Respondent and User Interviews solve the same problem: finding real people for your research, fast. You write a screener, they find participants, and you run the sessions yourself. They're the default for a lot of UX and product teams.

People look for alternatives when the per-session fees and incentives add up, when niche B2B roles fill slowly, when no-shows and fake profiles creep in, or when they realize what they wanted wasn't recruiting at all. And since January 2026, User Interviews is owned by UserTesting, now called Auros, which has some teams reviewing their stack.

Here are the alternatives, sorted by the job you need done, including where my own company, Wynter, fits and where it doesn't.

Respondent vs User Interviews in 30 seconds

Prices are list rates from each pricing page as of November 2026 (Respondent, User Interviews). Both are often each other's best alternative.

The short answer

Alternatives, by job

1. Each other

If your problem is fill rate or price for a specific audience, the simplest move is to try the other marketplace on the same screener. Their panels overlap less than you'd think, and pricing differs by session type.

2. Great Question or Rally: recruit your own users

If most of your research is with your own customers and users, a research ops tool that manages your participant database, scheduling and incentives can be cheaper than paying a marketplace per session. User Interviews' Research Hub does this too.

Pick it if your participants are mostly people who already use your product. Skip it if you need people who've never heard of you.

3. CleverX: B2B panel plus expert network

CleverX combines a B2B participant panel with an expert network. Pricing is a platform fee plus credits, with participant incentives billed separately.

Pick it if you need professionals and the occasional expert call in one place. Skip it if you want a simple per-session price.

4. Emporia: verified B2B sample

Emporia recruits B2B and healthcare professionals and checks them with LinkedIn and work-email validation. You can run projects on their platform or hand them to their team, with no annual contract (Emporia).

Pick it if you need verified professionals for your own surveys or interviews. Skip it if you want a full research platform with analysis built in.

5. Prolific: a large, high-quality general panel

Prolific is popular with academic and product researchers for its participant quality on general-population studies, with filters for some professional attributes.

Pick it if your audience is broad. Skip it if you need senior, verified B2B decision makers.

6. Expert networks: a handful of senior calls

GLG, AlphaSights and similar networks connect you with senior specialists for paid one-on-one calls.

Pick it if you need three to five deep conversations with rare experts. Skip it if you need volume, or the price per call makes your finance team wince.

7. Wynter: B2B answers without recruiting

This is us, and it's a different model. With Respondent or User Interviews you rent access to people, then do the research. On Wynter you ask the questions and verified B2B professionals answer them: ICP surveys, message tests, preference tests and brand tracking, from a panel of 86,000+ verified professionals, with most results in 12 to 48 hours. When you need conversations, interviews come in 30- and 60-minute sessions you moderate, or a 15-minute session run by an AI interviewer.

Pick it if you're a B2B marketer whose questions are about buyers, messaging and positioning. Skip it if you need usability sessions, consumers, or a specific list of named accounts. Wynter's panel is B2B only and strongest in tech roles, and it isn't a sample seller: you can't export respondents to your own tools.

Comparison table

How to choose

1. Decide whether you need people or answers. If you'll design, moderate and analyze, you need recruiting. If you need the answer, a research platform is usually faster.
2. Price the whole study. Recruiting fee plus incentives plus no-shows plus your team's hours.
3. Test your hardest audience first. Every vendor fills "product managers in the US" quickly. Ask for feasibility on your rarest role.
4. Ask how titles are verified. Self-reported job titles are the weak point of every panel. Here's how to vet a B2B panel.

FAQ

What are the best alternatives to Respondent and User Interviews? For recruiting, each other. For your own users, Great Question or Rally. For verified B2B professionals, CleverX or Emporia. For broad audiences, Prolific. For senior experts, GLG or AlphaSights. For B2B answers without recruiting and moderating, Wynter.

Is User Interviews owned by UserTesting? Yes. UserTesting acquired User Interviews in January 2026, and the parent company rebranded as Auros in September 2026. User Interviews continues as a product brand.

How much does Respondent cost? On pay-as-you-go, Respondent lists $80 per moderated B2B session and $40 per unmoderated B2B session, plus participant incentives you set. Annual commitments lower the per-session rate.

How much does User Interviews cost? User Interviews lists $49 per session on pay-as-you-go, with an extra per-session fee for advanced B2B targeting and participant incentives on top. Annual plans lower the per-session rate.

What's the difference between a recruiting marketplace and a research platform? A recruiting marketplace finds participants and you run the research yourself. A research platform with its own panel runs the study for you: you set the questions and audience, and you get answers back.

Related guides

UserTesting alternatives · B2B research panels · Qualitative research questions · B2B customer research · Market research platforms for B2B

Sources

• Respondent pricing and User Interviews pricing, checked November 2026
• User Interviews, UserTesting acquires User Interviews, January 2026
• Business Wire, UserTesting announces rebranding as Auros, September 2026
• Emporia Research, checked November 2026