The starter meetings stack

All two tools here have a genuine free tier, so a working configuration costs nothing while you evaluate it. The 03 COSTS table above breaks down each tool's pricing. Two meters climb with use: Fathom's advanced AI summaries, which its starting tier does not include at all, and ClickUp's Brain add-on, metered by AI Super Credits on top of the workspace seats. Budget those two ClickUp lines together: at this size the seats barely move, and the AI meter is the one that bites.

No. Fathom alone covers the record: recording, transcription and summaries on a genuinely free individual tier, and many people run on it for weeks. The two numbered steps double as the adoption order. Start with Fathom today, since it works from the first call with nothing to configure. Add ClickUp the week action items start slipping, where decisions become tasks with owners and dates instead of notes that quietly evaporate.

Then the landing spot is already yours: ClickUp holds the tasks, and its own AI Notetaker can even record calls, though ClickUp's AI is metered and only trial-level on the free plan. What the stack adds is Fathom: recording, transcription and summaries on its free individual tier, so capture stays off the metered AI and the paid Brain add-ons can wait. Keep ClickUp as the workspace; Fathom does the listening.

Yes. The duty attaches to the recording itself, not to whether a bot is visible in the participant list. However the call is captured, you are keeping a record of what people said, so the same consent expectations hold: workplace norms or local rules may require explicit agreement. A quieter capture method is a courtesy to the room, not a lighter obligation. Tell people either way.

Two signals, both about scope rather than price. The first is when the record has to serve a team, not just you: shared libraries, admin controls and permission over who can open which calls. The second is when meeting outcomes need to reach a CRM or pipeline on their own, rather than being carried across by hand each time. Both point to the competitive tier, the professional meetings stack.

The sensitive artefact is the recording, so consent comes first: workplace norms or local rules may require explicit agreement. Both tools keep call content in their clouds under their terms, and ClickUp sets the tighter floor, since its Brain answers from whatever sits in the workspace: keep its permission model matched to who should see what. Settle retention and sharing before the archive outgrows what anyone agreed to.