Most pre-employment assessment software works exactly as sold. You pick tests from a library, send a link to every applicant, and by Friday each one has a score. The trouble starts the following week. A hiring manager looks at a candidate who scored 72 and asks whether that is good for this job, and nobody can answer. Or someone finally compares pass rates and finds the test passed one group of applicants far less often than another.
Pre-employment assessment software tests job applicants before you interview them. The tests measure job skills, reasoning ability, personality, or how someone handles a realistic work situation, and the platform ranks applicants by score so your team interviews fewer people who fit better. You pay a subscription, anywhere from a free starter plan to a five-figure annual contract, usually set by your headcount or by how many candidates you test.
The leading platforms are good at the testing. What they leave to you is the work around it: deciding which tests actually predict success in your roles, explaining a score to the manager who has to decide, checking that the test does not screen out one group more than another, and carrying what the test found into the new hire’s first year. Federal guidelines put that fairness check on you, the employer, even when a vendor built the test. We compare five providers below on eight questions that cover both the tool and the work around it.
| Criteria | LAK Group | TestGorilla | Criteria Corp | Predictive Index | Harver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who helps you choose and interpret the tests | LAK consultants pick the tests and debrief your managers | You choose from the library and read the reports | You choose from a template library and read scores | Hiring managers read results, with PI-certified consultants included | People Science team of 30+ configures enterprise programs |
| Whether the assessment is built around your specific role | Success profile written for each role before any testing | Up to five library tests combined, plus custom questions | Library tests, plus TestMaker for building your own | Candidates scored against a job target you define | Over 900 ready-made job profiles matched to your roles |
| How results are measured | Debriefed against the role’s success profile, then a written report | Candidates ranked by score, with validity data in each fact sheet | Raw score and percentile against other test takers | Behavioral and cognitive fit scored against the job target | Matching scores, tracked against time to hire and early attrition |
| What happens to the person after they are hired | Optional coaching from the same firm, reinforced by ORIEL | No post-hire offering; the platform stops at the hiring decision | Criteria Develop add-on covers manager check-ins and AI coaching | Manager and employee insights and coaching guidance in the platform | Development reports produced from the same assessments |
| How it connects to the rest of your talent strategy | Same firm runs coaching, development, succession, and executive recruiting. We design customized success patterns for roles in organizations to assess against what success looks like in each organization | Hiring and candidate sourcing only, with no development or succession | Hiring suite of assessments and video interviews, plus a development add-on | One platform covers hiring, team analysis, and manager insights | Hiring suite with development reports and internal mobility evaluation |
| What evidence stands behind the tests, and who checks fairness | LAK Group’s Talassure Assessments are tested annually for predictive validity, criterion validation and are also run through annual bias testing. | Fact sheet per test; monitors group differences in live data | I/O psychologists validate tests to minimize differences between groups | 383 validity studies, plus criterion validation studies on request | Team of 30+ specialists; addresses EEOC guidelines and NYC Local Law 144 |
| ATS integrations and workflow at volume | Provacore platform integrates with all ATS systems | Native Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever integrations on the Plus plan | 70+ ATS and HR technology partners, including Workday and iCIMS | Native Greenhouse and Paylocity, with others through partner connectors | Built for volume hiring; integrates with Workday, UKG, and iCIMS |
| What it costs, and whether the price is published | Quoted per engagement, with no price based on individual assessments and also unlimited subscription based pricing | Free plan; paid plans from $215 a month, billed annually | Flat annual fee set by headcount; price on request | Published: from $10,000 a year, with unlimited assessments | Enterprise contracts, with no price published |
Figures reflect what each provider published as of October 2026. Where a price is not published it has to be requested, so confirm every number against your own quote.
What to look for in pre-employment assessment software
Eight questions separate these providers. The first five cover the work around the test, and the last three cover the software itself. Ask all eight before you sign.
- Who helps you choose and interpret the tests. A library of 350 tests is only useful if someone picks the right five for the job. After the tests run, a score of 72 still has to become a yes or a no for the hiring manager. Ask who does each of those jobs, and whether it is in the price or left to your team.
- Whether the assessment is built around your specific role. A test checks one thing, such as reasoning speed or customer-service judgment. Whether that thing matters in your job depends on what the job actually demands. Ask whether the provider studies the role before choosing tests, or whether you pick from a menu and hope the match is right.
- How results are measured. Ask what a hiring manager actually receives for each candidate. A percentile tells you how a candidate ranked against other test takers, not whether they fit your job. A score set against a description of your role tells the manager what to do with it, which is the point of buying the test.
