Fathom vs tl;dv (2026): Hands-On Comparison, Full Feature Table, Real Pricing, and the Verdict

Short answer: choose Fathom if you are an individual or small team who wants clean AI summaries fast, the most generous free plan, and bot-free recording on Zoom. Choose tl;dv if you run a sales or customer-success team that needs coaching scorecards, multi-meeting intelligence, deeper CRM field automation, and the widest language support. Both are capable AI notetakers with a real free tier, both work across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and both land in the strong tier for transcription accuracy on clean audio. The deeper question most comparisons skip is capture method: tl;dv always sends a recording bot, and Fathom sends one on Meet and Teams, so neither is fully botless. If a bot in the room is the thing you actually want to avoid, that changes the decision, which is why we include the botless option (Scribbl) below.

We are the makers of Scribbl, and we are upfront about it. We ran the same real calls through Fathom and tl;dv in June 2026 and report what we found. Treat us as a primary source on Scribbl and a fair-but-interested reviewer of Fathom and tl;dv. This is a comparison, not a takedown: both are good tools that simply make different trade-offs. Where we cite a competitor price, feature, or accuracy figure, we mark it approximate and tell you to confirm it on that vendor's site, because these details change often.

Choose Fathom if / Choose tl;dv if

Choose Fathom if

• You are an individual or small team who wants clean notes without admin overhead
• You want the most generous free plan: unlimited recording with a monthly summary cap
• You value speed: fast summaries, real-time highlights during the call, and quick clip sharing
• You record mostly on Zoom and like that Fathom records it without a visible bot
• You want a simple CRM push of summaries, not deep field automation

Choose tl;dv if

• You run a sales or CS team that needs coaching, scorecards, and playbooks
• You want multi-meeting and deal-level intelligence across many calls, not one recap at a time
• You need deeper CRM automation: structured fields, MEDDIC, deal stages auto-populated
• You hold multilingual meetings and need wide language coverage
• A recording bot joining the call is acceptable in your meetings

If neither column fully fits, because the part you actually want to avoid is the bot in the room, skip to the bot vs botless section and the botless option below.

How we tested Fathom vs tl;dv

This is the part most comparisons skip, so it is where we put the work. We did not just read feature pages. We ran the same calls through both tools in June 2026 and compared the real output.

• The test set. A scripted 30-minute call read aloud over Zoom and Google Meet, including a fast back-and-forth segment, two non-native English speakers, a short non-English passage, and a deliberate stretch of sales and product jargon with proper nouns and made-up product names, plus one genuinely messy real internal call with overlapping talk.
• Accuracy. We compared each transcript against a human reference, with extra attention to product names, numbers, accented speech, and the crosstalk segment. We report accuracy as a relative tier (strong, good, mixed) rather than a single decimal, because results swing with audio quality and we will not imply more precision than a fair test supports.
• Capture and visibility. We noted whether a bot joined, whether attendees saw it, and what happened on each platform, including any admission step.
• After the call. We judged the summary quality, action items, clips, multi-meeting reports, the coaching output, and the CRM and follow-up flow.
• Price and ratings. We pulled each tool's published plans and pointed to where its third-party reviews live (G2, Capterra) so you can sanity-check both yourself.

2

Tools run head to head (plus Scribbl)

2

Platforms (Zoom and Meet)

30 min

Scripted call plus a messy real one

Fathom vs tl;dv: the complete feature table

This is the asset two of the three top results either lack or bury. Here is the full feature-by-feature comparison, with Scribbl included as the botless reference point. A check means the capability is available on at least one current plan; a short label flags an important caveat. Prices and language counts are approximate as of June 2026 and change often, so confirm each on the vendor's own pricing page. Accuracy is from our June 2026 test.

Feature	Scribbl	Fathom	tl;dv
No bot ever joins the call		Zoom only	–
Works on Meet, Zoom, and Teams
Free plan (no credit card)		Generous	Limited
Real-time highlights during the call	Via AI		–
AI meeting summaries and notes
Clips and shareable highlights	Via AI
Multi-meeting / cross-call intelligence	Via ChatGPT or Claude	–
Sales coaching, scorecards, playbooks	–	–
Deep CRM field autofill (MEDDIC, deal stages)	–	Summary push
Ask-AI chat over your meetings	Native ChatGPT/Claude
Connects to the AI you already use		–	–
Wide language support (30+)	Via AI	38+	30+
Mobile app	–
SSO, admin auto-record controls	Team plan	Paid tiers	Paid tiers

A few clarifications, because the SERP is noisy on these:

• Capture method. tl;dv sends a recording bot that joins every call as a participant. Fathom records Zoom without a visible bot but typically joins Google Meet and Microsoft Teams as a participant, so it is partially bot-free, not fully botless. Scribbl is the only one of the three where nothing joins any call.
• Languages. You will see conflicting numbers around the web (38, 40-plus, even 100-plus). The honest read in June 2026 is that both support a wide range, commonly cited at 30-plus for tl;dv and 38-plus for Fathom, and both rely on the same underlying speech engines as everyone else. Treat headline counts as marketing, and test your actual language.
• Coaching and multi-meeting. This is tl;dv's clearest advantage. Scorecards, playbooks, objection-handling, and reports that span many calls are a real product area for tl;dv that Fathom does not match.

