CallNote vs Fathom
Fathom records your meetings and captures the conversation for you. CallNote never records; it turns a transcript you already have into a finished, sealed file note for client-facing work.
Fathom records your calls and keeps the audio and video, so it captures the meeting for you. CallNote never records or stores audio; it takes a transcript your phone or meeting system already made and turns it into a finished, sealed file note. Pick Fathom if you want the tool to capture the meeting; pick CallNote if you want a sealed, defensible note and don't want any tool touching your audio.
CallNote vs Fathom at a glance
| Feature | CallNote | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| Records audio or video | No, never | Yes, records and stores audio and video |
| Sends a bot to the call | No | Bot-free by default; optional bot on higher plans |
| How it gets the transcript | Receives the transcript your system already made (paste, voice memo, email-in, Dialpad) | Captures and transcribes the call itself |
| Data residency | Australia (AWS Sydney) | United States (AWS Oregon) |
| Trains AI on your data | No | No (per their policy, as of mid-2026) |
| Free tier | 14-day trial, no card, unlimited notes | Free plan with unlimited recordings (capped AI summaries) |
| Append-only audit log + sealed notes | Yes (SHA-256, timestamped) | Not a compliance-record feature |
| AU consent scripts + templates you shape to your file | Yes, all 8 states/territories, plus General, NCCP and build-your-own templates | No |
| Built for | Australian client-facing professionals (brokers, advisers, lawyers, accountants and more) who need a sealed file note | Sales and customer teams reviewing calls |
| Pricing | Solo $149/mo, Team $99/seat/mo (AUD) | Free, Premium ~US$16-20, Business ~US$25-34 per user (as of mid-2026, check current) |
When Fathom is the better choice
- You want the tool to capture the meeting for you: record it, store the audio and video, and let you rewatch and clip highlights later.
- You run a sales team and want to coach reps off the actual recording, not just a written note.
- You want a genuinely generous free plan with unlimited recordings and don't mind US data hosting.
- You prefer bot-free, device-side capture so there's no extra participant joining the meeting.
- You want the audio and video kept so you can go back and check exactly what was said.
When CallNote is the better choice
- You don't want any tool recording, uploading or storing your audio, and would rather work from a transcript that already exists.
- You're a client-facing professional - broker, financial adviser, lawyer, conveyancer, accountant, insurance broker or recruiter - who needs a clean file note after every meeting.
- You want a sealed, defensible record: lodged notes are SHA-256 sealed, timestamped and append-only.
- You work across phone (Dialpad, Aircall), Zoom or Teams, a voice memo, paste or email-in, and want one tool that turns any of them into a note.
- You want templates you shape to your own file: a neutral General default, an NCCP loan-suitability template for brokers, and build-your-own for your field.
- You'd rather have a sealed note you review then lodge and lock than a recording library to manage, and you want your data stored in Australia (AWS Sydney).
Fathom and CallNote both end up giving you a written summary of a call. How they get there is the whole difference, and it matters more than it looks. Fathom records the meeting and keeps the audio and video. CallNote never records anything. It receives the transcript your phone or meeting system already produced and turns that into a clean, compliant file note. This is an honest look at which one fits which job.
How the two tools compare
Fathom is built for sales and customer teams who want to capture, rewatch, and coach off their calls. It records audio and video, stores the recording, and produces a summary you can share. It does that well, and its free plan is one of the most generous around.
CallNote is built for the Australian client-facing professional - broker, financial adviser, lawyer, accountant and the like - who has to keep a clean, defensible note after a meeting and would rather not store a recording at all. It never records, never sends a bot, and never touches the audio. You feed it a transcript that already exists, review the note it generates, then lodge and lock it with a SHA-256 seal and a timestamp. Different jobs, different tools.
The real architectural difference: recording vs transcript-only
Fathom captures the call. By default it does this device-side without sending a visible bot into the meeting, which a lot of people prefer because nobody sees an extra participant join. It records both audio and video, then stores those recordings (in AWS in the US, Oregon region) so you can play them back, clip moments, and review what was said.
CallNote sits on the other side of that line. It does not capture the call at all. Your phone system or meeting platform already makes a transcript, so CallNote simply receives that transcript and works from it. There is no recording to store, no bot in the room, and no audio sitting on a server somewhere. The note is generated from text that already existed.
Neither approach is automatically better. If your job is to review calls and coach a team, you want the recording, and Fathom is the right shape for that. If your job is to keep a clean, compliant note and minimise the data you hold, the transcript-only approach is the right shape, and that's where CallNote lives.
Australian data residency
Fathom stores recordings in AWS in the United States. Its policy states it does not train AI on your data, which is a genuine plus worth noting. But for an Australian broker or adviser whose licensee or clients expect data to stay onshore, US hosting can be a sticking point on its own.
CallNote stores your data in Australia (AWS Sydney), encrypted with AES-256, and it is never used to train AI models. Note generation currently runs through a US-based AI provider, with all-Australian processing on the roadmap. For a lot of Australian client-facing professionals, knowing the record itself lives onshore decides the matter before any feature comparison starts. If data residency is a hard requirement for you, it's worth checking where any tool actually stores your records before you commit.
Fathom is part of QuestionPro now
Fathom is now part of QuestionPro following an acquisition in April 2026. That's not a criticism. Acquisitions happen, and QuestionPro is an established company. It's just worth knowing if you're choosing a tool to build a multi-year note-taking habit around, because product direction can shift after a change of ownership. CallNote is an independent Australian product built specifically for the client file note, so the roadmap stays pointed at that job rather than a broader product suite.
