Circleback is one of the easiest AI note-takers to like right now. It gives free users unlimited meetings, records in person from a phone or Apple Watch, skips the bot with a desktop app, and says plainly that it does not train AI models on customer data. So why look elsewhere?
Usually for one of three reasons. The free plan only keeps 30 days of history. Every paid seat is billed per user. And HIPAA sits in the top tier. If none of those bother you, you can probably stop reading and stay. If one of them does, this guide compares four alternatives on exactly those points. Every figure below was read off the vendors’ own pages on 28 September 2026. Plans and prices change, so check them again before you pay.
Quick Verdict
- Otter if you want the cheapest paid seat and can live with six languages and a vendor that trains on de-identified data.
- Fathom if your meetings are all online and you want unlimited free recordings with a real training opt-out.
- Jamie if European data residency and deleting the audio matter more than replaying it.
- AmyNote if you work on an iPhone, meet people in the room, and want one flat price with the library kept on the device.
- Stay on Circleback if you rely on its integrations, API or MCP access, or need Windows, Android and a Watch app.
What We Compared
Most “alternatives” lists rank tools on summary quality, which is hard to measure and changes every month. We scored each tool on the reasons people actually leave Circleback, all of which can be checked on a pricing or policy page:
- Cost for one person in year one. Annual billing, cheapest plan that removes the main cap.
- History and replay. How long recordings stay, and whether you can listen again.
- In-person capture. A conversation across a table, with no meeting link.
- Training and compliance. What the vendor says about training models, and which certifications it sells.
Circleback: What You Would Be Leaving
Strengths. The free plan is generous: AI notes and action items, “Unlimited meetings on the free plan”, online and in-person capture, a bot or the bot-free desktop app, and mobile and Apple Watch apps. The FAQ says “No. We don’t train AI models on customer data.” It supports over 100 languages and ships API, MCP and CLI access even on Free.
Weaknesses. Free keeps a 30-day meeting and recording history. Pro costs $15 per user per month billed yearly for 1 year of recording storage, Business $25 for 2 years, and only Enterprise, at $35, gets unlimited storage, SSO and HIPAA compliance.
Put simply, Circleback’s storage ladder is the price of time. The longer you need to go back to a recording, the higher the tier, and every tier is multiplied by the number of people on the team. That is the trade-off each alternative below answers differently.
Otter: The Cheapest Paid Seat
Strengths. Otter Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually, about half of Circleback Pro. Business is $19.99. It runs on iOS, Android, Mac and Windows, and the free Basic plan includes audio playback and 300 transcription minutes a month.
Weaknesses. Basic stops each conversation at 30 minutes, and Pro at 90. Otter transcribes six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. Its privacy policy lists training its AI on de-identified audio recordings and transcriptions, and we found no training opt-out in it. HIPAA is an Enterprise add-on.
Best for: English-speaking teams on mixed devices who want the lowest per-seat price and are comfortable with the training language in the policy.
Fathom: Free Unlimited Recordings, No Room Capture Yet
Strengths. Fathom’s free plan is “Free forever” with unlimited recordings and transcriptions and a choice of bot-free (in beta) or bot capture. Premium is $16 per month billed annually. Fathom may train in-house models on de-identified meeting data, but its policy says “You can opt out from this use of your data in your account settings.”
Weaknesses. In-person capture is “coming soon” in its iOS app, per a help article edited 27 August 2026. The current workaround warns that Fathom “cannot distinguish between multiple speakers in the same physical room”. HIPAA with a signed BAA appears only on Enterprise, which has no published price.
Best for: people whose meetings all happen on a video call and who mainly want to escape Circleback’s 30-day free history without paying.
Jamie: Bot-Free and European, No Replay
Strengths. Jamie records without a bot, lists in-person meetings on every tier, and supports 99+ languages. Its security page says “Your data is never used for training of models, not by us or any of the model providers”, with storage and processing inside Europe.
Weaknesses. The same page says “Meeting audio is deleted after transcription”, so there is nothing to replay. Free allows 10 AI notes a month with a 30-minute limit. Plus is €21 per month billed annually, and Pro is €39.
