Scriben vs Fathom
One person can buy a pen.
Fathom is genuinely generous on calls — unlimited recordings and summaries on its free plan. Its paid tiers are built for teams and start at a two-seat minimum. Scriben is one object, bought once, by one person, and it works where a call recorder cannot go.
- What it actually is
- SoftwareA notetaker for video calls
- A penIts own hardware, syncs to iOS
- Three years, one person
- $540Team, at $15 per user per month billed annually, two-seat minimum
- $129Pen purchase. Free software plan included
- What has to be running
- A deviceSigned in, with the app or the call open
- NothingNo phone, no app, no network
- Writes on paper
- NoIt is software
- YesA real 0.6mm ballpoint
Start here
What Fathom does better.
Fathom’s free plan is the most generous in this comparison: unlimited meeting recordings and instant AI summaries at $0. For someone whose meetings are all on video and who wants a recorder that costs nothing, Fathom is hard to argue with, and this page is not going to try.
Beyond the recording
Capture is only the first step.
Scriben combines purpose-built hardware, durable memory and agents that can move approved work through the tools you already use.
Where each one works
The same week, on both.
Not a feature list. The actual situations a working week is made of, and what happens in each.
- A video call at your desk
- ✓
- ✓
- Unlimited recordings at no cost
- ✓
- ✓
- Buying exactly one seat
- —
- ✓
- A meeting across a table, laptop shut
- —
- ✓
- A site visit, a ward round, a walk
- —
- ✓
- Somewhere with no signal
- —
- ✓
- Writing on paper while it captures
- —
- ✓
Fathom records video calls and is free for unlimited recordings and summaries; its paid Team and Business tiers carry a two-user minimum. Checked on 15 September 2026 on fathom.video.
Over time
Per seat, per month, for three years.
Fathom’s free plan covers unlimited call recordings and summaries. The bars price the Team tier, which is where action items and the meeting assistant live — and which cannot be bought for one person.
After one year
After two years
After three years
Fathom figures checked on 15 September 2026 on fathom.video/pricing: a free plan with unlimited recordings and instant summaries; Team $19 per user per month, or $15 billed annually; Business $34 per user per month, or $25 billed annually. Both paid tiers state a two-user minimum, so the real entry price for a team is double the per-seat figure. The bars price a single seat at the annual Team rate over three years, which flatters Fathom, because one seat is not actually purchasable. Prices change — check theirs before you decide. The Scriben bar is the Free plan at $0 a month after the $129 pen. Our Pro plan is $12.99 a month, and on Pro our three-year total would be $597 — more than the $540 drawn here. At Fathom’s real two-seat minimum that comparison reverses again, to $1,080. If you want Scriben Pro and you have a second person to share a Fathom subscription with, Fathom is the cheaper of the two.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Is Fathom really free?
Can one person buy Fathom’s paid tier?
Does Scriben record video calls?
What happens when I am away from my desk?
Which should I buy?
Also worth comparing
The other three.
Anyone choosing between two of these is usually choosing between several. Every page uses the same rules and dates its sources.
Honestly
Which one to buy.
Fathom if your meetings are video calls and free is the price you want to pay. Scriben if the conversations that decide things happen in rooms, or if you are one person and a two-seat minimum is not something you want to fund.