AI Tools · head to head
Fathom vs Poolside
Poolside
AI Tools
Open-weight foundation models built for agentic software engineering
- From
- $0.06/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Fathom has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Fathom team plan requires minimum 2 users; cannot purchase single seat at team pricing; Poolside no self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
- They diverge on capability: Fathom covers Auto-recording, Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Fathom and Poolside actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (AI Tools).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Fathom
- Auto-recording
- AI summaries
- Transcription
- Highlight clips
- Zoom
- Google Meet
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
Only in Poolside
- Laguna S 2.1
- Laguna XS 2.1
- Desktop and CLI tools
- Open-weight models
- Third-party gateway access
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Fathom
- AI-powered meeting transcription and automatic note-taking for sales teams and professionalsnot Poolside
- Meeting analysis with AI scorecards and action item generation that syncs to CRMsnot Poolside
Poolside
- Enterprises deploying AI coding assistance across large developer organizationsnot Fathom
- Government and defense agencies needing on-premise or sovereign coding modelsnot Fathom
- Teams building custom coding agents on open-weight foundation modelsnot Fathom
- Organizations wanting on-device lightweight coding modelsnot Fathom
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Fathom
- Team plan requires minimum 2 users; cannot purchase single seat at team pricing
- CRM field sync and deal view summaries available only on Business plan ($34/user/month) and above
Poolside
- No self-serve public application; access is largely through enterprise sales or third-party model gateways
- Pricing for the flagship enterprise and government offering is not public and requires a sales conversation
- Targets organizations with large (5,000+) developer headcounts, making it a poor fit for individuals or small teams
- Documentation and product surface area are thin compared to consumer-facing coding assistants
Pricing, plan by plan
Fathom
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Fathom review.
Poolside
$0.06/month- Laguna XS 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.06 per 1M input tokens
- $0.12 per 1M output tokens
- Available via OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway
- Laguna S 2.1$undefined/month
- $0.10 per 1M input tokens
- $0.20 per 1M output tokens
- 1M token context window
- Enterprise / Government$undefined/month
- Custom contracts for large engineering organizations
- Sales-quoted pricing
- On-premise or dedicated deployment options
Which should you pick?
Choose Fathom if
- You need auto-recording.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
- You also want ai summaries.
Choose Poolside if
- You need laguna s 2.1.
- You work on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
- You also want laguna xs 2.1.
Questions people ask
- Is Fathom or Poolside better?
- Neither clearly leads. Fathom starts at Free and Poolside at $0.06/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Fathom or Poolside?
- Fathom has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Fathom and $0.06/month for Poolside.
- Does Fathom or Poolside run on more platforms?
- Fathom runs on Web, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams. Poolside runs on web, api, mac, windows, linux.
- Can I use Fathom for free?
- Yes. Fathom has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Poolside starts at $0.06/month.
- What is Fathom best used for?
- Fathom is most often used for ai-powered meeting transcription and automatic note-taking for sales teams and professionals, meeting analysis with ai scorecards and action item generation that syncs to crms. Of those, ai-powered meeting transcription and automatic note-taking for sales teams and professionals and meeting analysis with ai scorecards and action item generation that syncs to crms are not what Poolside is typically brought in for.
- What can Fathom do that Poolside cannot?
- Fathom covers Auto-recording, AI summaries, Transcription, Highlight clips. Poolside covers Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Desktop and CLI tools, Open-weight models.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Poolside: How is Poolside's Laguna model usage priced?
Laguna XS 2.1 is priced at $0.06 per 1M input tokens and $0.12 per 1M output tokens; Laguna S 2.1 is $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.20 per 1M output tokens.
SourcePoolside: Where can I access Poolside's models?
Laguna models are available through third-party gateways OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway, as well as via Poolside's own desktop and CLI tools.
SourcePoolside: Does Poolside offer enterprise or government pricing?
Yes, Poolside offers custom, sales-quoted contracts for large enterprises and government/defense customers, including on-premise or dedicated deployment options.
SourcePoolside: How do I get started building with Poolside's models?
Poolside's documentation provides a quickstart guide for installing the `pool` CLI and running an agent task, alongside API documentation for custom integrations.
SourceRelated pages
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