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 on WebGPU (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. The trade-off is real: there is no video recording, and team features are limited to public share links.

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, export — happens entirely on-device. Pro's cloud backup syncs transcript text only, never audio. 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 June 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 Pro costs $8/mo, or $5/mo billed annually, with a 7-day free trial. Pro adds unlimited AI summaries, cloud text backup and cross-device sync, full-text search across meetings, and public share links; an "Ask your meetings" Q&A feature is in development. The free tier includes unlimited recording and live transcription in 29 languages, on-device speaker identification, the high-accuracy polish pass, Markdown export, and 10 AI summaries per month signed in (3 without an account).

At annual billing, now recording Pro is $60/year 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 ships today (now recording's equivalent is still in development), 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.

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 on the free tier — useful for one-off recordings or trying it in 30 seconds. There is no bot to announce itself in your meeting or get blocked by a host. It works with any meeting software or in-person conversation with zero setup or calendar access. And Pro is less than half the price of Fathom Premium ($8 vs $20 monthly; $5 vs $16 annual).

frequently asked questions

Does now recording upload my audio anywhere?

No. Recording and transcription run on your device using Whisper on WebGPU (or 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 Pro's text-only cloud backup.

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. The free tier works with no account and no install on the web: unlimited recording, unlimited live transcription in 29 languages, speaker identification, and 3 AI summaries per month (10 per month if you sign in). 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, summaries, and Markdown exports. If you need video recordings, clips, or playlists, Fathom is the better choice.

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.