Best Staffing Background Check Platforms: 6 Compared 2027

Key Takeaways

• Checkr and GoodHire are the only two vendors in this guide whose pages list per-check prices for US Workforce-style checks. The other four show none.

• GoodHire has been owned by Checkr since April 2022, so treat the two as one vendor family and ask which contract, support and API you would actually receive.

• List price is not total cost. Checkr says its Workforce prices exclude pass-through fees, and GoodHire warns that third-party fees may apply.

• For a staffing firm, the ATS connection usually decides the shortlist before price does. Confirm connector names and API access in writing before you order.

• The FCRA steps (written disclosure, written authorization, and a notice before any adverse action) stay with the employer that orders the report.

• Certn's published prices are for Canadian checks, so a US firm should confirm coverage before comparing.

Start with the category decision

Your first decision is which kind of provider fits your volume, not which brand has the best website. A staffing firm realistically chooses between a per-check consumer reporting service it orders from directly and an enterprise contract with API and ATS connectors that a sales team sets up. The right answer depends on how many checks you run, which ATS you use, and how many handoffs you want automated.

A background check platform is a company that orders criminal, identity and verification searches for an employment decision and returns a report governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

TL;DR: Shortlist Checkr plus one quote-based alternative, and choose between them on written ATS connection and written API access, not on brand.

Consolidation changes the shortlist. First Advantage completed its acquisition of Sterling on October 31, 2024. Acquisition value: $2.2 billion according to SEC (2024). Sterling's old small-business path now redirects to First Advantage's small-business page, so ask which brand's contract and support you would sign.

Who this is for

This guide is for an owner or operations lead at a small recruiting business who is close to choosing a screening vendor. You need to know what each option costs, how it connects to your applicant tracking system (ATS), and which compliance steps stay in-house. It does not assume you have a compliance team.

Red flags: you have no written disclosure and authorization step before any order, your clients have not named the checks each role requires, or you expect the vendor to make hiring decisions for you.

FCRA steps the vendor cannot take for you

An employer that procures a consumer report for employment must make a clear and conspicuous written disclosure before the report is ordered and get the applicant's written authorization, according to Cornell Legal Information Institute. The same section requires that, before any adverse action based on the report, the employer give the applicant a copy of the report and a written description of their rights.

The EEOC's guidance for employers says that before taking an adverse action you must give the applicant a copy of the report and a copy of "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act," and that you must also tell the person afterward about the decision, according to EEOC.

Timing is where small firms get caught. In a 2019 case, a temporary staffing agency ended a worker's placement the day after he started, based on open charges in his report. He said the agency gave him the required notices only after he was fired, according to SHRM (2019). The statute sets no fixed waiting period between the notice and the decision. It requires the notice before the action. The sources we checked do not settle how a staffing firm and its client split these duties, so write the split into your contract.

How we evaluated these platforms

The table below is our buyer's rule, not vendor data. Each criterion has a pass mark out of 5. A vendor that cannot show evidence at the pass mark on price or on ATS or API connection drops off the shortlist. The other criteria shape the comparison but do not remove a vendor on their own. We checked public vendor pages and the independent sources cited here. We did not run any checks through these vendors.

Feature matrix from public pages

Each cell records what the page showed when checked. "Not stated" means the page did not say, not that the feature is missing.

Our read: Checkr and GoodHire are the most transparent for a buyer who wants list prices before a sales call. Transparency is not fit. The other four require a conversation, and that conversation should cover the same five things: connector names, API access, the full fee schedule, check coverage, and which company owns the contract.

What the published prices add up to

Pricing checked October 30, 2026. Each figure below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, and where a page shows no price, the table says Quote-based.

Basic plan: $29.99 per report according to Checkr (2026). The Essential plan on the same page is $59.99 and the Complete plan is $94.99. The page states that Workforce prices do not include pass-through fees, and international Basic checks start at $32 per check.

On GoodHire, the Basic package is $29.99 per check, the Essential package is $59.99 and the Complete package is $94.99, according to GoodHire (undated page). The same page says pricing varies by annual volume, places customers under 50 checks a year into custom packages, and notes that additional third-party fees may apply.

On Certn, the Basic Canadian criminal record check is CAD $24.99 and the Enhanced check is CAD $29.99, according to Certn (undated page). Its enterprise pricing is quote-based, and pass-through access fees may apply. The page does not list US check prices.

HireRight's pricing page showed no plan names or per-check prices when checked, so treat it as quote-based. Sterling's pricing page lists no prices either. It carries a client "Pricing Notice" about a roughly 2% increase, according to Sterling (undated page), with unclear dates, so ask for current rates in writing. First Advantage's small-business page says "Pay Only When You Screen" and mentions no setup fees or minimums, but it gives no dollar amounts.

