Written by NTRVSTA, which makes one of the two products compared here. That's our disclosure. Our facts about micro1 and its Zara AI recruiter come from micro1's own website, research post and case study, and we link every one of them under Sources.
The short answer
micro1 and NTRVSTA are no longer the same kind of company. micro1 now describes itself as a data lab that trains frontier models and evaluates agents, and Zara is the AI recruiter it uses to vet experts for its own talent pool. Choose micro1 if you want to buy pre-vetted expert contractors or human training data. Choose NTRVSTA if you want software that runs live, adaptive AI interviews with your own candidates, for your own open roles, at a published price.
Side by side: micro1 Zara vs NTRVSTA
How NTRVSTA works
With NTRVSTA, the candidates are yours. You post a role, AI resume scoring ranks the applicants against your job description, and the ones you pick get a link to a live interview they can take at any hour. The interviewer is either a video avatar (stock, or tailored to your recruiter) or an audio voice, and you can brand it and run it in multiple languages.
As the candidate answers, the interviewer adjusts: tougher follow-ups for strong answers, gentler ones when someone is stuck. Technical roles can draw on exams in Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, React, Node.js, AI/ML and DevOps tools, with an interactive whiteboard for system design. Non-technical roles get STAR behavioral questions and soft-skill exams. Reports split the score into technical skills, English proficiency and communication and include video snippets you can share with the hiring team.
How micro1 works today
micro1's homepage now calls the company a "data lab to train frontier models & evaluate agents," with products named Realm, Cortex and Robotics. Its old AI interviewer URL now shows the data-lab page. We found no current public page selling Zara as standalone software. A Microsoft Marketplace listing named "micro1 Zara AI recruiter" exists, but it returned an error when we tried to open it, so we couldn't confirm what it offers.
Zara still exists inside micro1. According to micro1, Zara runs an on-demand "conversational interview" for every candidate who applies through micro1. It covers open-ended technical, scenario and coding questions, plus annotation exercises for data roles, and candidates get a real-time pass or fail against micro1's certification criteria. micro1 then places the vetted experts with AI-lab and enterprise clients. It has also published research on an LLM-based interview feedback system for Zara.
micro1's one named case study describes an unnamed "frontier AI lab" that hired 60 competitive programmers in three weeks. micro1 doesn't publish pricing, ATS integrations, languages or compliance details for Zara.
When micro1 is the better choice
- You don't want to run interviews at all. You want vetted experts delivered, and micro1 handles the vetting.
- You're an AI lab that needs human data, annotation or agent evaluation, which is micro1's main business now.
- You need specialists fast, like the case study's 60 competitive programmers, and don't have a pipeline of your own.
And here's where NTRVSTA falls short for some teams. It's an interview and screening layer that relies on your ATS for everything else, and its native ATS list is short. There's no public API yet, so engineering teams who want to script the workflow will have to wait. It isn't built for high-volume hourly hiring over SMS and chat, where Paradox or Fountain fit, and it doesn't supply people the way micro1 or a Karat-style human interview service does. We're also newer, with fewer enterprise case studies published.
Pricing compared
micro1 doesn't publish a price for Zara, because it doesn't sell Zara as a product. Pricing for its talent and data services isn't public either, so you'd need to talk with micro1's team.
NTRVSTA's prices are public on our pricing calculator. Every plan uses credits: audio interviews cost 1 credit per minute and avatar interviews cost 3. The Free Demo gives you 50 credits at $0. Starter is $299/mo with 1,500 credits, Growth is $699/mo with 4,000, and Scale is $1,999/mo with 12,500, while Enterprise is custom with SSO/SAML and on-prem available.
In plain numbers, about 80 interviews a month on Growth averages $8.74 each, or $0.35 per minute. A 25-minute audio interview uses 25 credits. Add the avatar and it uses 75.
Who should pick which
- If you want someone else to find, vet and supply contract experts, pick micro1.
- If you want to interview your own applicants for your own full-time roles, pick NTRVSTA.
- If you need training data or agent evaluations for a model, pick micro1.
- If you liked the idea of Zara but need it as software with a published price, pick NTRVSTA.
- If a published NYC Local Law 144 bias audit is a requirement, pick NTRVSTA.
For more options, read micro1 alternatives, compare NTRVSTA vs Mercor, see the best AI interviewers, or start with what an AI interview is.
Questions
Can I still buy micro1 Zara as an AI interviewer?
We couldn't find a current micro1 page selling Zara as standalone software. micro1 describes Zara as its internal AI recruiter for vetting experts. A Microsoft Marketplace listing exists, but we couldn't open it to confirm what it sells.
What does micro1 do now?
micro1 calls itself a data lab that trains frontier models and evaluates agents, with products named Realm, Cortex and Robotics. It also places vetted experts with AI-lab and enterprise clients.
Is Zara a live voice or video interview?
micro1 calls it an on-demand conversational interview with a real-time pass or fail. The current site doesn't say whether it's a real-time adaptive voice or video conversation.
How is NTRVSTA different from micro1?
NTRVSTA is software you use on your own candidates. It runs live, adaptive interviews as a video avatar or audio, scores resumes, and publishes pricing from $299/mo. micro1 supplies vetted people and data instead of selling interview software.
Want to run the interview on your own candidates? Grab a 20-minute demo slot or try a sample interview first. Our bias audit is summarized on the compliance page.
We checked pricing and features for every product here in October 2026. They change often, so confirm with each vendor before you buy.
