Pertch vs Fathom

Fathom is great. It’s the most popular free AI notetaker in the market and a lot of salespeople love it. So why pay for Pertch when Fathom is free?

Because they do completely different things. The comparison only feels obvious if you assume “AI” and “calls” means they’re the same category. They aren’t.

Fathom joins your meeting as a bot, records the call, generates a summary afterward, and pushes notes into your CRM. The whole product happens after the meeting ends.

Pertch listens to your live call and surfaces a coaching prompt when the conversation needs one. It happens during the meeting. Audio is never recorded, only a private text transcript that’s kept for 30 days then deleted.

Same general space, opposite ends of the timeline.

30-second verdict

Use Fathom if you want help remembering what happened on calls and following up afterward. The free tier is genuinely useful and the paid plan is reasonable.

Use Pertch if you want help during the call itself. Better questions, better discovery, better objection handling, in the moment.

Most sellers will eventually want both. They solve different problems and don’t conflict.

Pricing

	Pertch	Fathom
Free tier	14-day free trial	Free with unlimited recordings
Paid plan	From $39/mo	Premium at $29/mo
Records audio	No (transcript only, 30 days)	Yes (every call)
Real-time coaching	Yes	No
Post-call summary	Yes (from transcript)	Yes (their core feature)
CRM integration	No	Yes (paid plan)

Fathom’s free tier is the most generous in the category and a major reason for the company’s growth. The paid plan adds CRM sync, advanced action items, and team features.

The fundamental difference

Fathom helps you after the conversation. Pertch helps you during it.

If you forget what was said on a call yesterday, Fathom solves that. The summary is in your inbox, the action items are pulled out, the CRM is updated. You don’t have to take notes during the call. For a lot of sellers, this is the highest-ROI free tool they use.

If you wanted to ask a better question, handle an objection more cleanly, or remember to set next steps before the call ended, Fathom can’t help you. The call is over. The pattern shows up in the summary. You take that learning into the next call.

Pertch is built for that gap. The coaching arrives at five to fifteen seconds, not the next day. By the time Fathom would tell you “you forgot to set next steps,” Pertch already nudged you to do it.

Where Fathom wins

You want help remembering what happened on calls. This is Fathom’s core competency.

You want a free tool. Fathom’s free tier is more generous than most competitors’ paid plans.

You want CRM auto-fill. The Salesforce and HubSpot integrations on the paid plan handle this well.

You’re running a high volume of calls and need the summaries more than the in-call help. Account managers and CSMs often fit this profile.

You’re fine with calls being recorded and stored. Fathom’s whole product depends on this.

Where Pertch wins

You want help during the call, not after. Real-time prompts versus next-day summaries.

You can’t or won’t record calls. Compliance, two-party consent states, client NDAs, or personal preference.

You’re new to a methodology and want coaching while you’re trying to apply it. Reading a summary that says “you should have asked about budget” doesn’t help you ask about budget. A prompt during the call does.

You want a tool where no one else can see your sessions, including your manager. Fathom’s team plans give visibility. Pertch never does.

Can you use both?

Yes, and many sellers will. They don’t conflict and they solve different parts of the problem.

A typical setup: Pertch coaches you during the call. Fathom captures the summary after. You get help in the moment and a clean record for follow-up. The two tools together cover both ends of the timeline.

The only friction is that Fathom records and Pertch doesn’t. If you’re on a call where recording is a problem, you skip Fathom for that call and use Pertch alone. The reverse doesn’t really come up.

Why pay for Pertch when Fathom is free?

This is the real question and it deserves a direct answer.

You pay for a product that does something Fathom doesn’t do. Post-call summaries and real-time coaching are not substitutes. If your problem is forgetting what was said, Fathom solves it for free. If your problem is wanting to perform better in the conversation, no amount of post-call notes solves that.

The honest case for Pertch over Fathom isn’t “Pertch is a better summary tool.” It isn’t. It’s that summaries don’t change the outcome of the call you just had. Coaching does.

If you’ve ever finished a call and thought “I should have asked about X” or “I shouldn’t have answered that pricing question that early,” Pertch is built for that exact moment. Fathom will confirm in writing what you already know happened.

The honest answer

If you only want one tool and your biggest pain is remembering what was said and following up, Fathom is the right pick and the free tier is enough.

If your biggest pain is the calls themselves, Pertch is the right pick.

If you take sales seriously and you’re running important conversations, you probably want both.