Fellow vs Read AI: Which AI Meeting Assistant is Right for Your Team?

Fellow and Read AI both aim to eliminate manual note-taking and turn meeting content into something searchable and actionable. Read AI leans into meeting analytics with features like sentiment scoring and communication coaching. Fellow focuses on accuracy, security, and turning meetings into team-wide workflows. Both tools have loyal users, but for organizations choosing one platform to standardize on, Fellow is the stronger pick.

Fellow gives teams the flexibility to record with or without a bot under the same enterprise-grade governance, supports 92 languages at 95%+ accuracy, and connects meeting insights to real workflows through 50+ integrations, an API, and an MCP Server.

Read AI offers interesting features like sentiment analysis and a Search Copilot. But individual reviewers have raised significant concerns about its bot automatically joining meetings without consent, limited language support (approximately 20 languages), and a pricing structure that locks essential features like video playback and HIPAA compliance behind expensive tiers.

As one online reviewer noted after analyzing Read AI's Trustpilot profile, the platform holds a 1.4 out of 5 rating, with 84% one-star reviews, many citing the bot's behavior as "malware-like."

For teams that value accuracy, security, and true meeting collaboration, Fellow is the better investment.

Fellow vs Read AI at a glance

Transcription accuracy and language support

Transcription accuracy is the foundation of any AI meeting notes tool. If the transcript is wrong, everything downstream (summaries, action items, search results) falls apart.

• Fellow delivers 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages, making it one of the most reliable options for global and multilingual teams. Whether the conversation involves technical jargon, regional accents, or specialized terminology, Fellow consistently captures what was said.

• Read AI supports approximately 20 languages and does not fully support meetings where multiple languages are spoken simultaneously. As one reviewer noted, Read AI's "performance can degrade when dealing with heavy accents or highly technical jargon." For organizations with diverse, international teams, this is a meaningful limitation.

Users who have switched from Read AI to Fellow regularly cite accuracy as the deciding factor. One sales professional put it plainly: "Probably most important is accuracy."

→ Try Fellow free for 14 days and experience 95%+ transcription accuracy

Bot vs botless recording: flexibility matters

One of the most consequential differences between Fellow and Read AI is how they handle meeting recording.

• Fellow offers both bot and botless recording, giving teams the flexibility to choose per meeting. Critically, both modes operate under the same enterprise governance: the same retention rules, access controls, and compliance policies apply whether a bot joins the call or Fellow captures audio directly from the desktop app. Internal participants are always notified when recording begins, even without a bot present.

• Read AI has historically relied on a bot-based model that has drawn widespread criticism. The tool has since introduced a desktop app and a Google Meet add-on for bot-free capture, but its reputation for uninvited bot behavior remains a significant concern. Chapman University's Information Systems department issued an official notice in 2025 prohibiting Read AI "due to security, privacy, and institutional data risks." The University of Washington has taken similar action.

On Trustpilot, individual reviewers describe the bot as "basically AI malware" and report that it continues joining meetings even after accounts are deactivated. One reviewer wrote: "It keeps on barging into meetings even after deactivating my account." For teams that meet with external clients and partners, this kind of unpredictability is a dealbreaker.

Meeting intelligence: Ask Fellow vs Read AI Search Copilot

Both Fellow and Read AI offer AI-powered search capabilities, but they differ in scope and integration.

• Ask Fellow lets users query across all meetings they have access to, generating outputs and triggering workflows. Queries like "Where are projects getting blocked?" or "What commitments are at risk?" pull insights from your entire meeting recording library and connect them to real actions.

• Where Fellow truly pulls ahead is in what happens after the search. Fellow's action items sync directly to project management tools like Asana, Jira, Linear, and Monday.com.

• Read AI lists action items in meeting reports but does not offer the same depth of native workflow integration.

Integrations and workflow connectivity

Fellow connects to 50+ tools natively, with an API and MCP Server for custom workflows, plus Zapier and n8n for access to 8,000+ additional apps.

• Fellow's Fellow MCP Server connects meeting intelligence directly to Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor, opening up new possibilities for AI-powered workflows.

• Read AI covers standard use cases. However, it does not offer an equivalent to Fellow's MCP Server or the same breadth of native project management integrations.

• For organizations that treat meetings as the starting point for action, not just documentation, Fellow's integration depth is a meaningful advantage.

