It's no secret that background checks are a vital component of hiring and screening processes. They help reduce liabilities and the risk of criminal activities at the workplace. But what do you do when you don't know which background screening solutions you can trust?  

In this article, we will compare three popular services—GoodHire vs. Checkr vs. Cisive 

Table of Contents 

1. Meet the Companies 
2. Software Comparison
3. Key Feature: Quality & Accuracy 
4. Key Feature: Customizability 
5. Key Feature: Customer Experience 
6. Key Feature: Pricing
7. Which is best for you? 

What is GoodHire? 

GoodHire is a popular solution to run background checks on candidates. It’s fast, efficient, and offers flexible pricing options. You can avoid the monthly subscription price and pay per check if you don’t need to run more than 10 background checks per year. The platform does charge a one-time setup fee to verify your business, though. 

They have an FCRA-certified, US-based support team that helps you with any screening, compliance, or how-to questions you have while running background checks. The platform experience is specifically built around the way HR operates. That’s why it offers a modern API and easily integrates with popular ATS and HRIS tools. 

What is Checkr? 

If you want fast turnarounds to fast-track the recruitment process, Checkr might be worth considering. The platform offers candidates complete transparency into the records as well as accurate ETAs via its Candidate Portal. 

The platform is AI-powered, using AI to reduce time, human error, and bias common in manual reviews. It also has built-in analytics that offer insights into your background-checking processes and award-winning adjudication tools. 

What is Cisive? 

Cisive is one of the world’s most accurate screening and employee onboarding platforms. Their multidiscipline team strives to enhance the accuracy, ease, and accessibility of their platform, despite their already high, 99.9994% accuracy rate! 

Cisive is a highly customizable platform allowing users to customize their solutions to the needs of their organization and industry.  

When you have questions about customizability (or anything else), Cisive’s service representative is ready to help. With Cisive, you don't just get a solution, you get a partner. Their service team is internally staffed, invested in your success, and available 24/7 to answer your questions. 

Background Screening Software Comparison

GoodHire vs. Checkr vs. Cisive: Key Features 

1. Quality and Accuracy 

Accurate background checks are mission-critical to ensure you don’t end up with the wrong employee! While you would think background screening services should be reliable, pay close attention to the solutions you choose and look for any past class-action lawsuits. 

Let's see how Checkr, GoodHire, and Cisive compare in quality and accuracy: 

GoodHire 

GoodHire has an impressively low error rate of >0.1%. GoodHire’s in-house team of FCRA-certified experts reviews results, cross-references data, and verifies the accuracy of background checks to help the platform maintain its low error rate. Even with its current low error rate, GoodHire has been sued twice for violating the FCRA. 

Checkr 

Checkr’s Positive Adjudication Matrix (PAM) feature offers great accuracy when screening candidate backgrounds. It improves screening accuracy and provides HR with more relevant information by eliminating the confusion around the way counties log and describe offenses. 

While Checkr is a highly accurate service and turns around 98% of nationwide criminal checks within an hour, it has faced lawsuits in the past for erroneous background checks. If you’re looking for the most accurate background screening service, consider Cisive. 

Cisive 

Cisive has a market-leading accuracy rate of 99.9993%. Since their inception more than 40 years ago, they've faced zero class-action lawsuits.  

Cisive processes prioritize accuracy—they accesses the original source at court repositories and uses a multi-repository approach when performing reviews to ensure accuracy. Plus, they review an applicant’s identity information up to five times. These factors make Cisive’s background checks highly accurate and minimize your exposure to liability. 

2. Customizability 

What does customizability even mean in background screening solutions? Great question! 

Not all background screening solutions come with the same features like education or I-9 verification. All solutions offer a different level of customizability with different options to choose from. Let's see how Checkr vs. GoodHire vs. Cisive compare. 

GoodHire 

Like Checkr, GoodHire offers customizable search filters that help you find information faster. While the platform readily integrates with popular ATS and HRIS, you can use its API to create custom integrations. For example, you can integrate Checkr with Slack so reports automatically appear in the right channel once generated. 

