Honest comparison · 2026

Raffi vs Karat

Karat is humans running technical interviews at $500 each. Raffi is AI running every interview at $0.45/minute — Karat for the final-round, Raffi for the screening round.

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TL;DR

Raffi vs Karat in one paragraph: Karat is humans running technical interviews at $500 each. Raffi is AI running every interview at $0.45/minute — Karat for the final-round, Raffi for the screening round.

Karat: Technical-interviews-as-a-service for engineering hiring. Karat runs structured technical interviews for software-engineering roles using a network of senior-engineer interviewers (humans), supplemented with AI tooling. Big-brand customers in tech (American Express, Wayfair, Citi). Premium offering. Pricing: Per-interview pricing, enterprise contracts. Typically $400-700 per interview, custom annual commitments. Pick Karat when: Senior-engineer interviewers conducting real technical calls — gold-standard signal for tech hiring. Pick Raffi when: you want real conversational voice interviews, a live operator room to query candidates by name, and SaaS pricing instead of placement or enterprise contracts.

Raffi

Agentic AI recruiter, two rooms.

One room interviews every applicant. One room talks to you about who to hire next.

Pricing

$25 starter credit free · $199/mo Pro ($100 grant) · $599/mo Growth ($300 grant). No placement fees, no hire fees. SaaS.

Why this wins

  • Real conversational voice interview, not async video Q&A
  • Operator room where you ask Raffi about candidates by name
  • Talent Directory for outbound + inbound in one tool
  • Self-serve onboarding in ~25 minutes, no sales call

Karat

Technical-interviews-as-a-service for engineering hiring.

Karat runs structured technical interviews for software-engineering roles using a network of senior-engineer interviewers (humans), supplemented with AI tooling. Big-brand customers in tech (American Express, Wayfair, Citi). Premium offering.

Pricing

Per-interview pricing, enterprise contracts. Typically $400-700 per interview, custom annual commitments.

Genuine strengths

  • Senior-engineer interviewers conducting real technical calls — gold-standard signal for tech hiring
  • Detailed structured rubrics validated across millions of interviews
  • Strong fairness + bias-mitigation research
  • Customer-trusted for staff/principal-level engineering hires

Where Karat runs out of room

Honest, fact-based gaps — the kind real buyers hit during evaluation.

  • 1Hands-on humans = expensive — per-interview pricing scales linearly with volume
  • 2Tech-engineering only — not built for sales/ops/CX/marketing roles
  • 3Slow vs AI-led screening (interview scheduling overhead)
  • 4Not a tool you operate — it's a service you commission

Which one fits your stack?

Pick the column that sounds like you. We'll tell you which tool to start with.

Pick Karat when…

You're hiring senior+ engineers at a tier-1 enterprise, you have budget for $400-700 per technical interview, and you specifically want a human senior engineer running the call.

Pick Raffi when…

You're hiring across roles (not just engineering), you want SaaS pricing at $199-599/mo instead of per-interview fees, and you want AI to handle the first 80% of the funnel so your humans only meet the top candidates.

Frequently asked

Is Raffi a Karat alternative?

Yes. Raffi covers most of what Karat covers, plus the two-room operator model where you actually talk to the AI about your candidates. SaaS pricing, $25 starter credit, no card required.

What's the main difference between Raffi and Karat?

Karat is humans running technical interviews at $500 each. Raffi is AI running every interview at $0.45/minute — Karat for the final-round, Raffi for the screening round.

When should I pick Karat over Raffi?

You're hiring senior+ engineers at a tier-1 enterprise, you have budget for $400-700 per technical interview, and you specifically want a human senior engineer running the call.

When should I pick Raffi over Karat?

You're hiring across roles (not just engineering), you want SaaS pricing at $199-599/mo instead of per-interview fees, and you want AI to handle the first 80% of the funnel so your humans only meet the top candidates.

How much does Karat cost vs Raffi?

Karat: Per-interview pricing, enterprise contracts. Typically $400-700 per interview, custom annual commitments.. Raffi: $25 starter credit, then $199/mo Pro or $599/mo Growth. No placement fees, no hire fees.

Try Raffi before you commit to Karat.

$25 starter credit, no card required. Interview your next 5 applicants with Raffi tonight, then decide.

Start free — $25 starter credit →See the demo workspace

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