→ See how Fellow connects to your stack with 50+ integrations

Enterprise security and compliance

Security is where the gap between Fellow and Read AI becomes most apparent.

• Fellow is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant, with these protections available across plans.

• Fellow never trains on customer data and offers permission-based access aligned to organizational roles. Every recording, whether captured by bot or botless, follows the same retention and governance policies.

• Read AI holds SOC 2 certification and states it does not train on data by default. However, HIPAA compliance is reserved for the Enterprise+ plan at $29.75/user/month, and the plan requires a minimum of 10 licenses.

• Individual reviewers of Read AI noted that the tool "requests broad permissions, including full access to calendars, the ability to read and create online meetings on your behalf, and indefinite data retention."

For regulated industries and security-conscious organizations, Fellow's governance model is substantially more transparent and comprehensive.

Pricing comparison and value breakdown

Fellow's pricing starts at less than half the cost of Read AI's paid plans, and it includes features that Read AI locks behind its most expensive tiers. Video playback, for example, is only available on Read AI's Enterprise plan or higher, meaning teams on the Pro plan cannot rewatch their meetings. Fellow includes recording playback on paid plans.

For a 20-person team, Fellow's Team plan costs $140/month. Read AI's Pro plan would cost $300/month — more than double — while still lacking video playback and HIPAA compliance.

Quotes from real Read AI users who switched to Fellow

The most telling evidence in any comparison comes from teams that have used both tools and made a choice. Here is what users who switched from Read AI to Fellow have to say.

"Fellow's AI delivers deeper analysis and better summaries"

Users consistently report that Fellow provides more comprehensive and accurate meeting intelligence than Read AI.

"The main opinion is that Fellow is better in the AI than Read." — IT Professional

"Fellow summaries are better." — Project Manager

"Quite a few people just said the user experience was really nice... they felt like Fellow's AI just created much higher quality of summaries, meetings that had accurate descriptions. They liked that whole recap functionality." — Team Coordinator

"Collaboration and customization set Fellow apart"

Read AI captures meeting content, but Fellow turns that content into a collaborative workspace where teams can edit, assign, and act.

"The main advantages of Fellow over Read AI include its collaborative capabilities and ability to capture decisions and action items, which Read AI doesn't offer." — Digitalization Manager

"Customization... you can change an action item, change a piece of the transcript, you can go in and edit any text you see on your screens... everything is customizable based on how you want to have it set up." — Sales Professional

"Accuracy is the primary reason we switched"

For diverse, global teams, transcription accuracy is the single most important differentiator.

"We switched because the accuracy of Fellow recaps was hay higher" — Director

"Fellow is 10 times better." — Operations Staff Member

→ Join the teams switching from Read AI to Fellow — start your 14-day free trial

Who should choose Fellow vs Read AI

Choose Fellow if:

• Your team needs enterprise-grade security with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance on all plans

• You want both bot and botless recording under the same governance framework

• Transcription accuracy matters, especially across accents, languages, and technical terminology

• You need action items that sync directly to your project management tools

• Organization-wide meeting intelligence is a priority

• You want an MCP Server that connects meeting data to Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor

Read AI may work if:

• You are particularly interested in sentiment analysis and engagement scoring

For teams and organizations, Fellow is the stronger choice across accuracy, security, collaboration, and value.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fellow or Read AI more accurate for meeting transcription?

Fellow delivers 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages. Read AI supports approximately 20 languages, and individual reviewers have reported accuracy issues with accents and technical terminology. Users switching from Read AI to Fellow consistently cite accuracy as the primary reason for the change.

Does Read AI have a botless recording option?

Read AI has introduced a desktop app and a Google Meet add-on that allow recording without a visible bot. However, the governance and compliance controls for these modes are not equivalent to Read AI's bot-based recording. Fellow offers both bot and botless recording under the same enterprise-grade retention, access, and compliance policies.

Is Read AI HIPAA compliant?

Read AI offers HIPAA compliance only on its Enterprise+ plan, and requires a minimum of 10 licenses. Fellow offers HIPAA compliance across its plans, making it accessible to organizations of all sizes in regulated industries.

Fellow is trusted by teams at Shopify, Uber, Stanford, Webflow, and thousands of organizations worldwide. Visit Fellow's Security and Trust Centre to learn more about how Fellow protects your meeting data.