Maki Review (2026): What It Does, and Where It Falls Short

Maki at a glance

What does Maki do?

• Assessment library of 300+ tests covering 400+ skills, with a science-based approach (makipeople.com, read on 4 October 2026)
• European and GDPR compliance focus, with enterprise deployments

Where does Maki not fit?

These are gaps in scope, not faults in execution. A tool built for one job is not worse for being built for one job; it is only a poor fit if the job you have is a different one.

• Maki's evaluation centers on structured tests; The Cognitive's centers on a live AI interviewer that adapts follow-ups to each answer and scores each criterion 1 to 5, with overall written feedback
• The Cognitive adds AI sourcing so the same platform fills the funnel it evaluates

Where does Maki sit in a recruiting stack?

A recruiting stack has four jobs and most tools do one or two of them. Sourcing finds candidates who have not applied and reveals how to reach them. A recruiting CRM keeps known candidates warm between roles. An applicant tracking system holds applicants and moves them through stages; it is the system of record. Screening decides who is worth a hiring manager's hour, with evidence behind the answer.

On Maki's own published positioning, sourcing is: Not offered. Interviewing is: Structured tests and assessments. Read those two rows together and the shape of the gap is usually obvious: a tool strong on search leaves you the evaluation problem, and a tool strong on evaluation leaves you the empty-pipeline problem. Neither is a fault; it is what buying one tool means.

Who does Maki suit?

• A good fit if your bottleneck is the one it was built for: Assessment library of 300+ tests covering 400+ skills, with a science-based approach (makipeople.com, read on 4 October 2026)
• Budget for a sales cycle: pricing is by quote, eu/gdpr positioned, so you will not get a number without a call.
• Less of a fit if you need one system to both find candidates and evaluate them, which is where the scope above stops.

Verdict: who should buy Maki, and who should not

• Buy it if the signal you trust is a scored test rather than a conversation.
• Buy it if the capability you are paying for is its strongest one: Assessment library of 300+ tests covering 400+ skills, with a science-based approach (makipeople.com, read on 4 October 2026).
• Look elsewhere if you need candidates found. Maki's published position on sourcing is: not offered.
• Look elsewhere if you need a system of record. Maki is not positioned as an applicant tracking system unless it says so above.
• Pricing is by quote, eu/gdpr positioned. Budget for a sales cycle before you see a number.

Disclosure: who published this

The Cognitive publishes this review and competes with Maki. We have kept every claim above to what Maki states publicly, and described absences as absences rather than failings, because a review that reads as an attack is worth nothing to you.

For completeness: The Cognitive is AI recruiting software covering sourcing through shortlist: candidate search across ~900M public profiles with contacts enriched from 30+ sources, then a live two-way AI video interview, returning a report with a 1 to 5 score per criterion, the transcript and the recording. Whether that is a better fit than Maki depends entirely on whether your bottleneck is finding people or assessing them.

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