Recruitment · head to head
Glassdoor vs Karat
Glassdoor
Recruitment
Employer review and salary transparency app owned by Recruit Holdings, the same parent as Indeed
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Karat
Recruitment
Outsourced technical interviewing, engineers conduct your candidate interviews for you
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Glassdoor has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Glassdoor it shares the same parent company, Recruit Holdings, as Indeed, whose revenue depends on employer ad spend, which sits in tension with Glassdoor's role as an independent employer watchdog.; Karat pricing is quote-only, so a buyer cannot model cost per hire against internal interviewer time without a sales conversation
- They diverge on capability: Glassdoor covers Employee reviews, Karat covers Interview Engineers.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Glassdoor and Karat actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Recruitment).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Glassdoor
- Employee reviews
- Salary reports
- Interview insights
- CEO approval rating
- Job listings
- Company comparisons
Only in Karat
- Interview Engineers
- Structured scoring
- High-volume screening
- Interview intelligence
- Scheduling integration
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Glassdoor
- Researching a company's culture and management reputation before accepting a job offernot Karat
- Comparing self-reported salary data for a role before a negotiationnot Karat
- Reading anonymous interview reports to prepare for a specific company's processnot Karat
- Checking CEO and leadership approval trends before joining a companynot Karat
Karat
- A company scaling engineering headcount quickly and unable to free up enough internal engineer time for first-round technical interviewsnot Glassdoor
- A hiring team wanting a consistent bar across interviewers when growth has diluted interview qualitynot Glassdoor
- A seasonal hiring push, such as a new-grad or intern cohort, that needs a large volume of structured interviews in a short windownot Glassdoor
- A company that has measured interviewer no-shows or inconsistent scoring as a source of candidate drop-offnot Glassdoor
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Glassdoor
- It shares the same parent company, Recruit Holdings, as Indeed, whose revenue depends on employer ad spend, which sits in tension with Glassdoor's role as an independent employer watchdog.
- Review authenticity cannot be independently verified, and companies have periodically been accused of soliciting favourable reviews from current employees to offset negative ones.
- Self-reported salary data is not verified against payroll records, so figures for a given role and company can be inconsistent or dated.
- Older accounts were required to submit their own review or salary before unlocking others' data, and remnants of that give-to-get pressure can still affect what gets submitted.
- Employers can purchase enhanced branding pages, which changes what job seekers see on a company's page compared with a company that has not paid for branding.
Karat
- Pricing is quote-only, so a buyer cannot model cost per hire against internal interviewer time without a sales conversation
- Handing the interview itself to a contractor removes the one part of the process where candidates meet a real employee, which can weaken employer brand for roles where culture fit matters most
- It solves interviewer capacity for technical screens but does not replace hiring manager or team-fit rounds, so it only removes part of the funnel
- Quality depends on how well the client-provided rubric and questions are written; a poor rubric produces poor Karat interviews just as it would internally
- Contracted interview volume can create pressure to keep using the service even after an internal hiring slowdown, since commitments are typically annual
- Candidates sometimes react negatively on discovering the interviewer is not an employee of the company they applied to, which is a reputational risk not visible until candidates start talking about it publicly
Pricing, plan by plan
Glassdoor
Free- Job seeker accountFree
- Free browsing of reviews, salaries and listings
Karat
On request- Karat$undefined/year
- Interview Engineer coverage
- Structured technical interviews
- Interview analytics and calibration
Which should you pick?
Choose Glassdoor if
- You need employee reviews.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on iOS, Android, Web.
- You also want salary reports.
Questions people ask
- Is Glassdoor or Karat better?
- Neither clearly leads. Glassdoor starts at Free and Karat at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Glassdoor or Karat?
- Glassdoor has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Glassdoor and On request for Karat.
- Does Glassdoor or Karat run on more platforms?
- Glassdoor runs on iOS, Android, Web. Karat runs on Web.
- Can I use Glassdoor for free?
- Yes. Glassdoor has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Karat starts at On request.
- What is Glassdoor best used for?
- Glassdoor is most often used for researching a company's culture and management reputation before accepting a job offer, comparing self-reported salary data for a role before a negotiation, reading anonymous interview reports to prepare for a specific company's process, checking ceo and leadership approval trends before joining a company. Of those, researching a company's culture and management reputation before accepting a job offer and comparing self-reported salary data for a role before a negotiation are not what Karat is typically brought in for.
- What can Glassdoor do that Karat cannot?
- Glassdoor covers Employee reviews, Salary reports, Interview insights, CEO approval rating. Karat covers Interview Engineers, Structured scoring, High-volume screening, Interview intelligence.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Glassdoor: Is Glassdoor free to use?
Yes for job seekers; employers pay for enhanced branding and recruiting products.
Karat: Do candidates know they are being interviewed by a contractor rather than an employee?
Karat discloses that Interview Engineers are trained third-party interviewers rather than employees of the hiring company, though disclosure practices are set by the client.
Glassdoor: Are Glassdoor and Indeed the same company?
No, they are separate products but share the same parent company, Recruit Holdings.
Karat: Can Karat interview for languages or stacks outside mainstream web and backend engineering?
Coverage depends on the pool of Interview Engineers Karat maintains for a given stack; niche or highly specialised roles may have less coverage than common web and backend roles.
Glassdoor: Are Glassdoor reviews verified?
No, reviews and salary reports are self-reported and anonymous; Glassdoor applies moderation but does not verify employment or salary details against payroll records.
Karat: Is pricing per interview or per contracted block of volume?
Karat does not publish pricing; it is quoted per client based on expected interview volume and contract term.
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