score
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Sterling has been in background screening since 1975 and built its reputation on depth in the verticals where a bad hire is a regulatory event, not just a payroll loss: healthcare, financial services, transportation, gig platforms. Its international criminal-record coverage is genuinely strong, in some markets deeper than HireRight's, and its identity verification work (including partnerships that put real document-based ID checks at the front of the screen) is directly relevant if your fraud concern is someone getting hired under a name that isn't theirs.
The big recent fact: First Advantage completed its acquisition of Sterling in late 2024, folding one of the industry's big four into another. Two years on, the brands still run side by side, but if you're signing a multi-year screening contract it's fair to ask which platform survives the consolidation and what happens to your integration when the roadmaps merge. Sales will tell you nothing changes. Sales always says that.
For SMBs the calculus looks like HireRight's: quoted contract pricing that ranges from under $50 a check to several hundred depending on scope, a sales cycle to get started, and a platform whose best features (vertical compliance workflows, global coverage, high-volume automation) mostly pay off at scale. If you're a 30-person company hiring locally, you're buying a fire truck to water the garden.
Pricing
Quote-based contracts. Per-check costs range from just under $50 for basic packages to several hundred dollars for deep multi-country or regulated-industry screens. No self-serve tier; expect a sales process and annual volume commitments to get competitive rates.
Features
- Criminal record screening across 240+ countries and territories
- Identity verification with document-based ID checks at the front of the screen
- Vertical compliance workflows for healthcare, finance, transportation, and gig work
- Employment, education, and credential verification
- Drug and occupational health screening
- Post-hire monitoring and rescreening programs
- International criminal coverage that leads the industry in several markets
- Document-based identity verification integrated into screening, not bolted on, which is the fraud-relevant part
- Deep compliance tooling for regulated industries where screening errors carry legal cost
- Acquired by First Advantage in late 2024, long-term platform and integration roadmap is an open question
- Quote-only pricing with volume commitments, hostile to occasional screeners
- Overbuilt and overpriced for straightforward US SMB hiring
Mid-size and larger employers in regulated industries, or anyone whose hires span countries where shallow database checks don't exist.
Small US-only teams screening occasionally, and anyone unwilling to bet on a platform mid-acquisition-integration.
Screenshots
Supported countries
Screening reach in 240+ countries and territories; India operations are among the largest in the industry.
Integrations
Sterling alternatives
Tools worth comparing before you commit.