Scribbl vs Fathom: The Honest 2026 Comparison

If you are choosing between Scribbl and Fathom, here is the short answer. Pick Scribbl if you do not want a bot ever joining your calls, especially if your meetings live in Google Meet, and you want notes wired into ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up actually gets done; it is botless, works with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, and starts free with no credit card. Fathom, by contrast, typically sends a visible notetaker bot into the meeting. The one decision that changes your day to day is the capture method: a bot in the room or nothing. The rest of this comparison breaks it down row by row with prices and free-plan limits for both, checked October 7, 2026.

Scribbl vs Fathom at a glance

Scribbl and Fathom both turn a live meeting into a transcript, a summary, and action items. Where they split is the question your attendees notice first: does something join the call. The table below is organized around the decisions buyers actually make, with real, dated numbers for both sides so you are not stuck on either vendor's pricing page. Read it, then jump to the section for whichever row decides it for you.

Decision factor	Scribbl	Fathom
Capture method	Botless: nothing joins the call	Notetaker bot joins the call (bot-free capture is a Mac beta)
Visible to attendees	No bot, nothing announced, no email to guests	Yes, the bot appears as a participant
Platforms	Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams	Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
How it runs	Chrome extension (Meet) + desktop app (Zoom, Teams)	Joining bot across supported platforms
Free plan	Free plan: 10 meetings/mo across Google Meet, Zoom and Teams, each with video and AI notes, no credit card	Unlimited recordings and transcripts; advanced AI summaries on your first 5 calls/mo; AI action items need Premium
Entry paid price	Pro $13/user/mo billed annually, or $20 monthly	Premium $16/user/mo billed annually, or $20 monthly; Team $15 or $19 (2-user minimum)
Post-call AI	Summary, action items, ChatGPT or Claude searching one Smart Collection at a time, and Automations do the follow-up	Summaries and highlights; Claude and ChatGPT integrations; Ask Fathom on Premium
Best for	Anyone who wants notes with no bot in the call, on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams	Teams that don't mind a bot joining the call
G2 rating	4.9 from 725 reviews on G2 (plus 5.0 from 3,000 reviews on the Chrome Web Store)	~5 stars across thousands of reviews
Used by	10,000+ organizations	Large, established user base
Recording consent	Disclose and get consent; no bot to admit	Disclose and get consent; bot is visible

If you are also weighing Otter.ai, the third tool most buyers shortlist alongside these two, here is how all three line up on the features that actually decide it. Competitor details below are our best read as of June 2026; confirm anything pricing- or plan-specific on each vendor's own page.

Feature	Scribbl	Otter	Fathom
No bot ever joins the call	Yes	– No	– No
Nothing announced, no email to attendees	Yes	– No	– No
Google Meet support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zoom support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Teams support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connects to the AI you already use (ChatGPT or Claude)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Records meeting video	Yes	Limited	Yes
Transcript, summary, and action items	Yes	Yes	Yes
Search across past meetings	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free plan, no credit card	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rating	5.0 from 3,000 reviews on the Chrome Web Store; 4.9 from 725 reviews on G2	Check G2	Check G2
Trusted by 10,000+ organizations	Yes	Large user base	Large user base

The one decision that matters between Scribbl and Fathom: bot vs botless

Bot vs botless is the whole Scribbl vs Fathom comparison in one section. Fathom generally relies on a notetaker bot that joins your meeting, records it, and produces a clean summary afterward. The trade is that the bot is visible. Other attendees see it join, it may need to be admitted, and on client or external calls it can feel like a recording device showed up uninvited. Google Meet in particular sometimes flags or blocks joining notetaker bots, so the capture can fail on exactly the platform many teams use most.

Scribbl takes the botless route. Nothing joins the call, so there is no extra participant in the attendee list, nothing is announced when the call starts, and no notification is sent to the people you are meeting with. For sales calls, client meetings, interviews, and any conversation where a visible recording bot would change the tone, botless capture is the difference between getting notes and skipping the tool entirely. If you want the deeper argument, see our explainer on the botless AI notetaker.

Fathom

• Capture: a notetaker bot joins the meeting
• In the room: a participant is added and visible
• Google Meet: joining bots can be flagged or blocked
• Free tier: unlimited recordings; advanced AI summaries on the first 5 calls a month
• After the call: recaps; AI action items and Ask Fathom on Premium

Scribbl

• Capture: botless, nothing joins the call
• In the room: nothing joins, nothing announced
• Google Meet: built Meet-first via a Chrome extension
• Free tier: free plan, 10 meetings/mo, no credit card
• After the call: action items on every meeting; Automations do the follow-up

Google Meet

Participants (2)

You

Client

No bot in the room. Nothing joins the call.

