tl;dv vs Fathom: Free Meeting Recorders Compared

Priya books eight discovery calls a week, and she wants a free notetaker that will still be working in March. She's narrowed it to two tabs: tl;dv and Fathom. Both say "unlimited" recordings for free.

Both join Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, write a summary and keep a searchable transcript. (Priya is a composite, built for this article.)

So which free plan actually lasts? That's the real tldv vs Fathom question, and the two pricing pages don't answer it.

The limits sit in each vendor's help center, and they work in opposite ways. One is a one-time allowance. The other refills every month.

This comparison uses tl;dv's and Fathom's own pricing pages and help centers, read on October 29, 2026. You'll get the free plans side by side, a 12-month model of what each one leaves you with, paid prices, the features that matter day to day, and a quick way to choose.

A disclosure: ParrotNotes publishes this blog and appears in one section near the end, for meetings that happen across a table rather than on a call. If that's a big part of your week, you can try ParrotNotes free at your next in-person meeting.

tl;dv vs Fathom at a glance

Fathom is the better free meeting recorder for most people: it keeps every recording forever and gives you a basic AI summary on every call, every month. tl;dv is the better pick if you want a phone app that records on both iPhone and Android, or a paid plan with sales playbook tools. On paid plans, Fathom Premium is $16 a month billed annually and tl;dv Pro is $18 a seat.

Sources: tldv.io/app/pricing, tl;dv's help center, fathom.ai/pricing and Fathom's help center, all read on October 29, 2026.

The free plans: where each one runs out

Both free plans let you record without a meter. The difference is what happens to the AI notes and the recordings over time.

tl;dv Free: one-time allowances and 3-month storage

tl;dv's pricing card lists "Unlimited video recordings", "Unlimited transcription in 30+ languages" and a mobile app for iOS and Android. Under "AI features usage limits" it lists "10x meetings with AI notes included" and "10x Ask AI queries included".

The help center fills in the rest. Its article on the limits of the free plan says "Your first 10 meetings will have automatic AI notes summarizing the entire meeting." After that, only the first 10 minutes of each meeting get automatic AI notes. You also get 10 free AI prompts, 10 AI reports, 5 manual uploads and 4 clips.

The key line comes at the end: "These limits are for the lifetime of the account, they do not renew monthly."

Storage has a clock too. Free recordings are moved to archived storage after 3 days, and unarchiving one to watch can take up to about an hour and a half. They're kept for 3 months, then deleted, with a warning to the owner four weeks before.

Every plan has a 3-hour cap per meeting. (One small mismatch: the pricing table shows Free Ask AI as "up to 5 queries" while the card says 10; the help center says 10 prompts.)

Fathom Free: a monthly allowance and unlimited storage

Fathom's Free plan is $0 and "Free forever", with "Unlimited recordings + transcriptions", "Instant AI call summaries" and "Clips, playlists + search across calls". Its Free vs Premium article lists "Unlimited recordings & storage" on both plans.

The AI cap is monthly. Free includes "Advanced summaries for your first 5 calls each month (after that, only the General/Enhanced template will be available)." So every call still gets a summary; you just lose the richer templates, such as BANT and Sandler, after five.

What Free doesn't include: AI action items, AI follow-up emails and custom summaries are Premium features. Ask Fathom, the chat assistant, is marked "Limited use" on Free. CRM sync to HubSpot, Salesforce and Close works on Free for up to 3 users per email domain.

One rep, 12 months on each free plan

Here's the model. Priya records 8 video calls a week, about 45 minutes each. That's roughly 35 calls a month, 104 by the end of month 3 and 416 by the end of the year. Every number below comes from the limits quoted above.

Model built from tl;dv's free-plan help article (dated November 24, 2025) and Fathom's Free vs Premium article, both read October 29, 2026. Assumes 8 calls a week of about 45 minutes.

On a 45-minute call, tl;dv's partial notes cover the first 10 minutes, about a fifth of the meeting. Discovery calls often save pricing and next steps for the end. So after week two, tl;dv Free works more like a recorder with a short preview than a notetaker.

Dev, a fictional account executive, found this the hard way. He used tl;dv Free from January, then went looking for a February demo recording in May. It had been deleted, along with every other call older than three months. Fathom Free would still have it, with a standard summary attached.

In short: tl;dv Free works best as a short trial of tl;dv Pro. Fathom Free is a plan you can actually stay on.

tldv vs Fathom pricing when you upgrade

Both price in USD, per seat, with a discount for annual billing. Fathom's team plans need two users or more; tl;dv sells Pro to individuals and small teams.

From tldv.io/app/pricing and fathom.ai/pricing, read October 29, 2026. tl;dv's annual prices were read in USD; its monthly toggle showed 29 and 39 in euros for our region, and the $29 and $39 USD figures are the ones we recorded on tl;dv's US page on October 6, 2026. Fathom offers a 90-day guarantee on paid plans.

tl;dv Pro unlocks unlimited AI notes, custom note templates, action item assignment, an email follow-up drafter, global transcript search, unlimited uploads and storage, and an MCP server and API. Business adds custom vocabulary, multi-meeting AI insights, scheduled AI reports, AI playbook monitoring, AI objection handling and CRM field mapping.