- What happens to the person after they are hired. A good assessment tells you where a new hire is strong and where they will need help. On most platforms that information stops at the hiring decision. Ask whether anything carries it into the new hire’s onboarding and first year, or whether the report is filed and forgotten.
- How it connects to the rest of your talent strategy. The same results can inform who you develop, who you promote, and who you plan to replace. Ask whether the provider does any of that work, or only hiring. If it only does hiring, every later talent decision starts again from scratch.
- What evidence stands behind the tests, and who checks fairness. Ask for the validity evidence, meaning studies showing that people who scored well actually performed well in the job. Then ask about adverse impact, which is when a test passes one race, sex, or ethnic group at a much lower rate than another. Under the EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines, a pass rate for any group below 80% of the highest group’s rate is treated as a warning sign, often called the four-fifths rule. The EEOC also states that the employer is still responsible for the test’s validity, whoever built it.
- ATS integrations and workflow at volume. If you hire hundreds of people a year, the test has to run inside your applicant tracking system (ATS), the software where your applications already live. Ask which systems connect natively and which need a third-party connector. A test your recruiters have to launch by hand will get skipped on busy weeks.
- What it costs, and whether the price is published. Prices run from free to five figures a year, and they are set in different ways: per account, per headcount, or per engagement. Ask for the all-in annual cost at your actual hiring volume. Ask too what you pay before the first candidate takes a test.
The software platforms lead on two of these: a published price (TestGorilla and Predictive Index) and the published evidence behind each test (Harver, Criteria Corp, and Predictive Index). If you are screening thousands of applicants and have an in-house expert to read the scores, price and published evidence may decide the purchase for you.
LAK Group leads on five: who interprets the scores, whether the assessment fits the role, how results are measured, what happens after the hire, and how the work connects to the rest of your talent strategy. LAK also matches the platforms on ATS integration, because its Provacore platform integrates with all ATS systems. We start with LAK Group because interpretation, fit to the role, and follow-through after the hire are where most assessment programs fail, then cover the four platforms.
1. LAK Group
LAK Group is a US human-capital firm that works across the full talent lifecycle, from assessment and hiring through coaching, development, succession, and transition. Its assessment practice uses a customized suite of research-based tools to give you insight into selection, job fit, cultural fit, and development, with LAK consultants running the process from start to finish. LAK’s assessments run on Provacore, the firm’s own platform, which integrates with all ATS systems.
What LAK Group does well
LAK starts with the role, not the test library. Before an assessment, LAK consultants learn about the role, the team, the organization, and the candidate, then write a success profile: a plain description of what strong performance in that job looks like. The tests and interviews run against that profile. LAK’s own guidance on assessment strategy makes the same point: decide what the job requires before you choose any tool.
Somebody explains the scores to the people deciding. After the assessment, LAK debriefs your stakeholders on what the results mean, then delivers a written report. With a platform, the hiring manager gets a number. With LAK, the hiring manager gets an answer and the reasoning behind it.
The results follow the person after they are hired. The same assessment can inform hiring, promotion, and succession planning. If you choose to add it, executive coaching or Coaching On Demand comes from the same firm rather than a second vendor. ORIEL then lets a new leader practice a hard conversation or presentation and get feedback on it between coaching sessions.
LAK Group also runs leadership development, executive recruiting, fractional Human Resources, culture shaping and outplacement. A year after the hire, when you decide who to promote, the firm that assessed the person is still involved. A screening platform would have closed the file on the day of the offer.
Where LAK Group falls short
LAK is not built to screen every applicant. Provacore connects to your ATS, but every LAK assessment starts with a success profile and ends with a consultant’s debrief. That work is built for a shortlist, not for 2,000 applicants overnight. If you are filling 40 frontline roles this month, a platform such as TestGorilla, Criteria Corp, or Harver is the right tool for the first screen. LAK’s own guidance recommends exactly that split: use technology early to handle large applicant volumes, and save the deeper assessment for the shortlist.
The price is not published. TestGorilla lists a free plan and Predictive Index lists $10,000 a year, so you can budget for either before a call. LAK quotes each engagement, so ask for a range in the first conversation.
The validity evidence belongs to each instrument rather than to LAK. Criteria Corp, Predictive Index, and Harver publish evidence for tests they own. LAK selects research-based instruments for each engagement. Ask LAK for the technical documentation and adverse impact data on every instrument it proposes, and keep it on file.
Best for
Mid-sized organizations hiring for roles where a wrong hire is expensive, who want someone to choose the right tests, explain the results to their managers, and carry what the assessment found into coaching and development.
2. TestGorilla
TestGorilla is a skills-testing platform with a library of more than 350 skills tests, plus a sourcing product that searches 900 million candidate profiles. It sells self-serve, starting from a free plan, and lists PayPal, PepsiCo, and Instacart among its customers.
