--- description: Review of CodeSession Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/software_advice/og_logo-55146305bbe7b450bea05c18e9be9c9a.png title: CodeSession | Reviews, Pricing & Demos - SoftwareAdvice AU --- Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [Pre-employment Testing Software](/directory/3654/pre-employment-assessment-tools/software) > [CodeSession](/software/552530/CodeSession) # CodeSession Canonical: https://www.softwareadvice.com.au/software/552530/CodeSession > If you're responsible for hiring software engineers, you already know the frustration. Your inbox is full of AI-assisted applications that all look polished. Take-home coding tests are increasingly gamed. And even when you do get someone on a call, staring at them solve a puzzle in isolation tells you almost nothing about whether they'll thrive on your team. What you actually want to know is: How does this person think? Do they ask good clarifying questions? Can they start from nothing, build iteratively, and bring you along for the ride? Are they someone you'd enjoy working alongside every day? Those answers don't come from a FizzBuzz test. They come from working with someone, even briefly. CodeSession is designed for engineering managers, technical recruiters, and hiring teams at companies of all sizes, from a two-person startup conducting its first technical hire to a recruiting team at a fast-growing company running dozens of interviews per month. If you're the person who owns the technical interview process and you want it to be fair, efficient, and genuinely predictive of job performance, CodeSession was built with you in mind. Candidates benefit too. There's no software to install, no account to create, and no awkward screen-sharing setup. Candidates receive a link, click it, and they're in a professional interview environment immediately. That frictionless experience reflects well on your company and puts candidates at ease so you see their real skills, not their nerves. What makes CodeSession different? Most teams cobble together a technical interview process from whatever's available: a Google Doc, a shared screen, or a one-size-fits-all Leetcode-style platform. CodeSession replaces all of that with a single, purpose-built tool that does one thing exceptionally well. The core of CodeSession is a collaborative, real-time IDE that both the interviewer and candidate can type in simultaneously. It supports 40+ programming languages with syntax highlighting and auto-formatting, so neither party is fighting their environment. An embedded whiteboard lets you sketch out architecture or walk through a system design without switching tools. And if you prefer asynchronous evaluation, take-home test mode sends candidates a coding challenge they complete on their own time, still in the same clean, professional environment. Custom code templates mean you can prepare a consistent starting point for every interview. Custom whiteboard templates let you set up diagramming exercises in advance. Every session is stored permanently at a unique link, so your team can review and compare candidates at any time. Getting started is genuinely fast. Most teams are conducting their first interview within 15 minutes of signing up. There are no integrations to configure, no candidate-facing setup instructions to write, and no IT tickets to file. You create an account, set up a session, and send a link. The Free Forever plan gives you two interviews per month at no cost, no credit card required. When your hiring picks up, session packs (starting at $99 for 20 interviews) let you buy what you need without committing to a subscription. Monthly and annual subscription plans are available for teams with ongoing hiring volume, starting at $59/month for 15 interviews. If you want a technical interview process that reflects how your team actually works -collaboratively, iteratively, and humanely - CodeSession is worth trying for free today. > > Verdict: Rated **4.8/5** by 5 users. Top-rated for **Likelihood to recommend**. ----- ## Quick Stats & Ratings | Metric | Rating | Detail | | **Overall** | **4.8/5** | 5 Reviews | | Ease of Use | 5.0/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Customer Support | 4.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Value for Money | 4.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Features | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Recommendation percentage | 90% | (9/10 Likelihood to recommend) | ## About the vendor - **Company**: CodeSession ## Commercial Context - **Starting Price**: USD 0.00 - **Pricing model**: Flat Rate (Free version available) - **Pricing Details**: What is CodeSession's pricing structure? CodeSession offers an inherently flexible, consumption-friendly pricing architecture designed to adapt seamlessly to the cyclical nature of technical recruiting. To eliminate the "unused seat tax" enforced by legacy assessment tools, CodeSession provides unlimited interviewer and recruiter accounts across all options. Hiring teams can select the path that best matches their current operational workflow: a Free Forever tier, predictable Monthly Subscription Tiers