Best Background Check Software for Pre-Employment Screening

Certn has nearly everything most people are likely after an employment background check tool. This software packs identify verification, criminal record checks, credit checks, MVR checks, and social media background checks, the service usually missing from its peers.

Our product testing showed that Certn’s UI is fairly easy to figure out for employer users. Plus, the people behind Certn’s customer support are easy to work with, too. We reached out to them twice: one for modifying our self-service portal to match our team’s needs and the other for custom integration. The assistance, in both cases, was timely and helpful.

Our experience from the candidate's viewpoint was also positive. Certn functioned well on both browsers and phones, and the check process was transparent and straightforward, with step-by-step instructions and prompt notifications.

After acquiring the leading European operator Trustmatic in 2023, Certn has worked on improving its international identity verification service. The verification process now takes a much shorter time (under 30 seconds) to complete.

However, Certn’s primary downside is the occasional glitches. We figured when testing this tool, a platform refresh is required to get rid of the bugs to be able to search for the next past checks. In terms of features, if you look for fingerprinting capability, you won’t find it here in Certn (but you will in HireRight).

No cost breakdowns and one combined charge at the end of the month is another thing users (and us) don’t like about Certn. We also noticed quite an increase in Certn’s prices over the past few years: it’s $4.99 – $69.99 per check now vs. $3.00 – $44.99 in 2021.

20,000+ companies, including Telus Ventures, Hudson's Bay, Grammarly, WestJet, ATB, and Beacon HR.

• Self-service: $4.99 – $69.99 per check. Check out more details on Certn’s pricing page.
• Enteprise: custom price.

Of all the employment background check software tools we have tested, Checkr’s UI is by far our favorite. It’s clean and tidy, with all essentials placed neatly on the dashboard: candidate check statuses, order background checks, analytics, and more.

The product training materials this platform has built out also deserve a shoutout. In addition to the help center, you get bite-sized tutorial videos and regular live training, so it’d be rare to experience any head-scratching moment when checking out the tool.

Laying AI in user experience elements is another thing that makes Checkr stand out. Most of the feedback we’ve seen comes from employers saying this solution’s native compliance engine helped them save time by providing easy-to-digest reports that filter out all info that is not legally reportable and that they loved how it was proactive at updating itself with new legal requirements.

As for the candidates, they appreciate that Checkr’s mobile-friendly app provides clear context on what information and documents they’ll need to provide, the estimated turnaround time, and a chatbot that keeps them posted on their screening progress.

That said, Checkr does take more time than its peer Certn to produce check results. On another note, since incorrect applicant inputs and system errors are anticipated from any background check software, we’re disappointed that Checkr has no phone support, and its current support channels can take days to get back to customers’ queries.

Checkr’s screening services include: Identity verification, adverse media checks, criminal background checks, current and previous employment verification, professional license verification, professional and personal reference verification, Fraud and Abuse Control Information System (FACIS), driving record (MVR) checks, transportation (DOT) checks, drug testing, credit checks, healthcare checks, education verification, international background checks, global watchlist search, and I-9 verifications.

10,000+ organizations, including AirBnB, Netflix, and Lyft, have used Checkr to conduct employment background checks.

The platform offers three plans for teams running under 300 background checks per year: Basic+ starts at $29.99/check, Essential at $54.99/check, and Professional at $79.99/check. Package add-ons are available at $1.70 to more than $60 per check. Possible additional fees apply.

Checkr also has a custom plan for teams running more than 300 background checks per year.

Even though the design of the VICTIG platform is a bit dated, the user experience is surprisingly enjoyable. Rather than investing in a fancy look, VICTIG has put more effort into simplifying how employers use its services to screen potential hires. Whether you use VICTIG from your integrated ATS (it has good integration capability, by the way) or directly, it’s nearly impossible to get confused about how to order, track, or manage background checks on the platform.

Regarding service quality, the combination of quick screening turnaround and helpful customer service is just as a good background check tool should be. Though lacking dedicated support, we haven’t heard any complaints about VICTIG being slow or passive to customers’ requests, but the opposite. Support staff are knowledgeable, and responsive, and don’t mind going over a check report via a call for you without charging extra.

To be fair, though, support would be less important if VICTIG’s screening reports were easy to skim in the first place.

On a similar note, while the background check service provider is open to rearranging clinics for applicants to go for their drug tests, it would be much more appreciated if more well-thought-out location assignments were made by VICTIG from the beginning.

The last thing we thought would be worth noting about VICTIG is that while this vendor does offer global background checks, it is mostly used by U.S.-based organizations to screen their candidates nationwide.

VICTIG has custom pricing.

