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 research objectives, fully customizable in minutes
Upload your own guide or choose from templates; semi-customizable
Interview Moderation
Flexible: both researcher-led and AI-led moderation with 24/7 availability, multilingual capabilities, and dynamic probing
Only AI-moderated interviews, primarily where participant records short video clips and the AI responds in text-form
Speed to Insights
Immediate synthesis, and pulls out key moments in interviews to create highlight reels and session notes, getting the researcher up-to-speed quickly
Automated reports, but limited qualitative storytelling tools - more focused on broad trends than individual insights
Insight Sharing
Instant sharing of key clips and highlight reels from sessions with your team with the click of a button, and dynamic report creation
Manual process to download transcripts, reports or full videos in order to share with team
Qualitative Depth & Customization
Highly customizable study design and AI probes deeper into responses dynamically
Limited qualitative depth due to a fixed AI script and minimal dynamic follow-ups
Participant Experience
AI-moderated interview most closely mimics a natural conversation similar to a human-moderated interview
Lacks natural conversational flow: primary format is where AI asks questions in text format and participant responds in short recorded video clips
Workflow Coverage
AI helps throughout entire end-to-end journey - from project setup all the way to synthesis
Primarily supports data capture
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

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 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 voice 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
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