversational meeting assistant has been shipping for longer, and its free tier includes unlimited cloud storage so your recordings are available on any device without paying. Fathom's fast post-call summary delivery is also widely praised by its users. And because Fathom transcribes on powerful cloud servers, its transcription accuracy can exceed what an on-device Whisper model achieves, particularly on poor audio — now recording narrows the gap with an opt-in high-accuracy re-transcribe pass, but does not claim parity.

Where now recording is better

Audio privacy is the headline: on-device processing means your conversations are never uploaded, stored, or processable by a third party. Beyond that, now recording works without any installation on the web and without an account — useful for one-off recordings or trying it in 30 seconds — and it runs in any current Chrome or Edge, including managed work profiles, with no GPU needed. There is no bot to announce itself in your meeting or get blocked by a host — a point that matters more as Microsoft Teams begins auto-blocking third-party notetaker bots in August 2026; Fathom's bot-free desktop capture sidesteps that, but its bot option does not, and now recording never had a bot to block. It works with any meeting software or in-person conversation with zero setup or calendar access. And it is currently free for everyone in early access; even the planned Pro plan ($8 monthly, $5 annual) would be less than half the price of Fathom Premium ($20 monthly, $16 annual).

Three July 2026 additions sharpen the case. File import: drop any existing recording (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, or the audio of an MP4) on the recorder page and it becomes a full meeting — transcript with timestamps, summary, speaker stats, exports, search — processed on-device, free and unlimited; Fathom offers no file upload at all. Evidence-anchored summaries: every action item and decision in an AI summary cites the exact transcript turn it came from, and the citations are clickable — including on public share pages — so you can check the AI's work instead of trusting it. And exports with an anti-lock-in pledge: Markdown notes, a plain-text transcript, .srt/.vtt subtitles with speaker-labeled cues, full-fidelity JSON, and the original audio, all one click away, backed by the published promise at nowrecording.com/your-data that your data outlives your subscription. Per-speaker stats (talk-time share, turn counts, longest monologue, questions asked) are computed on-device and free.

frequently asked questions

Does now recording upload my audio anywhere?

No. Recording and transcription run on your device using Whisper right in the browser — no GPU needed — or in the iOS app. You can verify this in your browser's DevTools network tab — no audio is transmitted. The only data that ever leaves your device is transcript text, and only when you request an AI summary or use the optional text-only cloud backup (signed in).

Fathom now has bot-free recording — doesn't that make it private too?

Bot-free capture (added April 2026) removes the bot from the participant list, but the recording is still uploaded to and processed on Fathom's cloud servers. now recording processes audio on your device and never uploads it. "No bot" and "no cloud" are different properties; Fathom offers the first, now recording offers both.

Can I use now recording without creating an account?

Yes. It works with no account and no install on the web: unlimited recording, unlimited live transcription in 29 languages, speaker identification, on-device search of your local meetings, and AI summaries — everything is currently free for everyone in early access. Fathom requires an account.

Does now recording work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams?

Yes — and with any other meeting app or in-person conversation. Because it captures audio locally on your device, there is nothing to integrate, no bot to invite, and no calendar access to grant.

Does now recording record video like Fathom does?

No. now recording captures audio and produces transcripts, evidence-anchored summaries, speaker stats, and full exports (Markdown, plain text, .srt/.vtt subtitles, JSON, and the original audio). If you need video recordings, clips, or playlists, Fathom is the better choice.

Can I import an existing recording instead of capturing live?

Yes. Drop an MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, or the audio of an MP4 onto the recorder page and it is transcribed on your device with timestamps — free, unlimited, and the file never uploads. It becomes a full meeting with a summary, speaker stats, exports, and search. Fathom does not offer file upload; it records live meetings only.

Does now recording have an AI assistant like Fathom's?

Yes — "Ask your meetings" is shipped for signed-in users: ask a question across all your meetings and get an answer with cited sources that link to the exact transcript turns. Fathom's conversational assistant is more mature and works over its cloud recordings; now recording's works over transcript text while your audio stays on your device.

What exactly is sent to an AI when I generate a summary?

With now recording, the transcript text of that meeting is sent to an LLM API for the summary — never the audio, which has no copy outside your device. With Fathom, summaries are generated in its cloud, where the full recording already resides.