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FocusBae vs Fathom

Fathom is a popular free AI notetaker, especially with sales teams. Its notetaker joins Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls as a participant, and recordings, transcripts and summaries live in Fathom’s cloud. FocusBae records on your Mac with no bot, keeps the transcript on your Mac, and focuses on the action items: who promised what, in their own words, and whether it got done.

Feature	FocusBae	Fathom
How it records	On your Mac: microphone, system audio or both. No bot joins.	Its notetaker joins Zoom and Teams calls as a participant. A desktop app can record some calls, such as Google Meet, without one.
Where audio is transcribed	On your Mac by default. Team admins can choose cloud transcription for their workspace.	In Fathom’s cloud.
Where notes are stored	On your Mac. Pages you share with a team sync to FocusBae for teams.	Fathom’s cloud, including the video recording.
Account needed	No. The Mac app works without signing in.	Yes.
Works offline	Yes, once the speech models are downloaded.	No.
AI meeting notes	No. You write the notes; FocusBae suggests action items from the transcript.	Yes. AI summaries and follow-up emails. The free plan includes 5 a month.
Action items	Suggested from the transcript with the exact quote, owner and due date. You accept or dismiss each one.	In each meeting’s AI summary. Limited on the free plan.
Following up	One Actions list across all meetings, and a page per person: what you owe them and what they owe you.	Per meeting, with follow-up emails and CRM sync on paid plans.
Open source	Yes, MIT licence. The code is on GitHub.	No.
Devices	Mac with Apple Silicon, macOS 26 or later. Teams can read and comment on the web.	Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, with a web dashboard.
Price	Free. FocusBae for teams is in a free pilot.	Free with unlimited recordings and 5 AI summaries a month. Premium $20 a month ($16 billed yearly). Team $19 and Business $34 per user.

Checked October 31, 2026. Prices and features change, so check Fathom’s own pages before deciding. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

Choose Fathom if

You want video recordings of your calls, with clips to share.
You want AI summaries and follow-up emails written for you.
You want calls synced to a CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot.
You use Windows, or record mostly through Zoom on any computer.

Choose FocusBae if

You don’t want a bot in your client or team calls.
You don’t want recordings and transcripts stored on someone else’s servers.
You care most about what people promised and whether it got done, across all meetings.
You want action items without a monthly cap, and no account.

Get FocusBae for Mac

Sources

FocusBae details come from the current Mac release and its source code. See all comparisons.