You may not be impressed with Atlantic’s user interface, which, while easy to navigate, is hardly considered modern, especially when compared to Certn, Checkr, or Sterling. Nevertheless, we bet you’ll love the check services and support this tool offers.

Few vendors provide ongoing national and international screening, fingerprinting and social media checks in one platform like Atlantic does. More importantly, it is one of the rare few that offer human-verified screening services: Every non-clean background check report generated triggers a human verification check. We can imagine how helpful it will be for employers to avoid reputational, financial, and legal consequences due to false screening results.

To test Atlantic’s customer service, we gave both its chat and phone a try. They picked up our call after a few rings while chat took just four minutes to get back. If you’re more into self-help support, though, what Atlantic has likely won’t satisfy you. The vendor’s knowledge base provides video tutorials in addition to FAQs, yet most of these videos are at least six years old.

While we love the pricing transparency this background check software offers (anyone visiting Atlantic’s pricing page can see exactly how much they’d have to pay for each screening service), we notice the software isn’t very friendly toward SMBs. Atlantic makes it clear that it won’t serve you if you have under 50 employees and will direct you to its partner, TransUnion ShareAble, instead. It also won’t let you use certain services (e.g., MVR, I9 Form) alone unless you have already opted for one of its background check packages.

Atlantic Employee Screening offers four packages: Basic, Expanded, Comprehensive, and Executive. The pricing for each package ranges from $7.5 to $72 per check, depending on your business size. Additional services are charged separately.

Being a part of the enterprise tech Mitratech doesn’t make AssureHire less flexible. If anything, it means more options for users. You can still purchase background check services as a standalone tool, but if you want to house legal, risk, and HR in one place, you can do that easily with Mitratech’s full suite.

AssureHire matches or exceeds other background screening providers like Checkr or HireRight with respect to user experience and services. Better yet, it’s one of the few solutions that offer continuous background check tools where you can screen your talent before and after they join your team.

Cost-wise, this tool is generally cheaper than Sterling. However, it doesn’t provide a transparent cost breakdown on its website like many others do. Another thing we noticed when researching AssureHire’s pricing is the background check software has raised fees quite a bit since Q3 2023. Employment verifications, which previously cost $88.06, are now $109.

If you use Trakstar (which is also a Mitratech product) for applicant tracking, then AssureHire connects seamlessly. We can’t say the same if you use other systems, though, as AssureHire doesn’t always make it easy to integrate with third-party HR tools.

Drug tests are another weakness of this platform. AssureHire doesn’t track these test statuses as well as it does with other checks it provides. You may have to contact support or the labs for more prompt results. AssureHire, unfortunately, doesn’t have many labs in its network either, so there may be cases where your candidates have to travel long distances to attend their screening.

AssureHire doesn’t disclose its pricing.

Zinc doesn’t support fingerprinting and offers fewer checks than competitors like Checkr, HireRight, and Certn. Normally, we would consider these serious black marks against a product, but Zinc raises the bar for both screening turnaround time and user experience with its reusable global right-to-work verification (the first on the market).

Zinc introduced this feature as government-approved, detailed, and lightning-fast, and it keeps its word. The identity verification technology is also certified by the UK's IDVT Framework.

The level of detail in Zinc’s reports is also really cool. They include the current status of the check, what has been verified, what’s missing that needs your actions, and support materials to guide you through the next steps. Here’s what we got in our right-to-work check report.

Regarding check turnaround time, except for the reference and education checks, which can take days, the rest (criminal check, ID check, media screening, etc.) typically is ready for review within hours. Some requests can take just minutes.

Our biggest complaint, however, is Zinc’s current integration capabilities. Only 14 ATS and HR systems are currently supported. It’s also a letdown to know that despite being an international background check tool, English is the only language this platform offers.

In terms of support, we heard good things about Zinc’s people from both the client and applicant sides. Just one thing to note here, though: whether you use one or all services this tool provides, you will just get the same standard support (email, live chat, and Knowledge Base). Zinc does not provide phone or dedicated support.

Zinc offers a pay-as-you-go payment method. The platform provides a detailed cost breakdown of how much it’ll charge for each check you can access once you sign up for its free account. Global right-to-work and ID verification are priced at £10/check, and the rest is at £32/check.

First Advantage’s global presence can be really helpful if your organization has multiple branches and each has its own application process. To date, First Advantage has conducted checks in over 200 countries on behalf of its 30K+ clients. We also like the fact that First Advantage can streamline processes if you have different ATS and screening workflows for each branch through extensive integration options and customization capabilities.

First Advantage won’t blow you away with a slick modern design, yet it is easy to work with. Feature-wise, this platform covers pretty much everything one could ask for in a background screening tool: Identity fraud mitigation, franchise checks, contractor background checks, fingerprinting, student screening, and anything in between. Plus, the contribution of machine learning in some of its features (like dynamic facial recognition to spot potential identity fraud) makes the screening process more efficient.

