GoodHire Review

GoodHire is a flexible employment and criminal background check company best suited for small businesses. With more than 100 background check and screening services and leading technology integrations, GoodHire can help you create a trustworthy workplace. 

It provides employers with a simple solution to undertaking quick and effective background checks, which results in a faster hiring process overall. 

GoodHire brand logo.

GoodHire Compared

GoodHire did make our top list for its flexible pricing structure and effectiveness for intermittent use. However, the best background check company for most people is Intelius because of its ability to provide its users with unlimited background checks without an excessive price tag. Sign up today and start a five-day trial for just $1.99

Want to read more about the top best background check companies? We reviewed dozens of options and narrowed it down to the top five. If you want to scope out all of your options, see all of our top picks here.

  • Intelius — Best for unlimited background checks
  • GoodHire — Best for flexible pricing and intermittent use
  • B&B Reporting — Best for next-day background check results
  • Accurate — Most affordable background checks for small businesses
  • Verifirst — Best background check service for property management companies

About GoodHire

GoodHire made our top list for its flexible pricing for smaller businesses and its effectiveness for intermittent use. We also found its packages to be extremely valuable for the price point. Whether your business is in the retail, construction, or healthcare industry, GoodHire can cater to you in any area. 

GoodHire’s suite of services includes criminal background checks, employment drug tests, education and employment verification, professional reference checks, driving record, credit and healthcare sanction checks, and international background checks. 

GoodHire Health and Stability

GoodHire was founded in 2013 and was acquired by Checkr in a $400 million deal in April 2022. The privately traded company has headquarters in San Francisco and currently employs more than 200 people across the United States. 

While there isn’t too much public information about GoodHire’s workplace culture, it has a 4.6-star rating on the Consumer Affairs website, suggesting that the company is doing something right for its users. And according to GoodHire’s website, more than 100,000 employers have trusted GoodHire to perform accurate background checks. 

GoodHire Pricing

GoodHire offers competitively-priced packages that vary by annual volume. You can choose between a package for less than 10 checks per year or one for more than that, which currently has 100+ screening services and caters to larger organizations.

GoodHire Pricing Structure

All of GoodHire’s pricing packages are based on a per-check basis. Each pricing package contains a diverse range of services you receive with each background check. 

The pricing will increase depending on how many services you need. However, GoodHire’s pricing structure is perfect for small businesses that don’t need to conduct a large number of checks every year because it gives you exactly what you need without the additional price. 

GoodHire Pricing Comparison

GoodHire’s pricing packages start at $29.99 per check and increase to $54.99 for one additional service and $79.99 for two additional services. In GoodHire’s most popular plan, which is $54.99 per check, you receive an SSN trace, sex offender registry search, global watchlist records, national criminal records, and an unlimited county criminal search. If you want employment or education verification, you will need to scale your plan and pay an extra $20 per check. 

In comparison to other background check companies, GoodHire’s packages offer a much better value for the price you pay. For example, Intelius costs $29.95, but that’s for a monthly subscription rather than as-needed. On the other hand, Accurate has lower prices for simple, one-off services, such as motor vehicle reports and license verifications, which come in at $9.95. 

Overall, we would say GoodHire has the best and most transparent pricing structure on the market today, especially for small businesses that only need a certain amount of services per year. 

GoodHire Trials and Guarantees

GoodHire doesn’t currently offer any free trials or free plans. However, if you are a larger organization that needs more than 10 checks per year, you can request a free quote with free Adverse Action support and US-based customer support at no extra charge. 

GoodHire Background Check Company Review

Compared to other background check companies, GoodHire stands out for its flexible pricing, extensive services, and simple but effective compliance capabilities. You can completely automate your screening process to make hiring faster and more efficient. 