The table below is illustrative monthly math at list price. Neither Checkr nor GoodHire publishes a volume rate at these counts, so the columns show list price only.

Worked example, illustrative only: suppose a firm orders 120 checks a month, and 25 of those candidates go into roles that need a state criminal search. On Checkr, the Essential plan includes unlimited county criminal search but not state search. The 95 county-only checks at $59.99 cost $5,699.05, and the 25 state-search checks on the Complete plan at $94.99 cost $2,374.75, for a total of $8,073.80. Ordering all 120 on Essential would cost $7,198.80, so the state-search roles add $875.00 a month at list price. That math assumes API access, which the Checkr Workforce page does not list, so confirm it before you design around it. The ATS side then has to handle one invitation.completed event per candidate who finishes the form and one report.completed event per finished report, as shown in Checkr's staging Postman collection.

Platform profiles: best fit and limits

Each profile separates what the vendor publishes from our read of fit.

Checkr

Published: Enterprise is sales-led, and Enterprise tier: 200+ ATS integrations according to Checkr (2026). The Workforce plans list no API access, which appears only under the Tenant Business and Partner plans.

Best fit: staffing firms that want a list price on a Workforce plan and can use the Essential or Complete tier for their roles.

Limitations: pass-through fees sit outside the list price, and the Workforce page does not describe connector setup.

Implementation: order through a Workforce plan for early checks, but ask in writing for API access and connector names before you design any ATS routing. Our read: Checkr is the natural first entry on any shortlist because its prices are visible before a sales call.

GoodHire

Published: GoodHire has been owned by Checkr since April 2022, according to Goodwin Law (2022).

Best fit: firms whose annual check volume fits one of GoodHire's two published volume bands and who want its package terms.

Limitations: the bands are published by description, not price, and the three per-check prices match Checkr's Workforce prices. The real procurement question is which company's contract, support and API you receive.

Implementation: ask whether GoodHire accounts stay separate from Checkr accounts and whether candidate data moves between them. Evidence: GoodHire's pricing page and its announcement of the Checkr deal.

HireRight

Published: the pricing page showed no plan names or per-check prices when checked. Evidence: HireRight's pricing page.

Best fit: firms that already hold a HireRight quote and can compare a written rate card against the shortlist.

Limitations: the page we checked gives no basis for scoring price predictability or ATS connection. We did not find a connector list on the pages checked.

Implementation: request a written rate card that covers each check, state and country you need, and confirm the connector or API before signing.

Sterling

Published: Gem's help page describes a Sterling integration. A check starts from the candidate profile, status appears on the same tab, failed checks show limited detail inside the ATS, and full details require the Sterling dashboard. Gem requires Sterling API credentials. Evidence: Gem's Sterling integration page.

Best fit: firms whose ATS already has a Sterling connector and that accept a quote-based price.

Limitations: recruiters must leave the ATS to read full detail on failed checks. The small-business path now redirects to First Advantage, and the pricing notice leaves rate timing unclear.

Implementation: name the person who manages Sterling credentials, and ask which entity owns the contract after the First Advantage acquisition.

First Advantage

Published: the small-business page describes an online account, a "Pay Only When You Screen" model, and no setup fees or minimums, with no dollar amounts. The sales form asks about expected annual check volume in ranges. Evidence: First Advantage's small-business page and its sales contact page.

Best fit: firms that want a self-serve online account with pay-as-you-go screening and may grow into a larger contract later.

Limitations: no dollar amounts are published, and the product list is wide, so ask which checks your roles need. The small-business page does not describe ATS integration.

Implementation: open the free account, then request connector names and a written rate card before the first order.

Certn

Published: self-serve pricing covers Canadian checks in CAD, and enterprise pricing is quote-based. Evidence: Certn's pricing page.

Best fit: staffing firms that place mostly in Canada and want self-serve per-check prices.

Limitations: the page shows Canadian checks only, so the CAD prices do not transfer to US placements.

Implementation: confirm US coverage, turnaround and API access in writing before you compare it against the others.

Where screening handoffs break in a staffing workflow

The pain sits in the handoffs. The ATS moves a candidate to offer, someone orders a check, the result comes back later, and a recruiter decides whether to place. A proposed workflow can sit on those handoffs. It does not replace the vendor's report or the FCRA steps above.

US Tech Automations would configure the first handoff as a proposed workflow, not a live deployment. The trigger is a candidate's stage in your ATS changing to offer pending. The action opens a screening request for the package your role requires, through the vendor's API or ATS connector. The output is a tracker row showing the package ordered and the invitation status. Prerequisites are written confirmation of API or connector access on your plan, a mapping from role type to the Basic, Essential or Complete package, and your disclosure form in the onboarding file. A recruiter confirms that the applicant has signed the written authorization before the request goes out, because the statute requires that authorization in writing.