Fathom Premium adds advanced summaries on every call, AI action items, AI follow-up emails and Ask Fathom. Team adds global search, shared playlists, comments and folders. Business adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics and AI scorecards.

What each costs in year one

Computed from the prices above, October 29, 2026.

Fathom is cheaper at every matching tier. The closest fight is the sales-team tier: Fathom Business at $1,500 against tl;dv Business at $1,740 for five seats. tl;dv's extra $240 buys playbook monitoring and objection handling; Fathom's Business brings Deal View and scorecards.

Features that matter day to day

Summaries, action items and follow-up

Both write summaries with action items and a follow-up email draft on paid plans. tl;dv puts action item assignment and the follow-up drafter on Pro. Fathom puts AI action items and follow-up emails on Premium.

If you only need the follow-up, our free follow-up email generator turns rough call notes into a draft without any notetaker.

CRM and sales tools

Fathom is the more generous of the two on CRM at the low end: sync with HubSpot, Salesforce and Close works on Free and Premium for up to 3 users per email domain. Field-level sync is on Business.

tl;dv lists CRM integrations from Pro (personal) and CRM field mapping on Business, alongside its sales features: playbook monitoring and AI objection handling.

Languages

Fathom supports transcripts in 38 languages and translates summaries into Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian and Dutch.

tl;dv lists transcription "in 30+ languages" on every plan, with multi-language support and premium transcription quality from Pro. Its comparison table also lists "Auto-detect meeting language" and "Multi-language meeting".

Bots and bot-free recording

Both send a bot into Zoom, Meet and Teams calls by default. Fathom now offers "Choice of bot-free (in beta) or bot capture", which its pricing table marks as a "Beta feature for Mac". tl;dv's pricing page lists "Custom bot appearance" on Pro, but no bot-free option for calls.

The phone app

This is where tl;dv has an edge. Its app runs on iOS and Android, records in-person meetings as audio and works offline, holding up to 5 recordings until you're back online. The catch, from tl;dv's mobile help article: "It's not yet possible to browse your meetings, view transcripts, or access meeting summaries in the mobile app." You read the notes on a computer.

Fathom's iOS app records "in-person meetings or calls without your laptop nearby" and has action items ready when the meeting ends. Fathom lists no Android app.

What about meetings with no video link?

tl;dv and Fathom are both built around the video call. Their phone apps are add-ons to a desktop workflow.

Rosa, a fictional territory rep for an HVAC distributor, has five contractor visits a day and almost no meeting links. tl;dv's app would record her visits, but she'd read the summaries at night on her laptop. Fathom's app would work on her iPhone, but her two new hires carry Android phones.

That's the job ParrotNotes is built for. Open the app on the phone you already carry, tap record and set it on the table, with everyone's OK. When you stop, you get a transcript, a summary, the action items and a drafted follow-up email, on the phone, before you start the car.

tl;dv and Fathom facts from their sites on October 29, 2026; ParrotNotes facts from parrotnotes.app/pricing.

ParrotNotes Free gives you 100 minutes of recording a month (up to 30 minutes per recording), an AI summary on every recording, and full AI insights, including sales frameworks such as BANT, MEDDIC and SPIN, on 5 recordings a month. ParrotNotes Pro is US$19.99 a month, or US$14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes a month, recordings up to 3 hours, every AI feature, speaker identification and 99+ languages with translation.

Rosa's 25 visits a week, with a short debrief after each, fit well inside Pro's 3,000 minutes. Many teams pair a video notetaker for calls with ParrotNotes for the room; our guide to the best AI note taker for in-person meetings covers that split.

Meeting customers in person this week? Download ParrotNotes free and record your next visit.

Which should you pick?

Count last week's meetings first, then find your row.

For more options on each side, see our guides to tl;dv alternatives, Fathom vs Fireflies and the best free AI note takers.

The verdict on tl;dv vs Fathom

As a free meeting recorder, Fathom wins clearly. Its limits refill monthly, every call gets a summary, and nothing is deleted. tl;dv's free plan is best treated as a trial: ten full AI notes for the life of the account, then partial notes, with recordings gone after three months.

On paid plans the gap narrows. Fathom is cheaper at every tier and has the stronger CRM story at the low end. tl;dv Business suits sales teams that want playbook monitoring and objection handling, and tl;dv's app covers Android.

Priya's answer: she starts on Fathom Free, and moves to Premium when she wants AI action items on every call. Check both pricing pages on the day you buy, because prices and limits move.

And if your most important conversations happen across a table, not on a screen, download ParrotNotes free. You get 100 minutes a month with an AI summary on every recording, on the phone you already carry, with no bot to admit.