A note before you read: NTRVSTA wrote this page, and our product is one of the Mercor alternatives below. Facts about every other company come from their own sites or news coverage, listed in Sources.
Most people searching for Mercor alternatives saw the "Mercor AI interview" and wanted that experience for their own hiring. The catch is structural. Mercor now says its mission is "organizing human intelligence to power the AI economy." It runs an expert marketplace and a human-data business for AI labs, and its AI interviewer vets people for Mercor's own pool. It isn't sold as standalone software for employers. So if you want an AI to interview your applicants, against your rubric, inside your process, you need a different kind of tool. If you actually want vetted contractors or training data, Mercor may still be exactly right.
Mercor alternatives at a glance
1. NTRVSTA (us)
NTRVSTA gives you the thing many people associate with Mercor, an AI that actually talks with the candidate, but pointed at your own pipeline. The interview is live and real-time, as a video avatar or audio only, and it adapts: strong answers bring harder questions, and weak ones bring easier ones. You set the role, the questions and the avatar, and you can brand it. Candidates interview 24/7, so there's no scheduling.
It covers coding and system design (with an interactive whiteboard) as well as non-technical roles using STAR behavioral questions. You get a score breakdown, video snippets and a shareable report for every candidate, plus AI resume scoring against your job description. Plans start at a $0 Free Demo, and Growth works out to about $8.74 per interview at 80 a month. Honest limits: we're an interview layer that sits next to your ATS (Lever and others), there's no public API yet, and we don't supply candidates the way a marketplace does. Read NTRVSTA vs Mercor for the full contrast.
Best for: employers that want to run adaptive AI interviews on their own applicants, with public pricing.
Try a sample NTRVSTA interview
2. Alex
Alex, formerly Apriora, calls itself an AI recruiter. It says it scores applications for fraud risk, screens resumes against job criteria, runs an always-on first-round interview by phone or video, and books qualified people onto your team's calendars. It also offers real-time proctoring and an ID check that matches a government ID to a live selfie.
Alex says it supports 30 languages and 33+ ATS integrations, and it announced $20M in total funding in September 2025. Pricing isn't published; its pricing page offers a demo.
Best for: staffing firms and enterprises that want screening, interviews and identity checks in one AI recruiter.
3. HeyMilo
HeyMilo says its AI agents screen candidates through two-way voice and video interviews, plus SMS and forms, around the clock in 20+ languages. It scores answers against your criteria with written reasoning, auto-scores resumes, and adds ID verification and cheat flags. Reports sync back to the ATS.
Its published ATS list is long and staffing-friendly, including Bullhorn, JobDiva, Avionté and Workday. Pricing isn't published.
Best for: staffing firms and high-volume employers that want multichannel AI screening.
4. Interviewer.AI
Interviewer.AI is the quickest self-serve start here. You create an interview from a job description, send a link, and candidates finish on their own time. Essential ($199/mo) is AI-scored one-way video with resume screening. Professional ($399/mo) adds conversational, avatar-led interviews with dynamic follow-ups, per the company.
There's a 14-day free trial on paid plans. ATS integrations are on the Enterprise plan.
Best for: small and mid-sized teams that want to try AI screening without a sales cycle.
5. CodeSignal
Many Mercor searchers hire engineers. CodeSignal pairs coding assessments with an AI Interviewer that candidates talk to by phone or browser. CodeSignal says it asks follow-ups when answers are thin and returns a score, skills evaluation and transcript, with humans deciding. Its Build plan covers product, design and engineering interviewers from $79/mo billed annually.
Best for: engineering teams that want AI interviews and coding tests from one vendor at a low entry price.
6. Karat
If what drew you to Mercor was having someone else vet engineers, Karat is the human version. Karat says its trained Interview Engineers run technical interviews for employers using structured content and rubrics. Its NextGen format, launched December 2025, has candidates work on multi-file projects with an AI assistant while a Karat interviewer observes and probes. Karat says AI never makes the final call. Pricing isn't published.
Best for: engineering orgs that want to outsource technical interviews to people.
When to stay with Mercor
Stay with Mercor if you're an AI lab or enterprise that wants vetted domain experts or human training data rather than interview software. That's what Mercor sells now, and none of the tools above supply talent. Mercor reported a $350M Series C at a $10B valuation in October 2025, per TechCrunch, so it's a well-funded option for that use. Just know that its interviewer works for Mercor's pool, not your applicant flow.
For more context, see our best AI interviewers list, what an AI interview is, and the micro1 alternatives, since micro1 made a similar pivot.
Questions
Can employers still use Mercor's AI interviewer on their own candidates?
Not as standalone software, based on Mercor's current site. Its AI interviewer vets people joining Mercor's expert pool, and the site sells human data, evals and embedded engineers. Earlier blog posts described employers hiring through the platform, but that isn't what it sells today.
What's the closest Mercor alternative for running AI interviews?
Look for a live AI interviewer you control, such as NTRVSTA, Alex or HeyMilo. They interview your applicants against your criteria. NTRVSTA adds adaptive difficulty and a video avatar option.
Is there a Mercor alternative for technical hiring specifically?
CodeSignal pairs coding assessments with an AI Interviewer, and Karat runs human-led technical interviews. NTRVSTA covers coding and system design alongside non-technical roles.
Want to see an adaptive AI interview run on a role you're hiring for? Book a 20-minute demo, or take a sample interview on your own.
We checked pricing and features for each product on this page in October 2026. Vendors change them often, so confirm the details directly before you buy.
