A local Fathom alternative for Mac

Fathom is a well-known AI notetaker with a notable free plan: it lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries, clips and search at no cost. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack huddles, and connects to tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Asana and Zapier, with a public API and an MCP server. Its paid plans add action items, a meeting assistant, team search and CRM syncing. If your work lives in sales calls and a CRM, Fathom does a lot.

Hearkeeper is not released yet. It is a Mac app that keeps the whole job on your own computer.

The core difference

Where your meetings go. Fathom is a cloud service. Its privacy policy says the service is hosted in the United States. It says third parties such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google may not train on your meeting content, and that Fathom may use de-identified data from meetings to train its own in-house models, which you can turn off in your account settings.

Hearkeeper does the work on your Mac. It captures your microphone and your computer’s audio, transcribes with whisper.cpp accelerated by Metal, and writes summaries, decisions and to-dos with a local language model. No API key is needed. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to connect a team server or your own API key, and it all keeps working offline.

Bot or no bot. Fathom offers both. Its notetaker can join the call, and its desktop app can now capture without a bot. Fathom describes bot-free capture as a beta that is Mac-only for now. Hearkeeper only ever records from your Mac, so no bot appears in the participant list. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, Webex, FaceTime, and meetings or lectures in the room.

Consent. Fathom’s own guide makes a fair point: going bot-free removes the bot’s notice, not the duty to tell people. Its desktop app has an option to post a consent message in the meeting chat, and its help center describes the app as invisible when you share your screen. Hearkeeper takes the other route on visibility. Every recording starts with a consent step (read a short notice aloud, post it in the chat, or both), a consent receipt is saved with the recording, and the recording pill stays on screen, including in screen shares, with no hide button.

Icelandic. Fathom’s help center lists 38 transcription languages, and Icelandic is not among them. Hearkeeper treats Icelandic as a first-class language and detects mixed Icelandic and English on its own. It supports 99 languages in all.

Fathom and Hearkeeper side by side

	Fathom	Hearkeeper
Bot in the call	Optional: a notetaker joins, or bot-free capture (beta, Mac only)	No. Records on your Mac; no bot joins
Where audio is processed	Fathom’s cloud, hosted in the United States	On your Mac (whisper.cpp with Metal)
Where notes are stored	Fathom’s cloud	One SQLite file and your own audio and note files on your disk
Works offline	Not described on the pages we read	Yes, fully
Training on your meetings	De-identified data may train Fathom’s own models; opt-out in settings	No. Nothing is uploaded unless you connect a server or your own API key
Consent step and receipt	Optional consent message in the meeting chat	Consent step before every recording; receipt saved with the recording; pill that can’t be hidden
Icelandic transcription	Not in the 38 listed languages	Yes, first-class, with mixed Icelandic and English
Platforms	Web, desktop app for Mac and Windows	Mac (macOS 14.2+, Apple silicon and Intel), when released; other platforms later
Price as listed	Free; Premium $20 a month, or $16 billed yearly; Team $19 per user a month, or $15 billed yearly; Business $34, or $25 billed yearly; Enterprise on request (as listed on 28 September 2026)	Not announced yet

When Fathom is the better choice

• You need it today. Fathom is available now. Hearkeeper is still on a waitlist.
• You want a free plan with unlimited recordings. Fathom’s free plan lists them. Hearkeeper’s pricing is not announced.
• You use Windows or work in the browser. Fathom has a web app and a Windows desktop app. Hearkeeper starts on the Mac only, with no dates yet for other platforms.
• You live in a CRM. Fathom syncs to HubSpot and Salesforce, has team playlists and coaching features, and connects to AI tools. Hearkeeper is built for your own Mac first.
• You want video. Fathom can capture the call’s video as well as audio. Hearkeeper records audio.

When Hearkeeper fits better

• You’d rather your meetings never left your computer. Transcription, summaries and search all run on your Mac, and keep working on a plane or anywhere without a connection.
• You want consent built in, every time. A consent step before each recording, a saved receipt, and a pill that stays visible, including in screen shares.
• You meet in Icelandic, or switch between Icelandic and English in the same meeting.
• You want notes you can check. Every summary line and every answer cites the second it was said. You can ask questions during the call and across all your meetings.
• You want plain files. Audio and notes are your own files, search lives in one SQLite file on your disk, and notes export to Markdown.

A note on bot-free notetakers

“No bot” used to be a clear line between tools. It isn’t any more: Fathom, Otter, Granola and others now record from your computer. The questions that still separate them are where the audio is processed, where the notes are kept, whether your meetings train anyone’s models, and how the other people in the call find out. We compare a few of those in our Otter.ai and Granola pages.

Sources

All read on 28 September 2026.

• Fathom home page: fathom.ai
• Fathom pricing: fathom.ai/pricing
• Fathom privacy policy: fathom.ai/privacy
• Fathom on bot-free notetakers: fathom.ai/learn/bot-free-note-taker
• Fathom desktop app: help.fathom.video, Fathom Desktop App
• Fathom languages: help.fathom.video, What languages does Fathom support?

Hearkeeper is coming to the Mac first. Join the waitlist and we’ll tell you when it’s ready.