The best Outset alternatives in 2026 are Koji, Listen Labs, Strella, Conveo, Great Question, Maze and UserTesting. Which one fits depends on why you are leaving or skipping Outset. If the problem is price and the annual sales contract, Koji is the closest like-for-like swap: it runs AI-moderated voice and text interviews, recruits from a panel, writes the report, and publishes its prices, starting with a free plan. If you need recorded video of every participant for an enterprise insights team, Conveo and Strella are the nearest matches.
Outset is a strong product. It has raised $51M, counts Microsoft and Nestlé as customers, and runs AI-moderated interviews in more than 40 languages. But it is built and priced for enterprise insights teams, and many product teams, founders and agencies find that they need the method without the procurement cycle.
Why teams look for Outset alternatives
Three reasons come up again and again.
1. Pricing is not public. Outset's pricing page lists custom plans (a standard subscription, support tiers and enterprise plans) and no numbers. There is no free plan to try it on your own. Third-party estimates exist, but we could not verify them, so expect a sales call and an annual contract before you run your first study.
2. It has no panel of its own. Outset connects to more than 25 panels, including Prolific, User Interviews and Respondent, or you can bring your own customers. That is flexible, but it means a second vendor relationship and a second invoice for most studies.
3. It is heading towards enterprise CX. When Outset announced its $30M Series B in December 2025, led by Radical Ventures, it also described a move into an "AI-native Customer Experience Management platform." That is good news for large insights teams. It is less good news if you are a three-person product team that wants to talk to 40 customers this week.
There is also a market reason to look now. Interest in AI-moderated research is very high. Qualtrics' 2026 Market Research Trends report, based on more than 3,000 researchers in 17 countries, found that 95% of researchers already use AI tools regularly or are experimenting with them, and 78% expect AI agents to run more than half of all research projects by 2028. With that much demand, every vendor in this category is changing fast. Listen Labs, one of Outset's closest rivals, has just agreed to be bought by Salesforce. Re-checking your shortlist this quarter is sensible.
Outset alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Interview modes | Recruiting | Public pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koji | AI voice and text | Built-in panel (130+ countries) or your own users | Yes: Free, €29, €79, Enterprise from €500/mo | Product teams, founders, agencies who want self-serve |
| Listen Labs | AI voice, video, text | Large built-in network | No | Enterprise teams already on Salesforce |
| Strella | AI voice with webcam and screen | Through User Interviews | No (usage-based) | Teams that want recorded sessions and highlight reels |
| Conveo | AI video, audio, text | Panel incentives included on paid plan | Partly (Starter $1,250/mo billed annually) | Consumer brands and CPG |
| Great Question | Human-moderated, AI moderation as add-on | User Interviews panel or your CRM | Yes ($129/seat/mo self-serve) | Research ops and panel management |
| Maze | Unmoderated tests, AI moderator on Enterprise | Maze panel | Partly | Design teams doing prototype testing |
| UserTesting | Recorded think-aloud, AI follow-ups in early access | Own network plus User Interviews | No | Large UX teams with existing contracts |
1. Koji: the self-serve Outset alternative
Koji is an AI-native research platform. You describe what you want to learn, the research brief assistant drafts the interview, and an AI interviewer runs each conversation by voice or text, asking follow-up questions in real time. Koji then scores every interview, builds an aggregated report with themes, sentiment and quotes, and lets you share it as a public link.
What makes it a strong Outset replacement:
- Published pricing. Free to start (10 one-time credits), Insights at €29/month, Interviews at €79/month and Enterprise from €500/month. A text interview costs 1 credit, a voice interview costs 3, and extra credits are €1 on self-serve plans. See the plan comparison guide.
- You only pay for useful interviews. Every interview gets a quality score, and only interviews scoring 3 or more use credits or enter the report. Since September 2026 the score is capped by how much the participant actually said, so filler answers do not earn a top score. Read how quality scores work.
- A panel inside the product. From the Panel recruit tab you describe the audience, see the price before launch, and choose text, voice or both. Credits are held at launch and unused credits return at the end. A soft launch fills part of the goal first so you can check quality before releasing the rest, and accepted reports of low-effort or fraudulent completes are refunded. See panel recruitment.