Pricing: Fathom vs tl;dv

Pricing should not only live in prose, so here it is plainly. Both tools are cheaper on annual billing than month-to-month, and both have a real free plan. These figures are commonly cited as of June 2026 and change often, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's pricing page before you buy.

Plan	Fathom (approx, confirm)	tl;dv (approx, confirm)
Free	Unlimited recording and transcription; capped AI summaries per month	Recording and transcription; tighter cap on AI notes and uploads
Entry paid	Premium around $15 to $19 per user per month (annual)	Pro around $18 per user per month (annual)
Team / mid	Team tier around $14 to $19 per user per month (annual)	Business around $29 per user per month (annual)
Top tier	Business tier (higher per-seat, confirm)	Enterprise, custom pricing
Billing note	Monthly billing is higher than annual	Monthly billing is higher than annual

The practical takeaway: Fathom's free plan is the more generous of the two, and its entry paid tier tends to come in a touch lower than tl;dv's. tl;dv costs more as you climb because you are paying for coaching and revenue-intelligence features Fathom does not have. Neither is expensive next to enterprise platforms like Gong. And if a free plan that never puts a bot in the call is what you are after, Scribbl is free to start with no credit card; see the Scribbl pricing page for the paid tiers.

The decision most comparisons skip: bot vs botless

Feature tables rank tools by capability count and skip the part that changes the room. The first question is not which summary you prefer. It is whether you want a recording participant in your meeting at all.

A bot-based tool dials an assistant into the call. It is genuinely convenient because one bot can cover every platform, but it appears in the participant list, it may need to be admitted, and people clock it. On an external sales call, a first client meeting, or a sensitive internal review, a named recorder on the roster changes how the conversation goes. tl;dv works this way on every platform. Fathom works this way on Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, recording Zoom natively as the exception.

A botless tool captures what you already see and hear without adding anyone. Scribbl runs as a Chrome extension and desktop app, so there is no extra participant, no admission step, and no email to attendees. Nothing announces itself to your guests. That is a different category from both Fathom and tl;dv, and we go deeper on it in our botless AI notetaker explainer.

Fathom: the fast, generous free pick

Fathom is built for speed. It produces clean AI summaries right after the call, surfaces real-time highlights while you talk, and makes it easy to share short clips, all on a free plan that is more generous than most rivals (unlimited recording, with a monthly cap on AI summaries). If your loop is record, summarize, and send a recap or a highlight, Fathom is a strong, low-friction fit, and it is the more affordable entry point of the two.

Where it falls short: Fathom does not match tl;dv on sales coaching, scorecards, or multi-meeting intelligence, and its CRM integration pushes summaries rather than auto-populating structured deal fields. And it is only partially bot-free: it records Zoom without a visible bot, but it typically joins Google Meet and Microsoft Teams as a participant.

Fathom pros

• Most generous free plan of the two (unlimited recording)
• Fast summaries and real-time highlights during the call
• Records Zoom without a visible bot
• Lower entry price; simple to roll out

Fathom cons

• No real sales coaching or scorecards
• No multi-meeting / cross-call intelligence
• CRM push is summary-level, not structured fields
• Still joins Meet and Teams as a participant

tl;dv: the sales-coaching and multi-meeting pick

tl;dv is built around a recording library and what you can learn across many calls. It records the meeting, generates AI summaries with jump-to timestamps, supports a wide range of languages, and layers on the features sales and CS teams actually buy: coaching scorecards, playbooks, objection-handling analysis, multi-meeting reports, and deeper CRM automation that can auto-populate structured fields and frameworks like MEDDIC. If your workflow is coach reps, track deals across calls, and feed structured data into the CRM, tl;dv has real strengths Fathom does not.

Where it falls short: it is bot-based on every platform, so the recorder joins as a visible participant on each call. Its free plan is tighter than Fathom's, and it costs more as you climb because you are paying for the coaching and revenue features.

tl;dv pros

• Sales coaching: scorecards, playbooks, objection handling
• Multi-meeting and deal-level intelligence across calls
• Deeper CRM field automation (MEDDIC, deal stages)
• Wide language coverage and a searchable library

tl;dv cons

• A recording bot joins every call on every platform
• Tighter free plan than Fathom
• Higher per-seat cost as you add features
• More tool than a non-sales team usually needs

Scribbl: the botless alternative to both

Scribbl is for people who want clean notes and real follow-up with nothing in the call. It captures Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams through a Chrome extension and desktop app, and never dials anyone in: no participant named after the tool, no admission step, no email to attendees. There is a free plan with no credit card, so you can run it on your next call with no billing commitment.

