Top 9 HackerEarth alternatives to hire the best developers

Attracting the top tech talent to your recruitment process is a challenge. Somewhere in the sea of resumes, your next all-star developer is waiting – but how do you identify them? 

You’ve probably heard that talent assessment platforms such as HackerEarth are the way to go. However, you may be on the fence with HackerEarth itself and are interested in learning about other platforms better suited for your hiring needs.

With the right tools in your tech stack, you avoid expensive missteps and grow your team the easy way. In this article, we walk you through HackerEarth coding tests and dive deep into the top 9 HackerEarth alternatives for your pre-employment testing software.

Read on for our top selection of HackerEarth online test alternatives.

Why consider HackerEarth alternatives?

HackerEarth is a popular platform for coding assessments, but it’s not the best fit for all businesses. Here are some reasons you might want to consider other options.

• Occasional technical issues: On G2 and other platforms, users have reported that the platform occasionally lags and glitches during tests. While this doesn’t happen for every candidate, it can harm the candidate experience and your employer branding when it does.

• Focused on coding skills: HackerEarth is great for testing coding skills, but if you want to evaluate programmers’ behaviors or soft skills, your hands are tied. Ideally, you want to evaluate a wider range of skills, like problem-solving or critical thinking. 

• Expensive: HackerEarth is among the pricier skills testing platforms out there, with its basic plan costing $209 a month and its enterprise plan at $409 monthly. Plus, if you want to add other features, such as live video interviewing, these cost extra. 

The 9 best HackerEarth alternatives reviewed

Are you ready to find a better talent assessment platform and fill developer positions with high-quality hires? Look no further; here are the nine best alternatives to HackerEarth that you can use to boost your hiring metrics and overall productivity.

1. TestGorilla

Best for its in-depth multi-measure talent assessments

If you’re looking for a comprehensive HackerEarth alternative, TestGorilla is your best bet. It enables you to do a full talent assessment for any role and for hundreds of skills. Currently, it offers more than 400 tests for skills ranging from PostgreSQL to Culture Add.

McKinsey reports that 87% of senior executives feel unprepared to address the gap in digital skills. A strong skills-based hiring platform helps you bridge that gap. TestGorilla gives you the exact tools that you need for the job.

TestGorilla’s wide range of tests enables you to assess both an applicant’s hard and soft skills as well as personality types to explore beyond just coding ability. 

For example, you can use our PHP (Coding): Intermediate-Level Algorithms test to identify candidates with a strong grasp of PHP writing and editing.

With our HackerEarth alternative, you can hire candidates who have the right experience with a specific programming language and are excellent team players and problem solvers.

Plus, with TestGorilla you get a Free forever plan, which includes five of our most popular tests you can use to get started and the option to trial our entire library of 400+ for 15 days.

Pricing: Pricing starts from $75 per month, billed annually, with exact pricing based on your company size (measured by the number of FTEs). All paid plans come with unlimited active assessments and unlimited candidates. Free forever plan available.

Rating: 4.5/5, 1,200+ reviews (G2)

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For more details, see how HackerEarth tests and TestGorilla compare.

2. HackerRank

Best for live coding interviews

Despite the name's similarity, HackerRank is another top HackerEarth competitor if you’re looking to hire software engineers. It comes with excellent analytics features, enabling you to gain deep insights into candidates’ coding abilities and make an unbiased hiring decision. 

Plus, HackerRank is more accessible than HackerEarth aptitude test, with its Starter plan costing $100 per month. 

You can use it to hire for many technical positions, but it doesn’t come with the most comprehensive plan – check out our list of HackerRank alternatives to learn more.

For most software development skill assessments, there’s a real risk of plagiarism, so HackerRank provides plagiarism detection to save you the headache. It’s not uncommon to see candidates with robust on-paper credentials fall apart when they don’t have access to other peoples’ work. 