with low-cost overages, or 100% Subscription-Free Pay-As-You-Go Packs. What features are included on the Free Forever tier? CodeSession believes that technical validation should be accessible to teams at any growth stage. Our 100% free plan includes: - 2 live technical interviews per month - Unlimited user and interviewer accounts - Centralized Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration - Live browser-based coding interviews and vector whiteboarding - Take-home screening assessments - Customizable code templates What are CodeSession's Monthly Subscription Tiers? For teams maintaining a steady, predictable monthly pipeline, CodeSession provides three distinct subscription tiers. All paid tiers include advanced capabilities like custom whiteboard templates. If a team experiences a sudden hiring spike, they do not need to upgrade their entire subscription; they can simply purchase small top-off packs priced at $25 for 5 extra sessions ($5 per interview). Starter Plan: $59 per month - 15 technical interviews included per month - Unlimited user accounts \& Single Sign-On (SSO) - Budget-friendly overages ($25 per 5 extra sessions) - Ideal for early-stage companies and specialized teams Growth Plan: $149 per month - 40 technical interviews included per month - Unlimited user accounts \& Single Sign-On (SSO) - Budget-friendly overages ($25 per 5 extra sessions) - Built for scaling mid-market enterprises Scale Plan: $349 per month - 100 technical interviews included per month - Unlimited user accounts \& Single Sign-On (SSO) - Budget-friendly overages ($25 per 5 extra sessions) - Perfect for rapidly expanding engineering departments Enterprise Plan: $899 per month - Unlimited technical interviews per month - Unlimited user accounts \& Single Sign-On (SSO) - Best for high-volume recruitment loops and global corporate structures What are the Subscription-Free Pay-As-You-Go Packs? For organization leaders, startup founders, or agencies whose hiring schedules are completely episodic, CodeSession offers an entirely contract-free, subscription-free alternative. Teams can remain on the Free Forever tier and buy independent, flat-rate interview credit bundles that remain active over a 12-month window: - Hiring Sprint Pack: $99 one-time purchase (Includes 20 interviews over 12 months) - Recruiting Team Pack: $249 one-time purchase (Includes 60 interviews over 12 months) - Enterprise Pack: $499 one-time purchase (Includes 150 interviews over 12 months) Are there any hidden seat licenses or deployment costs? No. CodeSession does not charge per individual recruiter, seat, or coordinator account. Every paid configuration includes a 15-minute operational onboarding time, single-browser functionality (requiring zero software downloads for candidates), and instant access to over 40 programming and scripting language runtimes. - **Target Audience**: 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000, 5,001–10,000, 10,000+ - **Deployment & Platforms**: Cloud, SaaS, Web-based - **Supported Languages**: English - **Available Countries**: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States ## Features - Activity Dashboard - Aptitude Testing - Assessment Management - Candidate Management - Collaboration Tools - Customizable Tests - Online Tests - Self Service Portal - Skills Assessment - Tests/Assessments ## Integrations (3 total) - Miro - Okta - Single Sign-On ## Support Options - Email/Help Desk ## Category - [Pre-employment Testing Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com.au/directory/3654/pre-employment-assessment-tools/software) ## Reviews ### "Learn what it's really like to work with a candidate" — 5.0/5 > **Ham** | *22 June 2026* | Internet | Recommendation rating: 9.0/10 > > **Pros**: CodeSession provides a no-frills interview experience that allows candidates and interviewers to focus on the stuff that matters: The code, the conversation, and the bigger ideas. Let's face it. Hiring software engineers is trickier than ever and getting enough signal from an interview process can be next to impossible. With the rise of AI I find it even harder to cut through the noise. I found that live coding sessions with CodeSession give me the best signal while being mindful of the candidate's time (and my own\!). I've experimented with take-home questions but found them hard to design well and evaluate reliably (CodeSession offers take-home questions those, too, if that's your jam). With live coding sessions I can experience what it feels like to work with a candidate face-to-face. I can see how they think, how they articulate their thoughts, how they shape their code, how they ask questions. Using CodeSession doesn't need a ton of explanation. It's simple to get started, both for me and the candidate. We can dive right into the interview without a lot of ceremony. I pick a template, invite the candidate, they click the link, and we're ready to roll. We can jam on code together, hop over into a whiteboard, it's all right there. I like that CodeSession doesn't try to be a little bit of everything. It doesn't try to embed video conferencing, chat features, or reinvent digital whiteboards. I