What Maze does

Maze, legally MAZE.DESIGN INC., is a continuous product discovery platform founded in 2018 and headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with a UK entity (MAZE.DESIGN LTD.) in London. The company provides an end-to-end SaaS research platform that consolidates UX research methods — prototype testing, moderated and unmoderated interviews, surveys, live website and mobile testing, card sorting, and tree testing — with AI-powered analysis and a built-in participant panel of more than 6 million vetted individuals. Underlying technology is a cloud-based, microservices architecture hosted on AWS, with native integrations into the dominant design and collaboration stack (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Zoom) and an event-driven pipeline that processes video, audio, text, and structured data through Maze AI for transcription, theme extraction, highlight surfacing, and automated report assembly.

Maze monetizes through a hybrid revenue model: tiered SaaS subscriptions (Free, Professional, Team, Organization, Enterprise) billed monthly or annually with multi-year contracts at the Enterprise level, paired with a usage-based Maze Credits system priced per recruited panel participant (3 credits for B2C unmoderated to 45 credits for B2B moderated) and a 12-month credit expiry that creates recurring consumption. Go-to-market is product-led growth via self-service signup at maze.co with a free tier, supplemented by enterprise field sales for larger deployments (SSO, private workspaces, advanced analytics, moderated interviews). Customer base spans product designers, UX researchers, and product managers, with documented enterprise deployments at Atlassian, Volvo, Lowe's, Inditex, Hitachi, Braze, Itau, Vimeo, Skillsoft, Aeromexico, Sunnova, and Safelite, plus mid-market customers such as Hopper, Iterable, NinjaOne, PandaDoc, and Homebase.

The company has raised disclosed funding across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds (cumulative disclosed funding of approximately $57.5M), with a $40M Series B in 2022 led by Felicis and including strategic corporate VCs from Atlassian, Zoom, and HubSpot, and a $30M Series C reported in 2025. Recent operational signals include 99-100% uptime across core platform components (March-June 2026) and an April 2026 tripartite MOU to expand Maze's offline AI research solutions into Japan and globally. The company is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR-aligned, and certified to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (UK Extension).

Name

Maze

Legal name

MAZE.DESIGN INC.

Website

https://maze.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Maze provides an end-to-end SaaS platform for continuous product discovery, combining UX research methods, AI-powered analysis, and a 6M+ participant panel. It serves product designers, UX researchers, and product managers at companies ranging from SMB to enterprise across financial services, technology, retail, and other verticals globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Menlo Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription Plans: Maze operates on a tiered subscription model (Free, Professional, Team, Organization, Enterprise) with recurring billing. Plans are differentiated by the number of active projects, collaborators, studies, and advanced features (moderated interviews, AI moderation, SSO, private workspaces). Subscriptions auto-renew annually or monthly depending on the plan.
2. Maze Panel Credits (Participant Recruitment): Credits purchased to recruit participants from the Maze Panel of 6M+ vetted panelists. Credit costs range from 3 credits per B2C unmoderated response to 45 credits per B2B moderated interview session. Credits expire 12 months after purchase. Used in conjunction with subscription plans.
3. Maze Credits Overage Charges: Usage of the platform beyond plan caps (number of studies, active projects, collaborators) incurs overage charges invoiced monthly or annually.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Maze is an end-to-end, cloud-based user research and testing SaaS platform that consolidates participant recruitment, study design (prototype testing, surveys, moderated interviews, card sorting, tree testing, live website/mobile testing), AI-powered analysis, and automated reporting into a single workflow. It is used by product designers, UX researchers, and product managers to validate designs and inform product decisions, supplemented by a built-in Maze Panel of over 6 million vetted participants and an AI Moderator that automates interview facilitation and insights generation.