GoodHire can help small businesses perform accurate background checks without the excess price. To read more about GoodHire’s competitors and how they stack up against each other, check out our top picks for background check companies

What Makes GoodHire Background Check Company Great

Screenshot of GoodHire's home page.
GoodHire makes screening simple and effective with its flexible technology.
  • Extensive background check services: GoodHire has some of the most extensive background checks and screening services on the market today. You can access more than 100 services in its pre-bundled packages or customize your own. For background checks, you can receive criminal records, driving record checks, drug screenings, employment verification, civil court checks, and education verification. And if you want to undertake a criminal background check, GoodHire has several criminal databases it utilizes for screenings. Some of these screenings include federal criminal court records, county criminal court records, statewide criminal records, sex offender registry, watch list search, and international criminal records. 
  • Flexible pricing: The main reason why GoodHire is the perfect platform for small businesses is because of how flexible its pricing is. GoodHire’s pricing is structured on a per-check basis, which means that if you only need between two and five checks per year, you will only ever have to pay for that many. Unlike some background check companies that require you to pay for a monthly subscription, GoodHire essentially lets you pay for what you need. Plus, each pricing tier comes with several screening services, so you get more than what you pay for, which is a massive benefit to using GoodHire. 
  • Simple compliance capabilities: Running background checks on potential employees can come with a few legalities, but with GoodHire’s built-in compliance capabilities, you can have peace of mind while simplifying your workflow. GoodHire’s compliance feature comes with digital consent and record filtering, which saves time and automates the entire process. Digital consent provides your candidates with an electronic, mobile-optimized portal that helps mitigate litigation risk and prevents confusion. And record filtering helps customize background check results by specifying the different types of records to show or hide and prioritizing the ones that matter the most. 
  • Excellent automation: GoodHire knows how to automate your processes and workflow with ease, especially with its integrated Adverse Action functionality. Adverse Action takes more than 180 state, county, and local ban-the-box laws into account based on your candidate’s current location. For companies that have offices in multiple locations, GoodHire’s Adverse Action functionality will help simplify these laws and save you time in the long run. Not only does GoodHire offer Adverse Action, but its platform can also automate your process in a few different ways, including automatic notifications and automated status and adjudication rules for improved background check reviews.   
  • Seamless tech integrations: Accurate, fast, and simple employment screening has never been easier with GoodHire’s seamless tech integration system. You can streamline your hiring process by getting secure, FCRA-compliant consent, accessing background screening results, and viewing both candidate information and screening results simultaneously. GoodHire integrates with leading ATS and HRIS platforms, including ADP, LinkedIn, Jobvite, BambooHR, and Rippling, to name a few. And even if GoodHire doesn’t list the platform you already use as an integration on its website, you can request a call with its sales team and create a customizable solution to fit your needs. 

Where GoodHire Background Check Company Falls Short

Screenshot of GoodHire's background check web page.
GoodHire’s background checks are 100% paperless.
  • Hard-to-navigate interface: Even though GoodHire’s background check process is simplified, unfortunately, many users found its interface difficult to navigate. After reading through dozens of user reviews, we found that many reviewers found it more clunky and less straightforward than other background check solutions. A few reviewers also claimed that the edit functionality on some background check reports didn’t work properly. 
  • Pass-through fees: GoodHire will expect you to pay pass-through fees because some counties and most state DMVs charge fixed fees to retrieve criminal or driving records. While this is not necessarily GoodHire’s fault, some other background check companies cover these fees, so it’s still unfortunate if you choose to utilize GoodHire. The fees vary depending on the state, but they start at $2 and can increase to as high as $95 per check. 
  • Third-party lab turnaround time: After reading dozens of reviews on a few different review sites, we found the most common claim was that GoodHire’s third-party lab turnaround times for drug screenings were extremely slow. Fortunately, this only seems to apply to third-party lab scenarios, as GoodHire’s background check turnaround times were universally well-reviewed. 

GoodHire Background Check Company Compared

While GoodHire provides extensive background check services with simple compliance capabilities suitable for small businesses, the best background check company is Intelius because of its unlimited screening functionalities. 

  • Intelius — Best for unlimited background checks
  • GoodHire — Best for flexible pricing and intermittent use
  • B&B Reporting — Best for next-day background check results
  • Accurate — Most affordable background checks for small businesses
  • Verifirst — Best background check service for property management companies

Final Verdict

GoodHire is an excellent background check company that provides its users with accurate checks and screenings for various services. With automation functionalities and flexible pricing, small businesses and large organizations alike can’t go wrong with GoodHire. 

Even though GoodHire has only been in business for nine years, the company has shown time and time again how reliable they are, especially with a 4.6-star rating with Consumer Affairs. And that’s why we would recommend GoodHire to any business needing accurate screening services to simplify their hiring process. 

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