Head to head

Alex vs Curious Thing

Same facts, side by side: starting price, free tier, MCP, API and what each one is actually built for.

Alex

Sales-quoted

Alex (formerly Apriora) is an AI interviewer for live voice, video, and text screens. The company is Alex at alex.com. Pricing is sales-quoted after a demo. There is no public rate card.

Where Alex fits

  • High-volume TA teams that cannot staff enough first-round interviewers
  • Companies that want one AI recruiter across phone, video, and text
  • Orgs already on one of the 33 supported ATS platforms
  • Global hiring that needs 30-language screens

Curious Thing

Sales-quoted

Voice AI interviews for scalable first-round screening. Pricing is sales-quoted.

Where Curious Thing fits

  • TA teams that want consistent first-round voice screens
  • High-volume professional hiring
  • Companies that will take a quote and an API
  • Desks comparing Ribbon and HireVue

At a glance

DetailAlexCurious Thing
Starting priceSales-quotedSales-quoted
Free tier–No–No
MCP server–No–No
Public API–No✓Yes
Listed underInterviewing, AI interviewing, AI screeningInterviewing, AI interviewing

Where they pull apart

Alex

Stands out: Alex has run 1,000,000 candidate interviews, supports 30 languages, and lists 33 official ATS integrations. It handles outreach, screening, interviewing, verification, and scheduling so TA does not add headcount for first rounds.

Watch out: Every commercial path is a 30-minute demo. No self-serve SKU, no published per-interview rate, and no trial. This is built for high-volume screening, not a $99/mo SMB seat.

Not the right fit for

  • SMBs that need a published per-interview or per-month price
  • Teams that only want a human notetaker, not an AI that runs the interview

Curious Thing

Stands out: Structured voice conversations at scale with a candidate-experience pitch, not a cheap SMS blaster.

Watch out: The vendor does not publish a pricing grid. Do not confuse it with the separate Lucy call-answering product sold at $24/mo.

Not the right fit for

  • SMBs hunting a $24/mo voice bot
  • Teams that will not use AI interviews
  • Buyers who need a public price

Pros and cons

Alex

  • Voice, video, and text in one AI interviewer, 30 languages
  • 33 official ATS integrations, so reports can land where recruiters already work
  • Scale story: 1,000,000 interviews, built for thousands of screens a day
  • Sales-quoted only. Demo-gated, no trial
  • Overkill if you just need notes on human interviews
  • Review corpus is split across the Apriora and Alex names

Curious Thing

  • Structured voice first-rounds rather than trivia tests
  • Public API
  • Aimed at scale, not a single-recruiter gadget
  • Quote-only
  • No published price grid or connector list
  • Easy to confuse with unrelated 'Curious Thing' call-answering SKUs

What each one costs

Alex

Sales-quoted

Alex does not publish plan prices. Access is quoted after a demo. The product is the AI interviewer formerly sold as Apriora, now at alex.com. No self-serve trial is offered. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 19 Sep 2026

Curious Thing

Sales-quoted

Confirm current pricing on the vendor site.

Checked 17 Sep 2026

Common questions

Can you try Alex or Curious Thing for free?
Neither carries a free tier on our listing.

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 19 Sep 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?