The most affordable pre-employment background screening on the planet.
The most affordable pre-employment background check, just $5 per report. Run full national criminal checks — county records, sex offender registries, FBI Most Wanted, and federal courts. Every report includes free address history, built-in FCRA compliance, and no contracts or surprises.
of background checks find no criminal record¹
full national criminal check
court records searched per report
FCRA compliant process, always
¹ Urban Institute (2017), analysis of 1.7 million employment background checks
The Problem
Background check companies have been overcharging employers for years.
Here's something the industry doesn't advertise: the vast majority of background checks come back completely clean. A 2017 Urban Institute study of 1.7 million background checks found that roughly 94% returned no criminal finding. A separate University of Georgia study found that approximately 92% of U.S. adults have no felony conviction on record. Most candidates are exactly who they say they are.
Yet employers are routinely charged $25, $40, even $80 per report. Some providers bundle checks you don't need. Others charge monthly platform fees on top of per-check costs. PreHireBadge was built to fix that. We designed our pricing around what a national criminal check actually costs to run — not what the market will tolerate. That number is $5.
The Old Way
Typical Provider
What employers are paying right now
- National criminal check$25–$80 / report
- Monthly platform fee$49–$199 / mo
- Address history check$5–$15 extra
- FCRA adverse action noticesExtra charge
- API & Webhook access$99+ / mo add-on
- NLP / AI interfaceNot available
Est. annual cost — 200 checks
~$9,200 / year
200 checks × $40 avg + $100/mo platform fee
PreHireBadge
What it should cost
Transparent pricing, no surprises
- National criminal check$5 / report
- Monthly platform feeFree
- Address history checkFree, always
- FCRA adverse action noticesIncluded
- API & Webhook accessIncluded
- NLP / AI interfaceIncluded
Est. annual cost — 200 checks
$990 / year
200 checks × $5. That's it.
How It Works
Three steps. Start to finish.
We stripped every unnecessary step. Here's what running a pre-employment background check actually looks like.
Candidate Application
Northgate Logistics Inc.
Full Name
Email Address
Build your application
Create a candidate application in minutes. FCRA disclosure language is embedded automatically — applicants sign digitally, you stay compliant from day one.
We verify address history
The moment they submit, we pull their actual address history and cross-reference it. Any gaps or addresses they 'forgot' get flagged before you spend a single credit.
Address History Check
3 addresses found
National Criminal Search
Michael Chen
CLEAR
No disqualifying records found across 650M+ records in all 50 states
Run the check. Done.
One click searches county courts, sex offender registries across all 50 states, FBI Most Wanted, and federal courts. Plain English results with FCRA guidance included.
The FCRA-compliant hiring screening platform —
everything included, nothing hidden.
Other platforms charge extra for these. We don't.
National Criminal Check
$5 per report
We search 650M+ court records across all jurisdictions — county, state, and federal courts, sex offender registries, FBI Most Wanted, OFAC sanctions, and global watchlists. If county records exist but can't be verified under FCRA guidelines, we tell you and refund your fee. No games.
- County, state & federal courts
- Sex offender registry (all 50 states)
- FBI Most Wanted & OFAC
- FCRA-compliant results report
Address History Check
Free. Always.
Every candidate application includes a free address history pull. We verify what they report against what we find. Gaps, inconsistencies, or addresses they "forgot" to mention get flagged before you spend a dime on a criminal check.
- Digital candidate e-form with FCRA authorization
- Real-time address cross-reference
- Instant flag on discrepancies
- No credits used, ever
NLP Interface
Included at no extra cost
We own the Natural Language Prompt space for pre-employment screening. Just talk to PreHireBadge. "Run a background check on Michael Chen, born March 4, 1988, last in Tucson." That's it. We handle the rest — including walking you through adverse action if a record is found.
- Plain-English background check requests
- Instant results with plain-English explanations
- FCRA adverse action notice generation
- Integrates with Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini
API & Webhook
Included at no extra cost
Fully documented REST API and Webhook support. Plug PreHireBadge into your ATS, HRIS, or your AI tool of choice. One API key. 1 credit = 1 background check, consumed the same way regardless of how you access us — in-app, mobile, or API.
