Glider AI Alternatives in 2026: 10 Tools for AI Interviews, Skills Tests and Proctoring

By Sparsh Goyal, Founder at The Cognitive. Published 2026-10-04 · Last updated 2026-10-05

• The best Glider AI alternative in 2026 is The Cognitive for a live AI first-round interview, followed by TestGorilla, HackerRank, CodeSignal and Codility for skills and coding tests.
• The Cognitive runs a live, two-way AI video interview, marks up to 5 resume claims VERIFIED, REFUTED or UNCLEAR, logs integrity flags without scoring them and starts at a published price, but it has no coding test, so engineering teams pair it with one.
• Pick Mercer | Mettl for exam-grade proctoring, HireVue for enterprise volume, Equip or Xobin for broad test libraries and Karat for human-led technical interviews; I run The Cognitive, and the other 9 are judged from their own websites, read on 4 October 2026.

The best Glider AI alternative in 2026 is The Cognitive if the job you need done is the first-round interview. It runs a live, two-way AI video interview, checks the claims on each resume against what the candidate says, and logs integrity flags without scoring them. It also sources candidates across ~900M public profiles. If you need a coding test or a skills-test library, pick TestGorilla, HackerRank or CodeSignal instead, or pair one with The Cognitive.

Glider AI is now part of Findem, which announced the deal on 19 March 2026. Glider's whole pitch is integrity, and the problem is real: in a Gartner survey of 3,000 job candidates, 6% admitted to interview fraud, and Gartner predicts 1 in 4 candidate profiles worldwide will be fake by 2028.

The 10 best Glider AI alternatives and competitors in 2026

1. The Cognitive: best for a live AI first-round interview with resume claim checks, plus sourcing.
2. TestGorilla: best for skills tests, AI interviews and sourcing in one self-serve account.
3. HackerRank: best for developer screens run by an AI interviewer.
4. CodeSignal: best for AI interviewers and proctored assessments across technical and business roles.
5. Codility: best for engineering assessments in VS Code with strict cheating controls.
6. HireVue: best for enterprise volume hiring with video, games and an AI interviewer.
7. Equip: best for small teams that want tests, conversational AI interviews and an ATS at a published price.
8. Xobin: best for a very large test library with AI avatar interviews.
9. Mercer | Mettl: best for proctored exams at scale with AI and human proctors.
10. Karat: best if you'd rather hand technical interviews to human interview engineers.

Full disclosure: I run The Cognitive. Putting it first is my judgment, and I'll say plainly that it isn't a test only we pass. TestGorilla also sources candidates and runs AI interviews in a self-serve account with published prices. I rank The Cognitive first for one job: a live first-round conversation that tests what the resume claims, in an account you can open today. After #1 the order is my judgment of how closely each tool covers what Glider does. I have not used the other 9 on a paid account. What I say about them comes from their own websites, read on 4 October 2026.

What is Glider AI, and what does it do?

Glider AI calls itself "your conversational AI Agent for recruiting and learning". It sells 5 product families: Engage (an AI Recruiter, an AI phone screen and a chatbot), Verify (ID checks and AI proctoring), Assess (technical, competency and behavioral tests), Interview (AI video, live coding and one-way video) and Learn (training and AI role play).

The AI video interview asks "context-aware questions and natural follow-ups", scores answers on "a structured rubric" and runs AI proctoring with ID verification built in. Candidates take it on their own time. The technical tests cover "250+ Languages & Technologies" with proctoring that uses "50+ checkpoints", and the live coding IDE supports 70+ coding languages.

Glider now sources too. Its AI Recruiter is labelled "by Glider AI and Findem" and promises to unify "sourcing, screening, interviewing, and scheduling". Findem says Glider "will continue to operate under its existing brand" inside Findem's platform. Our Findem review and Findem alternatives guide cover the parent company.

Is Glider AI any good? A short review

On paper, Glider covers more of the hiring chain than anything else on this page. If you hire contractors for a systems integrator or a staffing program and fraud is your main worry, its mix of ID checks, proctored tests and AI interviews fits that buyer well. Its homepage names staffing firms, systems integrators and contingent hiring programs as core use cases.

The catch is how you buy it. Glider's pricing page is a demo request form that lists "500+ Enterprise customers" and no plans. Every button on the site says "Book a demo". You can't see a price or try the product before a sales call. Findem also said it is "introducing outcome-aligned pricing tied to hires".

Why do teams look for Glider AI alternatives?

• No public price. Small teams can't size the cost before a sales call.
• The Findem acquisition. Glider is now one part of Findem's enterprise platform, and buyers who signed with a standalone vendor want to know what changes for them.
• More product than the job needs. A team that only wants a first-round screen has no use for learning tools, role play or a chatbot.
• A need for depth in one area. Engineering teams often want a dedicated coding platform such as HackerRank or Codility, and exam programs want a proctoring specialist such as Mercer | Mettl.

