Recruitment · head to head
Checkr vs Karat
Checkr
Recruitment
Background check platform priced per report, with third-party court fees passed through separately
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Karat
Recruitment
Outsourced technical interviewing, engineers conduct your candidate interviews for you
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Checkr advertised per-report prices exclude court and database access fees, so the real cost per candidate varies by jurisdiction and is higher than the sticker in many counties; Karat pricing is quote-only, so a buyer cannot model cost per hire against internal interviewer time without a sales conversation
- They diverge on capability: Checkr covers Package pricing, Karat covers Interview Engineers.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Checkr and Karat actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Recruitment).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Checkr
- Package pricing
- API and dashboard
- Adjudication tools
- Continuous checks
- Candidate portal
Only in Karat
- Interview Engineers
- Structured scoring
- High-volume screening
- Interview intelligence
- Scheduling integration
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Checkr
- A company running high-volume hourly or gig hiring that needs API-driven checks integrated into an existing ATSnot Karat
- A startup or mid-size employer wanting self-service ordering through a dashboard without a dedicated screening account managernot Karat
- An employer that needs continuous rescreening for driving-related roles rather than a one-time check at hirenot Karat
- A company budgeting screening costs that needs to model court fee variance across the states it hires innot Karat
Karat
- A company scaling engineering headcount quickly and unable to free up enough internal engineer time for first-round technical interviewsnot Checkr
- A hiring team wanting a consistent bar across interviewers when growth has diluted interview qualitynot Checkr
- A seasonal hiring push, such as a new-grad or intern cohort, that needs a large volume of structured interviews in a short windownot Checkr
- A company that has measured interviewer no-shows or inconsistent scoring as a source of candidate drop-offnot Checkr
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Checkr
- Advertised per-report prices exclude court and database access fees, so the real cost per candidate varies by jurisdiction and is higher than the sticker in many counties
- Turnaround time depends on how fast individual courts process requests, which Checkr does not control and which can stretch well past the advertised average in rural or backlogged counties
- Add-on checks such as MVR, drug screening and education verification are priced separately, so a full pre-employment package can cost significantly more than the base package price suggests
- Enterprise-scale volume requires a custom Enterprise contract rather than the published per-report rates, so large employers cannot rely on the public pricing page to budget
- Compliance obligations under the FCRA and state ban-the-box laws remain the employer's responsibility even though Checkr provides tooling, so legal review is still needed rather than assumed away by the platform
- Candidate disputes and re-adjudication can add days to a hiring timeline, which matters for roles filled under time pressure
Karat
- Pricing is quote-only, so a buyer cannot model cost per hire against internal interviewer time without a sales conversation
- Handing the interview itself to a contractor removes the one part of the process where candidates meet a real employee, which can weaken employer brand for roles where culture fit matters most
- It solves interviewer capacity for technical screens but does not replace hiring manager or team-fit rounds, so it only removes part of the funnel
- Quality depends on how well the client-provided rubric and questions are written; a poor rubric produces poor Karat interviews just as it would internally
- Contracted interview volume can create pressure to keep using the service even after an internal hiring slowdown, since commitments are typically annual
- Candidates sometimes react negatively on discovering the interviewer is not an employee of the company they applied to, which is a reputational risk not visible until candidates start talking about it publicly
Pricing, plan by plan
Checkr
On request- Basic$29.99/report
- SSN trace
- Sex offender registry
- Global watchlist
- Essential$59.99/report
- Everything in Basic
- Identity verification
- Unlimited county criminal search
- Complete$94.99/report
- Everything in Essential
- Unlimited state criminal search
- Federal criminal search
Karat
On request- Karat$undefined/year
- Interview Engineer coverage
- Structured technical interviews
- Interview analytics and calibration
Which should you pick?
Choose Checkr if
- You need package pricing.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want api and dashboard.
Questions people ask
- Is Checkr or Karat better?
- Neither clearly leads. Checkr starts at On request and Karat at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Checkr or Karat?
- Checkr starts at On request and Karat at On request.
- Does Checkr or Karat run on more platforms?
- Checkr runs on Web, API. Karat runs on Web.
- What is Checkr best used for?
- Checkr is most often used for a company running high-volume hourly or gig hiring that needs api-driven checks integrated into an existing ats, a startup or mid-size employer wanting self-service ordering through a dashboard without a dedicated screening account manager, an employer that needs continuous rescreening for driving-related roles rather than a one-time check at hire, a company budgeting screening costs that needs to model court fee variance across the states it hires in. Of those, a company running high-volume hourly or gig hiring that needs api-driven checks integrated into an existing ats and a startup or mid-size employer wanting self-service ordering through a dashboard without a dedicated screening account manager are not what Karat is typically brought in for.
- What can Checkr do that Karat cannot?
- Checkr covers Package pricing, API and dashboard, Adjudication tools, Continuous checks. Karat covers Interview Engineers, Structured scoring, High-volume screening, Interview intelligence.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Checkr: Does the per-report price include court fees?
No. Checkr states that standard third-party court and database access fees are passed through at cost on top of the package price, and these vary by jurisdiction.
Karat: Do candidates know they are being interviewed by a contractor rather than an employee?
Karat discloses that Interview Engineers are trained third-party interviewers rather than employees of the hiring company, though disclosure practices are set by the client.
Checkr: Can Checkr be used without an ATS integration?
Yes, checks can be ordered manually through the Checkr dashboard as well as programmatically through the API.
Karat: Can Karat interview for languages or stacks outside mainstream web and backend engineering?
Coverage depends on the pool of Interview Engineers Karat maintains for a given stack; niche or highly specialised roles may have less coverage than common web and backend roles.
Checkr: Is pricing different for enterprise volume?
Yes, high-volume employers negotiate an Enterprise contract rather than paying the published per-report rates.
Karat: Is pricing per interview or per contracted block of volume?
Karat does not publish pricing; it is quoted per client based on expected interview volume and contract term.
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