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Candidate screening & interviews

Spark Hire: The ultimate guide

Learn how to use Spark Hire for one-way and live video interviews. Explore its features, setup process, pricing plans, and alternatives like Truffle.
February 8, 2026
Table of contents

    The TL;DR

    Spark Hire’s core pitch is speed: one-way (asynchronous) and live video interviews replace early phone/in-person screens so teams can process high applicant volume and remote candidates faster.
    The platform’s real leverage is standardization—set response timers, thinking time, and re-record limits, reuse question templates, and choose fixed vs rolling deadlines to make candidate comparisons tighter and more consistent.
    Pricing starts at $249/month with no free trial and scales mainly by employee count, users, and concurrent job postings; higher tiers add bulk CSV uploads (up to 1,000) and SMS outreach, but the article argues Truffle can deliver AI summaries/transcripts and async screening at lower cost.

    You’re in the right place if you’d like to learn more about Spark Hire, a video interview platform that allows you to screen candidates with asynchronous video interviews. 

    While Spark Hire also offers a small business applicant tracking system, predictive talent assessments, and interview scheduling software, we’re going to focus on its video interview platform.

    In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to use Spark Hire interviews effectively: setup, integrations, pricing, and more.

    What is Spark Hire?

    Spark Hire is a video interviewing platform that aims to streamline and enhance the recruitment process through one-way and live video interviews. 

    It helps employers to connect with candidates more efficiently with its self-paced interviews, especially when handling a high volume of applicants, or for remote and global hiring. 

    The goal of Spark Hire's platform is for companies to make better hiring decisions faster by reducing the need for initial in-person or phone interviews.

    How log in to Spark Hire works

    To log in to your Spark Hire account, either head to the web login page or pull up the app.

    If you haven’t created an account yet, you create one here. There is no free trial option so you’ll need to choose a plan immediately. The lowest priced plan is $149.

    Spark Hire pricing page showing four subscription tiers for video interviews

    How to set up a Spark Hire one-way interview

    1. Begin by setting up a new interview.
    2. You’ll need to create a job first.
    Job listings page with four positions in Chicago, managed by Outcomes Sparky
    1. Choose the job position you want to link the interview to. Next, opt for the One-Way Interview format, then proceed by clicking Continue.
    2. Select the option to generate a link for your interview and press Continue to move forward.
    3. Now, you can design the interview by creating the questions you want candidates to answer in their One-Way video interview. At this stage, you'll have several options to enhance the interview setup. When finished, hit the Continue button.
      • Adjust the time limits for responses.
      • Set restrictions on how many times a candidate can re-record their answers.
      • Limit the time candidates have to think before responding.
      • Save sets of one-way video interview questions as templates for future use.
      • Leverage suggested questions to speed up the process.
      • Embed or record video-based questions for a personalized touch.
    4. The next step is to define the deadline for completing the interview. You can choose between two types of deadlines:
      • Fixed Deadline: All candidates are required to complete the interview by a specific date. After this date, the interview link will expire, preventing candidates from submitting their responses.
      • Rolling Deadline: This option provides candidates with a set number of days to complete the interview after they accept the invitation.

    Once the deadline is set, you’ll generate the interview link. This link is what you'll send to candidates when inviting them to participate in the one-way video interview.

    How to share a Spark Hire interview link

    Users subscribed to Pro, Team, Growth, or Enterprise plans can bulk add up to 1,000 candidates by uploading a CSV file. To do this, click the CSV upload option next to Add candidate(s) to interview, download the provided template, complete the required columns with candidate details, and then upload the file.

    Additionally, users with Pro (at current pricing), Team, Growth, or Enterprise subscriptions can send updates to candidates through SMS.

    Customize your email invitation

    If you've set up default email templates for one-way interview invites in your email template library, these will be automatically applied to your invitations.

    To modify the email content or choose a different template, select Yes under the question "Do you want to modify the email invitation that will be sent to your candidate(s)?" You can then customize the message or pick another template by clicking Select Email Template and choosing one from the list.

    When everything is ready, click Create to send out your invitation(s).

    Spark Hire pricing

    Spark Hire offers three pricing options and an enterprise option too. They are as follows:

    Video interview pricing
    • $249/month (no contract)
    Behavioral assessment pricing
    • $249/month (no contract)
    Applicant tracking system
    • For up to 500 employees: $499/month
    • For up to 200 employees: $299/month
    Enterprise Plan
    • For more than 500 employees
    • Custom pricing (billed annually)

    Is there a better option than Spark Hire?

    Spark Hire has some great capabilities, but it's not for everyone. Especially if you're screening high volumes of candidates across multiple roles and need more than just video responses.

    Truffle is a candidate screening platform that combines one-way video interviews, talent assessments, and resume screening. It includes assessments that are harder to game because there is no universal right answer (Personality, Situational Judgment, Environment Fit) and AI-assisted review features like AI Match scores, summaries, and Candidate Shorts.

    The goal: screen every candidate without spending your entire week on phone screens. AI surfaces what's relevant. You decide who moves forward.

    Truffle starts at $149/month ($99/month with annual billing). Unlimited users. 7-day free trial, no credit card required.

    Aliye Menzies
    Aliye is a people-first recruiter and team leader who supported $80M+ in revenue growth at Meta by guiding hiring and process improvements across emerging tech roles.
    Author
    You posted a role and got 426 applicants. Now what — read all of their resumes and phone screen 15 of them?

    Try Truffle instead.
    Start free trial