TestGorilla vs. Kolbe

Pre-employment testing helps employers identify and vet candidates with the right skills and personality traits to succeed in a role. These tests drive skills-based hiring and provide bias-free insights into job applicants. They also minimize the risk of mis-hiring.

Many pre-employment testing platforms are available today, and picking the right one for your organization is essential. We’re here to help you make this decision by comparing two top pre-employment testing solutions: TestGorilla and Kolbe.

How does TestGorilla work?

TestGorilla is a pre-employment testing platform that streamlines hiring decisions for companies of all sizes.

The platform provides more than 400+ tests, customizable assessments, and detailed reports that help you evaluate candidates’ real-world skills quickly and accurately.

You can build custom talent assessments for every job role by combining up to five tests from TestGorilla’s comprehensive test library, which includes tests for job-specific skills, situational judgment, cognitive ability, personality traits, and more.

All our tests are developed with a strong focus on fairness and bias reduction.

Assessments are accessible from any device – including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones – and take an average of 45 minutes to complete.  

You can view assessment results at a glance through our intuitive dashboard and download detailed reports that provide insights into each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. This makes identifying and comparing top talent easy. You can then share reports with candidates or your hiring team in a few clicks.

TestGorilla can help your organization reduce the time and money spent on traditional hiring methods, all while improving the quality of your hiring decisions.

How does Kolbe work?

Kolbe offers assessments to identify a person’s instinctual strengths and natural abilities. Individuals and businesses can use the Kolbe Index to measure conation – how an individual takes action.

Rather than specific skills or personality traits, the Kolbe Index assesses an individual’s instincts and provides insights into how they’re likely to behave, problem-solve, and make decisions.

Kolbe has three assessments: 

• Kolbe A Index: Measures an individual’s instincts regarding problem-solving and taking action.

• Kolbe B Index: Measures an individual’s perception of their job responsibilities.

• Kolbe C Index: Measures the company’s expectations of a specific position 

Hiring managers, recruiters, and employers can combine Kolbe A with B or C  to hire new talent, assess current employees, or improve team performance.

Additionally, the platform offers a hiring solution, Kolbe RightFit. It uses a unique process to help companies choose candidates.

When there’s a job opening, the direct supervisor of the role completes the Kolbe A Index and the Kolbe C Index to identify their natural strengths and those required for the position. Other employees involved in evaluating candidates are called “Cooperatives” and must also complete the Kolbe C Index.

Using these results, they create a job profile and a Kolbe Range of Success Report to measure candidates’ capabilities. 

Job applicants then complete the Kolbe A Index – a 36-question assessment that takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Their results are compared to the Range of Success Report to find the best candidates.

Kolbe also provides consulting services and personal assessments.

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Test libraries

A test library must include a wide range of tests to accurately assess applicants’ skills and qualities. TestGorilla and Kolbe have different tests for pre-screening, but they use widely different methodologies.

TestGorilla’s test library 

TestGorilla offers an extensive test library with more than 400+ tests. These tests are divided into eight broad categories:

• Role-specific skills

• Situational judgment

• Programming skills

• Language

• Cognitive ability

• Personality and culture

• Software skills

• Typing speed

You can add your own custom questions to TestGorilla’s tests as well – a great way to assess candidates on company-specific topics. There are also different question formats to choose from, including text, multiple-choice, video, code, and file upload.

And, to help you efficiently hire international candidates, TestGorilla offers assessments in 12 languages.

Explore advanced skills testing with TestGorilla

See how TestGorilla leads the way in skills assessments. Sign up for our free live demo and discover a better way to evaluate candidates.

Kolbe’s test library

In addition to the Kolbe A, B, and C Index tests, Kolbe offers a supplemental report to the Kolbe A Index. It’s called Financial MO+, and it’s designed to help users make better financial decisions. 

There’s also the Kolbe R Index test, which is used to identify the instinctive strengths in personal relationships; a Student Aptitude quiz; and a free team collaboration survey.

Test libraries: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Functionalities for hiring developers 

Hiring software developers requires testing candidates’ skills in various programming languages and frameworks. This ensures you choose talented developers that add value to your organization.

