Checked on 14 October 2026. The best meeting-note subscription for your workflow is the one that captures the whole meeting, keeps the right record and lets you control who sees it. This comparison of Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Granola and Zoom uses six official pricing, product and security pages. It is not a hands-on transcription, language or accuracy test. Links are official information, not affiliate links; prices are dated provider displays, not local checkout quotes or verified discounts.

Start with a practical shortlist. Try the core AI workflow already included in an eligible paid Zoom Workplace plan before adding a second bill. Trial Fathom if you need a solo recording archive, or Granola if you want device-audio notes without a meeting bot. Compare Otter and Fireflies for searchable recurring calls and integrations. These are feature-fit starting points, not measured winners. A tool that cannot capture your actual device, platform or meeting length is not a bargain at any monthly price.

Separate five limits before comparing plans: minutes per month, minutes per conversation, file-import allowance, accessible history and stored content. A monthly allowance does not override a shorter conversation cap. Unlimited transcription does not necessarily mean unlimited storage, unlimited AI queries or organization-wide retention controls. For each candidate, write down the longest regular meeting and the oldest decision you must retrieve. This quickly exposes whether the advertised free tier can do the job.

Otter Basic lists 300 monthly transcription minutes, a 30-minute conversation maximum, three lifetime pre-recorded file imports and the 25 most recent conversations in history. Its pricing table says transcription types share a pool and monthly limits do not roll over. Do not add imported-file minutes to meeting minutes as though they were separate free allowances. A 60-minute interview fails the free conversation-length requirement even when the monthly balance is sufficient; twenty 15-minute calls use all 300 minutes before any shared-pool imports.

Otter Pro lists 1,200 monthly minutes, up to 90 minutes per conversation, ten monthly file imports and unlimited conversation history. The regular displayed price is USD $16.99 per user billed monthly or $8.33 per user/month with annual billing. The page also displays lower promotional amounts, including an India-issued-card condition; we do not treat them as generally available prices. The feature matrix separately lists AI-chat query limits, so unlimited history should not be read as unlimited AI use. Confirm the exact export format you need rather than merely checking whether export exists.

Fireflies makes the storage distinction especially clear. Free lists 400 minutes of storage per team; Pro lists 8,000 minutes per seat, unlimited transcription and unlimited AI summaries. Its free headline says unlimited transcription with an asterisk while the comparison table calls free transcription limited. That discrepancy remains unresolved here, so we do not promise unlimited free transcription. Pro displays $10 per seat/month billed annually and Business $19 on annual billing. AI credits and rate limits are separate from the transcription and summary headline.

On the Fireflies comparison table, recording length is two hours for Free and Pro, three hours for Business and four hours for Enterprise. Match a long workshop against that limit, not just the storage allowance. Pro lists downloads of transcripts, summaries and recordings, while the Enterprise card lists custom retention, private storage and transcript-plus-summary-only mode. If those controls are required by your employer, do not assume a low-cost individual seat includes them. Obtain the required plan and terms before uploading workplace material.

Fathom advertises unlimited free recordings, transcription and call storage. That is useful evidence for an archive trial, not a promise of unlimited access to all advanced AI. Advanced summaries and conversational features have free-tier restrictions. The pricing matrix labels bot-free capture as a Mac beta, alongside bot capture. Test your exact capture path and device; a desktop download alone does not establish support for bot-free capture on every operating system. The page also distinguishes unlimited personal-call lookback on paid plans from plan-dependent team-call lookback.

Fathom Team displays $15 per user/month annually or $19 monthly, with a two-user minimum. The annual equivalent therefore starts at $30 per month, or $360 for twelve months before applicable tax; two monthly seats total $38 per month. This is arithmetic from the displayed terms, not a discount claim or checkout quotation. A solo user should compare the individual Free and Premium options rather than paying for an unused second team seat. Custom data-retention programs and organization-wide security controls are listed under Enterprise, not inferred from unlimited recording storage.

Granola Basic lists 30 days of meeting history; Business and Enterprise list unlimited history. The displayed paid amounts are $14 and $35 per user/month respectively, but the retrieved page does not establish every local billing, tax or commitment detail. Check checkout before treating these as cancel-anytime monthly totals. More importantly, thirty-day accessible history is not proof that every transcript, backup or shared copy is automatically deleted after thirty days. Ask separately about access, retention and deletion.

Granola’s security page says desktop capture is manually started and does not auto-join or auto-record meetings. It accesses microphone and meeting audio without adding a bot. The same page describes desktop transcription in real time and mobile transcription after a meeting using temporarily cached audio. It says meeting recordings are not stored, but transcripts and notes are stored, with notes in a US-hosted AWS environment and daily backups. Bot-free therefore does not mean local-only processing or no retained meeting record.

Granola also separates third-party training from its own training. Its security page says third parties cannot train their models on your data, while Granola trains on anonymized data unless you opt out in Settings; Enterprise training is off by default. Notes are described as private by default until shared. Treat these as provider-stated controls, not an independent privacy audit. Verify the actual workspace settings, connected integrations and approved data location before using sensitive material.

For Granola participant and retention controls, the pricing matrix is more useful than a general privacy slogan. Basic and Business list per-user notification, transcript retention and training opt-out. Enterprise adds admin-enforceable notification, workspace-wide retention policy, sharing settings and training opt-out. This matters if a team needs consistent controls rather than asking every employee to configure them. A notification is not automatically consent; confirm applicable rules and company policy before capture, and use an approved manual-note alternative when capture is not permitted.

The former Zoom small-business AI link now redirects to its broader small-business page. That current page says core AI features are included with paid Zoom Workplace plans, while the AI Productivity Suite is a separate purchase or included with the ZoomMate product. It also qualifies features by availability, usage limits and AI-credit balances. We no longer rely on the old page to promise a particular recording-free or cross-platform entitlement. Confirm the exact note-taking feature in your signed-in account and its platform, host and administrator requirements.

Zoom’s current page says administrators can enable or disable AI at account, group or user level and says customer audio, video, chat, files and transcripts are not used to train its AI models. Those statements do not establish a universal retention period or permission to capture every meeting. Ask who can start capture, how participants are notified, who receives the summary and which stored records can be deleted. An included feature only saves money when it is both allowed and sufficient for the workflow.

Use a three-meeting buying worksheet with informed participants and non-sensitive sample material: a short one-to-one, a multi-speaker call and a longer discussion containing names, numbers, owners and deadlines. Record device and capture mode; whether the whole meeting was captured; corrections to names, figures and commitments; minutes spent checking and repairing notes; and whether the requested export works. These are suggested trial steps, not YNIX test results. Include a capture-failure scenario so the team knows when to take manual notes.

Finish the worksheet with a sharing and deletion check. Open a sample shared link in a signed-out browser and with an intended guest account; verify that each sees only the intended material. Inspect automatic calendar capture and connected CRM, chat or AI integrations. Delete an expendable sample and check what happens to its audio, transcript, summary and downstream copies, without assuming immediate backup erasure. Record who can enforce retention and where the provider explains deletion timing. A usable record and a controlled record are separate requirements.

Calculate total cost as required seats multiplied by the applicable billing rate, plus necessary storage, credits and add-ons. For annual plans, record the amount due for the whole year and the renewal terms rather than only the displayed monthly equivalent. Keep the tool only if time saved exceeds capture setup, correction and administration. If you merely need to rewrite an approved existing transcript, use the linked AI-subscription comparison first; another recording service may not solve your actual problem. Recheck limits and controls at renewal.