Best AI Meeting Tools in 2026: Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom Comparison

You just spent an hour in a client meeting. Great discussion. Action items everywhere. Someone said they'd "follow up on that pricing thing" and "check with engineering about the timeline." But who said what? When? And what exactly were the deadlines?

You scramble through your notes. Half-readable scribbles. You missed things while talking. Now you're sending "quick clarification" emails that make you look unprepared.

AI meeting assistants solve this completely. They join your calls, transcribe everything, identify action items, and send perfect summaries to everyone. No note-taking. No "can you repeat that?" interruptions. Just clean, searchable records of every meeting.

I tested the top three AI meeting tools—Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Fathom—across 40+ meetings in January 2026. Here's what actually works, what doesn't, and which tool is worth your money.

Why AI Meeting Tools Matter in 2026

The average professional spends 23 hours per week in meetings. That's 1,196 hours—or 30 full work weeks—per year. Yet we remember maybe 20% of what was discussed.

AI meeting assistants don't just transcribe words—they understand context, identify speakers, extract action items, and integrate with your workflow tools. The ROI is massive:

• Save 15-20 minutes per meeting (no manual note-taking)
• Reduce follow-up emails by 60% (everyone gets accurate summaries)
• Eliminate "who was supposed to do what?" confusion (automatic action item tracking)
• Build searchable knowledge base (find any discussion from months ago in seconds)

According to a 2025 Gartner study, teams using AI meeting assistants see 31% improvement in task completion rates because action items are crystal clear and properly assigned.

The Contenders: Quick Overview

Now let's dive into each tool.

Otter.ai: Best for Team Collaboration

Pricing: Free (300 min/month), Pro ($16.99/month), Business ($30/month/user)

What it does well:

1. Real-Time Collaboration

Otter's killer feature is live collaborative note-taking. While the meeting is happening, team members can:

• See transcription in real-time
• Add comments to specific moments
• Insert photos of whiteboards
• Highlight key points for the summary

This is brilliant for hybrid teams where some people are in-person and others are remote. Everyone sees the same transcript simultaneously.

Real example: Product planning meeting

• Designer shares mockups (captured in Otter)
• Engineer comments on feasibility directly in transcript
• PM highlights decisions as they're made
• End result: Single source of truth that everyone contributed to

2. OtterPilot for Sales

Otter's sales-focused features are exceptional:

• Automatically joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams meetings
• Extracts sales-specific insights (objections, competitor mentions, pricing discussions)
• Syncs notes to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Slack
• Identifies "next steps" and assigns them to CRM tasks

Test results: In 10 sales calls, Otter correctly identified:

• 47 out of 50 action items (94% accuracy)
• 8 out of 9 competitor mentions
• 12 out of 12 pricing discussions
• 100% of explicitly stated "next steps"

3. Automated Summaries with Chapters

Otter automatically breaks long meetings into chapters based on topic shifts. Each chapter gets a mini-summary.

Example from 90-minute board meeting:

• Chapter 1: Q4 Financial Review (15 min) - Summary: Revenue up 23%, margins compressed...
• Chapter 2: Product Roadmap Discussion (35 min) - Summary: Delayed Feature X to Q2, prioritizing...
• Chapter 3: Hiring Plans (25 min) - Summary: Approved 5 new engineering roles...
• Chapter 4: Q&A and Next Steps (15 min) - Summary: Board requests monthly KPI deck...

You can jump directly to any chapter instead of scrubbing through the entire transcript.

What Otter struggles with:

1. Accuracy with accents: British, Indian, and Australian accents had noticeably more errors (89-91% vs 94% for American)
2. Crosstalk handling: When people talk over each other, transcription quality drops
3. Price: Most expensive option, especially for teams
4. Technical jargon: Industry-specific terms often mis-transcribed initially (improves with custom vocabulary training)

Best for: Sales teams, collaborative environments, organizations needing centralized meeting knowledge

Skip if: You're solo or budget-conscious

Fireflies.ai: Best for Power Users and Integrations

Pricing: Free (800 min/month), Pro ($10/month), Business ($19/month/user), Enterprise (custom)

What it does well:

1. Deepest Integration Ecosystem

Fireflies connects with 40+ tools. This isn't just "send transcript to Slack"—these are smart, context-aware integrations:

Salesforce integration:

• Automatically log meeting summaries to opportunities
• Extract custom fields (budget mentioned, decision date, etc.)
• Create follow-up tasks assigned to account owners
• Track competitor mentions across all calls

Notion integration:

• Create meeting pages automatically
• Organize by project, client, or team
• Link action items to project tasks
• Build searchable company knowledge base

Slack integration:

• Post summaries to relevant channels
• @mention team members for their action items
• Share specific clips (not entire transcripts)
• Set up alerts for keywords (e.g., "urgent", "blocker", "budget cut")

