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Note: all subscription fees referenced in pricing comparisons are if contracted on an annual basis. Monthly subscription fees differ and are usually +20-30% higher than annual contracts. USD was converted to EUR with exchange rates as of September 7th 2025.
Why I Tested 4 AI Meeting Transcription Tools
Long gone are the days when we needed to do meeting notes by hand
There's a whole science to writing meeting notes well. But habits have changed rapidly. Most people now use meeting transcription tools, and I've been in meetings with more note-taking bots than humans.
If you haven't decided on one yet or want to switch, here's my rundown of 4 great tools based on extensive real-world testing for my day-to-day work needs: accuracy, ease of use, and combination with other tools in my tech stack.
I’m in these the whole day and try to make use of it. Just the other day I asked my AI assistant:
what we discussed
what i promised i'd do and what sounded most urgent
analyzed how i showed up in meetings and any recommendations
At work, our sales reps record all their meetings with Fathom and have it analyze their performance. We use those then to add to our CRM and suggest followups to the prospect.
My take: Automating meeting notes helps people stay present instead of worrying about forgetting something. With so many options available, understanding where they differ is crucial for choosing the right tool for your business.
My Testing Method: Real Meetings
I tested Fathom, Notion, Granola and Microsoft Teams across 1+ months with 1-4 meetings daily (some outlier days hit 12+ during hiring seasons). Sometimes I tested multiple tools simultaneously to compare results.
My biggest needs: automatic summarization and action items extraction. All tools have this, but they differ significantly in voice recognition, accent handling, non-standard languages, and speaker identification. The biggest differentiators are accuracy and integration capabilities.
Pricing and Capability Comparison of AI Meeting Tools
Each tool specializes in something different:
Tool | Intended Use |
|---|---|
Microsoft Teams | Whole tech stack for your businesses |
Notion | Whole productivity stack for your business (think of it as Office reimagined) |
Granola | Meeting notes for people and teams who don't want to think to much about their stack and take a lot of meetings (in English), online and offline |
Fathom | Meeting notes for people and teams who value accuracy in their meeting notes, and lots of integration options with external systems. |
Microsoft Teams and Notion offer complete productivity systems (~$20/user/month), while Fathom and Granola focus specifically on meetings at similar pricing.
Microsoft Teams | Notion | Fathom | Granola | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cost/user/month (assuming annual subscription) | 12,95€/user/month as standalone, | 19.50€/user/month | 11,94€/user/month for team plan, 17,06€/user/month for business plan | 11,94€/user/month for business plan, 29,86€/user/month for enterprise plans |
Cost for team of 50 for comparable plans | 1047,5€/month assuming M365 Business Standard | 975€/month | 853€/month assuming business plan | 597€/month assuming business plan |
Platform Availability | Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android | Web, Chrome extension, Desktop, Zoom/Teams/Meet integration | Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux | Mac, iPhone, Windows (limited) |
Free Plan Option that includes AI? | No | No, free trial available on lower plans | Yes. P.S. If you want to try Fathom Premium (which also has a really generous free plan), you can use this referral link to get a month free, on me. | Yes |
Free Plan Features/Limitations | Up to 10 guests, 5MB file uploads, 7-day history, 20 AI trial responses | Unlimited recordings, 5 AI summaries/month, basic transcription | 25 meetings total (not monthly), then trial expires | |
Covers online or offline meetings? | Online | Both | Online | Both |
Quick reference guide:
Goal (Someone who wants…) | …should use this tool: |
|---|---|
…a comprehensive solution for the whole business, not only meetings | Microsoft Teams (actually M365) |
…a comprehensive productivity solution for the whole business | Notion |
…uses Google Workspace and wants to integrate well | Granola, Notion or Fathom |
…the best meeting notes including accurate action points assignment and integrations with other tools | Fathom |
…to cover their offline meetings as well | Notion or Granola |
…to share and cross-search notes from their team | Granola beats as best ease of use |
…a very good UX focused on meetings | Granola |
…a mobile version too | Notion or Granola |
…just basic features at the lowest cost (ideally free) | Fathom |
Microsoft Teams: Best with M365 Bundle
Microsoft Teams has a great visual overview of the meeting, who talked about what when
Teams standalone ($4/month) doesn't offer much. For AI meeting insights comparable to other tools, you need Teams Premium and/or M365 Copilot. The real value is in the ecosystem—M365 Business Standard ($12.50/user/month) includes Teams plus Word, Excel, PowerPoint, 1TB OneDrive storage, and security features.
Ease of Use: You just start the meeting and its recording (including the transcription as that’s necessary!). Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Meeting Recognition: No meeting bot—as this is native in Teams, it already has all the context it needs.
Transcription Accuracy: Not bad, not great, it does the job (most of the times).
