The best Listen Labs alternatives in 2026

Listen Labs runs AI-moderated interviews with real participants. If you use it or have it on a shortlist, this guide covers four platforms that do the same job and one that does part of it.

We make Convo, so read this with that in mind. Convo comes first. Conveo, Outset and Strella, the other AI interview platforms, follow in alphabetical order. Dovetail, which analyses recordings rather than running interviews, comes last. The order isn’t a ranking. Every claim about another platform comes from that company’s own product pages, help centre and changelog, last checked on 20 October 2026, and each section links to its sources. The deal news is from Salesforce’s announcement of 29 September 2026. We left pricing out: it changes often, and neither Listen Labs nor Convo publishes prices.

What Listen Labs does well

Listen Labs interviews in more languages than any other platform we checked: 120 or more languages and variants, with voice interviews in 42. It turns studies into themes and reports, builds highlight reels and lets you chat with the results. Its Research Library searches across all your studies, including video interviews you import. It also has in-house researchers.

If you research in many languages, check each alternative’s list against yours: none covers as many.

Why a team might look at alternatives

A team comparing Listen Labs with other platforms might weigh four facts.

• The Salesforce deal. On 29 September 2026, Salesforce announced a definitive agreement to acquire Listen Labs. It expects the deal to close in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in January 2027, subject to regulatory clearance. The announcement doesn’t say what changes for existing Listen Labs customers.
• Imported interviews form their own study. Video interviews you import become a study of their own, which the Research Library searches alongside your other studies. If you want your team’s interviews analysed together with AI-moderated ones, Convo does that in the same study, and Strella does it when they follow the same discussion guide.
• What its researchers cover isn’t published. Listen Labs has in-house researchers but doesn’t publish what their help covers. If you need a team that can run studies for you, ask what’s included.
• No public pricing page. Listen Labs has no public pricing page. Convo doesn’t publish prices either, so for both you’ll need to ask.

None of these is a reason on its own to switch. They’re questions to settle with any platform you consider.

Listen Labs alternatives at a glance

• Convo: best for combining AI-moderated interviews with your own team’s research.
• Conveo: best for AI-moderated video interviews across a research programme.
• Outset: best for AI-moderated interviews with paid help from the vendor when you need it.
• Strella: best for AI-moderated interviews with an advisory team that can run the whole study.
• Dovetail: best for analysing recordings you already have.

For a side-by-side chart of Listen Labs, these five and three more platforms, see how Convo compares to other AI research platforms in 2026.

Our guide to the best AI qualitative research platforms in 2026 also covers testing and survey tools.

AI-moderated interview platforms like Listen Labs

These four are built around an AI interviewer that talks to real participants and follows up on their answers, as Listen Labs is.

Convo: best for combining AI-moderated interviews with your own team’s research

Convo’s AI interviewer runs voice, video and chat interviews with real participants in 40+ languages, and asks follow-up questions as people answer. As interviews come in, Convo turns them into themes, sentiment, quotes and highlight reels. Its Research Assistant answers questions across a study with counts of people and their exact words, so every finding can be traced back to the conversation it came from.

Your team can upload recordings of interviews it ran itself, and Convo analyses them in the same study as the AI-led ones. Researchers stay in control: they write and approve the discussion guide, set branching rules, test the interview before launch and edit themes before sharing. Every quote shown is the participant’s exact words. When you need more hands, Convo’s research team can design, run and synthesise a study end to end. Teams use Convo for concept tests, usability tests, customer discovery, product pilots and multi-day diary studies with photos and video. Convo operates from the EU and is designed to be GDPR-compliant, with data encrypted in transit and at rest.

Worth knowing: Convo covers 40+ languages, fewer than Listen Labs’ 120+. Its Research Assistant works within one study; for questions across every study you’ve run, Listen Labs, Conveo, Outset, Strella and Dovetail go further. We founded Convo in Amsterdam in 2024.

Conveo: best for AI-moderated video interviews across a research programme

Conveo runs AI-moderated video and voice interviews with real participants in 50+ languages. Its AI codes the answers into themes and writes executive summaries. You can ask questions of one study, compare studies or look across a whole programme, and each answer cites its evidence. Quote reels can be put together by the AI or by hand.

Worth knowing: analysing your own uploaded interviews inside a study is in private beta. For research help, Conveo’s Service Marketplace, still a pilot, lets you hire a vetted freelancer or agency, who quotes each request before you’re charged. Conveo is a separate company from Convo, despite the similar name.

Outset: best for AI-moderated interviews with paid help when you need it

Outset runs AI-moderated interviews in 40+ languages, synthesises them into themes automatically and builds video highlight reels. You can ask questions of a study’s results, and Research Desk answers questions across projects. Interviews your researchers ran can be uploaded as MP3 or MP4 files and synthesised too.

Worth knowing: study creation, panel recruiting and end-to-end research from Outset’s own team are paid add-ons. Outset doesn’t say uploaded interviews sit in the same project as AI-moderated ones. Each project keeps its own insights page, and Research Desk is where you ask across projects. Outset reports can also be sent to Dovetail through an integration.

Strella: best for AI-moderated interviews with an advisory team

Strella runs AI-moderated interviews in 46 languages, synthesises them automatically and lets you chat with the interview data, with answers that cite quotes. Recordings of interviews you ran yourself can join a project that already holds AI-moderated sessions, and since October 2026 your team can also run live video interviews in Strella as human-moderated studies. Strella’s Advisory service takes a study from scoping to an executive readout with its own team. It’s the only other platform that matches Convo on all six capabilities in our comparison chart.

Worth knowing: uploaded interviews are synthesised with the AI-moderated ones only when they follow the same discussion guide.

If you mainly need to analyse recordings you already have

Dovetail isn’t a direct swap for Listen Labs. It fits teams whose interviews already exist.

Dovetail: best for analysing recordings you already have

Dovetail is a research repository. You import recordings, transcripts and documents, and its AI transcribes 82 languages and translates 75, tags the data, finds themes, builds highlight reels and answers questions across everything you’ve stored. Outset’s AI interview reports can arrive in Dovetail projects through an integration.

Worth knowing: Dovetail doesn’t run interviews itself, so you’ll pair it with a tool that does. It’s software only, with no research services.

How to choose a Listen Labs alternative

Start with the reason you’re looking, then narrow down.

• The most interview languages: Listen Labs. Of the alternatives, Conveo covers 50+, Strella 46, and Convo and Outset 40+ each.
• Your own interviews analysed with AI-led ones: Convo, in the same study, or Strella, when they follow the same discussion guide.
• A team that can run the study for you: Convo or Strella, or Outset as a paid add-on.
• Questions across every study you’ve run: Conveo, Outset, Strella or Dovetail, as well as Listen Labs. Convo’s Research Assistant works within one study.
• Video interviews across a research programme: Conveo.
• Recordings you already have: Dovetail.
• Research with people in the EU: ask each vendor where interviews are stored and processed. Convo operates from the EU and is designed to be GDPR-compliant.