US Tech Automations would configure the second handoff as an event listener on the vendor's completion events, such as report.completed, with a time limit you set. The trigger is a completion event, and the action writes the status to the candidate record. If no completion arrives within your time limit, the workflow raises an exception for the operations lead and does not guess the status. The output is a status note on the candidate and an exception queue. If the report could support a rejection or the end of a placement, the workflow drafts the pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the rights description. A named person sends it and makes the final decision.

For the stages upstream of this handoff, the recruiting pipeline automation comparison covers the ATS side in more depth.

Build it in Zapier, Make or n8n instead?

The common alternative is to wire the same flow in Zapier, Make or n8n, or to script it in-house. That can be a sound choice. Those tools can keep run histories, retries, error branches and audit evidence when you configure them. You still own observability (someone checks that each run succeeded), idempotency (a retry must not order a second check), escalation paths, access controls on candidate data, and maintenance when the vendor's API or your ATS changes.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: a simpler tool wins in three cases. If you order checks rarely, the vendor's own online account is likely enough, and First Advantage's small-business page describes that model. If your ATS already has a native connector to your chosen vendor and you need no routing logic, switch that on instead of adding a layer. If each role needs one report and no status handoffs, a manual order in the vendor's portal is easier to audit.

A proposed US Tech Automations design would differ from a general-purpose zap mainly in naming the approvers and the exception queue explicitly, so a reviewer can see who held a decision and why. That is a configuration choice, and it still depends on the vendor granting API access.

Disqualifiers and who should choose each

HireRight and Sterling are not disqualified. They are slower to price, so choose them when the connector you need is already in place. Software built for screening agencies, such as TazWorks, is a different buy. Its own site describes its audience as background screening agencies and property management companies, not employers.

Glossary

• Consumer report: A report from a consumer reporting agency used for an employment decision. The FCRA governs how it is ordered and used.

• Adverse action: A decision such as rejecting a candidate or ending a placement, based in whole or in part on a report.

• Pre-adverse action notice: The notice, with a copy of the report and a written description of rights, that must come before an adverse action.

• Pass-through fee: A court, database or agency fee the vendor passes on at cost, usually outside the list price.

• County criminal search: A search of county court records, narrower than a state or federal search.

• Connector: A prebuilt link between a screening platform and an ATS.

• Webhook: A message the vendor sends to your system when an event, such as a finished report, occurs.

• Idempotency: The property that a retried request does not create a second order.

Decision checklist

• Do you have a written disclosure and authorization step before any order?

• Who decides adverse actions, and who sends the pre-adverse notice?

• Which ATS do you use, and is that exact connector named in the vendor's written terms?

• Does your plan include API access? Checkr's Workforce page lists none.

• Which checks does each role need: county, state, federal or international?

• Does the written rate card include pass-through fees?

• Which company's contract, support and data terms apply if the vendor belongs to a larger group?

• Can you see who ordered each check, when, and what came back?

Frequently asked questions

Is GoodHire a separate choice from Checkr?

For procurement, treat them as one vendor family, because Checkr acquired GoodHire in April 2022. GoodHire's pricing page lists the same three per-check prices as Checkr's Workforce tiers, so the real question is which contract, support and API you receive.

Does the FCRA set a waiting period before a rejection?

No fixed waiting period appears in the statute's text, but the pre-adverse action notice must come before any adverse action. Read the section at 15 U.S.C. § 1681b, and have counsel confirm how any waiting period should work in your practice.

Can a small staffing firm start without a sales call?

Some vendors allow it. First Advantage's small-business page describes an online account with pay-as-you-go screening and no setup fees or minimums, and Certn offers self-serve checks for Canadian searches. Checkr and GoodHire publish list prices, but ask in writing whether a small account can order without a sales contract.

Which vendor publishes the clearest prices?

Checkr and GoodHire publish per-check prices for their Workforce tiers. Certn publishes per-check prices for Canadian checks. The other vendors in this guide show no per-check prices on the pages checked.

Is Zapier, Make or n8n enough without a managed platform?

Yes for some firms, if you own the observability, idempotency, escalation, access control and maintenance yourself. Those tools can keep run histories, retries and error branches when configured, so the real question is who will watch the runs when they fail.

The decision in one paragraph

Most small staffing firms should start with Checkr, because its Workforce tiers publish per-report prices. Then compare one quote-based alternative on written ATS connection and written API access, since those decide how much handoff work you carry, more than list price does. Keep the FCRA steps with your team whichever vendor you choose. To see how the handoffs above could be configured, see how US Tech Automations configures this.