Sharing: Meeting recap can be shared internally and externally via meeting links, but for me (and I’ve been a user for years), sharing anything in the Microsoft ecosystem is much harder than in orders (by design, sometimes). You can share them externally only if allowed by your tenant admin, and finding that person can be a chore.
Who this is for: Cost-sensitive businesses wanting an all-in-one solution covering email to security in one subscription.
Who this is not for: Teams not using Microsoft ecosystem or those sharing frequently with external users.
Notion: My Daily Driver
The point: Since I already use Notion, this has become my go-to due to seamless ecosystem integration.
Ease of Use: Type /meet into any page to start transcription. Searching and "talking with" notes is intuitive, especially with a dedicated meeting notes database for company-wide pattern analysis.
AI Meeting notes look similar to standard notion pages, but have a Transcript tab and a visible audio recording
Meeting Recognition: No meeting bot—prompts appear when virtual meetings start (Teams, Zoom, Google Meet).
Transcription Accuracy: Excellent, only fails with mispronounced English or obscure local words. Captures action points well, though sometimes misses owners due to lack of participant context.
You can more easily have insights into all yours (or your teams/companies) meetings by putting them all in a single database.
You can more easily have insights into all yours (or your teams/companies) meetings by putting them all in a single database.
Integrations: Copy-paste to other tools works well. No direct integrations currently.
Sharing: Standard Notion sharing—workspace access, external emails, or public links.
Fathom: Most Accurate
Fathom excels at integrations and transcription accuracy
The point: Best for meeting intelligence with easy sharing if you don't mind adding another tool to your stack.
Ease of use: Desktop app detects meetings and prompts to join. Uses a meeting bot that joins calls—haven't seen this be awkward in practice, even in sensitive scenarios.
Transcription Accuracy: Best I've tested. Handles local languages, accents, and mixed languages perfectly. Accurately assigns action point owners using bot context.
Integrations: Built integration-first with formats for Word, Notion, Asana, and more.
Sharing: Automatically sends recap to all participants with view-only recording link. Sometimes you don't want to capture everything, but it eliminates the "who sends notes?" conversation.
Standout feature for sales is you get real-time feedback on what percent of the meeting you’ve been hogging!
P.S. Referral link for a free month of Fathom Premium.
Granola: Best UX
Granola has the cleanest interface, inheriting design principles from Apple, its primary operating system
The point: Cleanest design (Apple-inspired) for Mac/Google ecosystems. Does basics exceptionally well without overwhelming features.
Ease of use: Download, sign in with Google, done. Pops up during meetings with familiar note-taking experience. Calendar integration for meeting prep.
Transcription Accuracy: Weaker with short meetings lacking context, non-English conversations, and strong accents. Good overall but not as reliable as Fathom.
Integrations: Focus on CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio).
Sharing: Simple share links post-meeting. Strong team collaboration with folders.
GDPR and Security Compliance
All tools are GDPR compliant with Data Processing Agreements, ranked by security certifications:
AI Meeting Note Taking Tool | Compliance Summary | GDPR Compliant? | Callouts |
|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft Teams | SOC 1 & 2 assessments | Yes | Still the enterprise standard |
Notion | SOC 2 Type 2 (achieved 2021, maintained) | Yes | Very strong, competing with Teams on certifications. Compliance information is extensive but a bit harder to dig through. |
Granola | SOC 2 Type 2 (achieved July 2025) | Yes | Missing ISO certifications. Important note is that while other tools are cloud-based, Granola's data is locally processed with minimal data collection, meaning your data is mostly held on your device. |
Fathom | SOC 2 Type 2 (confirmed 2025) | Yes | Strong but lacking ISO certifications. Their compliance pages are very easy to understand and transparent. |
The Verdict: Best AI Meeting Note Taker for Small Business
Microsoft Teams: Best for M365 ecosystem teams wanting "one and done" approach. Unbeatable economies of scale but complexity increases with growth.
Granola: Perfect for on-the-go teams needing simple, effective solutions with great UX.
Notion: Ideal if you're already in (or want to join) the Notion ecosystem.
Fathom: Choose for superior accuracy, integrations, and voice recognition in traditional meeting environments. Also the best option if you want AI meeting notes for free, as they are the only on the list with a generous free plan.
Quick Win: Start Using AI Note Taking in 30 Minutes
Purchase a license or use existing subscription, then:
Sales: Summarize key points, draft follow-up emails, analyze call performance
Customer interviews: Extract themes for marketing decisions
Brainstorms: Capture follow-ups and distribute to team
Planning/standups: Summarize objectives, dates, blockers; copy tasks to project management tools
Implementing AI note-taking is one of the best ways to start using AI in your SME with guaranteed results. Unlike most AI projects (95% fail), this delivers immediate value. I wrote about why most AI projects fail and how to join the successful 5%.
Referral link for free month of Fathom Premium.
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