Hiring developers with TestGorilla 

TestGorilla has many tests to assess developer-related skills. You can choose from:

• 70+ coding tests, including Python, PHP, Rust, C, C#, C++, Javascript, and new tests such as Kotlin coding and Coding: Entry-Level Algorithms testing

• Framework tests, including React Native, Flutter, Flask, and Django

• Android development tests using Java

• Coding tasks

• Debugging tasks

There’s an option to add custom coding questions to developer tests to see how candidates would perform in a situation related to the role. You can also see how long candidates took to complete each test in an assessment.

Plus, TestGorilla streamlines the hiring process for developers by automatically scoring programming tests, so hiring managers can easily see who the top candidates are.

Hiring developers with Kolbe

Kolbe is an instinctive abilities assessment tool. While it provides insights into applicant’s conation, problem-solving, and other traits and abilities, it doesn’t offer any specific tests for hiring developers.

Functionalities for hiring developers: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Video interviews

Using video interviews, employers can better understand job applicants’ communication skills, personality, and real-time responses. To assess candidates, you can use live or one-way video interviews with pre-recorded questions.

TestGorilla’s video interviews 

TestGorilla enables recruiters to create one-way video interviews with up to 20 custom questions per assessment. Candidates have three attempts to record video responses, and you can set a time limit of 30 seconds, one minute, or two minutes for each video question.

You and your hiring team can view video responses on any device. Ratings and comments on candidate answers make it easy to collaborate while picking the best applicants.

Kolbe’s video interviews 

Kolbe doesn’t offer any video interview features.

Video interviews: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Candidate experience and company branding

By prioritizing the candidate experience, companies can attract top talent, build a positive reputation, and create long-lasting relationships with skilled job seekers (even if they’re not hired for the position).

To attract the best candidates, you should create a dynamic experience that includes branded assessments, mobile-accessible tests, and video questions.

The candidate experience with TestGorilla 

TestGorilla is focused on providing an exceptional candidate experience. Users can take tests anytime, anywhere, and using any device – without creating an account or logging in. (Those who complete English-language assessments can create an account to view their results if they’d like.)

Candidates can attempt practice questions to familiarize themselves with tests. They can also use TestGorilla’s online help center, which has detailed instructions for solving common issues during assessments. Additionally, they can raise a support request for further assistance.

For added transparency, TestGorilla helps you keep applicants updated throughout the hiring process with customizable invitation, results, and rejection emails.

In addition, depending on your plan, you can add your company logo and use brand colors in every TestGorilla assessment. You can also include either an intro or outro video in each assessment.

The candidate experience with Kolbe

Candidates can complete the Kolbe A Index on the Kolbe website using their desktops, laptops, or mobile devices. The test comprises 36 questions and is easy to complete. 

Additionally, Kolbe’s tests have no right or wrong answers, which might be less overwhelming than skills tests – though they don’t serve the same purpose. Candidates can access their results immediately after taking the Kolbe A Index test and can make sense of their report using Kolbe’s guides or consultants. 

However, from an admin perspective, there’s no easy way to keep candidates updated using Kolbe’s platform. Additionally, you can’t add company branding or intro or outro videos to Kolbe assessments.

Candidate experience and company branding: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Enterprise and startup friendliness

Many organizations need a pre-employment testing platform that can grow as its hiring needs do. 

Exceptional platforms will have dynamic features to support startups, growing businesses, and enterprises alike. These include bulk actions, role-based rights management, public links, GDPR compliance, and API access.

TestGorilla’s enterprise and startup friendliness

TestGorilla has extensive features for small businesses, enterprises, and every kind of organization in between.

Our GDPR-compliant platform integrates with applicant tracking system (ATS) solutions. This helps recruiters track candidates through the hiring process without delays or errors. Enterprises can use the TestGorilla API to integrate with all the tools they use for hiring and recruitment.

TestGorilla also has multiple candidate invite options to conveniently invite applicants to assessments – including by email, applicant tracking systems, and public links so even external recruiters can get involved.