Built for compliance, not just a summary
This is where the two tools stop overlapping. Fathom gives you a good summary and a recording to go back to. CallNote gives you a file note built to stand up later. That includes:
- An append-only audit log, so every change is recorded and nothing can be quietly edited after the fact.
- Lodged notes sealed with SHA-256 and timestamped, so a note can be proven unchanged since you locked it.
- Per-state recording-consent scripts for all eight Australian states and territories, because the rules genuinely differ depending on where you and your client are.
- A neutral General template by default that suits any client-facing call, an NCCP loan suitability template for mortgage brokers (s130 'not unsuitable' standard plus a broker declaration), and build-your-own templates for your field.
- Your own prompt and house style, so the note reads the way you write, not the way a rigid template forces you to.
None of that is what Fathom is for, and that's fine. Fathom is a sales and meeting tool. CallNote is a file-note tool for client-facing work, with the consent scripts and sealed-record features that go with it. If you want to understand how Australian recording consent actually works, that's a separate question worth reading up on properly before you record anything at all.
How you actually get a transcript into CallNote
Because CallNote doesn't record, you bring it a transcript. There are a few live ways to do that today:
- Paste a transcript from anywhere. This works with any platform, including a Fathom transcript if you already use Fathom.
- Upload a voice memo. CallNote transcribes it via Deepgram or Whisper, which is handy for mobile and in-person calls.
- Email it in. Forward a transcript to your unique address and it becomes a note.
- Connect Dialpad or Aircall. Paste your API key and every call transcript turns into a note automatically. Dialpad transcription is on all plans; the API access needs Dialpad Pro.
- Push the finished note to your CRM. HubSpot and Splose are live, plus Slack and Notion.
More connectors are on the way, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google and Outlook calendar, and CRM pushes to Pipedrive and Salesforce. Those are still rolling out, so the honest position today is paste, voice memo, email-in, the live Dialpad and Aircall phone connections, and the live HubSpot, Splose, Slack and Notion pushes. Interestingly, this means you can run both tools together: let Fathom record and summarise for your sales review, then paste the transcript into CallNote when you need a sealed compliance note for a particular client call.
Pricing
Fathom has a free plan with unlimited recordings and capped AI summaries, which is genuinely generous, then Premium around US$16-20 per user and Business around US$25-34 per user (as of mid-2026, check their current pricing). CallNote is Solo $149/month flat or $127/month billed annually, and Team $99/seat/month or $84/seat annually, all AUD, with a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card and includes unlimited notes. See the full pricing for details.
If you only need call summaries and a recording to rewatch, Fathom's free tier is hard to beat on price. If you need a compliant, lodged, Australian file note, you're comparing it against the cost of a compliance breach, not against a free summariser. Different value, different buyer.
So which one should you pick?
If you run a sales team, want to coach off real calls, and don't have an onshore-data or compliance-record requirement, Fathom is a strong, well-priced choice with a standout free tier. If you're an Australian broker, adviser, lawyer or accountant who needs a defensible file note, can't store recordings, and wants your data in Australia, CallNote is built for exactly that. You can start a free CallNote trial with no card and see a real note in about two minutes.
If you're weighing up other tools too, it's worth reading CallNote vs Otter and CallNote vs Granola, or the full comparison hub for the wider picture.
Common questions
Does CallNote record the call?
No, never. CallNote does not record audio or video, doesn't send a bot to your meeting, and doesn't transcribe anything itself. It receives a transcript your phone or meeting system already produced, then generates a file note from that text. There's no audio stored anywhere, which is the whole point of the transcript-only design.
Does Fathom record audio and video?
Yes. Fathom captures the call and stores both audio and video, by default without sending a visible bot into the meeting. That recording is what lets you rewatch calls and clip highlights, which suits sales review. The recordings are stored in AWS in the United States as of mid-2026.
Where is my data stored with each tool?
CallNote stores your data in Australia (AWS Sydney), encrypted and never used to train AI. Note generation currently runs through a US-based AI provider, with all-Australian processing on the roadmap. Fathom stores recordings in AWS in the US (Oregon). If onshore Australian data storage is a requirement for your licensee or clients, that difference usually decides it. Always confirm current hosting before you commit.
Can I use Fathom and CallNote together?
Yes, and it can make sense. Let Fathom record and summarise calls for your sales review, then paste the Fathom transcript into CallNote when you need a sealed, lodged compliance note for a specific client call. CallNote works with any transcript, so the two tools cover different jobs without clashing.
Is CallNote built for sales teams like Fathom?
Not really. Fathom is built for sales and customer teams who want to review and coach off calls. CallNote is built for Australian client-facing professionals (mortgage brokers, financial advisers, lawyers, accountants and the like) who need a compliant file note after each call. They overlap on 'you get a written summary' but the purpose and the compliance features are different.
What does 'lodge and lock' mean in CallNote?
After CallNote generates a note from your transcript, you review and edit it, then lodge and lock it. Locking seals the note with a SHA-256 hash and a timestamp, and from that point it's immutable with an append-only audit log. Any later changes are recorded as amendments rather than silent edits, so the record stays defensible.
Try CallNote instead of Fathom
Turn the transcript your call system already made into a clean, compliant file note. No bot, no recording, hosted in Australia.
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