Platforms: Scribbl covers Google Meet, Zoom and Teams with no bot

Platform fit is the second pivot, and it is where many people settle the choice. Scribbl is built around Google Meet first. The Chrome extension captures Meet with nothing in the room, and the desktop app extends the same botless idea to Zoom and Microsoft Teams. If your week is mostly Google Meet, Scribbl is the most natural fit on the market, because it lives right where you already work and never has to fight Meet's bot-blocking.

Fathom covers Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams with its joining bot. Both tools cover all three platforms, so the platform question is really about how capture happens on each one: botless, or a bot that joins. Scribbl keeps all three in one account, with the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items for every meeting.

Scribbl vs Fathom free plan and pricing reality

Fathom's free plan records, transcribes and stores without a cap, and every call gets an AI summary, but advanced summaries cover only your first 5 calls each month (after that, only the General/Enhanced template). AI action items, AI follow-up emails and Ask Fathom need Premium, and Fathom's bot typically joins the call. Fathom Premium is $16/user/mo billed annually, or $20 monthly. Team is $15 billed annually or $19 monthly, and Business is $25 billed annually or $34 monthly, both per user with a 2-user minimum, adding things like full CRM field sync and SSO. Enterprise is a sales conversation.

Scribbl starts free too, with no credit card, and what you get on day one is botless notes. The free plan covers 10 meetings a month across Google Meet, Zoom and Teams, and every one gets the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. Scribbl Pro is $13/user/mo billed annually or $20/user/mo monthly, with unlimited meetings. You can confirm current plans on the pricing page.

The takeaway on money: billed annually, Scribbl Pro at $13/user/mo comes in under every Fathom paid plan ($15 to $25 per user). The bigger difference is what the free plan gives you: Fathom's gives you bot-based notes with advanced summaries on your first 5 calls a month and no AI action items; Scribbl's gives you the video, AI notes and action items for every meeting, with no bot in the room. Decide on the in-meeting experience first.

Scribbl vs Fathom after the call: connect to the AI you already use

There is a second difference between Scribbl and Fathom that matters once the call ends. Both connect to ChatGPT and Claude: Fathom's pricing page lists Claude and ChatGPT integrations, and Scribbl's connector is part of Pro. What Scribbl adds is what happens around that connection, so the work gets done, not just the notes. Smart Collections sort your meetings by themselves into groups you describe in one sentence, and narrow what Claude or ChatGPT searches to one group, so you can ask "What were the main objections in my sales calls this week?" and get an answer from just those calls. Automations take the next step for you: draft the follow-up email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, or open a Jira, Linear or Asana ticket, and by default they ask before they change anything. You can also tell Scribbl the job in plain words and it runs with your own Claude.

Scribbl

In ChatGPT or Claude

You: Draft the follow-up from today's client call.

Assistant: Here is a recap, the two decisions, and next steps for each owner.

Scribbl and Fathom accuracy and note quality

Scribbl and Fathom both produce a clean transcript, a structured summary, and action items, and most users rate the quality highly. We would rather back that up than just assert it. Across Scribbl's 725 reviews on G2, ease of use is by far the most-cited strength, mentioned in roughly 163 reviews, while transcription quality is praised in over 100. And because Scribbl keeps the video of every meeting next to a transcript with speaker names, you can replay any moment to confirm exactly what was said. For one-on-ones, sales calls, interviews, and small team meetings, which is where most of the work happens, accuracy is rarely the row that decides it.

On Fathom's free plan, AI action items wait for Premium. Scribbl writes the action items for every meeting, free plan included, and Automations can turn them into tickets or a follow-up email.

Scribbl and Fathom G2 ratings and reviews

Head-to-head pages often lead with star averages, so here are the right numbers attached to the right place. Scribbl is rated 4.9 from 725 reviews on G2, and the Scribbl Chrome extension separately carries 5.0 from 3,000 reviews on the Chrome Web Store; it is used by 10,000+ organizations. Fathom is also rated around 5 stars on G2, but on a much larger base, into the thousands of reviews. We will not round Scribbl's G2 score up to a flat 5.0 or borrow the Chrome Web Store count to inflate it, because you can verify all of this in a click, and a comparison you can trust is the whole point of this page. Both review counts and scores move over time, so check the live G2 listings before you decide. The thing a star average will not tell you is why people switch, and for Scribbl the reason is almost always the same: they wanted meeting notes without explaining a bot to everyone on the call.

Who should pick Scribbl over Fathom

Pick Scribbl if you want dead-simple bot-free recording where nothing ever joins the call, on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams in one account; you meet with clients, prospects, or candidates where a recording bot changes the room; you want the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items for every meeting; and you want your notes wired into ChatGPT or Claude, sorted by Smart Collections, and followed up by Automations so the work actually gets done. It starts free with 10 meetings a month and no credit card, and Pro is $13/user/mo billed annually. Sales teams in particular tend to land here; see Scribbl for sales.

