GoodHire Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, Cons and Alternatives

GoodHire is a US employment screening platform. Its header logo reads "GoodHire, A Checkr Company", so Checkr owns it. The question for an HR lead is not whether the platform works. It is whether the package covers the searches your roles need, and what the invoice adds on top.

This review covers the self-serve packages, the fees around them, the support model and three alternatives with a price or quote path we could read today. Every price here comes from GoodHire's own pricing page and Checkr's pricing and pass-through pages, checked October 10, 2026.

We did not order a check, so every speed and accuracy figure below is GoodHire's own claim, and we label it that way.

How we compared: we read GoodHire's pricing and service pages, Checkr's pricing and pass-through pages, and the pricing pages of Certn and HireRight, all on October 10, 2026.

Toolradar profiles for Checkr and Certn sit alongside for side-by-side reading. We ran no hands-on test.

Toolradar data: Toolradar tracks 512 HR and recruiting tools, and 32% of them offer a free, freemium or open-source option, according to its HR and recruiting ranking, updated October 2026.

GoodHire's Toolradar profile lists it under paid plans only, which matches what its pricing page shows.

GoodHire runs employment background checks through one platform. Every package includes an SSN trace, a sex offender registry search and a global watchlist search. Basic adds a national criminal search. Essential adds identity verification and unlimited county criminal search, and Complete adds unlimited state criminal search and federal criminal search.

Every criminal search in the packages is a US search, so the pricing page says nothing about checks run abroad.

Checkr sells the same per-report list prices on its own site, so the two companies compete on fees, support and integrations as much as on price.

Getting started depends on volume. GoodHire's pricing page splits buyers at 50 checks a year. Under 50, it lists its three per-check packages behind a "Get Started Right Away" button. At 50 checks or more, it lists pre-set packages with "100+ Screening Options" and a "Get A Custom Quote" button, and it prints no per-check price for that tier.

Once an account is open, checks run through the GoodHire dashboard, which shows status and results. Candidates get a mobile-optimized consent and results view, according to the company's home page. Its service page also describes an online dispute process for candidates who contest a result.

GoodHire's pricing page prints a starting price for each of its three packages, all per check. The page does not say whether a package includes third-party fees.

It states that additional third-party fees may apply and links to Checkr's pass-through fee list.

Our arithmetic for a 10-hire year, at list price and before pass-through fees: Basic costs $299.90 and covers national records only. Essential costs $599.90 and adds county coverage. Complete costs $949.90 and adds state and federal coverage.

The $300 step from Basic to Essential buys the county search. The $350 step from Essential to Complete buys state and federal records, which only a role that depends on them justifies.

Pass-through fees are the cost the page does not print. Checkr's list, which GoodHire links to, charges a $22.44 fee to access Pennsylvania's PATCH criminal history database, $17.95 to $119.90 for employment-history databases, and $3.95 to $50.00 for education records, depending on the clearinghouse. GoodHire does not say these are its own amounts, so ask for its rates in writing.

At the Essential list price, 50 checks come to $2,999.50 a year. That is list-price arithmetic, not a quote, since the page prints no per-check price at that volume.

GoodHire fits a US employer that screens a few hires a year, needs county records, and wants to buy online without a sales call. Its pricing page routes buyers under 50 checks a year to a self-serve start.

It fits less well in three cases. A team that needs county coverage on every hire pays the Essential price on every check, before any pass-through fee. A company that already screens 50 or more candidates a year must wait for a custom quote, so the page cannot give it a budget figure.

An employer that hires outside the US will find no package built for it, since every criminal search is a US search. If you want ranked picks first, start with best background check services.