What TestGorilla does well
You can start today for nothing. The free plan includes 10 credits a month and five essential skills tests with unlimited use. Paid plans start at $215 a month, billed annually, for the full library. No other provider here lets you test real candidates before speaking to sales.
The library is wide and practical. You can combine up to five tests in one assessment and add your own questions, with assessments typically running 10 to 50 minutes. Anti-cheating features include full-screen detection, disabled copy and paste, IP address logging, and webcam snapshots with the candidate’s permission.
TestGorilla publishes the evidence for each test. Its science page states that it monitors reliability and validity on live test data, watches for group differences down to single questions, and posts the results in each test’s fact sheet. You can read the numbers before you buy.
Where TestGorilla falls short
Native ATS integrations sit on the higher plan. Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, BambooHR, and Ashby connect natively on the Plus plan, which starts at $520 a month billed annually. On the cheaper plans, budget recruiter time to move candidates between systems.
Choosing and reading the tests is your job. The platform ranks candidates by score, but deciding which five tests fit the role, where to set the pass mark, and what a score means for your hiring manager stays with your team. TestGorilla’s group-difference monitoring covers its own test data. Checking pass rates in your applicant pool is still your responsibility under the EEOC guidelines.
TestGorilla is built for screening skills rather than assessing leaders. It does not offer leadership-focused assessment, coaching, or development after the hire. Once the offer goes out, the platform’s work is done.
Best for
Small and mid-sized companies hiring for skill-specific roles in software, marketing, or customer service, who want to start free, test quickly, and have someone in-house to choose the tests.
3. Criteria Corp
Criteria Corp has run pre-employment testing for more than 20 years and reports 4,000+ customers, 80 million+ assessments completed, and clients in 60 countries. Its hiring suite covers assessments (cognitive aptitude, personality, emotional intelligence, risk, and skills), video interviews, and a development add-on called Criteria Develop.
What Criteria Corp does well
The science is published and overseen. Criteria states that its I/O psychologists, meaning psychologists who specialize in the workplace, validate every assessment so that differences between groups are minimized. It also has a Scientific Advisory Board. For a team worried about adverse impact, that is a strong starting point.
Its best-known test respects the candidate’s time. The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) has 50 questions and a 15-minute limit. A short test means fewer strong candidates abandon the process halfway through.
The integration list is long. Criteria partners with more than 70 ATS and HR technology providers, including Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters, SAP SuccessFactors, and BambooHR. If you hire at volume, the test will most likely run inside the system your recruiters already use.
Where Criteria Corp falls short
No price is published. Criteria prices on a flat annual fee set by your headcount and needs, so you cannot compare it on cost without a sales call. Ask whether you pay the full fee during a hiring freeze.
A score is not a recommendation. The CCAT returns a raw score and a percentile, which tells you how a candidate ranked against other test takers. Deciding what score your role needs, and explaining it to the hiring manager, stays with your team.
Depth at the leadership level is thinner. Criteria’s catalog centers on cognitive, personality, and skills screening rather than in-depth leadership profiling. For a senior hire, you may want more than a platform test.
Best for
Mid-sized and large employers hiring at steady volume who want well-validated cognitive and personality testing running inside their existing ATS.
4. Predictive Index
Predictive Index is a talent platform used by more than 10,000 organizations. It reports 383 completed validity studies and 70 years of research behind two instruments: a behavioral assessment that takes about six minutes, and a cognitive assessment of 50 questions in 12 minutes. Both are available in more than 70 languages.
What Predictive Index does well
The price is published, and it does not grow with usage. Plans start at $10,000 a year and scale with headcount. Every plan includes unlimited assessments and unlimited users, with no fee per seat. You can build a budget before you take the first call.
The platform is built for the hiring manager. You define a job target, PI scores each candidate against it, and the platform writes an interview guide for each person. The plan also includes access to PI-certified consultants for the decisions that need a second opinion.
PI is direct about compliance. It states that its assessments can support your compliance with the EEOC and the Uniform Guidelines, and it offers criterion validation studies, which test whether scores predict performance in your own workforce. That is the kind of study the Uniform Guidelines describe, and PI offers to run it.
Where Predictive Index falls short
Native ATS connections are limited. PI lists two native ATS integrations, Greenhouse and Paylocity. Workday, iCIMS, Lever, and others connect through partner providers, so ask what that adds to setup and cost.
The cognitive testing is lighter than the behavioral side. It is a single 12-minute test. For roles where reasoning ability decides success, ask what that test can and cannot tell you.
A behavioral profile is quick to read and quick to over-read. Interpretation sits with your hiring managers by default. Use the PI-certified consultants on the hires that matter most.
