Fathom is free and fast. Knack. goes where it cannot.
Fathom is one of the best-liked AI notetakers for video calls, and its free tier is unusually generous: unlimited recordings, transcripts and summaries at no cost. Knack. is not competing for that job. It captures the meetings that have no call to join, on the rep's phone with the customer's consent, and turns them into the follow-up, the CRM update and close rate by lead source.
| Fathom | Knack. | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Video calls, with a bot in the meeting | In-person appointments, no bot |
| Capture | Joins Zoom, Meet, Teams | Phone on the table, on device, consent-first |
| Entry price | Free, genuinely | $49 solo, $149 a seat for teams |
| Output | Notes, action items, clips | Recap with ▶ receipts, plus routed work |
| Team layer | Coaching metrics on calls | Close rate by lead source, from the room |
| Best for | Anyone who lives in video calls | Teams whose revenue happens face to face |
Fathom vs Knack pricing VERIFIED AUGUST 2026
Fathom
Knack.
Fathom is dramatically cheaper and its free tier is real, not a trial. If your meetings are video calls, that comparison is over and Fathom wins it. The price gap is not buying you a better notetaker, it is buying capture of meetings Fathom cannot attend at any price, plus the work that follows and the attribution join. Judge it on whether your revenue conversations have a join link.
What Fathom does better
The free tier is the most generous in the category and it is not a trap. Unlimited recordings, transcripts, summaries and clips at zero cost is a genuinely strong offer, and a lot of individuals never need to pay.
It is fast. Summaries land quickly, the interface is clean, and it has earned a reputation for being the notetaker people actually keep using rather than the one they install and abandon.
And on calls it does things Knack does not: clips, playlists, coaching metrics across a call-based team, and CRM field sync on the Business plan. For an inside sales floor, that is a well-built product at a fraction of our price.
Where Fathom cannot help, and why it is structural
Fathom works by joining a video call as a participant. That requires an invite, a join link, and a host to admit the bot. Everything above is built on top of that mechanism.
An in-home appointment has none of those. A rep parks outside a house, knocks, and spends ninety minutes at a kitchen table. There is nothing for the bot to join, so the product's core mechanic has nothing to attach to and you are left using a phone as a general recorder.
This is not a gap Fathom could patch with a feature. It is the same limit that applies to Otter, Fireflies and Gong, and it means the entire category is blind to the meetings where in-person businesses make their money.
Running both
For most teams this is the right answer, and it is cheap because Fathom is free. Keep Fathom on the desk for internal calls, vendor calls, and anything with a link. Use Knack in the field.
The one thing to decide deliberately is which system holds the customer record, so nobody has to remember which archive a conversation lives in. If your revenue happens in person, that should be Knack.
Choose Fathom if
- Your meetings are video calls
- You want a strong free tier
- Clips and call coaching are the job
- Budget is the deciding factor
Choose Knack if
- Your revenue conversations have no join link
- You want the follow-up sent, not summarised
- You need close rate by lead source
- Appointments happen where there is no wifi
Is Fathom really free?
Yes, and unusually so: the free tier includes unlimited recordings, transcripts, summaries and clips. Paid plans add advanced summaries, team features and CRM field sync. If your meetings are video calls, start there.
Can Fathom record an in-person meeting?
Its product is a bot that joins a video call, so an in-home appointment has nothing for it to attach to. You would be using a phone as a general recorder rather than the product Fathom built.
Why is Knack so much more expensive?
Because it is not competing on transcription. The price covers capture of meetings a call bot cannot attend, the routed follow-up and CRM update, and the attribution join that shows which lead sources close. If you only need notes on calls, we are the wrong purchase.
Can I use both?
Yes, and it is nearly free to do so. Fathom on the desk, Knack in the field. Just decide which one is the customer record.
Does Fathom sync to my CRM?
Its Business plan includes CRM field sync for calls it attended. For field sales the limitation is upstream: it never attended the appointment that decided the deal.
Which is better for a home services business?
Knack, because Fathom cannot be in the room where the estimate happens. If that business also runs office calls, Fathom's free tier is a sensible addition rather than an alternative.
Does Knack have clips and playlists?
Recaps mark where objections, price and commitments occurred so you can jump to a moment and share it. Fathom's clip and playlist tooling for calls is more developed, and we would rather say so.