Free plan or free trial? Every video interview tool, sorted into the two columns
A free plan has no end date: you can run a role on it, come back next quarter, and it still works. A free trial gives you full access for a fixed window — usually 7 to 30 days — after which the tool stops unless you pay. Both get marketed with the word free, and in one-way video interview software the second is far more common than the first. Of the seven tools here, one has a permanent free plan and the rest are countdowns. Which you want depends on one question: are you trying to evaluate a product, or trying to hire someone without a budget?
Side by side
The two left columns are the whole page. Every trial length was read from the vendor's own public pricing page on the date beside their section. Where a vendor doesn't publish one, the cell says nothing stated instead of inventing a number.
| Tool | Free plan, not a trial | Free trial, if there is no free plan | Entry price | Team members included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VoxScreen Our product | Yes, 50 candidates a month | Not needed. The free plan has no end date | $39/mo | Unlimited, on every plan |
| Hireflix | No | 1 month | $75/mo | Unlimited |
| Willo | No | Not stated on their site | $59 per live role/mo | 5 on Lite |
| Spark Hire | No | Not stated on their site | $249/mo | 5 monthly, unlimited annual |
| Truffle | No | 7 days / 30 credits, no card | $49/mo | Unlimited |
| OneWayInterview | No | 14 days, no card | $13.99/mo | Unlimited |
| Hirevire | No | 7 days, no card | $49/mo | 1 on Essentials |
The tools in detail
Hireflix
Hireflix is a focused one-way video interview product with unlimited seats, positions and responses on every paid plan, a well-documented GraphQL API and signed webhooks, and integrations into most ATS products.
Hireflix publishes $75/mo for companies under 50 employees and $150/mo for 50 to 250, both billed yearly, with a custom tier above that and a one-month free trial. There is no permanently free plan.
Pick Hireflix if
- You interview at high volume and want one flat price instead of a per-candidate allowance.
- You already run a mature ATS and want the interview tool to plug in and stay out of the way.
- Your team prefers to watch and judge answers itself rather than start from an AI score.
- You want the interview on your own domain. Hireflix sells custom domains. VoxScreen doesn't have them, so the candidate page stays on ours.
· Sources: hireflix.com/pricing , help.hireflix.com · VoxScreen vs Hireflix
Willo
Willo is a British one-way interview platform with 18+ interview languages, an assessment library, custom scorecards, anti-cheat controls, ISO 27001 certification and a long list of enterprise ATS integrations.
Willo Lite is $59 per live role per month, capped at 5 live roles, 5 users and 150 assessed candidates per role. Willo Enterprise is an annual contract from $3,229 to $3,799 a year depending on term. There is no free plan. The split between the two is worth reading carefully: Lite covers the assessment library, email and SMS invites and 18+ languages, but custom branding, custom scorecards, anti-cheat, the open API and downloadable responses are all marked as Enterprise features on their pricing page.
Pick Willo if
- You need ISO 27001, SSO, MFA and a dedicated success manager to clear procurement.
- You need ID, right-to-work or background checks in the same flow. They aren't bundled — Enterprise draws them from a credit balance and Lite sells them as add-ons — but no comparable step exists in VoxScreen at all.
- You interview in languages beyond the five VoxScreen covers. Willo lists 18+.
· Sources: willo.video/pricing · VoxScreen vs Willo
Spark Hire
Spark Hire sells three separate products: an applicant tracking system, video interviewing, and behavioural assessment. Paid plans carry unlimited users, and pricing steps up with company size.
The video interview product is $299/mo month-to-month for up to 5 simultaneous jobs and 5 users, or $249/mo billed annually with unlimited jobs and users. The ATS plans start at $335/mo, annual only. No free plan is offered.
Pick Spark Hire if
- You want an ATS and a video interview tool from one vendor on one contract.
- You buy on an annual contract through procurement. The ATS plans are annual only and priced for that.
- You want behavioural assessment and automated reference checks in the same purchase.
· Sources: sparkhire.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs Spark Hire
Truffle
Truffle is candidate screening software combining resume screening, one-way video interviews and talent assessments, all drawing on a single monthly credit pool. A resume screen costs 1 credit, an assessment 2, and a one-way interview 5.
Starter is $49/mo billed monthly with 200 credits and a hard cap. Core is $99/mo billed annually with 7,200 credits a year, Team $199/mo, Scale $499/mo, and rollover plus $0.25 overage credits above Starter. The trial is 7 days and 30 credits, no card.
Pick Truffle if
- Resume screening is the bottleneck, not the interview. Truffle prices that as its cheapest action.
- Your volume swings month to month and credit rollover is worth more to you than a fixed allowance.