To streamline your recruiting funnel, you can integrate your software skills assessments with other HR platforms. HackerRank provides a full slate of integrations, from Rippling to Zoho. Integrations do require a custom pricing quote, however, which may be quite pricey.

Speaking of price, most monthly plans come with a set number of “attempts,” which are completed submissions of assessments or interviews. The standard monthly plans include a couple of dozen “attempts,” and if you use more, you are billed $20 per additional attempt, which could lead to costs quickly spiraling out of control.

Pricing: Pricing starts from $100 per month.

Rating: 4.7/5, 450+ reviews (G2)

3. Codility

Best for niche coding tests and custom coding tasks

Codility is another platform that you can use to assess candidates’ technical skills without bias. It offers a large selection of coding assessments and project-based tasks that replicate real-world scenarios as closely as possible. 

Codility also offers video interviewing and an integrated development environment (IDE) you can use to assess candidates’ thought processes and practical skills. You can use it to build a standardized hiring process that enables you to zero in on the best candidates – and it doesn’t break your budget, starting at $1,200 per year. 

Interestingly, Codility features an AI assistant called Cody, which evaluates your candidates’ abilities to collaborate with AI. Using this tool, you can test emergent skills such as using software like Microsoft CoPilot or ChatGPT’s “Reasoning” series of LLMs. 

However, AI coding tools are a double-edged sword, which is why Codility also includes what they describe as “AI-resistant” question libraries to identify developer candidates leaning too heavily on their digital coding assistants.

If you need a testing platform that evaluates more than coding skills. You might need to consider some of Codility’s alternatives.

Pricing: Starts at $1200/year for the Starter plan for one user and up to 120 candidate invites. The Scale plan starts at $500/month.

Rating: 4.6/5, 800+ reviews (G2)

4. Coderbyte

Best for its live interview features and remote hiring

Coderbyte is another strong choice for technical recruiting. As the name suggests, you can use the platform to assess candidates’ coding skills – but, contrary to HackerEarth and some of the other options on this list, it actually offers personality tests. 

So, with Coderbyte, you can evaluate candidates’ coding skills and use assessments like Big Five, DISC, and more. 

But what truly sets Coderbyte apart is its excellent live interviewing features. With a collaborative IDE that features frameworks, video, and a whiteboard, you can evaluate candidates’ workflows in depth and make sure they have the skills you need. 

It’s one of the pricier options out there, but you also have the option to pay per candidate (for a minimum of 30 candidates), which not many platforms offer. 

Coderbyte makes use of several features that hiring managers find valuable, including:

• Live coding IDE: Candidates write executable code live, giving you a real-time window into their coding skills across a broad range of front-end and back-end frameworks. Fully featured, you can load file directories and other resources for complete testing.

• Whiteboarding: “Good” and “great” developers are differentiated, in part, by how well they document their code. Whiteboarding allows you to follow your candidate’s thought process above and beyond simple technical questions.

• Some applicant tracking features: As a simple applicant tracking system (ATS), Coderbyte enables you to attach private notes and scorecards directly to candidate records. If you don’t use a full-featured ATS, you may find value here.

However, some users are reporting that Coderbyte’s anti-cheating measures aren’t as effective as they’d wish them to be. If you’re concerned about that, check out the best Coderbyte alternatives on the market.

Pricing: Starts at $199 per month or $350 for 30 candidates. Multiple add-ons are available.

Rating: 4.4/5, 330+ reviews (G2)

5. Qualified.io

Best for in-depth evaluations of candidates

Qualified.io is another top coding assessment tool to hire for tech roles across a range of programming languages and frameworks. Compared with HackerEarth tests, it meets business requirements better, is easier to set up and use, and offers better customer support. 

Similarly to other platforms on this list, however, you can’t assess soft skills with it. For this, TestGorilla might be a better fit.

For evaluating developer candidates, Qualified has an extensive library of supported languages. Whether your team needs developers proficient in Ruby, Java, Python, SQL, or even something uncommon like Rust, Qualified has you covered with 25+ languages.