Best for: European teams for whom holding no audio at all is a feature, not a bug. If you ever need to check what someone actually said, Jamie cannot help, by design.
AmyNote: A Flat-Price iPhone App
Strengths. AmyNote costs $99 a year, $19.99 a month or $12.99 a week, with unlimited recordings and every feature included. No bot joins anything: you put the iPhone on the table. It transcribes 140+ languages and translates into 100+, with tuning for East Asian and Arabic speech. The saved library of recordings, transcripts and notes lives on the iPhone or iPad, and recording and playback work with no network. Its security page says “We don’t use your data to train AI models” and “We don’t require an account to use core features.”
Weaknesses, stated plainly. AmyNote is iOS only: no Android, no desktop app, no Apple Watch app. There is no free plan, only a 3-day trial. It has no CRM integrations, no API or MCP, and no video recording. It sells no SOC 2, HIPAA or SSO at any price and publishes no retention period. Local-first is not local-only: when you transcribe, translate or summarise, the audio or text goes to its cloud partners (Microsoft Azure, OpenAI and Anthropic’s Claude), and processing copies may be retained. Transport is TLS, and AmyNote itself says that is not end-to-end encryption.
Best for: one person on an iPhone who records conversations across a table and wants the recordings on their own device for a single flat price.
What Year One Costs
For one person on the entry paid plan that removes the main cap, billed annually, at list prices on the day we checked:
Two caveats. AmyNote and Otter Pro land within a dollar of each other, so price alone will not decide between them; platform and language coverage will. And for Fathom the paid plan is optional for many people, because the free plan already has unlimited recordings.
Side by Side
| Circleback | Otter | Fathom | Jamie | AmyNote | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No, 3-day trial |
| Recording history | 30 days free, 1 year on Pro | 25 most recent on Free | Unlimited on Free | Audio deleted | Kept on your device |
| Advertises in-person capture | Yes | Partly, phone apps | Not yet | Yes | Yes |
| Says it does not train on your content | Yes | No | Partly, opt-out | Yes | Yes |
| Sells HIPAA at some tier | Enterprise | Enterprise add-on | Enterprise | Not listed | No |
| Mac or Windows app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
How to Choose
Start from the reason you are leaving, not from the feature list:
- “30 days of history is not enough.” Fathom Free has unlimited recordings for online calls. AmyNote keeps the library on your device. Jamie is the wrong answer here: it keeps no audio at all.
- “Per-seat pricing is too much.” Otter Pro is the cheapest paid seat on every platform. AmyNote is a flat price, but for one iPhone user, not a team.
- “I need HIPAA.” None of the alternatives makes it cheaper: Otter and Fathom both keep it at Enterprise, and neither Jamie nor AmyNote lists it. Circleback Enterprise may still be your simplest route.
- “I meet people in person.” Circleback, Jamie and AmyNote advertise room capture today. Fathom is still on a waitlist.
- “I care what happens to my data.” Circleback, Jamie and AmyNote say they do not train on your content. Fathom trains with an opt-out. Otter trains, and we found no opt-out.
Before You Switch
- Export what you want to keep. On Circleback’s free plan, anything older than 30 days is already outside the history window.
- Check your longest meeting. Otter Basic and Jamie Free both cut off at 30 minutes, which is shorter than many real meetings.
- Check the languages you actually speak. Otter covers six. Circleback lists over 100, Jamie 99+ and AmyNote 140+.
- Tell people you are recording. Consent rules differ between places, and some require everyone on the call to agree. Whichever tool you pick, say it on the recording.
The Bottom Line
If Circleback’s free plan fits, there is little reason to move. It is hard to beat on integrations and platform coverage. If 30-day history or per-seat pricing is what pushes you out, the choice depends on how you meet. For online calls on a budget, Fathom Free is the easiest switch. For the cheapest seat on every device, Otter Pro, if its training policy is acceptable. For EU compliance without replay, Jamie.
If most of your important conversations happen face to face and you already carry an iPhone, AmyNote is the cheapest option here for one person in year one. It keeps the library on your own device and needs no account for core features. Search for AmyNote on the App Store and try the 3-day trial on your next in-person meeting before you decide.
Originally published as an X Article by @AmyNoteApp.