What sets Scribbl apart from a plain notetaker is what happens after the call. Rather than leaving you a transcript to comb through, Scribbl connects your meetings to the AI you already use, ChatGPT or Claude, so the work gets done: the recap drafted, the action items pulled, the follow-up written, and CRM notes ready to paste. Scribbl is rated 5.0 from 3,000 reviews and is used across more than 10,000 organizations. If your team sells, the Scribbl for sales page shows the no-bot flow on prospect calls.

Chrome Web Store rating 5.0

Reviews behind that rating 3,000

Organizations using Scribbl 10,000+

Who each is for

• Pick Fathom if you are an individual or small team who wants fast AI summaries, the most generous free plan, easy clips, and you mostly record on Zoom.
• Pick tl;dv if you run a sales or CS team that needs coaching scorecards, multi-meeting intelligence, structured CRM autofill, and wide language support, and a recording bot is acceptable.
• Pick Scribbl if the thing you actually want to avoid is the bot: botless capture on Meet, Zoom, and Teams, a free plan with no credit card, and your meetings wired into ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up actually happens.

FAQ

Is Fathom or tl;dv more accurate?

In our June 2026 hands-on test, both Fathom and tl;dv landed in the strong tier on clean audio, and both slipped on heavy crosstalk and thick accents, as every tool does. Independent reviewers commonly cite real-world transcription accuracy in the 85 to 90 percent range for this class of tool. There is no meaningful accuracy gap between them on typical calls, so do not pick on accuracy alone. tl;dv advertises wider language coverage if your meetings are not in English. Run one real call in your own language with your own product names before you decide.

Is Fathom or tl;dv free?

Both have a genuine free plan. Fathom's free plan is the more generous of the two: unlimited recording and transcription with a smaller monthly cap on AI summaries. tl;dv's free plan allows recording and transcription but caps the number of AI notes and uploads more tightly. Free-tier limits change often, so confirm the current caps on each vendor's pricing page. If you want a free plan that also never puts a bot in the call, Scribbl is a botless option with no credit card required.

Do Fathom and tl;dv work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams?

Yes. Both Fathom and tl;dv support Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The key difference is how they capture: tl;dv sends a recording bot that joins the call as a participant on every platform, while Fathom can record Zoom natively without a visible bot but typically joins Google Meet and Teams as a participant. If you want zero bot on any platform, Scribbl captures Meet, Zoom, and Teams without ever joining the call.

Which is better for sales teams, Fathom or tl;dv?

tl;dv is the stronger pick for sales teams that want built-in coaching. It offers scorecards, playbooks, objection-handling analysis, multi-meeting and deal-level intelligence, and it can auto-populate structured CRM fields including frameworks like MEDDIC. Fathom is leaner: it pushes clean AI summaries and clips into the CRM but does not match tl;dv's coaching depth. For external prospect calls where you do not want a bot announcing itself, a botless tool like Scribbl keeps the call normal.

What is the main difference between Fathom and tl;dv?

Fathom is built for fast per-meeting output: quick AI summaries, real-time highlights during the call, and easy clip sharing, with a generous free plan. tl;dv is built for cross-call intelligence: a searchable recording library, multi-meeting reports, sales coaching, and deeper CRM field automation, with wider language support. Fathom suits individuals and small teams who want clean notes fast; tl;dv suits sales and CS teams that need coaching and pipeline insight. Both can put a recording bot in the call, which is the deeper question for many buyers.

Does Fathom or tl;dv put a bot in the meeting?

tl;dv sends a recording bot that joins the call as a visible participant on every platform. Fathom records Zoom natively without a visible bot but typically joins Google Meet and Microsoft Teams as a participant. So neither is fully botless across all platforms. If you want notes with nothing ever joining the call, Scribbl is botless on Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, with a free plan and no credit card.

How much do Fathom and tl;dv cost?

Both publish a free plan plus paid tiers, billed cheaper annually than monthly. Fathom's paid tiers are commonly cited around 15 to 19 dollars per user per month on annual billing for Premium and Team, with a Business tier higher. tl;dv's Pro tier is commonly cited around 18 dollars per user per month on annual billing, with a Business tier around 29 dollars and a custom Enterprise tier. Prices change often and vary by billing term, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's pricing page before you buy.

Is there a botless alternative to Fathom and tl;dv?

Yes. Scribbl is botless by design, so no bot ever joins the call, nothing appears in the participant list, and no email is sent to other attendees. It works with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, has a free plan with no credit card, and connects each meeting to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work gets done, not just the notes. It is a separate category from both Fathom and tl;dv, which both rely on a recording participant in their common setups.