Checkr 

Checkr offers various customization options. Custom permissions for each user on your account allow only authorized members to initiate and view reports or change adjudication criteria. This helps limit any possible misuse by unauthorized parties.  

Checkr has filters for triggers, actions, and searches that help create custom scenarios or workflows. If you hire commercial drivers, you can also customize motor vehicle rules in Checkr. 

Cisive 

Cisive is a highly customizable solution. With Cisive, you can manually configure ATS trigger points to automate the background screening process. This helps prevent a background check at the offer stage, which most ATS use as a pre-defined trigger point. 

Cisive also has the Cisive Analytic Reporting Tool (CART) which offers a custom, real-time analytics engine. It helps your HR team access relevant information and generate customizable reports that help make data-driven decisions. 

3. Customer Experience 

Ease of use and an excellent support team are key drivers of customer experience. When choosing a background screening solution, ease of use and customer support are areas to focus in on. No one wants to use a clunky service on accident! 

GoodHire 

GoodHire’s interface is intuitive and mobile-friendly. The turnaround time is excellent, so if you want to prioritize speed and don’t mind a marginally lower accuracy rate, GoodHire is a great option. Plus, the US-based, FCRA-certified support team is reliable and helpful. 

Checkr 

Checkr makes background checks easier with pre-bundled background packages. The platform’s candidate portal is optimized for mobile devices and user-friendly allowing candidates to stay connected to their background screening process.  

While Checkr provides customer support, you will have to email them, as phone support isn’t available. 

Cisive 

Cisive brings all of the features you need together in its beginner-friendly interface. If you’ve used a background screening platform, you might have seen the clunky reports overloaded with information. With Cisive, you can generate cleaner reports that focus on the data that matters most. They’ll also highlight important information in the reports so you can focus on critical data. 

Cisive is always available to help if you have questions. You can reach out to their in-house customer service expert—they’re available 24/7 via the helpdesk. 

4. Pricing 

You'll want to select a solution that fits your budget is an important step. When looking at cost, be sure to consider any increases due to scaling. No one needs any surprises later! Look for a solution that offers flexible pricing so you don’t pay for features you don’t need. 

GoodHire 

GoodHire offers two pricing models, one for Less than 10 Checks Yearly and one for More than 10 Checks Yearly.  

• • • Basic+ for $29.99/check 
    • Essential for $54.99/check 
    • Professional for $79.99/check 
    • For More than 10 Checks per year, users will need to request a quote from the sales team.  

GoodHire users can opt out of monthly pricing should their needs be more sporadic. No matter the pricing or plan selected, GoodHire charges a one-time setup fee to verify every business.  

Checkr 

Checkr offers three pricing plans: 

• • • The Basic+ plan costs $29.99 per check, offering a basic screening with the quickest turnaround time.  
    • The Essential plan –the most popular of their plans– costs $54.99 per check, and provides users with more of a criminal history than the Basic+ plan.  
    • The Professional plan costs $79.99 per check, provides all of the features of the two lower plans, and includes education and employment verification. 

Cisive 

The Cisive team tries to understand your business’s background-checking needs and offers a custom quote to help make sure you only pay for the features you need.  

Speak to a Cisive expert today to learn more about how you can use Cisive to effectively screen talent while staying within your budget. 

GoodHire vs. Checkr vs. Cisive: Which Is Best for You? 

If you value quality, accuracy, ease of use, and reliable support, Cisive is here for you. Their custom pricing ensures you can select a plan that matches your needs and budget. 

When you choose Cisive, you choose a partner. They are there to champion you in your background screening needs. No matter what it is or when the problem arises, you can reach out to your dedicated account management team in your dashboard 24/7. 

Access Premier Employee Screening Solutions With Cisive 

Cisive is committed to helping clients run accurate background checks and offering the best quality support along the way. Consistent investments in technology and systems enable Cisive to deliver the highest value to clients. Cisive is fully customizable, so you can integrate it into your tech stack and configure it to fit into your workflow. 

Cisive offers more value than Checkr and GoodHire in its delivery of a more customizable accurate, user-friendly interface with an extensive feature set. 

Speak to a Cisive expert today!