Granola vs Otter vs Fathom in 2026: which fits which workflow — and when none of them fit

Granola, Otter, and Fathom are three different shapes of the same idea. Granola is a bot-free AI notepad for individuals on Mac and Windows; Otter is the transcription veteran whose bot attends calls for you; Fathom is a recorder-first tool with an unusually generous free tier and deep CRM hooks. Choose by workflow, not by brand.

Most three-way comparisons treat these as interchangeable "AI notetakers". They are not — they disagree on the most basic question in the category: what happens during the meeting. Granola stays out of the call and enhances the notes you type. Otter sends a bot into the call by default. Fathom records the call and treats the recording as the product. Everything else — pricing, collaboration, integrations — follows from that choice.

Granola pioneered the bot-free posture: it records device audio locally through its desktop app, so no participant joins your call, and it polishes the rough notes you type during the meeting into a clean summary. It is Mac-first with a Windows app and a polished iPhone app for capture on the go, and it holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification, per Granola's security page. The trade-offs: it is desktop-only — there is no full web editor — its free Basic plan keeps notes visible for only 30 days, per Granola's pricing page, and permissions are workspace-level, so its team surface is still maturing. Business is $14/user/month and Enterprise is $35/user/month.

Otter has been transcribing meetings longer than almost anyone, and it shows: a full web app, mobile apps on iOS and Android, OtterPilot for Sales, and enterprise compliance depth — SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA on Enterprise, SSO/SCIM. Its defining choice is the bot: OtterPilot joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls as a visible participant by default (a bot-free desktop/Chrome option exists). The costs are metering and the document: the free plan is 300 minutes a month with a 30-minute cap per meeting, and Otter Business is $19.99/user/month billed annually ($30 monthly) yet still caps in-app transcription at 1,200 minutes a month, per Otter's pricing page. There is no real-time collaborative editor, Otter Chat works on one meeting at a time, and Otter has historically used customer data to improve its models, per its privacy policy.

Fathom's free tier is genuinely hard to beat: unlimited recordings, transcription, and storage, with AI summaries capped at 5 per month, per Fathom's pricing page. It is a polished, mature recorder — transcription in 28 languages, highlight clips, and deep native integrations into HubSpot, Salesforce, Close, and Slack that make it a favourite of sales teams. It historically joined calls as a bot and added bot-free modes in April 2026, so both postures are available. The trade-off is the writing surface: Fathom is recorder-first — the notepad is a sidebar, there is no real-time co-edited document, and web access is for viewing recordings and management rather than a full editor. Paid plans are Team at $19/month ($15 annual) and Business at $34/month ($25 annual).

Granola is better if you attend your own meetings and want notes without a bot: local capture, a real notepad, and a cheaper Business tier at $14/user/month. Otter is better if you need meetings covered that you don't attend — its bot joins for you — or if you need mobile apps, a full web app, and enterprise compliance like HIPAA and SSO/SCIM. The philosophical split is real: Granola assumes you are present and typing; Otter assumes a recorder attends on your behalf. Decide which meeting you are actually in, and the choice mostly makes itself.

Pick Granola if the notes are the point: you type during the call, and Granola turns your fragments into a structured summary, bot-free. Pick Fathom if the recording is the point: unlimited free recordings, highlight clips, and CRM pushes into HubSpot or Salesforce make it the stronger sales tool, per Fathom's pricing page. Fathom's free tier is far more generous on volume; Granola's free plan limits note visibility to 30 days. For a sales team living in a CRM, Fathom; for a founder or PM who writes, Granola.

Both will send a recorder into your calls — Otter by default, Fathom as one of two modes. Fathom wins on price at low volume: its free tier records without limits where Otter's free plan caps you at 300 minutes a month, and Fathom Team at $19/month ($15 annual) undercuts Otter Business at $19.99/user/month annual with its 1,200-minute cap, per both vendors' pricing pages. Otter wins on breadth: mobile apps, a full web app, live-transcription pedigree, and deeper compliance (HIPAA on Enterprise, SSO/SCIM). Sales teams tend toward Fathom; distributed teams that transcribe everything tend toward Otter.

• You attend your own meetings, type notes, and want no bot: Granola.
• Meetings happen without you and something must attend them: Otter — its bot is the point, not a bug.
• You run high-volume sales calls and live in HubSpot or Salesforce: Fathom.
• You want the cheapest way to record everything: Fathom free, with the 5-summaries-per-month cap in mind.
• You need HIPAA or SSO/SCIM today: Otter Enterprise.
• Your notes must live in one team workspace everyone edits together: none of the three is built for that — which is the gap the next section addresses.

This is where the disclosure matters: Reline is our product, so read this section as a vendor stating its case rather than a neutral referee. The case is a gap the table above leaves open. Granola is bot-free but solo-shaped and desktop-only. Otter is team-scale but sends a bot and gives you no shared document. Fathom records generously but is a recorder, not a notepad. If your team wants bot-free capture and a shared workspace, none of the three quite covers it.

Reline is built for that combination. The desktop app captures mic and system audio locally on macOS and Windows — no bot joins, and it works with anything that makes sound, from Zoom to Meet to Teams to in-person (Linux is in beta: mic capture works, system audio is in testing). Capture is local; transcription, AI, and storage run in our cloud and never train models. Notes land in a Notion-style page your team co-edits in real time with five permission levels, the live transcript is speaker-separated, summaries cite the exact transcript segment they came from, transcription covers 60+ languages, and RAG chat answers questions across your whole workspace. The free plan is 10 hours of transcription a month, 1 hour per note, unlimited notes, no card; Professional is $15/user/month ($12 annual) with unlimited recording; Enterprise is $32/user/month ($26 annual) with SSO and audit log.

And the honest other side — Reline is the wrong pick when:

• You need a recorder to attend meetings you skip. Reline has no bot by design; Otter or Fathom cover that.
• You need mobile apps today. Granola has a polished iPhone app and Otter ships iOS + Android; Reline does not yet.
• You require SOC 2 certification now. Granola and Otter hold SOC 2 Type 2; Reline doesn't have the certificate today.
• You want unlimited free recording volume. Fathom's free tier out-records everyone, Reline included.
• You need deep native CRM pushes today. Fathom (HubSpot, Salesforce, Close) and Granola (Attio, HubSpot, Affinity) are ahead; Reline's integrations are still rolling out.