Fathom vs Fireflies for recruiting: free notes, bot-free capture and ATS sync compared

Fathom and Fireflies.ai are both general meeting note-takers that hiring teams use for interviews. As of October 2026, Fathom's free plan has unlimited recordings and transcription and lets Mac users record without a bot (in beta), but it lists no ATS integration. Fireflies costs $10 per user per month billed yearly on Pro, names Greenhouse and Lever for sending notes, and its bot-free desktop app works on Windows and Mac, including phone calls. Fathom suits the individual interviewer; Fireflies suits the recruiter whose notes need to reach an ATS.

Every vendor fact below comes from Fathom's and Fireflies' own sites, checked in October 2026 and linked. Our single-product reviews cover setup in more depth: Fathom for recruiting and Fireflies.ai for recruiting.

How do Fathom and Fireflies compare at a glance?

Sources: Fathom pricing, Fathom bot-free note-taker, Fathom what's new, Fathom integrations; Fireflies pricing, Fireflies bot-free desktop guide, Fireflies for recruiting. All as of October 2026.

Which one keeps a bot out of the interview?

Both can, on the right computer. Fathom's bot-free page says its free plan lets you choose bot or bot-free capture, that bot-free "is currently Mac-only," and that it is in beta. Its what's new page adds "Windows users, you're up next," without a date. Fathom also says its bot-free mode "keeps speaker attribution and mute acknowledgment," which matters in an interview, where you need to know which words were the candidate's.

Fireflies' desktop guide says bot-free recording uses your computer's system audio on Windows and Mac. The trade-off it documents is the reverse of Fathom's: speakers show as "Speaker 1 / Speaker 2" rather than names, and no audio or video file is saved.

So the choice on this point is a platform question. A hiring manager on a Mac gets bot-free capture with speaker names from Fathom at no cost. A recruiter on a Windows laptop gets bot-free capture only from Fireflies, with generic speaker labels. Other bot-free tools are compared in AI note-takers without a bot.

Which meeting apps and devices does each cover?

Fathom's bot-free page says it captures "across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Slack Huddles," without saying which of those work in bot-free mode, so test your own platform in the free plan first. Its what's new page describes an iOS app for in-person conversations as nearly ready, and says bot-free video capture is in a limited beta.

Fireflies' pricing page lists Zoom, Google Meet and Teams for the bot, plus a desktop app, Android and iOS apps and a Chrome extension on every plan, including Free. Its desktop guide adds WhatsApp, FaceTime, Aircall and Discord for bot-free capture. For a recruiter whose candidates sometimes insist on WhatsApp, that breadth is the practical difference.

Which one records phone screens?

Fireflies does, through the desktop app. Its guide says iPhone calls are captured on a Mac when "Calls from iPhone" is turned on in FaceTime settings on both devices, and Android or iPhone calls on Windows when the phone is paired through Phone Link. Fathom's pricing, integrations and bot-free pages list no phone or dialer capture, and its iOS app for in-person conversations is described as almost here on the what's new page. For a recruiter who screens by phone, that settles it.

Which one gets notes into an ATS?

Fireflies' recruiting page says it can "send meeting notes and transcripts to Greenhouse, Lever and others," and its Greenhouse page says transcripts and summaries are logged under the candidate profile, creating one if none exists.

Fathom's integrations page lists Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack and Zapier, and no ATS. Its Business plan includes "CRM field sync, updating records after meetings automatically," which is built for sales records rather than candidate records. Recruiters using Fathom copy notes across by hand or build a Zapier step.

What does each cost for a hiring team?

From each pricing page, as of October 2026, per user per month:

• Fathom: Free at $0 (unlimited recordings and transcription, instant summaries); Premium $20 monthly or $16 yearly for individuals; Team $19 or $15 yearly and Business $34 or $25 yearly, both with a two-user minimum; Enterprise through sales with SSO, SCIM and custom retention. Every paid card shows a 90-day guarantee.
• Fireflies: Free at $0 (unlimited transcription, 400 minutes of storage per team, limited summaries); Pro $18 or $10 yearly with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat; Business $29 or $19 yearly with unlimited storage; Enterprise $39, yearly only.

The bigger saving is often not buying seats at all. Hiring managers who interview a few times a month can stay on Fathom Free, where Fireflies Free's 400 minutes of team storage would fill after a handful of interviews.

What about AI scoring features?

Fathom's Business plan lists "Coaching metrics & AI scorecards," next to CRM field sync and Deal View, which points to sales coaching. Fireflies' recruiting page lists AI Skills including a "Culture Fit Extractor" and a "Candidate Sentiment Analyzer." Neither replaces an interview scorecard built on job criteria, and culture fit and sentiment are risky inputs to a hiring decision. Score each answer against the competency yourself, on a template such as our interview scorecard, and use the AI output only to find the answer in the transcript.

How is the candidate told?

Fireflies documents its notices in detail. Its joining FAQ says the Notetaker "is always visible in the participant list" and that a Meeting Compliance setting shows a pre-meeting disclaimer. Its desktop guide says bot-free consent options are on by default (an auto-played audio message, plus a chat notice on Mac or a camera notice on Windows) and that if you turn them off, informing participants is your responsibility. On the Fathom pages we checked, we did not find an equivalent description for bot-free mode, so assume the notice is yours to give.

In both cases a notice is not consent. Ask the candidate before you start, note the answer, and stop if they decline. This is general information, not legal advice; recording rules vary by state and country.

How should a hiring manager use either one?

Most hiring managers do not need a recruiting platform; they need to listen instead of typing, and to have the candidate's words when they write feedback. With either tool:

1. Write your four or five questions before the call and keep them visible.
2. Ask the candidate for consent before recording, and stop if they decline.
3. After the call, open the transcript, not the summary, and copy one quote per competency into your feedback.
4. Submit feedback the same day, before the debrief, so your rating is your own.

Our guide to taking interview notes as a hiring manager has the longer version.

Which should you pick?

• Fathom, best for: hiring managers and small teams on Macs who want free, unlimited interview recordings with speaker names, and who will paste notes into the ATS themselves.
• Fireflies, best for: recruiters on Windows or phone, and teams on Greenhouse or Lever that want notes sent to the candidate profile.
• Both, sometimes: recruiters on Fireflies seats and occasional interviewers on Fathom Free is a reasonable split, as long as everyone uses the same scorecard.

If you want a tool built around the interview itself, with a question guide, scorecard and submittal rather than a meeting summary, there are recruiting-specific options. We make Interview Signal, one of them: a Windows and macOS app with no bot that captures phone screens through the computer, with no ATS integration (you paste the scorecard); everything about Fathom and Fireflies on this page comes from their own sites, linked and dated. See also Fireflies vs Otter for recruiting and Otter vs Fathom for interviews.