Best for
Companies with 50 to 500+ employees that want behavioral and cognitive testing in their hiring managers’ hands, at a price they can see in advance.
5. Harver
Harver is an assessment and hiring platform built for high-volume and hourly hiring. It combined with Outmatch in 2021 and acquired the game-based assessment company pymetrics in 2022. It reports more than 100 million candidates served, a library of 450+ assessments, and over 900 ready-made job profiles.
What Harver does well
Harver is built for hiring at scale. An employer filling hundreds of hourly roles needs short, mobile-friendly tests and fast decisions, and Harver designs its assessments for that. Harver reports cutting time to hire by around 40% and early attrition by up to 25%.
Harver publishes its science and compliance position in detail. A People Science team of more than 30 I-O psychologists, psychometricians, neuroscientists, and data scientists builds the assessments. Harver states its process addresses EEOC and Uniform Guidelines requirements and meets New York City Local Law 144, which requires an independent bias audit of automated hiring tools.
Candidates rate the experience well. Harver publishes a 97% candidate satisfaction rate. At volume, a test that candidates finish is worth more than a longer one they abandon.
Where Harver falls short
No price is published. Harver sells enterprise contracts, and its design for thousands of hourly applicants is more than an office team hiring 40 people a year needs. Ask for the smallest contract it will write.
Check your ATS before the demo. Harver’s integrations page names Workday, UKG, and iCIMS Prime and invites you to ask about others. If your system is not listed, ask what connecting it involves.
Development stops at a report. Harver produces development reports and internal mobility evaluations from the same assessments. Coaching a new hire on what the assessment found is left to you or another provider.
Best for
Large employers filling hundreds of hourly or frontline roles, who need fast, mobile-friendly testing with detailed compliance documentation.
Which pre-employment assessment software is right for you?
If you want to start testing this week without a contract, TestGorilla is the obvious place to begin. Its free plan and wide skills library suit small and mid-sized teams with someone in-house to choose the tests.
Teams hiring at steady volume through Workday, iCIMS, or Greenhouse should look hard at Criteria Corp. It pairs well-validated cognitive and personality testing with the longest integration list here.
Predictive Index suits a company of 50 to 500 people that wants hiring managers to use assessments directly, with a published price and unlimited testing.
For hundreds of hourly hires and a legal team asking about bias audits, Harver is built for exactly that job.
Choose LAK Group when the hard part is not running the test but knowing what to do with the result. LAK writes a success profile for the role, picks the tests that match it, and explains the scores to the managers who decide. The same firm can then coach the new hire and carry the findings into development and succession. Many organizations use a screening platform for the first cut and LAK for the shortlist and beyond. Talk to LAK Group about the hiring decisions in front of you.
FAQs
How much does pre-employment assessment software cost?
Two providers here publish a price. TestGorilla has a free plan, with paid plans from $215 a month billed annually, and native ATS integrations from $520 a month. Predictive Index starts at $10,000 a year with unlimited assessments. Criteria Corp and Harver price on request, and LAK Group quotes each engagement. Compare the all-in cost at your real hiring volume, including the hours your team spends choosing tests and explaining scores.
Is pre-employment testing legal, and what is adverse impact?
Testing is legal when the test is related to the job and does not unfairly screen out protected groups. Adverse impact means a test passes one race, sex, or ethnic group at a much lower rate than another. The EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines treat a pass rate below 80% of the highest group’s rate as a warning sign, known as the four-fifths rule. The employer stays responsible for the test’s validity even when a vendor built it, so keep the vendor’s evidence on file and check your own pass rates. This is general information, not legal advice; take specific questions to your employment counsel.
How long should a pre-employment assessment take?
Shorter tests keep more candidates in the process. Predictive Index’s behavioral assessment takes about six minutes and its cognitive assessment 12. Criteria Corp’s CCAT takes 15 minutes. TestGorilla assessments typically run 10 to 50 minutes, depending on how many tests you combine. Keep the first screen short, and save longer interviews and assessments for the shortlist.
Do we need software or an assessment partner?
The answer depends on where your hiring breaks down. If the problem is volume, a platform screens thousands of applicants the same way and returns a score the same day. If the problem is that scores arrive and nobody knows what they mean for the role, you need someone to choose the tests and explain the results. Many teams use both: a platform for the first screen and a partner such as LAK Group for the finalists.
Is pre-employment testing the same as a leadership assessment?
No. Pre-employment software screens many applicants quickly, usually on skills and reasoning. A leadership assessment goes much deeper on a few people, combining interviews, testing, and a description of what success looks like in a senior role. If you are choosing a division head rather than screening applicants, read our comparison of talent assessment companies instead.