# Run a check via API
POST /v1/checks
{
"first_name": "Michael",
"last_name": "Chen",
"dob": "1988-03-04",
"state": "AZ"
}Next-gen identity verification
We verify the human — not just the name on the application.
PreHireBadge is the only pre-employment screening platform that ties a real, verified identity to every application: a biometric face match against a government photo ID, then triangulated against the SSN trace and address history behind the check. A borrowed clean identity can't get through.
Biometric facial match
A live liveness selfie — proof a real person is present, not a photo.
Government photo ID
The selfie is matched face-to-face against their official ID document.
SSN + address triangulation
Identity cross-checked against the SSN trace and address history on the report.
$5 included — no premium tier, no add-on
Live biometric scan
Identity confirmed & triangulated
Enterprise-grade verification at a small-business price. The same rigor banks use — built into every $5 check.
Included Free · Every Account
Pay $5 to screen a candidate. Run your whole hiring program free.
Background screening is the core. Everything a hiring team needs to manage the candidates it already screens is a free perk built into every account. No subscription, no per-seat fees.
Candidate Pipeline Tracking
Log every candidate by requisition and hiring stage. Know exactly who's screened, pending, or cleared to start.
Tracks candidates across every req
Audit-Ready Compliance Reports
One-click PDF and CSV exports auditors and leadership actually ask for — screening completion rates, turnaround times, adverse-action logs. Branded with your company's name and logo.
Export to PDF & CSV
Live Hiring Compliance Roster
One screen. Every candidate and employee. Green means cleared. Yellow means expiring. Red means lapsed. Answer "is everyone starting this week cleared?" in a single filter.
Who's cleared right now
Automated Re-screening Alerts
Configurable re-screening intervals with alerts at 30 and 7 days before expiration — built for roles that require annual or periodic re-checks. One-click re-run reuses the candidate's existing profile.
Alerts before anything lapses
AI Offer & Policy Assistant
Powered by Claude. Drafts offer letters, background-check policies, and adverse-action correspondence using your real PreHireBadge data. No PII ever sent to the model.
Powered by Claude AI
Portable Badge for Candidates
Candidates can get screened once and carry a verified PreHireBadge for 90 days — shareable with multiple employers. Fewer redundant checks, faster time-to-hire.
One check, many employers
$0
/month included free
∞
admin users, always free
90
days a portable badge stays valid
$5
the only thing you ever pay for
Natural Language Interface
Just tell us who to screen. We handle the rest.
No forms to fill out. No dropdown menus. No uploading spreadsheets. You describe the candidate in plain English — or through your favorite AI assistant — and PreHireBadge runs the check, interprets the results, and tells you exactly what to do next.
If a result requires adverse action under FCRA, we generate the notice for you. You review it, you send it. No guesswork. No legal exposure from doing it wrong.
PreHireBadge · NLP Interface
Click below to see it in action.
Pricing so simple it's almost embarrassing.
Pay $5 per check for screening. Everything else to run your whole hiring program is free.
Pay As You Go
Buy credits one at a time. No commitment, no expiry.
- Federal, state & county courts — 650M+ records
- All 50 state sex-offender registries
- FBI Most Wanted, OFAC & global watchlists
- Free biometric identity verification
- Human review of every record, FCRA-compliant
- Free address-history check on every application
Starter Pack · 10 Credits
$4.50 per check. Credits never expire.
- Everything in Pay As You Go
- 10 background check credits
- 10% savings vs single-check rate
- Credits roll over, never expire
- Bigger bundles up to 25% off in-app
- Usage dashboard & reporting
Free Perks
Every management feature, included. Unlimited admin users.
- Everything in Pay As You Go
- Candidate pipeline tracking
- Audit-ready PDF & CSV reports
- Live hiring compliance roster
- Automated re-screening alerts
- AI offer & policy assistant (Claude)
Screening is always pay-as-you-go. Every management feature is included free.
FAQ
Everything employers want to know before they start screening candidates.
PreHireBadge charges $5 per background check with no monthly fee. There are no setup fees and no contracts — you pay only when you run a check. A 100-credit bundle is available for $375, bringing the per-check cost down to $3.75. Credits never expire.
Start screening candidates today.
Free account. No credit card required to get started. Your first check is $5, or grab the 10-credit Starter Pack for $45. Credits never expire.