Product overview

Maze is a user research and testing platform offering a unified, end-to-end research platform that connects every research method, team, and stage into one place. The core product portfolio includes the Maze Platform (main research hub) and Maze AI (AI-powered automation suite). Key feature modules include Prototype Testing for design validation, Moderated Interviews for live research sessions, Surveys for quantitative data collection, Live Website Testing, Mobile Testing, Card Sorting, and Tree Testing for information architecture research. Supporting capabilities include the Maze Panel (participant recruitment panel with 6M+ participants), Reach (participant CRM database), In-Product Prompts for recruitment embedding, Automated Reports and Video Clips for insights delivery, and AI-powered AI Moderator and AI Study Builder for automation. Additional resources include Maze Templates (pre-made study templates) and Maze University (educational content). The platform is sold in tiers including Professional, Team, Organization, and Enterprise plans, with moderated interviews restricted to Enterprise.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Maze Platform End-to-end user research SaaS platform that unifies participant recruitment, study design, qualitative and quantitative research methods, AI-powered analysis, and automated reporting. Sold via tiered subscription plans (Free, Professional, Team, Organization, Enterprise) targeting product designers, UX researchers, and product managers at organizations.
• Maze AI AI capability suite that automates research busywork including theme detection, interview transcript and highlight generation, automated reports, and pattern surfacing across research data. Available to subscribers of the Maze Platform plans.
• Maze Panel Participant recruitment service providing access to over 6 million vetted B2C and B2B research participants, purchased via Maze Credits. Costs vary by study type (unmoderated, AI-moderated, moderated) and audience, with credits expiring 12 months after purchase.
• Reach Participant CRM that allows research teams to build and manage their own centralized database of testers, track study history, and apply targeting and screener attributes. Integrated with the Maze Platform subscription plans.

Quantifiable outcome

• LCS significantly reduced moderated research analysis time with Maze AI
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers22 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability11 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.

• StripecoreOthersStripe is Maze's payment processing partner, handling all credit card and payment information securely. Maze does not store credit card data directly. Stripe's PCI compliance ensures secure payment processing for Maze's subscription plans and Maze Credits purchases.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreTechnology or IntegrationAll Maze platform infrastructure is hosted on AWS facilities within VPCs configured and managed for security. AWS provides the underlying compute, storage, and networking infrastructure for the Maze SaaS platform, with AWS's comprehensive security and compliance programs supporting Maze's SOC 2 certification.
• FigmacoreTechnology or IntegrationMaze integrates with Figma for prototype import, enabling users to upload Figma prototypes directly into Maze for usability testing, A/B testing, and prototype validation studies. The integration allows Maze to work with existing Figma design workflows without requiring designers to export or re-create prototypes.
• ZoomcoreTechnology or IntegrationMaze offers a Zoom integration for moderated interview studies. Interview recordings conducted via Zoom are automatically uploaded to Maze, where they are processed for transcription, highlight extraction, and analysis. This eliminates manual file transfers between video conferencing and research platforms.
• Japan/Global Offline AI Expansion Partners (Tripartite MOU)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerMaze signed a tripartite MOU for offline AI solution expansion in Japan and globally as part of its business development activities. The partnership involves expanding Maze's AI-powered research capabilities (including AI Moderator and AI Study Builder) into offline contexts in Japan and other global markets.
• Maze Panel ProviderscoreTechnology or IntegrationMaze partners with third-party panel providers to access a pool of diverse and vetted participants (6M+) for the Maze Panel Services. These panel providers supply participant recruitment infrastructure, targeting capabilities, and incentive management for Maze's research recruitment services.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• UserTesting: UserTesting (now part of Userlytics) is a direct competitor offering enterprise-grade user research and usability testing with a participant panel and moderated/unmoderated study capabilities, targeting the same product and UX research buyer.
• Dovetail: Dovetail is a direct competitor providing a customer research and insights platform with AI-powered analysis, surveys, and a repository for qualitative research data, competing for the same UX researcher and PM buyer.
• Lookback: Lookback is a direct peer offering moderated and unmoderated user research tools with live participant observation and testing, recently raising a $15M Series B in the same UX research software market as Maze.
• Hotjar: Hotjar provides heatmaps, session recordings, surveys, and user feedback tools for product teams, overlapping with Maze's prototype testing, surveys, and live website testing capabilities for SMB and mid-market buyers.
• Optimal Workshop: Optimal Workshop specializes in information architecture research methods (card sorting, tree testing, first-click testing), directly competing with Maze's card sorting and tree testing modules.
• Sprig: Sprig offers in-product surveys, concept testing, and user feedback tools for product teams, overlapping with Maze's surveys, in-product prompts, and AI-powered analysis features.
• Respondent.io: Respondent operates a participant recruitment marketplace for B2B and B2C research studies, competing directly with Maze's Panel product for research participant sourcing.

Emerging players

• Great Question: Great Question offers a participant management platform with panel recruitment and research repository features, targeting the same UX research operations buyer with a narrower initial focus.
• UXtweak: UXtweak provides usability testing, tree testing, and card sorting tools for product teams, with overlapping but more focused coverage of Maze's IA and testing modules.

Broad incumbents

• UserZoom (now part of UserTesting): UserZoom (now part of UserTesting) provides enterprise-grade UX research and testing capabilities, serving as a broader incumbent that has been consolidated into a larger platform competing for the same enterprise research buyer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/mazedesignhq

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Maze