Fellow.app Alternatives: 5 Real Replacements
Fellow’s 5-seat minimum on Pro and 10-seat minimum on Business is the main reason people look elsewhere. Here are the actual tools to consider.
The short answer
- Fathom is the closest functional replacement and has no seat minimum (free unlimited recordings).
- tl;dv is cheaper than Fellow with similar features and no seat minimum.
- Otter is the pick if transcription accuracy is your priority.
Why people switch away from Fellow
The single biggest reason people search for Fellow alternatives in 2026 is the 5-seat-minimum on Pro (and 10-seat on Business). For solo professionals and teams of 2–4, Fellow Pro is unavailable, you’d be paying for seats you don’t need. Other common reasons: pricing creep, wanting better AI transcription, or wanting a free unlimited tier.
5 real Fellow alternatives
Each of these actually does the same job as Fellow. Pick by which version of the job you need.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Fathom | You want a free tier that's actually unlimited | Free $0; Premium $16/mo yearly ($20/mo monthly); Team $15/seat yearly, 2-seat min; Business $25/seat yearly |
| tl;dv | You want a Fellow-like experience with no seat minimum | Free Forever (unlimited recordings); paid tiers exist but not retrievable from their site at time of writing |
| Otter.ai | You want best-in-class real-time transcription and live captions | Basic free (300 min/mo, 90-min cap); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual; Business $19.99/user/mo annual; Enterprise custom |
| Notta | You work across 50+ languages | Free (120 min/mo); Pro $8.17/mo annual ($13.99 monthly); Business $16.67/seat annual ($27.99 monthly); Enterprise 51+ seats custom |
| Krisp | You want AI noise cancellation bundled with meeting notes | Core $8/user/mo annual ($16 monthly); Advanced $15/user/mo annual ($30 monthly); Enterprise custom |
Best for: You want a free tier that's actually unlimited
Pricing: Free $0; Premium $16/mo yearly ($20/mo monthly); Team $15/seat yearly, 2-seat min; Business $25/seat yearly
Free tier: Unlimited recordings + transcriptions + summaries + search on the free tier. Genuinely the most generous free tier in this category.
Where they beat Fellow: Free tier truly includes unlimited recordings, transcriptions, summaries, clips, and search. No minute cap, no seat minimum at free, no AI credits.
Best for: You want a Fellow-like experience with no seat minimum
Pricing: Free Forever (unlimited recordings); paid tiers exist but not retrievable from their site at time of writing
Free tier: Unlimited recordings and transcriptions; AI summaries included; no credit card.
Where they beat Fellow: Free Forever tier covers unlimited recordings and transcriptions in 30+ languages. No 5-seat minimum like Fellow Pro.
Worth knowing: Their pricing page was not directly readable at the time of writing, verify exact paid tier pricing on their site directly before committing.
Best for: You want best-in-class real-time transcription and live captions
Pricing: Basic free (300 min/mo, 90-min cap); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual; Business $19.99/user/mo annual; Enterprise custom
Free tier: Free tier capped at 300 minutes per month with a 90-minute per-meeting limit.
Where they beat Fellow: Strongest real-time captions and speaker recognition. Better than Fellow for accessibility use cases. Flat per-seat pricing, no credits system.
Best for: You work across 50+ languages
Pricing: Free (120 min/mo); Pro $8.17/mo annual ($13.99 monthly); Business $16.67/seat annual ($27.99 monthly); Enterprise 51+ seats custom
Free tier: Free tier: 120 minutes/month, 3-minute cap per meeting, 10 AI summaries/month. Transcript exports require paid plan.
Where they beat Fellow: Multilingual transcription in 58 languages with real-time translation. The only alternative on this list that beats Otter for non-English audio.
Worth knowing: Their homepage promotes "200 free minutes" but the actual pricing page shows 120, discrepancy worth knowing about.
Best for: You want AI noise cancellation bundled with meeting notes
Pricing: Core $8/user/mo annual ($16 monthly); Advanced $15/user/mo annual ($30 monthly); Enterprise custom
Free tier: Important correction: Krisp does NOT have a free tier. They offer a 7-day free trial with unlimited features, then you must upgrade.
Where they beat Fellow: AI noise cancellation is genuinely best-in-class. Bundles with transcription, AI notes, and accent conversion (1 hr/day on Core, 4 hr/day on Advanced).
Worth knowing: No free-forever tier despite what most comparison sites claim. 7-day trial only.
Which one for which problem
Each Fellow alternative solves a different version of the "Fellow Pro's 5-seat minimum is blocking me" problem. Match the alternative to what triggered your search.
If
The 5-seat minimum is your problem and you want unlimited free
→
Fathom, Closest functional replacement with the most generous free tier in this category.
If
You want most of Fellow's features at a lower price
→
tl;dv, Free Forever tier; cheaper than Fellow at paid tiers; no seat minimum.
If
Transcription accuracy and live captions are what you actually need
→
Otter.ai, Strongest real-time captions and speaker recognition. Flat pricing, no credit gotchas.
If
Your meetings happen in multiple languages
→
Notta, 58 languages with real-time translation, Fellow does not match this.
If
Audio quality and noise are your real issue, not note-taking
→
Krisp, Best-in-class noise cancellation bundled with notes, but read the gotcha first: no free tier.
About MeetingToll (we're not on the list above)
MeetingToll isn’t on this list because we’re not a meeting notes / agenda tool. Fellow runs the meeting (agendas, action items, transcription). We track what the meeting costs in dollars. Different category. If you want to replace Fellow, pick one of the five above.
A separate question worth asking
Whatever notes tool you pick, the meeting itself still costs money. MeetingToll shows that cost live during the call, useful if you’re trying to actually reduce meeting volume, not just take better notes on the ones you have.
MeetingToll dashboard, meeting cost breakdown, separate category from Fellow.
See what your meetings cost
Free Chrome extension. Runs alongside any meeting notes or calendar tool.
Real questions
Only the questions actually worth asking, not padded to a number.
Why is Fellow’s 5-seat minimum a problem?
Because Fellow Pro requires a minimum of 5 seats, billed annually. So a team of 3 wanting Pro features pays for 5 seats, effectively a ~67% surcharge. The 10-seat minimum on Business is worse. For solo and small teams, Fellow’s pricing structure doesn’t scale down well. Most alternatives on the list above have no seat minimum.
Which Fellow alternative is closest to a 1:1 replacement?
Fathom and tl;dv are the closest functional replacements. Fathom wins on the unlimited free tier; tl;dv has slightly more meeting-management features and integrations. If transcription accuracy is your priority, Otter is stronger than either.
Is Fellow Free enough for small teams?
Fellow Free is capped at 5 recordings per user and lacks AI Copilot, useful for trying the product but not viable as a long-term tool. If you need the actual features, you either upgrade to Pro (and hit the seat minimum) or switch to an alternative with a more generous free tier.
How does Fellow compare to Otter and Fireflies for transcription specifically?
Fellow’s AI Copilot is competent but Otter and Fireflies are stronger at pure transcription. Fellow’s differentiator is structured meeting management (agendas, templates, action items), not transcription itself. If transcription is your primary need, pick a dedicated transcription tool.
Does any meeting notes tool show meeting cost?
None of the major ones, Fellow, Otter, Fireflies, Read.ai, MeetGeek, Fathom, tl;dv, show the dollar cost of meetings. That’s a separate category. If you want both meeting notes and cost data, you’ll run two tools.
See what your meetings cost (separate from Fellow)
Free Chrome extension shows live meeting cost during Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls.