A 16Personalities alternative that uses Big Five
16Personalities hands you a NERIS type. This product scores five IPIP-50 domains — not a four-letter code.
The usual split is honest: the Big Five wins on science; 16Personalities wins on fun. One gives continuous trait scores. The other gives a memorable type you can post. Those are different jobs.
16Personalities is fast, free, and easy to share. You answer a short questionnaire and receive a NERIS type label (INFJ-T, ENTP-A, and the rest). NERIS Analytics describes that explorer as Big-Five-inspired: four dichotomies plus an Assertive/Turbulent identity split. The output is still a type, not five domain scores.
It is not the official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you want that contrast spelled out as models, see Big Five vs MBTI.
Deep Personality is the scored-trait job. The full test is the IPIP-50 — five Big Five domain scores — then attachment style. If two people finish, you can get a side-by-side comparison. There is no NERIS type, and no compatibility code.
NERIS type labels vs IPIP-50 domain scores
| 16Personalities (NERIS) | Deep Personality | |
|---|---|---|
| What you receive | A type label (four letters + A/T) | Five IPIP-50 domain scores (after the full test) |
| Model | Big-Five-inspired dichotomies — still a type | Continuous Big Five spectra with percentiles |
| Official MBTI? | No | No — we do not assign a type |
| First step | Short typed questionnaire | Free 10-item IPIP quiz |
| Full Big Five | Not a domain inventory | IPIP-50 on /big-five-test |
A type is easy to remember. A percentile can move a little without renaming you. That is a measurement difference, not a Deep Personality study.
What 16Personalities is
- A typed personality result in everyday language (the NERIS Type Explorer)
- Built to be memorable and social
- Useful as a conversation starter
- Big-Five-inspired typing — not five IPIP-50 domain scores
- Not official MBTI
If you enjoyed the type and stopped there, that is a complete use. You do not owe anyone a longer test.
What you get here
After the free quiz and the full assessment:
- Five Big Five domain scores from IPIP-50 (percentiles, not a NERIS type)
- Attachment style from the full assessment — not from the 10-question quiz
- An optional comparison when a second person also finishes
You do not get:
- A four-letter type or NERIS label
- Six independently scored NEO facets per trait
- IPIP-NEO-120 or IPIP-300 (we run IPIP-50)
- A diagnosis
- An attachment result from the quiz
The quiz is ten IPIP items, two per trait. It is a teaser. The IPIP-50 is the Big Five test.
Where to take a free IPIP Big Five
The Big Five test page is the path crawlers and people should use: start the quiz (ten IPIP items), then continue into the full IPIP-50. That is the free IPIP Big Five on this site. Attachment and an optional comparison come after, in the same full assessment.
We use public-domain IPIP items. We are not ipip.ori.org. We do not diagnose.
Why someone leaves 16Personalities
Usually one of three reasons:
- The type flipped. A spectrum score can move a little without renaming you.
- They want relationships in the same report. Attachment is a second score, not a second type. Anxious attachment next to high neuroticism is not the same week as anxious attachment next to low extraversion.
- They want two real profiles side by side. A comparison here is two completers, not a “your type + their type” story.
None of that makes 16Personalities fake. It makes it a different instrument. Fun still wins on shareability. Domain scores win when you want a trait profile.
If you wanted a sixth trait rather than a type, that is a HEXACO question — see HEXACO vs Big Five.
Sources (their theory page + public FFM literature — not a Deep Personality study)
- 16Personalities, Our Theory — NERIS Type Explorer as they describe it (Big-Five-inspired types; not official MBTI).
- Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26–42.
- Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. In I. Mervielde et al. (Eds.), Personality Psychology in Europe (Vol. 7, pp. 7–28). Tilburg University Press.
- International Personality Item Pool: ipip.ori.org
Side-by-side
| Feature | Deep Personality | The other product |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Big Five via IPIP-50 (domain scores) | NERIS type labels (Big-Five-inspired; not official MBTI) |
| First step | Free 10-item IPIP quiz, then full IPIP-50 | Short typed questionnaire |
| Attachment style | In the full assessment only | Not measured |
| Two-person result | Side-by-side comparison after two completers | Type compatibility narratives |
| What it is not | Not a diagnosis, not a type, not ori.org, not IPIP-NEO-120/300 | Not a Big Five domain inventory |
Start with the free quiz.
Ten IPIP items. The full IPIP-50, attachment style, and an optional comparison come after — not from the quiz.
Take the free quizFrequently Asked Questions
No. 16Personalities is the NERIS Type Explorer: an MBTI-style type product. The official Myers-Briggs instrument is separate. Both sort people into types. Deep Personality does not.
A NERIS type is a category (four letters plus Assertive/Turbulent). IPIP-50 is five continuous Big Five domain scores — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism — each with a percentile. 16Personalities is Big-Five-inspired typing, not a domain inventory. Deep Personality runs IPIP-50, not a type.
On Deep Personality’s Big Five test page: start the free quiz (ten IPIP items, a teaser), then continue into the full IPIP-50. That path is https://deeppersonality.app/big-five-test. Attachment and an optional comparison come after the IPIP-50, not from the quiz.
IPIP-50 Big Five domain scores in the full assessment, then attachment style. If two people finish, a side-by-side comparison. The free quiz is only ten IPIP items — not the complete inventory, and not a NERIS label.
No. The quiz does not score attachment. Start there anyway — it is the front door — then continue into the full assessment.
It is a different model, not a scored remake of 16Personalities. We do not publish an accuracy percentage against their types. Science here means IPIP-50 domain scores; fun still belongs to a shareable NERIS type.