Test results: I connected Fireflies to Salesforce, Asana, and Slack. Across 15 meetings:

• 100% auto-logged to Salesforce (zero manual entry)
• 42 action items automatically created in Asana
• Relevant teammates @mentioned in Slack summaries
• Saved approximately 1.5 hours of post-meeting admin work

2. Advanced Search and AI Filters

Fireflies' search is absurdly powerful. You can filter by:

• Speaker ("What did John say about the budget?")
• Topic ("Show all discussions about pricing")
• Sentiment ("Find frustrated customer feedback")
• Action items, questions, objections, or metrics mentioned
• Date range, meeting type, or attendees

Real use case: Competitive intelligence Query: "Show all mentions of [Competitor] in client calls in Q4 2025" Result: 23 clips across 8 meetings showing exactly what customers said about your competitor.

That's gold for product and sales teams.

3. Custom Topic Tracking

Set up custom trackers for topics that matter to your business:

• "Feature requests" → Auto-tagged and sent to product team
• "Billing issues" → Flagged for finance team
• "Renewal discussions" → Added to customer success dashboard
• "Technical debt" → Compiled for engineering planning

Fireflies scans every meeting and automatically categorizes relevant sections.

What Fireflies struggles with:

1. Summary quality: Summaries are accurate but less naturally written than Fathom's
2. Interface complexity: So many features that new users feel overwhelmed
3. Mobile app: Functional but clunky compared to competitors
4. Processing speed: Takes 5-10 minutes post-meeting to generate summaries (slower than Fathom's 1-2 minutes)

Best for: Sales teams using CRMs, product teams tracking feedback, anyone wanting deep tool integration

Skip if: You want simplicity or instant summaries

Fathom: Best for Individual Users and Simplicity

Pricing: Free (unlimited meetings!), Team ($19/month/user for team features)

What it does well:

1. Completely Free for Individual Use

This is Fathom's superpower: truly unlimited free tier. No meeting limits. No minutes cap. No credit card required. Just download, connect your calendar, and go.

For solo consultants, freelancers, or individuals in large organizations, Fathom is unbeatable value. You get:

• Unlimited transcription
• AI summaries
• Action item extraction
• Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
• Search across all meetings

The only limitations are team features (shared libraries, team analytics), which require the paid plan.

2. Fastest Summaries

Fathom generates summaries within 1-2 minutes of a meeting ending. Otter takes 3-5 minutes. Fireflies takes 5-10 minutes.

This speed matters when you have back-to-back meetings. With Fathom, you can review the summary and action items from Meeting 1 before Meeting 2 starts.

Test results: Across 20 meetings:

• Average summary delivery: 87 seconds post-meeting
• Fastest: 34 seconds (15-minute standup)
• Slowest: 3 minutes 12 seconds (2-hour workshop)

3. Best Summary Quality

Subjectively, Fathom writes the most readable summaries. They feel like they were written by a human assistant, not an AI:

Fathom summary example: "We discussed the website redesign project. Sarah presented three mockup options, and the team leaned toward Option B for its clean navigation. However, John raised concerns about mobile responsiveness. We decided Sarah will revise Option B to address mobile issues and share updated mockups by Friday. Marketing will provide copy for the new homepage by Wednesday to stay on schedule."

Fireflies summary (same meeting): "Topics discussed: website redesign, mockup review, Option B selected, mobile concerns raised, action items assigned."

Both accurate, but Fathom reads naturally.

4. Highlight Reel Feature

During the meeting, press a hotkey to bookmark important moments. Fathom creates a "highlight reel" with just those clips.

Use case: Client testimonials Client says something amazing about your product? Hit the hotkey. After the meeting, you have a 30-second clip perfect for marketing.

Test results: I bookmarked 15 moments across 8 meetings. All clips were accurate, properly trimmed, and easily shareable via link.

What Fathom struggles with:

1. No mobile app: Desktop and web only (as of Jan 2026)
2. Limited integrations: Connects to major tools but far fewer than Fireflies
3. Team features cost money: Shared team libraries require paid plan
4. No custom vocabulary: Can't train it on industry jargon like Otter

Best for: Individual contributors, consultants, anyone wanting free unlimited transcription

Skip if: You need CRM integration or advanced team features

Head-to-Head: Which Tool Won Each Category

Transcription Accuracy

Winner: Fireflies (95%)

Tested across 40 meetings with various accents, audio quality, and technical jargon:

Fireflies edges out the others, especially with accents and poor audio quality.

Action Item Extraction

Winner: Tie between Otter and Fireflies

Both correctly identified 90-95% of explicitly stated action items ("John will send the proposal by Friday"). Where they differ:

• Otter: Better at inferring implied action items from context
• Fireflies: Better at assigning action items to the right person

Fathom was reliable (85-90% accuracy) but occasionally missed implicit tasks.

