Fathom joins your calls as a recording bot that everyone can see. Sway runs privately on your Mac and helps you in real time — your customer never knows it's there.
Fathom is a transparent meeting tool — it records your calls with a bot that other participants can see and a consent notice that they acknowledge. Sway is an private private assistant that runs entirely on your machine. If you need post-call documentation and your team is comfortable with a bot on the call, Fathom is a solid choice. If you need an AI that helps you during the call without anyone knowing it's there, only Sway does that.
Feature comparison
How Sway and Fathom stack up on the things that matter most.
| Feature | Sway | Fathom |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time AI suggestions during the call | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bot joins the meeting (visible to other participants) | No bot | Yes — visible |
| private, with no meeting bot (Zoom, Meet, Teams) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audio stays on your device | ✓ | ✗ — cloud recording |
| Post-call transcription and summaries | Planned | ✓ |
| CRM-ready call notes | Planned | ✓ |
| Works during live sales calls | ✓ — private | ✗ — bot is visible |
| No recording consent required | ✓ | ✗ |
| Coaching and live talking points | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free tier available | ✓ — 7-day trial | ✓ — limited free plan |
| macOS native app | ✓ | Browser extension + web |
What each tool does
Understanding what Fathom was built for — and where Sway goes instead.
Where Sway wins
Fathom's value kicks in after the meeting. Sway's value is the meeting — the moment someone asks you a question you didn't prepare for.
Sway has no participant entry. No notification. No "Fathom is recording this meeting." The people you're talking to see only you — not an AI assistant hanging in the room.
Sway surfaces talking points, objection responses, and context the moment the conversation shifts — not in the follow-up email you write 30 minutes later from Fathom's summary.
Fathom records and stores calls in the cloud. Sway processes audio locally in real time. Nothing is recorded. Nothing is stored. Your conversations are yours.
If your team needs structured post-call documentation — transcripts, highlights, CRM sync, shareable meeting summaries — Fathom is purpose-built for that workflow and does it very well. Sales teams using Salesforce or HubSpot integration, managers reviewing call recordings, or teams that need a searchable archive of customer conversations will find Fathom's feature set compelling. Sway and Fathom are not strictly competing — they occupy different moments in the same conversation lifecycle.
When to use Sway
Sway is for the moment where what you say in the next ten seconds matters.
A bot joining a sensitive client call is often unwelcome. Sway runs locally with no meeting bot — surface answers and examples in real time.
Handle objections on the spot. Surface pricing, case studies, and competitive responses the moment a prospect pushes back — without fumbling.
Some clients will not consent to recording. Sway needs no consent — it never records anything. Use it where a bot would kill the trust.
Keep complex details within reach during high-pressure calls. Let Sway surface the right number, the right reference, the right context — instantly.
Pricing
Start free — no credit card, no setup, no bot to configure. Just download and open Sway before your next call.
7-day free trial. Full real-time suggestions. No credit card required to start today.
Unlimited sessions, full private mode (private, with no meeting bot), and priority AI response speed.
Frequently asked questions
Fathom is a meeting recorder — it joins your Zoom or Google Meet call as a bot participant, records the session, transcribes it, and generates summaries after the fact. Sway is a real-time AI assistant that runs privately on your Mac during the call, surfacing live suggestions and coaching with no bot in the room and no recording stored anywhere.
Yes. Fathom joins your call as a participant that other people can see in the participant list. Sway does not join the call at all — it runs as a native macOS app that is private, with no meeting bot. No participant, no notification, nothing visible to anyone else on the call.
No. Sway processes audio locally in real time to generate AI suggestions. It does not record, store, or upload audio. Only the text of a specific prompt is sent to an AI provider to generate a response. The audio itself never leaves your Mac.
No. Sway uses macOS private mode to render its window below the OS capture layer used by Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It is completely private, with no meeting bot, screen recording, and proctoring software.
Fathom records and transcribes meetings after the fact, which may be useful for review — but it joins calls as a visible bot, which is inappropriate for many sensitive call contexts. Sway provides real-time assistance and is private to you. Whether using any AI tool in a given conversation is appropriate depends on your workplace policies and applicable laws — you are responsible for verifying this before use.
Sway offers a 7-day free trial. Sway Plus is $30/month or $216/year. Fathom has its own tier structure. Check each product's current pricing page for up-to-date rates.
Sway starts with a 7-day free trial. No credit card required. Download and have real-time AI in your next call in under two minutes.