Strella vs. Outset: Which AI-Powered Research Platform is Right for You?

If your team is evaluating AI customer research tools, Strella and Outset are likely on your shortlist. Choosing the right AI-powered research platform can significantly improve the speed and quality of your team’s learning and insights. 

Let's explore their differences to help you confidently select the best fit for your team's needs.

Key Feature Comparison

Study Setup & Interview Guide
AI-generated guides based on your objectives, fully customizable in minutes
Upload your own guide or choose from templates; semi-customizable
Interview Moderation
Flexible, both researcher and AI-led moderation with 24/7 availability, multilingual capabilities, and dynamic probing
AI-moderated interviews with dynamic follow-ups and persona customization
Stimuli & Context Awareness
Visual and interactive stimuli support (Figma, videos, ads), with real-time screen and video capture
Supports multimedia stimuli; no public mention of real-time contextual adaptation
Synthesis & Reporting
Instant, real-time synthesis—highlight reels, AI dashboards, sentiment analytics
AI-generated synthesis —quotes, themes, and highlight reels
Existing Research Integration
Upload past interviews, user calls, or research docs—query them directly with AI
No support for integrating or querying past research assets
Team Usability & Accessibility
Built for cross-functional teams—intuitive UX, collaborative repository, and insights sharing
Designed for researchers; includes CSV export and report builder
Participant Scale & Reach
Unlimited global scale, multi-language support, customizable audience
Bring your own participants or recruit via partners (Prolific, User Interviews)
Pricing
Flexible, scalable pricing suitable for teams of all sizes
Enterprise-level annual contracts

Why Teams
Choose Strella

Build On What You Already Know

Most research teams aren’t starting from scratch—and Strella gets that. With Strella, you can upload prior interviews, sales calls, or research notes and query them directly in the platform. It’s the only AI research tool designed to build on the work you’ve already done.

Real-Time Synthesis, Built In

No more waiting for post-processing or manual tagging. Strella generates highlight reels, AI-written summaries, and dashboard-ready insights in real-time—so teams can act faster without sacrificing depth.

Pricing That Works Like You Do

Whether you're running one project or many, Strella’s pricing model gives you control over spend. There are no astronomical retainers — just flexible, modern pricing that scales with your team and budget.

Find your perfect
research platform

When Strella is the Right Fit

  • You want to build on what you already know—upload past research and query it alongside new studies
  • You want a tool your whole team can use—not just researchers – built to fit right into your workflow
  • You value a flexible pricing model that scales with your needs, not rigid enterprise retainers

When Outset Might Make Sense

  • You don’t need to connect to or search across past research assets—each project stands alone, no need for past research integration.
  • You’re running an experienced research team and are fine adjusting your process to fit the tool.
  • You have the budget for enterprise contracts and plan to run predictable, high-volume studies...

Customer success

Hear it from the voices of our customers

Flexible enough to meet any team's customer research needs, and drive real & measurable impact

"We were blown away by how much benefit we saw from using Strella. It enables us to run tests more efficiently & frequently - it’s as if we’ve added a member to our team focused solely on UX."
Seth Stephan
Director of Experience Design
“I was amazed by the speed to insights, how seamless it is to build discussion guides, and the AI moderator's ability to ask thoughtful follow up questions based on responses!”
Sarika Patel
Senior Researcher, Consumer Insights
"Compared to other user research tools I’ve used, Strella is smarter at uncovering the insights that truly matter. It was a mic drop moment when I played the highlight reel - hearing the insights surfaced from real users has been a game changer for us."
Bret Dennis
Director of SEO & Organic Growth
"Strella has enabled me to increase my research output, and the quality of insights have been accurate and actionable."
Becca Flores
UX Researcher
"Strella's multilingual AI moderator has allows us to connect with and gather feedback from customers we couldn't reach before. Having those insights get instantly translated and included in the synthesis and report is hugely valuable"
Joe Sioufi
Lead Product Designer
“Strella makes it effortless for our team to gather continuous user feedback at a scale and frequency that was previously impossible.”
James Evans
Co-Founder & CEO
“Strella has enabled me to do fast, continuous research - I was especially impressed with how adaptive and dynamic the AI moderator was.”
Luke Armstrong
Founder, Design Agency
“Before Strella, we only had the bandwidth and budget for 1-2 qual research projects a year. Now, our qual capabilities are fully unlocked. The change in our speed to insight has been nothing short of groundbreaking.”
Casey Greulich
Senior Director, Consumer Insights
"With Strella, I can streamline the entire process of planning, conducting, and reporting on a moderated test from weeks to just a few days—sometimes even just a couple of hours. It’s a game-changer!"
Adeel Fahimullah
Head of Product Design
"Strella saved us weeks of work on our new onboarding flow. We gathered actionable insights and were able to make fast changes in just 24 hours!"
Jack Jundanian
GM of New Verticals
"The best UX research isn’t AI vs. Humans—it’s AI + Humans. Specifically AI + Strella. With Strella I was able to create a better analysis than on my own... In 1/10th the time."
Adam Root
Chief Product Officer
"Before Strella, studies took weeks. Now we get insights in a day — sometimes in just a few hours. And because participants open up more with the AI moderator, the feedback is deeper and more honest. Research is now faster, richer, and easier to access across our team."
Brian Santiago
Senior Product Design Manager
"Using Strella has significantly accelerated our research timeline! Without Strella it has taken our team a month to schedule and complete 6 interviews. With Strella we were able to run 15 interviews in less than 48 hours!"
Julie Griffin
Product Designer
"We were blown away by how much benefit we saw from using Strella. It enables us to run tests more efficiently & frequently - it’s as if we’ve added a member to our team focused solely on UX."
Seth Stephan
Director of Experience Design
“I was amazed by the speed to insights, how seamless it is to build discussion guides, and the AI moderator's ability to ask thoughtful follow up questions based on responses!”
Sarika Patel
Senior Researcher, Consumer Insights
"Strella has enabled me to increase my research output, and the quality of insights have been accurate and actionable."
Becca Flores
UX Researcher