Fathom suits teams that don't mind a bot joining the call.

If you are weighing more than two tools, our Scribbl vs Otter.ai breakdown and our best Fathom alternatives guide lay out the wider field, including how the bot-based notetakers compare to each other.

Scribbl vs Fathom FAQ

What is the main difference between Scribbl and Fathom?

The capture method. Scribbl is botless: it works through its Chrome extension on Google Meet and Scribbl Desktop on Zoom and Teams, so no bot ever joins, nothing is announced, and no email goes to attendees. Fathom typically sends a visible notetaker bot into the call to record and summarize it (its bot-free capture is a beta for Mac). Everything else flows from that one decision: whether a participant shows up in the room or not.

Is Scribbl or Fathom better for Google Meet?

Scribbl is built around Google Meet first. It captures Meet through a Chrome extension with no bot in the room, which matters because Google Meet sometimes flags or blocks joining notetaker bots. Fathom supports Meet as well, but it joins as a visible participant. If your meetings live in Google Meet and you want nothing to show up in the call, Scribbl is the more natural fit.

Does Scribbl have an unlimited free plan like Fathom?

No. Scribbl's free plan covers 10 meetings a month across Google Meet, Zoom and Teams, with no credit card, and every one gets the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. Fathom's free plan records and transcribes without a cap, and every call gets an AI summary, but advanced summaries cover only your first 5 calls each month, AI action items, AI follow-up emails and Ask Fathom need the paid Premium plan, and a visible bot typically joins the call. Limits on both tools change, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's pricing page. The durable difference is not the free tier; it is that Scribbl's notes come with action items and no bot in the room.

How much do Scribbl and Fathom cost in 2026?

Both start free. Scribbl's free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams with no credit card, with 10 meetings a month, and Scribbl Pro is $13/user/mo billed annually or $20/user/mo monthly, with unlimited meetings. Fathom's free plan has unlimited recordings, with advanced AI summaries on your first 5 calls each month. Fathom Premium is $16/user/mo billed annually or $20 monthly; Team is $15 billed annually or $19 monthly, and Business is $25 billed annually or $34 monthly, both per user with a 2-user minimum. Billed annually, Scribbl Pro at $13 comes in under every Fathom paid plan. Prices checked October 7, 2026; confirm current prices on each vendor's pricing page.

Does Scribbl send a bot into my meeting like Fathom?

No. Scribbl is botless, so nothing joins the call and nothing is announced to other attendees. Fathom typically uses a notetaker bot that joins as a visible participant. That difference in capture method is the main reason people pick one over the other, especially on client, sales, and external calls where a recording bot changes the tone.

Does Scribbl work with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, or only Google Meet?

Scribbl works with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. The Chrome extension covers Google Meet, and the desktop app covers Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Fathom also supports the major platforms. If you split your week evenly across Zoom, Meet, and Teams, both cover you; the practical difference is botless capture versus a bot that joins.

How are Scribbl and Fathom rated on G2?

Both are highly rated. Scribbl is rated 4.9 from 725 reviews on G2, and 5.0 from 3,000 reviews on the Chrome Web Store. Fathom is rated around 5 stars on G2 but on a far larger base, into the thousands of reviews. Check G2 for the live numbers before you decide. The gap that actually decides it day to day is the capture method, not the star average.

Is Scribbl accurate?

Scribbl produces a clean transcript with speaker names, a summary, and action items, and most users rate transcription quality highly: on G2 it is praised in over 100 reviews. Because Scribbl keeps the video next to the transcript, you can replay any moment to confirm exactly what was said. For one-on-ones, sales calls, and small team calls, accuracy is rarely the deciding factor.

Does Scribbl connect to ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes, on Pro. Connect Scribbl once and Claude or ChatGPT can search the transcript and notes of every meeting. Fathom connects to Claude and ChatGPT too. What Scribbl adds is Smart Collections, which narrow that search to one group of meetings, so you can ask "What were the main objections in my sales calls this week?", and Automations, which do the follow-up on each meeting: draft the email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, or post to Slack or Teams, asking before they change anything by default.

How do I switch from Fathom to Scribbl?

There is no migration project. Install the Scribbl Chrome extension (or the desktop app for Zoom and Teams), create a free account with no credit card, and join your next meeting. Nothing joins the call with Scribbl, so you do not have to remove or disable anything in Fathom first. Run both on one real call if you want a side-by-side before you commit.

Can I use Scribbl without telling people I am recording?

Botless does not mean secret. Recording and consent laws vary by region, and some places require all-party consent. The right move with any tool, Scribbl or Fathom, is to tell people you are taking AI notes and get consent. Scribbl simply removes the awkward bot from the room; it does not remove your responsibility to be transparent.