Oats vs. Fathom

Oats is an open-source application designed for taking meeting notes, allowing users to directly record discussions on their computers without needing a bot to participate in the call. By capturing audio locally, it transforms conversations into a well-structured summary that includes assigned action items, a quality rating for the meeting, and a searchable transcript of the dialogue. The application is compatible with various platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, phone calls, and in-person meetings, ensuring that any audio recognized by the computer can be converted into notes. Users can choose to run the recordings and AI-generated notes locally for improved privacy, or they can connect to an Ariso account for enhanced AI features. Each meeting recorded is stored in a searchable library, making it easy for users to revisit past discussions and access previous decisions or commitments. In addition, action items are categorized in a specific Todos section, preventing them from getting lost in the notes, and users can conveniently mark completed tasks directly from the notes interface. This efficient system not only boosts productivity but also guarantees that essential information from meetings is easily retrievable for later use. With its user-friendly design and robust features, Oats simplifies the process of meeting documentation and follow-up.

Fathom is an AI notetaking and meeting intelligence platform designed to help individuals and teams capture conversations, summarize key points, and move work forward faster. The platform records meetings, generates accurate transcripts, creates instant summaries, identifies action items, and sends updates so users can stay present during calls. Fathom supports both bot-based meeting capture and bot-free capture through its desktop app, giving users more flexibility in how they record meetings. Its AI summaries are available immediately after calls and can be tailored to team workflows and priorities. Ask Fathom lets users search across meeting history and ask questions about decisions, commitments, customer signals, risks, opportunities, and next steps. The platform also helps teams monitor key topics so important moments are easier to identify across conversations. Fathom is useful for customer calls, sales meetings, marketing discussions, customer success reviews, strategy sessions, internal syncs, and team workflows. Its integrations connect meeting notes and insights with tools such as Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Asana, ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier, public APIs, and MCP workflows. Teams can use Fathom to create shared visibility across meetings so decisions and follow-through are not lost between calls. The platform supports enterprise requirements with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA compliance, SSO, and SCIM. By combining AI meeting notes, bot-free capture, transcripts, summaries, action items, topic monitoring, search, integrations, and compliance, Fathom helps teams reduce admin work and turn conversations into measurable progress.