We'll start with a disclosure: NTRVSTA wrote this page, and we're one of the Karat alternatives in it. Every claim about Karat and the other companies comes from their own sites and announcements, linked at the bottom.
Karat is different from most tools in this category, because it sells people. Its trained Interview Engineers run technical interviews on your behalf, and with Karat NextGen (launched December 2025) candidates work with an AI assistant while a Karat interviewer observes. Teams look at Karat alternatives for structural reasons: they want an AI to run the first round instead of a person, so it's available 24/7 with no scheduling; they want published pricing (Karat's isn't public); or they'd rather give their own engineers a strong coding platform. If you want trained humans running every technical interview, Karat is hard to replace, and we say so below.
Karat alternatives at a glance
1. HackerRank (Chakra)
Chakra is the AI alternative most similar to a Karat NextGen interview. HackerRank says Chakra opens a canvas with a real-world problem, watches how the candidate works with an AI assistant, asks adaptive voice follow-ups about their decisions, and scores each competency with evidence. The difference is that an AI asks the questions instead of a human Interview Engineer. Chakra went generally available on October 5, 2026, and HackerRank says it ran 500K+ beta interviews.
Chakra's price isn't published, though HackerRank's platform plans are. The Chakra page mentions bias audits in line with NYC Local Law 144.
Best for: engineering teams that want an AI to run project-style technical interviews.
2. NTRVSTA (us)
First, the honest part: if you want a human interviewer, NTRVSTA isn't that, and Karat is the better fit. What we offer instead is an AI interviewer that runs the first round live, as a video avatar or as audio only, any time of day. It adapts difficulty to each answer, so the interview gets harder for a strong candidate and easier for one who's struggling. It covers programming languages, frameworks, DevOps and AI/ML tools, and system design on an interactive whiteboard, with a hint system that shows how candidates take guidance.
Unlike a technical-only service, the same tool interviews non-technical roles with STAR behavioral questions. Reports include a score breakdown, video snippets and a shareable summary, and AI resume scoring sorts applicants first. Our prices are public, and Growth works out to about $8.74 per interview at 80 a month. Read NTRVSTA vs Karat for a direct comparison.
Best for: teams that want to automate the first technical round and also screen non-engineering roles.
Try a sample NTRVSTA interview
3. CodeSignal
CodeSignal's AI Interviewer talks with candidates by phone or browser and asks follow-ups when answers are thin, per CodeSignal, with humans making the decision. It sits next to coding assessments, live interviews and interviewer-training simulations. The Build plan covers engineering interviewers from $79/mo billed annually.
Best for: teams that want affordable AI-run interviews alongside a coding test library.
4. CoderPad
If you'd rather keep interviews in-house, CoderPad gives your engineers a strong live pad. CoderPad says Interview supports 99+ languages and frameworks with playback, and its Frontier Lite plan adds Claude Code and Codex in the pad, so you can watch how candidates work with AI, much like Karat NextGen. It also offers coding screens and an AI-reviewed video pre-screen.
Best for: teams with engineer time to spare who want a better environment for live rounds.
5. Codility
Codility gives your interviewers structure: async real-world coding tasks, live interviews in a VS Code environment, and integrity tools like proctoring and impersonation detection. You decide how candidates may use its Agentic AI Copilot. Customers include GitHub, SpaceX and Citi.
Best for: enterprises that want structured, proctored technical hiring run by their own teams.
6. iMocha
iMocha pairs 10,000+ assessments with Tara, an AI interviewer that asks verbal questions, follows up based on answers and scores skills against role profiles, per iMocha. It sells mostly to large enterprises and integrates with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and Oracle. Pricing isn't published.
Best for: IT-services firms and enterprises running technical hiring at large scale.
When to stay with Karat
Stay with Karat if you believe a trained human should run every technical interview, and you'd rather pay for that than use your own engineers' time. Karat says its Interview Engineers use structured content and rubrics, that AI never makes final hiring decisions, and that a SOC 2 Type II report is available on request. It names Mastercard, Duolingo, PayPal, Atlassian and Citi as customers. An AI interviewer can screen faster and around the clock, but it isn't a person, and some candidates and hiring managers care about that.
Related: the best technical interview platforms, HackerRank alternatives, and our guide to AI interviews.
Questions
Is Karat an AI interviewer?
No. Karat's interviews are run by trained human Interview Engineers. In NextGen interviews, AI is an assistant the candidate uses inside the coding environment, not the interviewer.
Can an AI interviewer replace Karat?
For a first technical screen, often yes. AI interviewers like HackerRank Chakra, CodeSignal and NTRVSTA ask follow-ups and score with evidence. For senior or final rounds, many teams still want a person.
Does Karat publish its pricing?
No. Karat's pricing isn't on its site. A Karat promotional page has offered the first 10 interviews free on sign-up.
Want to see an AI run a technical first round end to end? Book a 20-minute demo, or try a sample interview yourself.
We checked pricing and features for each product on this list in October 2026. They change often, so confirm with each vendor before you buy.
