Fathom vs Otter.ai for Nonprofits

Both tools claim transcription accuracy of up to 95% under ideal conditions: clear audio, minimal background noise, and one speaker at a time. In practice, Fathom tends to perform more consistently when multiple speakers talk over each other or when technical terminology is used, which is common in nonprofit grant discussions, clinical case reviews, or policy meetings. Otter.ai's accuracy degrades more noticeably in noisy environments or large group calls, with speaker misidentification reported at around 30% in some group meeting tests.

This is one of the most significant differences between the two tools. Fathom supports transcription in 28 to 38 languages and handles multilingual conversations with notable consistency. For nonprofits serving immigrant communities, conducting international development work, coordinating with global partner organizations, or supporting refugee populations, this breadth of language support is a meaningful advantage that often eliminates the need for separate translation services.

Otter.ai primarily supports English, with some sources indicating limited support for Spanish and French. It does not automatically detect language switches mid-conversation, which creates friction for multilingual meetings. For nonprofits where English is the only working language, this gap is irrelevant. For those serving diverse populations, it is a decisive limitation.

Fathom delivers AI summaries within 30 seconds of a meeting ending. Paid plans offer 14 to 17 summary template types, including action items, decisions, coaching notes, and meeting minutes. An "Ask Fathom" conversational interface lets staff query past recordings by asking natural language questions, which is particularly useful for recalling specific decisions or commitments from past board meetings or donor conversations.

Otter.ai's summaries include decisions, action items, and participant insights. A slide capture feature automatically images presentations shared during meetings and embeds them into the transcript at the relevant moment, adding rich context. Otter.ai also supports action item assignment directly within the transcript interface. While both approaches produce useful summaries, Fathom's speed and consistency give it a slight edge for teams that need quick turnaround, while Otter.ai's slide capture and action assignment features are valuable for structured meeting workflows.

Privacy deserves extended attention in this comparison because the two tools have meaningfully different risk profiles. Fathom holds SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance certifications and has a clear, explicit policy that it does not use customer data to train its AI models at any plan level, including the free tier. This is enforced through contractual terms with its AI providers. Fathom stores all data on encrypted AWS infrastructure in the United States and does not sell data to third parties.

Otter.ai's privacy situation is more complex. In August 2025, a federal class action lawsuit (Brewer v. Otter.ai) was filed alleging that Otter.ai's AI notetaker recorded private conversations without adequate consent from all participants and used those recordings to train AI models. Ohio State University issued public guidance warning its community about these privacy concerns. While Otter.ai's privacy policy references de-identified data, this is disputed in the litigation.

For nonprofits handling confidential beneficiary conversations, HIPAA-regulated health information, attorney-client communications, or sensitive donor discussions, Fathom's compliance posture and no-training policy represent a substantially lower legal and reputational risk. Organizations should conduct their own due diligence on Otter.ai's litigation status before adopting it for sensitive use cases.

Otter.ai's iOS and Android apps represent a genuine and practical advantage over Fathom for certain nonprofit contexts. A case manager visiting a client site, a development officer attending a networking event, or a field researcher conducting an interview can use Otter.ai to record and transcribe directly from their phone. Fathom has no mobile app and does not support Chromebooks or Linux systems, restricting it entirely to desktop browsers and dedicated applications on supported operating systems.

Similarly, Otter.ai supports the upload of existing audio and video files for transcription. This allows nonprofits to transcribe archived board meeting recordings, recorded webinar content, or qualitative research interviews that were captured before adopting Otter.ai. Fathom only transcribes meetings it actively joins in real time; it cannot process uploaded files. For organizations with existing libraries of recorded content, this single capability can make Otter.ai the obvious choice.

Fathom's integration story is stronger, especially considering what it offers at no cost. Zapier is available on all Fathom plans including the free tier, connecting meeting transcripts and summaries to more than 7,000 applications. This means a nonprofit can automatically send meeting action items to Asana or ClickUp, log donor call notes to Salesforce or HubSpot, or trigger Slack messages when a meeting ends, all without writing any code. Native integrations include HubSpot and Salesforce for CRM sync (on paid plans), Slack, Notion, and Asana.

Otter.ai supports native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Google Drive, but lacks Zapier entirely. This is a notable gap for nonprofits that rely on automation to reduce administrative burden. Without Zapier, connecting Otter.ai to tools outside its native integration list requires custom API development, which most nonprofits do not have the technical capacity to build and maintain.