Thanks to the flexibility in terms of checks clients can have for their bundles, First Advantage can work for small businesses as well as big ones. Just note that customer service can be quite a bother for non-enterprise users. While First Advantage’s dedicated support is responsive and helpful, basic services (chat and call) are rather slow. If you’re fine with finding answers to the questions yourself, First Advantage’s help center can be a good help, though.

First Advantage has custom pricing.

With over 50,000 companies in the customer base, it’s safe to say Sterling is one of the leading global vendors for employment background checks.

We appreciate how in-depth the screening service is. Sterling layers three different tools for locating criminal records. First is the Social Security Number (SSN) trace, second is the enhanced nationwide criminal database search, and last is Sterling’s locator select. This tool can check over 2,400 jurisdictions nationally for arrest records and relevant criminal activity.

When you’re hiring in fields like finance and healthcare, Sterling’s fingerprinting can be really helpful. As Sterling’s fingerprinting is approved by the FBI and available in 50 states, you can run FBI record checks on your applicants quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, Sterling’s turnover time for both reports and customer support now takes much longer than it used to. As reported by several candidates, the whole screening process can run weeks overdue, and support isn’t always very responsive.

Regarding integration options, there are several available, but the implementation isn’t always smooth and, sometimes, lacks flexibility. You may find your ATS listed in Sterling’s integration hub, for example, but you may need to change your recruitment workflow to align with Sterling’s and not the other way around.In February 2024, First Advantage announced it would acquire Sterling. The transaction is expected to close in Q3. For now, there haven’t been any changes in Sterling's offerings. But we’ll make sure to keep you posted here if there is down the line.

Unlike most vendors in this space, Sterling doesn’t disclose its pricing. However, it mentions on its website that the cost of a background check can range from under $50 to several hundred dollars.

VerifiedFirst covers criminal background checks, drug screening, civil records checks, Form I-9 verification, E-verify verification, identity verifications, driving record checks, and a handful more.

In terms of customer support, VerifiedFirst’s product training materials aren’t as comprehensive as Checkr’s, but there are four numbers customers can call and get help (Checkr has no phone support). Plus, VerifiedFirst’s support team is based in the U.S. and, as reported by multiple users, picks up the call almost instantly.

Like other providers, VerifiedFirst will send your applicants a link to invite them to do their background checks. In addition to email, it lets you send the link via SMS with no additional fees.

We’d recommend this software to those looking to order background checks and access results directly from their HR systems. VerifiedFirst’s integration list covers over 130 ATS, HRIS, and payroll solutions, so the odds are you’ll find your tech stack there.

Now for the downsides: VerifiedFirst doesn’t do social media screening. When compared with Checkr and Certn, it also falls short in terms of language support and price transparency. VerifiedFirst is monolingual—it only supports English, and pricing is only revealed once you commit to a sales demo.

Among VerifiedFirst’s many customers are ITI Global, Hawkinson Nissan, The Major Group, and Elica Health Centers.

VerifiedFirst has custom pricing available post-demo.

HireRight is widely known for its international background check services and huge customer base (over 40,000 companies, including many of the Fortune 500).

Feature-wise, HireRight offers quite a range of pre-employment screening services. From global-country-state criminal checks to fingerprinting and virtual I-9 that lets you remotely verify applicants’ identity via live video call, there are more than 150 services to choose from.

Of the tools we tested, only VerifiedFirst has better integration capabilities than HireRight, which can pair with 70 ATSs. And, if your software provider isn’t one of the tool’s integration partners, HireRight is open to providing an API key for free.

When we noticed that HireRight offers different email and phone support for the regions and countries it serves, we expected really good customer service coming out of this. Frankly, it’s quite the opposite. Several users from both the employer and applicant sides agreed that HireRight support is rather slow and not very helpful. It usually takes days and several follow-ups from these users themselves to get their problems resolved.

If you’re after a quick turnaround time for your background checks, HireRight is not the best bet either. It can be slow to deliver results and a bit vague too about the screening statuses.

HireRight screening services include: Criminal background services, financial background services, identity verification, education verification, professional license verification, professional qualification verification, global employment verification, aviation screening, motor vehicle records check, adverse media search, global civil litigation, compliance services, drug and alcohol testing, business services, extended workforce screening, DOT drug and alcohol verification, and DOT employment verification.

The pricing of HireRight’s plans and services isn’t disclosed on its website.

The pricing of HireRight’s plans and services isn’t disclosed on their site. Contact a HireRight sales representative for a demo as well as a price quote according to the size and needs of your business.