- You want assessments and interviews measured in one budget not two subscriptions.
· Sources: hiretruffle.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs Truffle
OneWayInterview
OneWayInterview is a one-way video interview tool aimed at small businesses, with AI candidate scoring, over 100 pre-built screening tests, ATS integrations, anti-cheat controls and metered interview volume.
Annual plans run $13.99/mo for 30 interviews, $34.99 for 60, $62.99 for 150 and $209.99 for unlimited, with monthly billing about 30% higher and extra interviews at $0.57 each. The trial is 14 days with no card. There is no free plan.
Pick OneWayInterview if
- Your volume is genuinely small and predictable, and a 30-interview allowance covers a whole quarter.
- You want a large library of ready-made screening tests instead of questions generated for your role.
- Unlimited interviews at $209.99/mo is the shape you need, and metering per interview beats metering per candidate. That tier is also the only one with their Corporate Domain option, which VoxScreen has no equivalent of.
· Sources: onewayinterview.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs OneWayInterview
Hirevire
Hirevire is an asynchronous screening tool that collects video, audio and file responses, transcribes them in 90+ languages and produces AI scorecards, with plans metered by active jobs, users and interviews per year.
Hirevire publishes $49/mo for Essentials (1 active job, 1 user, 300 interviews a year), $149/mo for Professional and $249/mo for Agency, each about 20-35% cheaper billed yearly. There is a 7-day free trial with no card, but no permanently free plan.
Pick Hirevire if
- You need candidates to attach files or portfolios alongside their recorded answers.
- You screen in languages well outside the five VoxScreen supports: Hirevire advertises transcription in 90+.
- You hire one role at a time and one person does all the reviewing, which is exactly what the Essentials plan is priced for.
- You need interviews on your own domain, or emails sent from your own server. Hirevire sells both from Professional up; VoxScreen has neither.
· Sources: hirevire.com/pricing · VoxScreen vs Hirevire
Which one you actually want
You want a trial if you're evaluating. Trials normally unlock everything, including the tiers you would be paying for, and a month of full access tells you more about a product than a year on a restricted free tier ever will. If you have budget approved and you're choosing between two tools, take the trial.
You want a free plan if you're hiring. A countdown forces the evaluation and the hire to happen in the same fortnight, which is a bad way to do either. VoxScreen's free plan is the only one here with no clock on it: 50 candidates a month, unlimited team members, no card.
Watch the shape of the cap, not just the length. Truffle's 7 days is also 30 credits — about six one-way interviews — so the credit ceiling bites before the calendar does. A trial with a volume cap is shorter than it looks.
Two vendors publish no trial terms at all. Willo and Spark Hire both state clearly that there is no free plan, and neither states a trial length on their public pricing pages. That isn't evidence there is no trial. It means you have to ask sales, which is itself a cost worth pricing in.
Common questions
What is the difference between a free plan and a free trial?
A free plan has no expiration date and generally holds back higher-tier features. A free trial has an expiration date, usually 7 to 30 days, and generally unlocks everything. The practical difference is what happens on day 31: a free plan keeps working, and a trial stops. Only one of them lets you hire on a budget of zero.
Which video interview tools have a real free plan?
Of the seven compared here, VoxScreen is the only one: 50 candidates a month, 2 active interviews, unlimited team members, no credit card, no end date. Hireflix, Willo, Spark Hire, Truffle, OneWayInterview and Hirevire all state on their own pricing pages that they have no free plan.
How long are the free trials in this category?
Where each vendor publishes it: about a month at Hireflix, 14 days at OneWayInterview, 7 days at Hirevire, and 7 days with a 30-credit cap at Truffle. Willo and Spark Hire don't state a trial length publicly. Truffle's is the one to read twice, 30 credits is roughly six one-way interviews, so the credit cap ends the trial before the week does if you're moving quickly.
Do free trials ask for a credit card?
Not usually in this category. Truffle, Hirevire and OneWayInterview all state that their trials need no card. VoxScreen's free plan takes no card either, and since it doesn't expire there is no renewal to forget about. Where a vendor doesn't publish the terms, assume a card may be required and check before you start the clock.
Can I use a free plan for real hiring, or only for testing?
On VoxScreen, real hiring. That's what the allowance is sized for. 50 candidates a month covers a genuine role at a small company, AI scoring and the ranked shortlist are included instead of held back, and custom branding means the candidate sees your logo and not ours. The only thing paying changes is the ceiling.
VoxScreen makes one of the tools on this page, so read the ranking with that in mind. Every competitor figure comes from that vendor's own public pages, read on the date shown in their section, and every section says when they're the better buy. Products and prices change. Check their site before you decide.
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