Shadow vs Fathom (2026)

Shadow

by Taper Labs

Fathom

by Fathom Video

Pros

• ✓Bot-free architecture means no visible participant joins meetings, a significant differentiator for client-facing sales calls, regulated industries, and confidential conversations where vendor bots create trust friction or compliance issues
• ✓Captures both audio AND on-screen content through smart screenshots where every other major meeting AI captures audio only, critical for design reviews, product demos, and slide-driven presentations
• ✓Shadow 2.0 auto-execute Skills run post-meeting actions (PDF creation, slide generation, CRM updates, follow-up emails, scheduling) automatically with no manual button press, putting Shadow among the few meeting tools in the autonomous-action-taking category rather than just transcription

Limitations

• ⚠Mac-only with no Windows or mobile support, which excludes Windows-heavy organisations and mobile-first users; this is the single most-cited gap in public user feedback across Product Hunt and G2
• ⚠Free tier is 25 lifetime meetings rather than 25 monthly meetings, so users hit the AI features cap quickly and must upgrade to Plus at $8 per month for continued use
• ⚠Shadow holds no first-party SOC 2 certification; privacy posture relies on local on-device processing for transcription plus third-party SOC 2-certified APIs (OpenAI Enterprise Policy) for AI features, which may not satisfy procurement teams requiring vendor-direct certifications

Pros

• ✓Number one AI notetaker on G2 with 6,769 reviews at 5.0 stars as of May 2026, HubSpot Most Used App 2025, and G2 2026 Best Software #69 -- the strongest third-party validation track record in the meeting intelligence category
• ✓Generous free tier with unlimited recordings, transcriptions, and basic AI summaries plus no time limit on storage, making Fathom accessible for evaluation without credit card or usage caps on core features
• ✓Business tier CRM field sync automatically maps and writes meeting insights into specific fields in Salesforce and HubSpot records, eliminating post-call manual CRM data entry for revenue teams

Limitations

• ⚠Bot-free recording is a Mac-only beta feature as of May 2026 -- most users still have a visible bot named in the participant list, which can create friction in client-facing calls and sensitive meeting environments
• ⚠Free and Premium tiers cap CRM sync at 3 users per domain and limit advanced AI features to 5 calls per month -- teams that rely heavily on AI summaries and CRM integration hit upgrade pressure quickly
• ⚠Bot-free mode, Deal View, CRM field sync, coaching metrics, and AI scorecards all require paid tiers with Business at $25/user/mo annual being the minimum for revenue teams, which prices out smaller sales organisations