9 Best Background Check Companies in 2023 

Whether you handle customers’ personal information online or within a brick-and-mortar location, you must have employees that you can trust. The best background check companies can help you choose dependable employees that will treat your customers–and their personal data and payment information–with care. 

The best employment background check companies of 2023 are:

• GoodHire: Best for Fast Results
• HireRight: Best for Monitoring Employees
• Checkr: Best for International Background Checks
• ShareAble for Hires: Best for Small Businesses
• Sterling: Best for Businesses in Finance
• Trusted Employees: Best for Analytics
• IntelliCorp: Best for Landlords
• AccurateNow: Best for Criminal Record Checks for Small Businesses
• AGoodEmployee.com: Best for Business Reports

Best Background Check Companies Comparison Table

9 Best Background Check Companies

The best background check companies provide fast, accurate results, offer a range of services to suit the needs of disparate industries, and comply with the FCRA. Read on to find out more about the benefits, pros, cons, and pricing of the nine best background check companies of 2023. 

GoodHire: Best for Fast Results

Benefits

GoodHire provides employee background check services that get results fast: 90% of its nationwide background checks get results within one minute. And it doesn’t sacrifice accuracy for speed, in fact GoodHire’s background check results have a less than one percent (.085%) dispute rate. GoodHire offers a selection of plans, and you can also choose a customized screening plan and only pay for the types of checks you need. 

Pros

• Over 100 employment screening services are available, including drug screening and civil court checks
• Integrates with ATS and HRIS software
• Background checks by industry or state

Cons

• No transparent pricing is available on the website

Pricing

You must contact GoodHire via its online quote form to get pricing (however, Checkr recently acquired GoodHire, so you will hear back from someone on Checkr’s sales team).

HireRight: Best for

Benefits

HireRight is the best background check service for employers (especially schools, healthcare facilities, and public organizations) that must ensure their staff stays on the right side of the law. Negligent retention is a charge for not taking action when you had or should have known about an employee’s tendency to cause harm. However, HireRight’s Workforce Monitoring service bundle can help you avoid negligent retention lawsuits and protect your staff, customers, and reputation by systematically checking criminal records to ensure that your employees continue to meet your employment criteria and verifying that necessary certificates and licenses are active.

Pros

• Over 150 services are available in more than 200 countries
• Healthcare sanction monitoring identifies employees that have been excluded from participating in certain programs (such as Medicaid) to help avoid sanctions and fines
• Free FCRA Basics eBook available on the website

Cons

• Arrest record monitoring only covers 85% of the U.S. population

Pricing

Pricing depends on your company’s needs. Bundle packages and customized screening plans are available. 

Checkr: Best for International Background Checks

Benefits

If you want to hire staff from outside the U.S., Checkr has got your back. Checkr provides international background checks in over 200 countries, and its global watchlist service scans for candidates monitored by international governments. Checkr also offers identity document validation, education and employment verification, motor vehicle reports (MVR), and criminal or adverse media (negative news reports about candidates) checks. 

Pros

• Lists of pass-through fees are available on the website
• MVRs for international candidates are available in as little as one minute
• Candidate portal to walk candidates through the background check process

Cons

• Federal criminal records search and current and past employment verification checks cost extra

Pricing

You can get started for free with Checkr, and receive a $40 credit toward your first background check order. You are responsible for paying pass-through fees, which are state or county record retrieval fees. Pass-through fees do not apply to international criminal searches. The plans for companies that run less than 300 background checks per year are listed below; companies that run more than 300 background checks per year can contact Checkr for customized pricing. 

Basic+: Starts at $29/check

Essential: Begins at $54.99/check

Professional: Starts at $79.99/check

Add-ons and international background checks cost extra. 

ShareAble for Hires: Best for Small Businesses

Benefits

ShareAble for Hires is one of the best employee background check services for small businesses as it provides pay-per-use pre-employment screening bundles. Its bundles include criminal and credit reports directly from TransUnion, a consumer credit reporting agency with data from over one billion consumers worldwide. 

Pros

• Instant background checks (once candidates verify their identities)
• It’s free to sign up, and you only pay for the service when you need it
• Can contact ShareAble for Hires via its Twitter account

Cons

• No email or chat available for customer support

Pricing

Pricing is per background check and depends on the bundle you choose. ShareAble for Hires’ Basic plan includes background checks, the Plus plan includes background and identity checks, and the Pro plan includes background, identity, and credit reports. 

