The best alternatives to Circleback
Circleback might not be the right fit: the price, a missing feature or a payment model you don't like. These are the closest alternatives in our catalog, ordered by rating, with the full review of each one.
Why look for a Circleback alternative
Circleback remains the only tool in this segment that assigns action items to an owner instead of merely detecting them, and this week it kept expanding that ground: on July 28 it added in-app actions inside Notion, Linear, Asana, Attio, HubSpot, PostHog, Ashby and Intercom, and on August 3 it put Circleback inside Slack's agent panel with answers that cite their source. None of that changes the underlying balance. Price and scale remain the same objections: it still has no free plan, it is still the priciest entry in the segment from $20.83 per user per month annually, and its App Store base has barely grown from 213 to 214 ratings in a week. The ninety-day independent test that called it competent but undifferentiated against Granola and Fireflies is still the harshest reference in this file, and nothing published this week contradicts it.
What its own users repeat in the August 11, 2026 sweep:
- There is no free plan of any kind, only a trial and read-only seats, and it is the most visible complaint on its App Store listing (strong theme)
- It is the most expensive entry in the segment, from $20.83 per user per month annually and $25 paying monthly (strong theme)
- The only long independent test published describes it as competent but undifferentiated against cheaper rivals (strong theme)
- Its pricing page never states how many days the trial lasts, on a site that otherwise publishes its rates plainly (present theme)
- A small user base, with 214 App Store ratings against the more than ten thousand of its best-funded rival, so there is little public material to fall back on when something breaks (present theme)
- The maker publishes two different lists of supported video platforms on two pages of its own site (present theme)
Best alternatives to Circleback
The notepad that records your computer audio without putting a robot in the call and fills out the notes you are already taking.
Records and transcribes your meetings in 38 languages with the most generous free tier in the segment, and translates the notes into the language people spoke.
What the internet says about each alternative
Granola 3.9/5 · Free + from $14
Granola remains the tool in this segment that strays furthest from the mould: it sends no robot into the video call, captures the computer's own audio and fills out the notes the user is already taking. This week there is no dated fact that changes pricing, core features or support, so the five axes hold at the same level as the previous sweep. What does move is the mood of the network: on 5 and 6 August 2026 the Chamberlain v. Granola class action, filed 30 July in California over recording without all-party consent, remained without a response from the company, and a law firm cited it as an example of a growing wave of litigation against bot-free notetakers. On the product side, the documentation confirms a new speaker tags feature, but it only labels people by name on Zoom for macOS and on Google Meet through its extension, and it breaks once three or more people are speaking, so the multi-participant room problem is still not fully solved.
Where it wins: It puts no robot in the meeting: it captures the computer's own audio, so no extra participant shows up in the list Where it slips: Class action filed on 30 July 2026 in California, case 3:26-cv-07926-EMC, over recording without all-party consent. It remains without a company response and no court has ruled
Fathom 3.9/5 · Free + from $16
Little about the product moved this week, with one real exception: Fathom opened pre-orders for its first official mobile app, «Fathom AI Notetaker», listed on the App Store by Fathom Video Inc. with a launch planned for August 17, 2026, and the same help-centre article that a year ago warned no store app was legitimate now links to that pre-order. It is not the app yet: as of today, August 11, it still cannot be used, and the same store still hosts a copy from an unrelated developer, «IN IT TO WIN IT LLC», with a review that calls it outright «Fake app», so Fathom's fraud warning keeps its reason to exist. Everything else in the file holds without a verifiable change: the free tier still caps advanced summaries at five calls a month across 38 languages, the official pricing page has not moved a dollar from last week, CRM syncing is still capped per email domain outside the higher plans, and Capterra still shows 5.0 across 809 reviews with none newly logged so far in August. An independent tldv.io review, unaffiliated with Fathom, sums the product up as «reliable but bland, like Notepad with a mic», which lines up with the already-known complaint that its summaries are accurate but show no judgement about what mattered.
Where it wins: The free tier records and transcribes with no declared limit across 38 languages, which is more than any direct rival in the segment offers Where it slips: The free plan cuts advanced summaries off at the fifth call of the month, and that is precisely what defines this segment
Comparison table
| Tool | Price | Free trial | Platforms | Rating | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circleback | Free trial · from $20.83 | Yes | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | VisitCircleback (opens in a new tab) | |
| Granola | Free + from $14 | No | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | VisitGranola (opens in a new tab) | |
| Fathom | Free + from $16 | Yes | Web, Chrome | VisitFathom (opens in a new tab) |
Still unsure? Read the full review of Circleback?