can simply get those things elsewhere (or CodeSession conveniently embeds them as with those Miro whiteboards). It's just a fine tool that does it's job, nothing more, nothing less. Also the pricing is super fair. With the latest update I can now select between a subscription or usage-based pricing (they call it "session packs" I think?). > > **Cons**: Please let me upload a user avatar. It would make things just 5% more fun and personal and I don't want to keep looking at that corporate-gray placeholder avatar. > > I used CodeSession extensively when interviewing software engineers at Stack Overflow and have used it (or processes heavily inspired by CodeSession, but executed more poorly) in a few places after. ----- ### "A must have for straightforward code interviews for hiring software developers." — 5.0/5 > **Kyle** | *22 June 2026* | Computer Software | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: Easy to setup and use sessions as an interviewer. Keeps the interviewee focused on writing code without worrying about squiggles and build errors. I want to learn what \*they\* think - not what an IDE or parser thinks about code. I've had other interviewers use Google Docs to write code and it's very hard/distracting when proper tabbing or syntax highlighting don't work how you'd expect. > > **Cons**: There's not a lot to grip about here. The product is pretty simple, and intentionally so. I've never heard a complaint from an interviewee. Some folks want stuff like autocomplete out of an IDE, but it's more diagnostically helpful to see what code potential teammates actually write and how they reason about what they're writing. > > I've conducted about 50 interviews with engineers, for both algorithm and architecture all on CodeSession and would rate it highly. ----- ### "A solid pairing tool that nails the basics" — 4.0/5 > **Chris** | *22 June 2026* | Information Technology & Services | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: The real-time collaborative editor is genuinely excellent. I run remote technical interviews a few times a week, and the latency is so low it feels like the candidate and I are sitting at the same keyboard. Syntax highlighting works across every language I've thrown at it, and being able to spin up a shareable session in two clicks has saved me an enormous amount of friction. It's great for the core job of "two people editing the same code at the same time". > > **Cons**: The mobile experience could use some polish; it's clearly built desktop-first, which is fine for me but a little awkward when a candidate joins from their phone. I'd also love more IDE-style smarts like jump-to-definition and richer autocomplete, which I lean on heavily in my day-to-day editor. None of these are dealbreakers, though. > > CodeSession.io has become a core part of my interviewing workflow, and for the price it delivers a lot of value. The core part of the product offering (collaborative coding) is executed extraordinarily well. The rough edges (mobile support and the in-browser editor are limiting) aren't deal breakers, and the fact that the site is clearly well maintained is a big plus. Suggestion: look into a VS Code extension. It'd be cool to run it through a full editor instead of in the browser. ----- ### "An easy to use way to perform better tech interviews" — 5.0/5 > **Gervasio** | *22 June 2026* | Computer Software | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: It solidly deliver on its promise: an easy to use tool to better perform technical interviews. It stays out of the way. > > **Cons**: Some candidates expected to be able to run their code, so we started telling them about the tool before sharing the link. I suppose a better candidate onboarding when they click the link? > > Super positive, it's one of these tools that earn the place in your workflow and become transparent. ----- ### "Better collaboration with less friction" — 5.0/5 > **Meredith** | *24 June 2026* | Computer Software | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: It's easy to share with interviewees and for them to quickly jump into the interview itself. Little to no time is needed to explain CodeSession. Creating templates also allows me to focus on certain objectives or skills while also giving context for the interviewee through the code itself. This allows me to be more consistent in evaluating candidates because there's less variability in how questions are framed and communicated. > > **Cons**: At times, I wished for more IDE features but I haven't experienced this being more than an inconvenience. > > Prior to CodeSession, we unfortunately used a shared document or screenshared the candidate's text editor. This is such a solid improvement over those workflows. Not only does it improve the technical interview itself, but it allows collaboration in a way that is a preview for the culture in an organization for all participants. ## Links - [View on SoftwareAdvice](https://www.softwareadvice.com.au/software/552530/CodeSession) ## This page is available in the following languages | Locale | URL | | en | | | en-AU | | | en-GB | | | en-IE | | | en-NZ | | ----- ## Structured Data