How do the top Glider AI competitors compare?

Here is how they stack up. I filled in every cell from the vendor's own site on 4 October 2026:

How did we rank these Glider AI alternatives?

I considered 12 tools and kept 9 next to The Cognitive. Vervoe, iMocha and Canditech came off because the 9 kept cover more of Glider's ground. For each tool I read the product, interview, proctoring and pricing pages on 4 October 2026 and scored 4 things. Does it run an AI interview, and does that interview follow up on answers? Does it test skills or code? What does it do about cheating and identity? Can you start without a sales call, at a price on the website?

HackerRank's pricing page wouldn't load for me on the day, so I mark its price as not confirmed. I couldn't test anyone's scoring or proctoring on a live candidate, so the list says who each tool suits.

How do you choose a Glider AI alternative?

Which part of Glider do you actually use?

Write down the 1 or 2 Glider products your team opens every week. If it's the coding tests, you want HackerRank, Codility or CodeSignal. If it's the AI video interview, you want an interviewer that follows up on answers. The Cognitive covers the interview and the sourcing before it.

Do you need a test, a conversation, or both?

A test proves a skill under fixed conditions. A conversation shows how someone reasons and whether their resume holds up. Our pre-employment assessment guide explains which test types predict what. The Cognitive has no coding editor or test library, so engineering teams pair it with a coding test.

How much cheating risk does the role carry?

A 4Q24 Gartner survey of 3,290 candidates found 39% used AI during their application, and 29% of those used it for answers to assessment questions. Our guide to candidate fraud in remote hiring lists the checks that catch it. Look for identity checks and proctoring you can read, and decide whether a flag should change a score or only be shown to you. The Cognitive shows flags and leaves the score alone.

How many interviews does each hire cost you today?

Gem's 2026 benchmarks, built on 1.2 million hires, found interviews per hire are up 33% since 2021. The first round is the easiest one to hand to an AI interviewer that writes a scored report.

The 10 best Glider AI alternatives, reviewed

1. The Cognitive: best for a live AI first-round interview with resume claim checks, plus sourcing

The Cognitive is AI recruiting software that sources candidates across ~900M public profiles and interviews them live with AI. You set a rubric for the role, then invite candidates, one at a time or in bulk. Each gets a live, two-way AI video interview of 10 or 20 minutes, in any of 9 languages. The invitation tells candidates the interview is run by AI, and they book their own slot without creating an account. The rubric stays fixed for the role while the questions adapt to each answer.

The 5-minute recording above is a live AI interview for a go-to-market role. The AI asks about an outbound email campaign, then follows up on reply rates and on how the candidate qualified leads.

The report gives a 1 to 5 score per criterion, overall written feedback, a weighted score out of 100, a suggested verdict, the transcript and the recording. Up to 5 resume claims the AI chose to probe come back marked VERIFIED, REFUTED or UNCLEAR, with evidence from the interview. Nothing is rejected automatically, and integrity flags are logged, not scored. You can share a read-only link with scores, feedback and the recording.

Before the interview, you can source. Describe the role in plain English and it's read into filters you can edit. Each result opens with a "Why this match" line traced to the profile, and you can reveal verified emails and phone numbers. Email and SMS sequences come with the Sourcing Pro plan.

The Cognitive connects to 60+ ATSs, including Greenhouse, Workday and SAP SuccessFactors. It writes the score, summary and report link back to candidates you imported from the ATS. It has no coding editor, skills-test library, one-way mode or phone interview.

Pick it if you want Glider's AI interview without a sales call, and you'll add a coding test where the role needs one. AI Sourcing starts at $49/month and AI Interview at $99/month, on monthly plans you can cancel anytime. More on the AI interviewer and AI sourcing pages.

Run your next first round in The Cognitive Invite candidates to a live AI interview and read a scored report with resume claim checks. Start free

2. TestGorilla: best for skills tests, AI interviews and sourcing in one self-serve account

TestGorilla now calls itself "the proof-first AI recruiting platform". Gorilla Sourcing searches more than 900M profiles, including 3M+ people who have sat a TestGorilla assessment. Gorilla Assessments adds 350+ tests, video questions and AI interviews where an AI avatar asks follow-up questions "in the moment".

The interview is short: 3 to 9 structured questions, taken on the candidate's own time. Its Trust Layer checks identity, blocks agents and shows window switches. On the pricing page, Sourcing is priced per seat and Assessments per account, both with free plans and published prices. Custom AI interviews, coding challenges and ID verification sit on the Plus tier.

