An Alternative to the Official MBTI Test: MBTIonline vs Depth Profile

What MBTIonline offers

MBTIonline’s home page describes it as designed by The Myers-Briggs Company and “backed by 70 years of research”. Its “For you” page says the assessment and best-fit type verification take about 45 minutes, and that “Only MBTIonline gives you the official assessment and your verified MBTI type.”

When we read its product pages on October 27, 2026, they listed:

• MBTIonline (For you), $59.95. The official assessment and four-letter type, an interactive process to verify your type, personalised short courses, a type comparison tool and action guides.
• MBTIonline Careers, $79.95. The assessment plus an individual report, best-fit occupations with predicted satisfaction scores, and more than 1,000 occupations to explore.
• MBTIonline Teams. A self-guided team experience for three or more people with individual and team reports.

What Depth Profile offers, and what it does not

Depth Profile’s free assessment is about 80 questions covering the Big Five, an MBTI-style type, creativity style and introversion. Built on the public-domain IPIP item pool for the Big Five, with attachment items adapted from the ECR-R and career items from Holland's RIASEC model.

Be clear about the MBTI part. We do not use the MBTI instrument and cannot give you an official type. The four-letter type you see is a familiar shorthand, and in the Full Depth Report it is derived from your Big Five scores and labelled as an approximation. Big Five scores and official MBTI types often line up on some letters, but not always, so your letters here may differ from what MBTIonline gives you.

The Full Depth Report, $19 once, includes:

• A long-form portrait written by AI from your scores and answers
• A written facet reading for each trait (descriptive, not facet scores)
• Attachment and career chapters, if you took those free add-ons
• A 30-day growth plan built around three experiments
• 50 AI prompts built from your scores
• Four bonus deep-dive assessments, PDF export and a 30-day money-back guarantee

The sample report shows the main sections and a few of the 50 prompts for an invented profile. These are our own short forms. They are not independently validated, and this is a self-reflection tool, not a clinical one.

Side by side

Where the official MBTI is the better choice

• You need the official type. For a workshop, a certified practitioner or a workplace that uses MBTI, only the official assessment will do.
• You like type language. Sixteen types are easy to remember and talk about. A trait profile is more precise but less catchy.
• You want a large occupation database. MBTIonline Careers lists more than 1,000 occupations with predicted satisfaction scores.
• You want short courses as well. The “For you” product includes personalised courses on motivation, stress and confidence.

Where Depth Profile is the better choice

• You want scores on a scale, not a category. If you sit near the middle on introversion, a trait score says so. A type puts you on one side.
• You want to try before paying. Our Big Five scores are free. The full report is $19.
• You want relationships and career too. Free add-ons feed attachment and career chapters into the same report.
• You want a plan. The report ends in a 30-day growth plan. The self-improvement guide shows how it works.

The practical answer

If you need your verified MBTI type, buy it from MBTIonline. If what you want is a detailed picture of your personality and you do not mind it being expressed in Big Five terms, take our free assessment, look at your scores, and read the sample report before deciding. Prices are on the pricing page.