Comparison
Cachalot vs Fathom
Fathom joins the call, records it to its own service, and gives a team a hosted library of what was said. Cachalot does the same job for one person, on one machine, with nothing hosted anywhere.
Download free for MacmacOS 26+, Apple Silicon · No account required
The structural difference
| Cachalot | Fathom | |
|---|---|---|
| Joins your meeting as a bot | No — nothing appears in the call | Yes — it joins supported meetings as a participant |
| Where your audio goes | Nowhere. It stays in ~/Documents on your Mac | Uploaded for transcription and summarization |
| Works offline | Yes — recording, transcription and notes all run locally | No |
| Runs on | macOS 26+, Apple Silicon | Web and desktop clients tied to supported platforms |
Based on Fathom's publicly documented behaviour as of September 2026. Prices and individual features change often, so they are deliberately left out. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
When Fathom is the better choice
- you rely on a specific meeting platform's deep integration (in-call highlights, shared clips)
- your team wants a hosted library of calls with permissions and sharing built in
- you are on Windows
Cachalot is built for the opposite constraint: conversations that cannot be uploaded — client work under NDA, candidate interviews, medical, legal and financial calls — where a bot in the meeting or audio in someone else's cloud is not an option.
Try it on your next call
Free, no account, no trial period. Record, get notes, and see for yourself that nothing leaves the machine.