Koji vs. Ballpark — AI Interviews vs. Unmoderated User Testing (2026)

The Short Answer

Ballpark is an unmoderated user research tool — surveys, prototype tests, and recorded video tasks that participants complete on their own schedule. Koji is an AI-native interview platform — it holds a real, adaptive conversation with every participant by voice or text, asks its own follow-up questions in the moment, and analyzes each transcript automatically.

Ballpark tells you what people did inside a fixed task. Koji tells you why they did it. If you need to watch someone click through a Figma prototype, Ballpark fits. If you need to understand motivations, decisions, churn reasons, or unmet needs from dozens or hundreds of people without scheduling a single call, Koji is the modern, AI-native choice.

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Different Jobs, Different Tools

Ballpark is built for:

• Recorded prototype and usability tasks ("complete checkout in this Figma flow")
• Quick surveys with rating and open-text fields
• Video/screen capture of participants performing tasks
• Lightweight design feedback loops

Koji is built for:

• Discovery interviews — uncovering problems before you design anything
• Why-behind-the-behavior research — churn, adoption, pricing, switching
• Adaptive probing — the AI asks the follow-up a researcher would ask
• Mixed qualitative + quantitative studies via structured questions

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Feature Comparison

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Why Teams Reach for Koji

1. Tasks Show Behavior. Conversations Show Reasons.

A Ballpark task can show that a user hesitated for nine seconds on the pricing screen. It cannot tell you that they hesitated because they could not tell whether the plan included their whole team. Koji's AI surfaces that in conversation:

AI:  "You paused for a while on the pricing page — what
      were you thinking about there?"
User:"I couldn't tell if the price was per person or for
      the whole team. That matters a lot for us."
AI:  "What would have made that clear?"
User:"Just say 'per workspace' instead of 'per seat'."

That is a copy fix you can ship tomorrow — and no heatmap or task-completion metric would have revealed it.

2. Survey-Depth at Interview-Quality

Unmoderated open-text fields get 3–8 word answers because nobody is there to ask "tell me more." Koji's AI interviewer probes every interesting response, so average answer depth runs 150–500 words per question instead of a sentence fragment. You get interview-grade insight at survey-grade scale and speed — platforms like Koji automate the moderation that used to require a researcher on every call.

3. Analysis Is Done When the Interview Ends

With unmoderated tools, the work starts after data collection — someone watches clips and tags themes by hand. Koji runs thematic analysis automatically: it codes open-ended answers, aggregates structured questions into charts, and drafts a shareable report. What takes days of manual synthesis takes minutes.

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When Ballpark Is the Better Choice

Ballpark wins when:

• You have a prototype to test and need click-through and task-success data
• You want video recordings of people performing a specific flow
• You need fast, lightweight design feedback on an existing screen
• Your question is fundamentally "can users do this?" rather than "why do users want this?"

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When to Choose Koji

Choose Koji when:

• You are in discovery — before designs exist — and need to understand real problems
• You need to know why users churn, convert, or switch
• You want customer interviews at scale without moderating each one
• You need voice or text conversations that adapt to each person
• You want automated qualitative analysis instead of a folder of clips to watch
• You want methodology guardrails like the Mom Test or Jobs-to-be-Done

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The Strongest Workflow Uses Both

Many teams run a simple loop:

1. Koji first (Discover): AI interviews reveal the real problem and the words customers use
2. Design: build the flow informed by what you heard
3. Ballpark (Validate): unmoderated task tests confirm the design is usable
4. Koji again (Learn): post-launch interviews explain adoption and friction

Discovery and the "why" come from Koji; task-level usability validation comes from Ballpark.

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A Note on Structured Questions

One reason teams consolidate on Koji is that a single study can be both qualitative and quantitative. Koji supports six structured question types — open_ended, scale, single_choice, multiple_choice, ranking, and yes_no — so you can ask an NPS scale, a feature-priority ranking, and an open-ended "why" in the same conversation. Reports chart the quantitative answers and theme the qualitative ones together, no separate survey tool required.

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Pricing at a Glance

Koji's credit model means you only pay for usable conversations — low-effort responses that fail the quality gate are not billed.

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Getting Started with Koji

1. Create a free account — 10 credits, no card required
2. Describe what you want to learn — Koji drafts the interview brief and questions
3. Pick a methodology — discovery, JTBD, or Mom Test guardrails
4. Share one link — voice or text, on any device
5. Read the auto-generated report — themes, quotes, and charts in minutes

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Related Resources

• Structured Questions Guide — the 6 question types that make Koji studies both qualitative and quantitative
• Koji vs. Maze — AI interviews vs. rapid usability testing
• Koji vs. UserTesting — AI interviews vs. enterprise user testing
• AI Interviews vs. Surveys — why conversation beats static forms
• Generating Research Reports — how Koji turns transcripts into shareable insight
• Voice Interview Experience — what a Koji voice conversation feels like