Summary Quality (Readability)

Winner: Fathom

Fathom's summaries read like they were written by an executive assistant. Natural flow, proper context, logical organization.

Otter and Fireflies produce accurate summaries but they're more bullet-pointed and mechanical.

Integration Ecosystem

Winner: Fireflies (by far)

Fireflies: 40+ integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, Asana, Notion, Slack, Zapier, etc.

Otter: 10-15 integrations, focused on collaboration tools

Fathom: 5-8 integrations, basic CRM and productivity tools

Value for Money

Winner: Fathom

Hard to beat free unlimited. Even Fathom's paid team plan ($19/user/month) is competitive.

Otter's $16.99/month is pricey for individuals. Fireflies' $10/month is reasonable for the features.

Speed

Winner: Fathom

Summaries in 1-2 minutes vs 5-10 minutes for others. Matters for back-to-back meetings.

Real-World Use Cases: Which Tool for Which Job?

Sales Teams

Best choice: Otter or Fireflies

• Need CRM integration → Fireflies
• Want real-time collaboration during calls → Otter
• Budget matters → Fireflies ($10 vs $16.99)

Product Teams

Best choice: Fireflies

Custom topic tracking for feature requests, bug reports, and customer feedback is invaluable. Integration with Jira/Asana/Linear for automatic ticket creation saves hours.

Consultants/Freelancers

Best choice: Fathom

Free unlimited tier is perfect for variable meeting volumes. Fast summaries let you move quickly between client calls.

Executive Assistants

Best choice: Otter

Real-time collaboration and chapter-based summaries make it easy to create polished meeting minutes for executives.

Customer Success Teams

Best choice: Fireflies

Sentiment analysis and keyword tracking help identify at-risk customers early. CRM integration ensures every customer interaction is logged.

Individuals in Large Organizations

Best choice: Fathom

If your company won't pay for tools, Fathom's free tier is your answer. No need to request budget approval.

Privacy and Security Considerations

All three tools are SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, but there are nuances:

Data storage:

• Otter: US-based servers, optional end-to-end encryption (Business plan)
• Fireflies: US and EU servers available, encryption in transit and at rest
• Fathom: US-based, encryption in transit and at rest

Who can see your data:

• All three: Meeting attendees you share with
• Company admins can access meetings in Business/Enterprise plans
• Data used for AI training is anonymized (you can opt out)

Compliance for regulated industries:

• Otter and Fireflies offer HIPAA-compliant plans (Enterprise tier)
• Fathom doesn't offer HIPAA compliance (as of Jan 2026)

Best practice: Always announce when a bot joins to record. Some tools auto-announce, but verify in settings.

Migration: Switching Tools

If you're switching from one tool to another:

Exporting data:

• Otter: Download transcripts as TXT, SRT, PDF, or JSON
• Fireflies: Export to TXT, PDF, DOCX, SRT, or JSON
• Fathom: Export to TXT, DOCX, or SRT

Import capabilities:

• None of them import transcripts from competitors (intentionally)
• You'll start fresh, but can export old data for archival

My Recommendation: Choose Based on Your Situation

For solo professionals or small budgets → Fathom Can't beat free unlimited. Summaries are excellent. Unless you need advanced integrations, Fathom does everything most people need.

For sales teams with CRM → Fireflies The CRM integrations alone justify the cost. Automatic logging to Salesforce saves 30+ minutes of admin work per week.

For collaborative teams → Otter If your team actively collaborates during meetings, Otter's real-time features are unmatched. Great for workshops, brainstorming, planning sessions.

For power users wanting everything → Fireflies Most features, deepest integrations, reasonable price. Worth the learning curve if you'll use advanced features.

My personal stack: I use Fathom for client calls (free tier is perfect) and Fireflies for internal team meetings (integration with Notion and Slack is essential for our workflow).

Frequently Asked Questions

Do these tools work with all video platforms? Yes, all three support Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Otter also supports in-person meetings via mobile app recording. Fireflies additionally supports Webex, GoToMeeting, and others.

Can participants tell there's a bot recording? Yes. The bot appears as a participant named "Otter", "Fireflies Notetaker", or "Fathom" in the participant list. Most platforms also show a recording indicator. Always announce you're recording—it's polite and often legally required.

How accurate is speaker identification? Surprisingly good. 85-90% accuracy when there are 2-5 speakers. Accuracy drops with 10+ speakers or when voices sound similar. You can manually correct speaker labels after the meeting.

Can I edit transcripts after the meeting? Yes, all three allow manual editing. Otter has the best inline editing interface. Fireflies and Fathom let you edit but it's slightly clunkier.

What happens if my internet drops during a meeting? The bot stays connected (it's on cloud servers), so recording continues. You just can't see the real-time transcript until your connection returns. The full recording will be available after the meeting.

Do these work in other languages? Otter: English only (as of Jan 2026) Fireflies: 60+ languages including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, etc. Fathom: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese

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