Free alternatives · Industry and professional
ScreeningInterviews
Runs structured first-round voice interviews with every applicant and writes scorecards with quoted evidence, while a recruiter makes every decision.
A free alternative to micro1 (Zara), built by Surge Software. Free. You pay only what third-party services cost us, at cost.
Live at screeninginterviews.com
Walkthrough
See ScreeningInterviews in action
The problem
What it solves for a business
For: Recruiters and hiring teams screening many applicants, and campus placement drives in India.
- There are too many applicants to phone-screen everyone, so good candidates are missed or left waiting.
- AI interview tools charge $4 or more per interview, and candidates complain the bot talks over them.
- Hiring teams need to show how AI scores were reached and that a person made the decision.
How it works
ScreeningInterviews, step by step
- 01
Paste the job description
The AI drafts competencies, a 1-3-5 rubric, questions and follow-ups, which the recruiter edits.
- 02
Invite candidates
Send interview links one by one or import a campus list from CSV.
- 03
Candidate interviews any time
A voice conversation with follow-up questions; candidates can repeat, skip, ask for 30 seconds or type answers.
- 04
Scorecard with evidence
Each score shows the rubric level, the reason and quotes from the transcript, checked word for word.
- 05
Recruiter decides
A recruiter accepts or overrides the AI recommendation with a written reason, and the candidate gets a feedback report.
Comparison
ScreeningInterviews vs micro1 (Zara)
| ScreeningInterviews | micro1 (Zara) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. You pay only what third-party services cost us, at cost. | About $3.99-4.45 per interview (GetApp listing) |
| Candidate controls pacing | Repeat, skip, give me 30 seconds, typed answers | Top complaints: rigid pacing, bot not listening |
| Evidence quotes per score | Verbatim quotes checked word for word | Partial |
| Human decision | Required, with logged reason | Partial |
| Bias audit report | LL144 impact ratios and per-question fairness built in | Not publicly known |
| Face or emotion analysis | None; camera presence only | Eye tracking |
| Campus mode | Thousands per drive, ranked by college | Bulk invite |
| Public pricing | Yes | Not on its own site |
micro1 (Zara) details are taken from its public website and may have changed since ($89/month for 20 interviews, $399/month for 100 (about $4.45 and $3.99 each), GetApp listing; no official rate card (researched 24 Oct 2026)).
Why switch
Advantages over micro1 (Zara)
Free interviews
Interviews run on Surge's own AI server at no charge, against about $4 per interview on micro1's listed plans.
Candidate-friendly pacing
Candidates can repeat, skip, pause or type, addressing the pacing complaints found about Zara.
Scores you can explain
Every score carries a rubric level, a reason and checked quotes, and a recruiter must decide with a written reason.
Audit-ready by default
Built-in LL144 impact ratios and per-question fairness, with no face or emotion scoring.
Features
What it does today
- Interview plan from a job description: competencies, rubric, questions and follow-ups, all editable
- Voice interview in the browser with adaptive follow-ups and candidate-controlled pacing (repeat, skip, give me 30 seconds, typed answers)
- Explainable scorecards with rubric level, reason and verbatim evidence quotes checked against the transcript
- Human decision required on every outcome, with the reason and any AI override logged
- Feedback report for every candidate against the same rubric
- Integrity flags for tab switches, pastes, focus and camera presence, plus AI-assist timing signals, for a human to review; no face, emotion or accent analysis
- Bias audit with NYC LL144 impact ratios and per-question fairness
- Campus mode for large drives with CSV import and ranking by college; resume screening from PDF, DOCX or TXT; SCIM user provisioning
Use cases
How teams use ScreeningInterviews
High-volume tech hiring
A recruiter invites 200 applicants for a developer role and reviews scorecards for the top candidates.
Campus drive
A placement team imports a student list from CSV, candidates interview any time, and the team shortlists by rubric score.
Fair-hiring check
A hiring lead opens the bias audit to compare pass rates across groups before finalising a shortlist.
Under the hood
Where AI is used, and where it is not
The model
Qwen (qwen3.8-27b) on Surge's own GPU server; Claude Sonnet only as a checked fallback, billed at cost. A rules engine handles turns and scoring if AI is unavailable. Browser speech recognition is used for voice.
Rules and code
Evidence quotes are verified word for word against the transcript; failed scoring falls back to the rules engine; integrity and AI-assist signals are flags only, never scores.
People in the loop
The AI only recommends. A recruiter makes every decision with a written reason, overrides are logged, and candidates can ask for a human.
Book a working session
A working session with our architects on one of your use cases. You bring a process and sample documents; we leave you with a scoped plan: model, hosting, integrations, timeline and cost range.