Pick it if you want Glider's test-plus-interview mix, self-serve, with a large library. See our TestGorilla alternatives.

3. HackerRank: best for developer screens run by an AI interviewer

HackerRank describes Chakra as "an agentic interviewer that runs the whole screen". It watches how candidates work with AI, flags suspicious behavior and scores each answer. Its Interview product is pair programming on a real-world task, and Scorecard Assist fills in the rubric from transcripts, code and test cases.

HackerRank lists image proctoring, gaze detection, AI plagiarism checks and a facial match between the test and the interview. Customers can also hire from its community of "more than 30 million developers". The homepage offers a free trial, but the pricing page wouldn't load for me, so I can't confirm its plans.

Pick it if you hire engineers and want Glider's coding tests and AI interview in a developer-first product.

4. CodeSignal: best for AI interviewers and proctored assessments across technical and business roles

CodeSignal sells an AI Interviewer, AI phone screens and AI video avatars next to its assessments, including agentic assessments where candidates work with Claude, Cursor and Codex. It lists AI proctoring, ID verification and live interview proctoring.

The pricing page publishes Build and Grow plans, monthly or annual, with a custom tier above. A credit is spent when a candidate starts an assessment, AI interview or live interview, so unopened invites cost nothing. I found no sourcing product.

Pick it if you want one vendor for coding tests, business assessments and AI interviews, at a published price.

5. Codility: best for engineering assessments in VS Code with strict cheating controls

Codility tests engineers in a VS Code environment with terminal access and multi-file projects. Its strongest integrity feature is the "Codility Desktop App to detect unauthorized applications". Live interviews are run by your engineers, with recording and transcripts.

On the pricing page, Starter and Scale are self-serve with published annual prices. The desktop app, premium video proctoring and ID verification sit on the Custom plan, and free trials "run through our team". I found no AI interviewer.

Pick it if you only need Glider's technical tests and care most about catching unauthorized tools.

6. HireVue: best for enterprise volume hiring with video, games and an AI interviewer

HireVue says its AI Interviewer "conducts dynamic, voice-based interviews". It adds video interviewing, job-relevant skills tests, game-based assessments and an interview co-pilot for Zoom or Teams. It calls itself the only virtual interviewing and assessment provider that is FedRAMP certified.

HireVue's pricing page shows no prices and asks you to request a demo, much like Glider. Our HireVue review and HireVue alternatives guide cover it in full.

Pick it if you hire hourly or campus roles at enterprise scale and want a vendor that cites 20+ years of interviews and assessments.

7. Equip: best for small teams that want tests, conversational AI interviews and an ATS at a published price

Equip bundles an AI-native ATS, assessments and AI interviews. Its conversational AI interviews run on video and voice, follow up within the topics you set, and can watch live coding and whiteboarding. Proctoring flags tab switches, extra faces and phones, and a phone can act as a second camera.

Equip publishes monthly plans that add credits, and you pay per candidate assessed. New teams get a 30-day free trial with 10 credits. Watch the format: its one-way AI interviews ask "a fixed set of questions", so choose the conversational version if you want follow-ups.

Pick it if you're a small team that wants Glider's mix at a price you can see first. Our Equip alternatives guide reviews it in depth.

8. Xobin: best for a very large test library with AI avatar interviews

Xobin lists 3,400+ skill assessments and 2,500+ job-role assessments. It offers agentic, guided and controlled AI interviews with 160+ AI avatars, plus a lockdown browser and proctoring.

The pricing page is usage-based with "Contact Sales" on every module. There's a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and the pricing page lists the AI interview module as async video.

Pick it if you test many non-engineering roles and want a ready-made test for almost every job.

9. Mercer | Mettl: best for proctored exams at scale with AI and human proctors

Mercer | Mettl says it runs "200,000+ proctored assessments in a day" for 6000+ customers. Its proctoring suite combines a secure browser, automated AI flags, live human proctoring and dual-camera monitoring. It also hosts coding tests and structured video interviews run by people.

Pricing is a "Customised plan as per your organisation", by quote, and the homepage offers a free trial. I found no AI interviewer on the pages I read.

Pick it if proctoring is the Glider feature you can't lose, especially for certification or campus exams.

10. Karat: best if you'd rather hand technical interviews to human interview engineers

Karat runs "Technical Interview Services for the Human + AI Era". Its interviews are led by Karat's own Interview Engineers using live AI-native scenarios, and it says it has run 600,000+ technical interviews.

There's no price on the site, and the route in is a demo. Everything on Karat's site is about engineering roles, so look elsewhere for sales or support hiring.