One precaution with this platform: To achieve the advanced, data-driven evaluations that it boasts, candidates are asked to allot a large amount of time to be tested, with some assessments running 4 hours or more. Although evaluations are remarkably in-depth, the candidates themselves tend to hate it. 

This elongated assessment process exposes you to the risk of impatient candidates dropping out of the assessment early or even burning your brand on review platforms. Candidates often send many applications each day, so they may not be thrilled to have one take up too much of their time.

Pricing: Pricing information is available upon request.

Rating: 4.8/5, 400+ reviews (G2)

6. CodeSignal

Best for its anti-cheating measures

If making sure that candidates don’t cheat is a top priority for you, CodeSignal is a good choice. It provides an automated Suspicion Score that identifies suspicious candidate behavior that might undermine a test’s integrity and flags it for a manual review. 

With CodeSignal, you can create fully customized tests, which not all platforms offer – and add a custom score to each question. 

Similarly to HackerEarth Assessments, CodeSignal is tailored to the needs of tech companies and therefore puts a strong emphasis on technical skills and coding ability. If you’re looking for a platform that offers a larger testing scope, you might be better served by one of CodeSignal’s alternatives.

Codesignal offers solutions at two stages of the hiring funnel: talent assessment for screening at the top of the funnel and interview support in an integrated development environment (IDE) to dig in with your most promising candidates.

Talent assessment features include:

• Online proctoring options 

• A variety of plagiarism and anti-cheating tools, including AI detection

• Coding reports that simplify your decision-making process

Interview support features include:

• A robust, live IDE to see how your candidates perform on real-world challenges

• Benchmarking that shows how your candidates stack up against the average

• AI-powered coding assistance to identify candidates who are ready to work with emergent technologies at scale

Pricing: Starts at $24.29 per user per month. Individuals can access CodeSignal Learn for free or upgrade to Cosmo+ for $24.99 per month. For larger organizations, custom enterprise pricing is available.

Ranking: 4.5/5, 690+ reviews (G2)

7. iMocha

Best for its large test library

If you’re looking to assess applicants for a wide range of skills (and not just coding ability), iMocha is an excellent option. With it, you can evaluate more than 3,000 skills for 1,500+ job roles, which is impressive, though it’s hard to verify how much is recycled between similar roles. 

In addition, its user experience is often reported to be positive, with its intuitive user interface often being the cited reason. 

iMocha offers excellent customization options and customer support along with a range of services to help you implement the platform into your hiring process and make the most of it. 

One of the common complaints we encountered is that it’s not possible to re-invite candidates and reshare a test, which can slow things down if a candidate missed or didn’t receive your emails. Plus, it doesn’t offer question-exposure limits to preserve the integrity of its tests, contrary to some of the iMocha alternatives out there.

As an interesting but potentially problematic feature, iMocha includes a suite of “AI-inference” skill detection tools that use data from your learning management system (LMS), resume parsing, and social data so the platform can claim insight into employee capabilities.

Although you may be able to glean novel information from your candidates’ social profiles and application packet this way, you should seriously weigh the ethical challenges and potential reputational damage.

Pricing: iMocha’s prices are available upon request. They are customized to meet your recruitment needs, so prices may vary. However, third parties report them starting at $1,800 per year.

Rating: 4.4/5, 250+ reviews (G2)

8. CoderPad

Best for its collaborative integrated development environment (IDE)

If live coding interviews are a part of your hiring process, CoderPad is a good option. It offers an excellent collaborative development environment that enables you to see a candidate’s progress in real-time and make sure they have the coding skills necessary for the role. 

CoderPad was previously known as CodinGame, so if you see reviews for CodinGame, this is the same platform.

With the platform, you can also give candidates take-home projects, similar to HackerEarth online assessments’ challenges. This enables them to show off their skills and gives you a more accurate idea of their true abilities. 

