User research without the enterprise contract.
Outset is built for research teams with annual budgets and long roadmaps. Robbie is built for everyone else.
Outset is well-funded and well-regarded. It's the right tool if you have a dedicated research team, a research ops function, and a multi-year commitment to systematic research.
But that description fits a small fraction of the teams that actually need user research.
Most teams are not running a research programme. They are trying to answer a question. They need 15 interviews before a launch, or 10 conversations after a spike in churn, or a handful of exit interviews to understand why people are leaving.
For those teams, an annual enterprise contract is not a pricing option. It is a no.
What it looks like in practice.
| Comparison metric | Outset | Robbie |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Annual contract | £10 / 30 min |
| Typical entry cost | ~£15,000–£25,000/yr | £0 until first interview |
| Minimum commitment | Annual | None |
| 20-interview study | Included in contract | £200 |
| Contract required | Yes | No |
| Sales call required | Yes | No |
Outset pricing is not public. The figures above are based on reported enterprise rates. Contact Outset directly for a quote.
What Robbie does
Robbie moderates interviews by text or voice. Your participants open one link, choose how they want to talk, and Robbie runs the conversation: asking your questions, following up on what is interesting, and adapting to each person.
After each interview, Robbie produces a synthesis: themes by confidence level, standout quotes, surprises, and recommendations. When you have run a full round, the cross-study view pulls patterns across all conversations. You can download the full report as a Word document.
There is no scheduling, no moderation, and no transcript to wrangle.
What Robbie doesn't do
Robbie does not offer visual stimulus, prototype testing, or screen sharing. If your research requires participants to interact with a design or watch a video, Robbie is not the right tool for that study.
Robbie does not include participant recruitment. You need to bring your own participants.
If those features are critical to you, Outset or a full-service research platform may be a better fit.
Pricing
£10 per 30 minutes of interview time. Invoiced at the start of the following month.
A 15-interview round at 30 minutes each costs £150. A 20-interview discovery study costs £200. Shorter interviews cost proportionally less. There is no minimum, no subscription, and no contract.
FAQs
- What is Outset?
- Outset is an AI research platform aimed at enterprise and mid-market research teams. It offers AI-moderated video and text interviews, synthesis, and research management tools, typically sold on annual contracts starting around £15,000–£25,000 per year.
- Who is Outset best suited for?
- Teams with a dedicated research function, an annual research budget, and the need for video interviews, participant recruitment, and enterprise-grade account management. If you need a full research programme managed under one contract, Outset is built for that.
- Who is Robbie best suited for?
- Teams that want to run qualitative interviews without an annual commitment. Product managers, founders, and customer success leads who need answers from their customers quickly, without a procurement process.
- Does Robbie offer video interviews like Outset?
- No. Robbie runs text and voice interviews. Audio is transcribed on the fly and immediately discarded, no recordings are stored. If video is essential to your research, Outset or a video-first platform is a better fit.