Basic: $25

Plus: $40

Pro: $60

Sterling: Best for Businesses in Finance

Benefits

Sterling is the best background check service for employers in the finance industry, as it provides the financial and credit checks you need to ensure that your candidates are trustworthy with money. It offers fingerprinting, global background checks, and social media searches, as well as executive investigations to uncover the financial and criminal histories of potential CEOs or board members. It also looks into liens, judgments, and bankruptcies to make sure that the people you hire are qualified to handle other people’s finances. 

Pros

• 98% retention rate with its financial and business services clients
• Over one million financial and business services applicants have been processed within the last 12 months
• SSN Trace technology uncovers candidates’ address and alias histories and helps discover more criminal records when used with Sterling’s Criminal Locator services

Cons

• No upfront pricing

Pricing

To obtain pricing information you must submit a form and wait to hear back from a representative. 

Trusted Employees: Best for Analytics

Benefits

Trusted Employees is one of the best full-service background check companies, as it offers everything you need to screen job candidates, including credit and criminal history checks, education, employment, and identity verification, driving records, and drug screening. It also provides analytics services that enable you to dive deep into your employment screening data to identify trends and adjust your hiring process as needed. 

Pros

• Suitable for companies of all sizes
• Ability to analyze management reports based on data such as criminal or drug statistics, hiring decisions, and DMV offenses
• Higher-tier plans include most wanted search, county criminal search, and state federal court search

Cons

• No international background checks

Pricing

Trusted Employee offers three different packages for both individuals and businesses. Companies with more than 50 screenings a year can call for customized pricing. 

Basic: Starts at $29.95/screening

Advanced: Begins at $49.95/screening

Comprehensive: Starts at $69.95/screening

Credit reports, driving records, healthcare and financial sanctions, and employment and education verification are available as add-ons. There is a $2.00 Apply Now service fee per applicant.

IntelliCorp: Best for Landlords

Benefits

Whether you lease corporate office space to businesses or private homes to individuals, you must know your renters’ history before renting out your property. Choosing the wrong tenants can end up wreaking havoc on your property–and your wallet. IntelliCorp’s tenant background screening packages help you investigate potential tenants’ financial and rental history to ensure they can afford to pay you and will be good stewards of your property.  

Pros

• Complimentary system training available for all new and existing clients
• Provides adverse-action letters to notify applicants or existing employees when they don’t pass your background checks
• Offers international background checks in over 200 countries

Cons

• You must have a business license to open an account with IntelliCorp

Pricing

Pricing for industry-specific packages is available upon request, and packages are customizable. 

AccurateNow: Best for Criminal Record Check for Small Businesses

Benefits

One of the best background checks for employers is a criminal record check, as it can provide information about an applicant’s past and what type of person and employee they are. AccurateNow provides comprehensive criminal history background checks especially for small businesses (those that run 100 checks or less per year) that include county, state, and federal civil and criminal searches, international criminal searches, and sex offender registry searches. 

Pros

• 99.99% accuracy rate
• AccurateAxis search tool searches over 2,500 federal, state, and local courthouses to find criminal records
• Pre-adverse and adverse-action letter distribution available as an add-on

Cons

• No information is available about when you can expect background check results

Pricing

There is a one-time $25 setup fee to verify your business, then prices vary depending on the plan you choose:

Basic+: $30.99

Standard: $62.05

Premium: $77.57

Optional add-ons are available for an additional charge.

AGoodEmployee.com: Best for Business Reports

Benefits

On top of its criminal and financial background checks, drug screenings, driving record checks, and identity and resume verification services, A GoodEmployee.com also offers business reports to help companies make informed decisions when choosing to work with other businesses. AGoodEmployee.com’s business reports include information about a business’s payment history and financial data, whether it has had any tax liens, judgments, bankruptcies, or government sanctions, and how the organization is structured. 

Pros

• Provides services for companies of all sizes
• Can provide FCRA-compliant pre-adverse and adverse action letters as needed
• Guidelines for how to run a legally-compliant investigative consumer report (reference check) available on the website

Cons

• 10-panel drug screenings can get expensive if you have a lot of employees

Pricing

AGoodEmployee.com offers four screening packages, or you can contact it for customized pricing.

Basic: $29.95

Plus: $49.95

Value: $79.95

Premier: $199.95

Reports that aren’t included in the packages can be purchased separately, and discounts are available for bulk purchases of 10 or more screenings.

Methodology 

We evaluated the best background screening companies and chose the top nine background check companies for businesses based on services provided, cost, and turnaround time. We picked background check companies that are FCRA-compliant–meaning they follow legal guidelines for collecting, storing, and sharing consumers’ personal information.

FAQs