CoderPad offers a ChatGPT integration for its digital whiteboard, which is somewhat similar to CodeSignal’s AI assistant. 

One of CoderPad’s advantages is the possibility to add unlimited users, which not many platforms offer.

Gamified developer challenges are a well-respected feature in the software development landscape. From Capture the Flag (CTF) coding games to Software Jams, developers like the competitive and fun aspect of gamified challenges. 

CoderPad integrates these game-like challenges into your hiring and talent assessment funnel. You get the benefit of rigorous skills testing, plus a branding boost with your precise target audience: developers.

Of course, none of these features matter if you can’t trust the assessment results. GamerPad also features excellent plagiarism and anti-cheating functionality. Suspicious keystrokes, like copy/paste commands and other anomalies, are tracked by the software.

Pricing: Pricing starts from $70 per month.

Rating: 4.4/5, 230+ reviews (G2)

9. TestDome

Best for its wide range of role-specific tests

TestDome is one of the platforms that doesn’t focus exclusively on technical skills, making it a good fit for any role you need to fill, including admin and sales positions. 

Similar to Codility, the platform offers something we don’t see often: AI-resistant questions. Although the technology behind this isn’t immediately clear from the platform’s website, this is a welcome innovation for the industry. 

These are coding questions that a tool like ChatGPT cannot currently solve. Given the extremely fast-moving capabilities of ChatGPT’s “Reasoning” series, just how resistant these questions will be in the near future remains to be seen.

One of the pros of TestDome is its flexible pricing options, enabling you to pay only for the candidates you need to assess, rather than tie your budget to a monthly subscription. Prices start at $100 for five candidates, making the platform a strong choice for startups and small businesses, but it can spiral out of control as hiring demands grow. 

Despite its size, TestDome’s test library is lacking in certain major categories, such as personality assessments. If you’re looking to evaluate candidates’ behaviors and culture-add potential, you may want to consider a platform such as TestGorilla as a TestDome alternative.

Of course, in addition to anti-AI protections, standard anti-cheating protections are robust. The platform detects copy/paste commands for your review, as well as the presence of duplicate IPs and multiple browser usage. These features prevent the candidate from having a “ringer” for their coding tests.

Pricing: Pricing ranges from $100 to $4,200 for 5 to 600 candidates.

Rating: 4.6/5, 200+ reviews (G2)

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Find the right HackerEarth alternative for your business

HackerEarth’s coding tests empower you to build your own hackathons to attract top talent – but some users report experiencing technical issues with it, and it has a narrow focus on technical skills. Plus, it’s among the pricier options out there.

By comparison, TestGorilla is the trusted name in skills-based hiring for both technical and non-technical roles. We give you the cutting-edge tools to optimize your hiring funnel to be seamless, effective, and bias-free.

When you are ready to begin with skills-based hiring, we are here to help you make the switch. 

Book a free live demo to see for yourself how easy it can be to hire the best candidates with a skills-based approach.

Alternatively, if you’d rather try our system at your own pace, sign up for a Free forever plan today.

HackerEarth alternatives FAQ

Still have questions about deciding on HackerEarth alternatives? Here are some of the most common questions people are asking:

Is HackerEarth worth it?

No, HackerEarth is not worth it. The platform offers too few features at too high of a price. HackerEarth provides many coding assessments but lacks assessments that test soft skills and personality types, which are also important to consider when looking through job applicants.

What is better than HackerEarth?

TestGorilla is a platform known for being better than HackerEarth. TestGorilla offers a wide selection of soft skills tests and personality tests, which HackerEarth does not offer. In addition, TestGorilla is cheaper on average and provides a free plan.

Is HackerEarth free or paid?

HackerEarth is among the most expensive talent assessment platforms. Its basic plan costs $209 a month, and its enterprise plan is $409 a month. Many other basic features, such as live video interviewing, cost extra on top of that.