Otter vs Fathom for interviews: which free note-taker holds up for a full interview

For a hiring manager who wants free interview notes, Fathom is usually the better pick: as of October 2026 its free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcription, while Otter.ai's free plan stops each conversation at 30 minutes and caps the month at 300 minutes. Otter wins in two situations: you are on Windows and want no bot on Zoom or Meet (its desktop app does that; Fathom's bot-free mode is Mac-only), or you want a low-cost paid plan, at $8.33 per month billed yearly. Neither connects to an ATS beyond Otter's Greenhouse sync.

Vendor facts below come from Otter's and Fathom's own sites, checked in October 2026 and linked. For deeper reviews of each, see Otter.ai for recruiting and Fathom for recruiting.

How do Otter and Fathom compare for interviews?

Sources: Otter pricing, Otter desktop, Otter dialers, Otter Recruiting Agent; Fathom pricing, Fathom bot-free note-taker, Fathom what's new, Fathom integrations. All as of October 2026.

Will the free plan capture a whole interview?

This is the first question for most hiring managers, and the answer differs sharply. Otter's pricing page lists Basic at 300 minutes per user per month with a "max transcription time per conversation" of 30 minutes. A 45-minute first interview loses its last 15 minutes, which is often where you ask about notice period, pay expectations and the candidate's questions. Pro raises the cap to 90 minutes per meeting and Business to 4 hours.

Fathom's pricing page lists unlimited recordings and transcription on the free plan, with instant AI summaries, clips and search. Its bot-free page says the free plan has no usage caps. For an interviewer doing a few full-length interviews a month, that settles the free-plan question.

Which one keeps a bot out of the interview?

It depends on your computer and your meeting app:

Otter's desktop page says you can "record any conversation without a bot across Slack Huddles, Zoom, Google Meet, and in-person." Fathom's bot-free page says bot-free "is currently Mac-only" and in beta, and that Fathom captures across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack Huddles without saying which of those work bot-free. Its what's new page says "Windows users, you're up next," with no date. Fathom also says its bot-free mode "keeps speaker attribution," which matters when you later need to know which words were the candidate's.

What does each give you after the interview?

Fathom's free plan lists instant AI call summaries, clips, playlists and search across calls; Premium adds advanced summaries, AI action items and a conversational meeting assistant. Its what's new page says account-wide Ask Fathom, for questions across many calls, is on the Team and Business plans.

Otter's Recruiting Agent page goes further toward hiring: résumé and LinkedIn summaries before the call, suggested questions, key phrases marked during the call, and a summary of strengths, weaknesses and concerns afterward, with notes syncing to Greenhouse. It also says it analyzes the candidate's "emotional tone and sentiment," which should stay out of any rating.

Neither output is a scorecard. Use the transcript to pull one quote per competency, write your rating before you read anyone else's, and bring both to the debrief; our interview debrief template shows the format.

Which works better for a hiring panel sharing notes?

Once more than one interviewer is involved, team features start to matter. Otter's pricing page lists team vocabulary and taggable speakers on Pro, and its Recruiting Agent page describes collaborative note editing on Business and a central channel where recruiters and hiring managers share takeaways. Fathom's pricing page lists comments, folders, keyword alerts and highlight playlists on Team, and its what's new page puts account-wide Ask Fathom on Team and Business.

Shared notes help a panel, with one caution: interviewers who read each other's notes before writing their own feedback tend to converge on the first opinion they read. Keep interview recordings in a folder or channel that only the hiring team can open, ask each panelist to submit a rating before opening anyone else's notes, and use the shared transcripts in the debrief to settle disagreements about what the candidate actually said.

Do phone screens or the ATS change the answer?

For most hiring managers, no; for recruiters, yes. Otter lists dialer integrations for Zoom Phone and RingCentral behind "Contact sales," and its pricing page places custom dialer integrations on Enterprise. Fathom's integrations page lists no phone or ATS integration: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack and Zapier. Otter's only named ATS link is the Greenhouse sync in its Recruiting Agent. If you screen candidates by phone all day or need notes in an ATS, both are a stretch; the recruiting-specific tools in our note-taker pricing guide fit better.

What do the paid plans cost?

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

• Otter Pro: $16.99 monthly or $8.33 billed yearly; 1,200 minutes; up to 90 minutes per meeting; up to 5 billed users.
• Otter Business: $30 monthly or $19.99 billed yearly; unlimited meetings up to 4 hours; up to 25 billed users.
• Fathom Premium: $20 monthly or $16 billed yearly, for individuals.
• Fathom Team: $19 monthly or $15 billed yearly, two-user minimum; Business $34 or $25 yearly; Enterprise through sales. Fathom shows a 90-day guarantee on its plans.

As an example, one hiring manager paying yearly spends $8.33 × 12 = $99.96 on Otter Pro against $16 × 12 = $192 on Fathom Premium, though Fathom Free may make the upgrade unnecessary. A five-person hiring panel on team plans billed yearly costs 5 × $19.99 × 12 = $1,199.40 on Otter Business against 5 × $15 × 12 = $900 on Fathom Team.

What should you set before the first candidate call?

1. Ask for consent at the start and stop if the candidate declines; our consent script has wording. This is general information, not legal advice.
2. In Otter, set "Default audience for shared notes" to "Don't Share" so candidates do not receive your notes (Otter help), and check events you set individually.
3. In Fathom, run one test call in the mode you plan to use (bot or bot-free) on the meeting app your interviews use, and check who receives the summary.
4. Decide how long you keep interview recordings, and delete them on schedule.

Our guide to taking interview notes as a hiring manager covers the routine around either tool.

Which should you choose?

• Fathom, best for: hiring managers on a Mac, or anyone happy with a bot, who want full-length interviews recorded free.
• Otter, best for: Windows users who want no bot on Zoom or Meet, and individuals who want the cheapest paid plan or résumé-based interview prep.

If you want a bot-free tool on both Windows and Mac that works on Teams too and is built around the interview (question guide from the job description, scorecard quoting the candidate), we make Interview Signal, which does that without an ATS integration or a mobile app; everything about Otter and Fathom on this page comes from their own sites, linked and dated. Related pairings: Granola vs Otter for interviews and Fathom vs Fireflies for recruiting.