Pick it if you want a person, not an AI, to run the technical screen, and your engineers are out of interview hours.

Which Glider AI alternative has the best proctoring and integrity checks?

For exam-grade proctoring, Mercer | Mettl goes furthest of the tools here, with live human proctors and 2 cameras. Codility's desktop app is the most targeted check on hidden tools during a coding test. HackerRank adds gaze detection and a facial match between the test and the interview, and Equip uses the candidate's phone as a second camera.

The Cognitive takes a different line for interviews. It logs tab switches, camera off, copy and paste and extra faces, shows them in the report, and never scores them. The resume claim checks add a second kind of integrity check on what the candidate says. Our AI interview cheating detection guide covers what each signal can and can't prove.

What is the best Glider AI alternative for technical and skills assessment?

For coding, HackerRank, Codility and CodeSignal are the closest swaps for Glider's technical tests. For broad skills testing across many job types, TestGorilla and Xobin have the biggest libraries. The Cognitive doesn't do this job: it has no coding editor and no test library.

It handles the conversation after the test: a coding test from HackerRank or Codility, then a live AI interview in The Cognitive that probes the projects on the resume. Our technical interview software list and talent assessment tools comparison go deeper on the test side.

How does Glider AI compare with HackerRank, Codility, HireVue and TestGorilla?

Glider AI vs HackerRank

Both run coding tests, an AI interviewer and identity checks. HackerRank is built for developers, with pair programming in an AI-assisted IDE and a 30 million developer community. Glider also covers non-technical roles and phone screens, and sells only by demo.

Glider AI vs Codility

Codility focuses on engineers: assessments and human-led technical interviews in VS Code, with self-serve Starter and Scale plans. Glider adds AI video interviews and non-technical tests.

Glider AI vs HireVue

Both are enterprise platforms sold by demo, with AI interviews, assessments and fraud controls. HireVue describes its AI interviewer as voice-based and adds game-based assessments. Glider sells live coding interviews and ID verification as products of their own.

Glider AI vs TestGorilla

Both now source, test and run AI interviews. TestGorilla publishes its prices and has free plans, while Glider is quote only. Glider adds AI phone screens, live coding interviews and learning tools.

How much does Glider AI cost, and how do the alternatives charge?

Glider AI doesn't publish a price; expect a custom quote for the products you pick. HireVue, Xobin, Mercer | Mettl and Karat also sell by quote. Glider is built for staffing programs; our AI staffing solutions guide covers the agency side.

TestGorilla, CodeSignal and Equip publish their plans, and Codility publishes its Starter and Scale plans. TestGorilla charges per Sourcing seat and per Assessments account, CodeSignal by credits spent when a candidate starts, and Equip per candidate through monthly credits.

The Cognitive's AI Sourcing starts at $49/month and AI Interview at $99/month, on monthly plans.

Who is The Cognitive built for?

The Cognitive is built for in-house recruiters, founders and agency recruiters who want the first-round interview done live by AI, with a scored report they can forward to a hiring manager.

• Keep your ATS. The Cognitive connects to 60+ ATSs and writes the score, summary and report link back to candidates you imported from yours.
• Pair it with a coding test such as HackerRank, Codility or CodeSignal for engineering roles.
• Pair it with a proctoring specialist such as Mercer | Mettl if you run certification-style exams.

How do you test a Glider AI alternative before you switch?

Pick 1 open role and 10 candidates you've already screened by hand. Run them through the alternative and compare its verdicts with yours. Read every integrity flag and every REFUTED or UNCLEAR claim, and check whether you'd have caught it yourself. The Cognitive has a free trial with 100 sourcing credits, so you can run the test on a real role.

Test The Cognitive against your Glider AI interviews Invite the same candidates, read the claim checks and decide who moves forward. Start free

Sources

• Glider AI, read 4 October 2026: homepage, AI video interviews, interview suite, technical skill tests, AI Recruiter and pricing.
• Findem, Findem to Acquire Glider, PR Newswire, 19 March 2026, read 4 October 2026.
• Gartner, Gartner Survey Shows Only 26% of Job Applicants Trust AI Will Fairly Evaluate Them, 31 July 2025 (syndicated 1 August 2025).
• Gem, Key takeaways from the 2026 Recruiting Benchmarks Report, read 4 October 2026.
• Vendor pages read 4 October 2026: TestGorilla homepage, sourcing, AI interviews and pricing; HackerRank homepage and Interview; CodeSignal homepage and pricing; Codility homepage and pricing; HireVue homepage and pricing; Equip homepage, conversational AI interviews, one-way AI interviews and pricing; Xobin homepage and pricing; Mercer | Mettl homepage, remote proctoring, video interviews and pricing; Karat.

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