- Screening on every route. Screening questions run before the interview starts, whether the participant came from the panel, an email link or your website embed.
- Free previews. You can take your own interview by text or voice before launch, and previews never use credits.
- 28 interview languages, team workspaces (3 seats on Interviews, 10 on Enterprise), an API and an MCP server on Interviews and Enterprise, and brand themes on Enterprise.
Where Outset is ahead: Koji does not record participant video, and it offers fewer interview languages than Outset's 40+. If video clips for a highlight reel are the deliverable, look at Strella or Conveo. If the deliverable is the insight itself, Koji gets you there faster and for far less. For a feature-by-feature breakdown, see Koji vs Outset.
2. Listen Labs
Listen Labs is the best-funded company in the category. It raised a $69M Series B in January 2026, and at the end of September 2026 Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire it. Salesforce says Listen Labs draws on a network of more than 50 million potential participants and runs interviews in more than 120 languages. The team will join Salesforce AI Labs, and the product will complement Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud. The deal is expected to close in Salesforce's fourth fiscal quarter of 2027.
Pricing is not public. If your company runs on Salesforce, Listen Labs may become the default choice there. If you are not a Salesforce shop, the acquisition adds uncertainty about roadmap and contract terms that is worth asking about.
3. Strella
Strella runs AI-moderated voice interviews with webcam and screen recording, embedded stimuli, AI-generated discussion guides and automatic highlight reels. It recruits through a User Interviews integration. Strella raised a $14M Series A led by Bessemer in October 2025 and lists Amazon, Duolingo and Chobani as customers.
Strella describes its pricing as usage-based with no per-seat charges, but publishes no numbers, so it is a sales conversation. It is the closest match to Outset if recorded sessions matter to you.
4. Conveo
Conveo, a Y Combinator company, raised a $50M Series A in September 2026, led by DST Global. Its AI interviewer asks follow-up questions and participants answer by video, audio or text. It says more than 400 enterprises use it, including Google, Unilever and AB InBev.
Unusually for this group, Conveo publishes some pricing: a Free plan and a Starter plan at $1,250 a month billed annually, which includes panel incentives, with Enterprise on request. It is a natural fit for consumer brands that want video.
5. Great Question
Great Question is a research CRM first: panel management, scheduling, incentives and a repository. Its self-serve plan is $129 per seat per month, for up to five seats, and it lists AI-moderated interviews as an add-on. Choose it if your main problem is managing who you talk to, not running interviews at scale.
6. Maze
Maze is strongest at unmoderated prototype and usability testing. It has added an AI moderator, but Maze's help centre lists it as an Enterprise feature. Good if your team already lives in Figma prototypes and wants quick task-based tests.
7. UserTesting
UserTesting remains the big name in recorded think-aloud testing, and it bought User Interviews in January 2026. Its AI moderation feature adds AI follow-up questions to unmoderated think-aloud studies and is in limited early access. Pricing is not public and contracts are annual.
How to choose
Start with the job, not the vendor.
- You want to talk to customers this week without a sales call: Koji. Sign up, write the brief, preview it, recruit from the panel or share a link.
- You need recorded video clips for stakeholders: Strella or Conveo.
- You are an enterprise insights team on Salesforce: Listen Labs, once the deal closes.
- You need a participant CRM more than an interviewer: Great Question.
- You mainly test prototypes: Maze or UserTesting.
Demand for research keeps growing faster than research teams. Maze's Future of User Research 2026 report found that research demand rose 20% year over year, and that 39% of product managers now produce insights themselves. That is the real reason AI-moderated interviews matter. The best tool is the one that people outside the research team can actually use.
Try Koji as your Outset alternative
Koji gives you what most teams buy Outset for, AI-moderated interviews, a built-in panel and an automatic report, with prices you can read before you talk to anyone. Start on the free plan, preview your interview for free, and only pay for interviews that pass the quality gate.
Create your free Koji account and run your first study today.
