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Side-by-side comparison · Productivity & Notes

Granola vs Fathom vs Notion

Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.

Granola

4.2

From $14/user/mo

Fathom

4.0

From $20/mo

Best overall

Notion

4.3

From $10/member/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Granola

4.2
Easiest to use

Pick it if: Founders, consultants and managers who sit in back-to-back calls and hate the awkward recording bot.

Fathom

4.0

Pick it if: Sales and customer-facing teams who want every call recorded and summarised without paying per seat to start.

Notion

4.3
Best overall

Pick it if: Anyone who wants one place for their notes, plans and team knowledge, from solo creators to whole companies.

Overview

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
In one lineTakes meeting notes from your computer's audio, so no bot ever joins the call.Records your video calls and sends you a summary, action items and transcript.One workspace for notes, docs, wikis and project tracking, with AI built in.
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$14/user/mo$20/mo$10/member/mo
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Overall rating4.24.04.3Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
5.0
4.5
3.5
FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
3.5
5.0
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.5
3.5
4.5
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.0
4.5
4.5
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
4.0
4.0

Feature comparison

A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Mobile app Yes– Yes
Desktop app Yes Yes Yes
Browser extension No– Yes
API access Yes Yes Yes
Teams & business
Team workspace Yes Yes Yes
Enterprise plan or SSO Yes Yes Yes
Connects to other apps Yes Yes Yes
Open source or self-hosted No No No
AI abilities
Works with your files No No Yes
Understands images No No Yes
Makes images No No No
Makes video No No No
Writes code No No Yes
Runs agents or automations No No Yes
Learns your brand or style No No No
Works in many languages Yes Yes Yes
Capabilities score8/ 177/ 1713/ 17

Pricing

Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Plans

Basic

Free

Trying it, or anyone who only needs the last month of notes.

FreeOur pick

Free

Anyone who wants every call recorded without paying.

Free

Free

One person getting organised.

BusinessOur pick

$14/user/mo

Anyone in regular client or sales calls.

Premium

$20/mo, or $16/mo billed yearly

One person who wants the fuller summaries every time.

Plus

$10/member/mo billed yearly

Small teams who want shared docs without the AI.

Enterprise

$35/user/mo

Companies that need admin control over who records what.

Team

$19/user/mo, or $15/user/mo billed yearly

Small teams sharing calls with each other.

BusinessOur pick

$20/member/mo billed yearly

Teams who want the AI properly switched on.

Business

$34/user/mo, or $25/user/mo billed yearly

Sales teams living in a CRM.

Enterprise

Custom

Larger companies with security and compliance needs.

Enterprise

Custom

Larger organisations needing SSO and rollout help.

Which plan to pickStart on Basic and see how it fits your week. If you find yourself wanting a call from six weeks ago, that's your signal to move to Business. Enterprise is only for IT-managed rollouts.Most people should simply use Free; it covers more than the paid tiers of its rivals. Only move to Team or Business when several people need to search each other's calls or you want notes landing in HubSpot or Salesforce without lifting a finger.Solo users can stay on Free for a long time. For a team the honest answer is Business, because Plus leaves out the AI that makes Notion interesting now. Note that yearly billing is what gets you the $10 and $20 prices, and monthly billing costs more.

Key features

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Standout features
  • Bot-free capture
  • Notes built on yours
  • Ask across meetings
  • Templates
  • Phone apps
  • Claude connection
  • Unlimited free recording
  • Summaries and action items
  • Clips and playlists
  • Ask Fathom
  • CRM sync
  • Claude connection
  • Pages and databases
  • Notion AI and Agent
  • AI Meeting Notes
  • Templates
  • Sites and forms
  • Claude connection

Pros and cons

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Pros
  • No bot in the call keeps clients and candidates relaxed
  • Notes read like something you wrote, not a wall of transcript
  • Quick to set up and almost nothing to learn
  • Cross-meeting chat is genuinely useful for follow-ups
  • Phone apps cover in-person meetings
  • Unlimited free recordings and transcripts, no catch
  • Video means you can replay and clip moments, not just read about them
  • Summaries arrive almost instantly after the call
  • CRM sync is the real thing for sales teams
  • Official Claude connection
  • Replaces a handful of separate apps with one workspace
  • Databases are flexible enough to model almost any business process
  • Generous free plan for individuals
  • Official Claude connection makes it a shared memory for your AI tools
  • Huge template library and community
Cons
  • No video recording or shareable clips
  • The free plan locks notes older than 30 days
  • No annual discount shown, so $14 a user adds up for a team
  • Needs the desktop app running; it won't record from a phone call on your laptop if the app is closed
  • A recording bot joins most calls and some clients find it off-putting
  • Built for video calls; in-person meetings are not its strength
  • The fuller AI summaries are capped unless you pay
  • Pricing tiers are confusing, with Premium costing more than Team
  • No imposed structure, so workspaces get messy without discipline
  • The useful AI is held back for the $20 Business plan
  • Can feel slow with large databases and on patchy connections
  • Offline support is still limited
  • Easy to spend more time organising Notion than doing the work

Who each one is for

AttributeGranolaFathomNotion
Best for
  • Client and sales calls
  • Interviews and one-on-ones
  • Bot-free recording
  • Asking questions across past meetings
  • Recording sales and client calls
  • Sharing call clips with the team
  • Pushing notes into a CRM
  • Free unlimited transcripts
  • Team wikis and documentation
  • Personal notes and planning
  • Content calendars
  • Lightweight project tracking
  • A knowledge base Claude can read
You'll find it used by
  • Founders
  • Consultants
  • Managers
  • Sales teams
  • Recruiters
  • Sales teams
  • Customer success
  • Agencies
  • Coaches
  • Startups
  • Marketers
  • Agencies
  • Solo founders
  • Students

How we compare

Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability. The "Visit" buttons may use affiliate links, which never affect a score.

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