Hiring teams at all types of organizations can use branding options to personalize assessments. TestGorilla automatically scores tests and generates insightful candidate reports, which you can share with applicants and colleagues in multiple formats (including PDF and Excel) to collaboratively decide who to hire.

Plus, TestGorilla’s intuitive candidate tracking dashboard and role-based permissions create a cohesive recruitment environment. At the same time, bulk invitations, communications, and actions such as sharing reports help streamline large-scale hiring processes.

Kolbe’s enterprise and startup friendliness

Kolbe’s assessments are most effective for individuals but can help improve the performance of an organization’s existing teams.

Recruiters can use Kolbe’s hiring solution, RightFit, as part of its larger software called Kolbe WAREwithal. This tool also includes KolbeCore Pro and Team Tactix to simplify testing and improve team performance, respectively.

Enterprises can access job analysis and Range of Success job profiles to create accurate job descriptions easily. The platform also provides purchasing discounts for the Kolbe Index and automatically grades candidates based on their results.

While these tools might be enough to create job posts and track candidate progress, Kolbe lacks the advanced features required to attract high-quality applicants and accurately assess a large number of candidates.

There are also no ATS integrations, user permissions, or public API access.

Enterprise and startup friendliness: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Quality control

To be effective, pre-employment screening tests must be reliable, bias-free, and expertly crafted. Extensive quality control measures are necessary to achieve this.

TestGorilla’s quality-control processes

TestGorilla’s tests are designed by an expert team of intellectual property (IP) development specialists, independent subject matter experts, and copyeditors and pass through a 28-step quality-control process before going live. This process includes peer reviews, sample testing, and more to build scientifically backed, bias-free assessments.

Our platform also uses a proprietary algorithm to continually improve each test’s quality, ensuring all tests are up-to-date and accurate.

Questions are regularly reviewed and updated to align with customers’ evolving needs. Moreover, questions are replaced once they’ve crossed an exposure limit.

Additionally, we regularly collect and implement feedback from clients, candidates, recruiters, and hiring teams to improve tests and the test-taking experience.

Kolbe’s quality-control processes

Theorist Kathy Kolbe, who founded Kolbe, created the Kolbe Indexes. Kolbe is led by a team of experts, including entrepreneurs, leaders, and consultants.

The accuracy and reliability of the Kolbe Indexes is based on Kolbe’s own research and consulting work since the 1980s. Additionally, various organizations have successfully implemented the Kolbe Indexes. 

Beyond this, there’s no further information about Kolbe’s quality-control processes on its website. 

Quality control: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Anti-cheating measures

Anti-cheating measures are crucial for gauging candidates’ true abilities.

Without these measures, dishonest applicants can manipulate test results to get ahead of more qualified competitors in the hiring process. This disrupts the process and can even lead to mis-hires.

TestGorilla’s anti-cheating measures 

TestGorilla has a range of anti-cheating measures to prevent candidates from unfairly manipulating test results. These include:

• Timed tests and the ability to limit attempts

• IP address logging to avoid multiple attempts

• Webcam snapshots (with permission) every 30 seconds to ensure candidates are taking the test alone

• Rotating questions for each test

• Full-screen mode and mouse in window detection to track if candidates leave the test screen in the middle of the test

TestGorilla also disables copy-paste, so questions and answers aren’t leaked online. Moreover, we offer a live coding timeline report that tells you if candidates’ code was copy-pasted from elsewhere on a coding test. 

Finally, every test has a question bank with hundreds of questions. TestGorilla’s algorithm selects different questions each time the test is taken – making it nearly impossible for a candidate to take the same test twice. Employers are unable to see questions to protect the integrity of tests. 

Kolbe’s anti-cheating measures

Since the Kolbe Indexes aren’t skills-based assessments with “right” and “wrong” answers, users can’t copy answers or rely on outside research to complete them.

However, they can still choose different answers to get a more desired result. 

To prevent this, Kolbe’s algorithm detects inconsistencies in answers and notes them in the candidate’s report to warn prospective employers that the applicant should retake the test.

Anti-cheating measures: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Reporting and analytics

Reporting and analytics help HR teams make data-backed hiring decisions. Reports that are easy to share in multiple formats also make for a more collaborative hiring process.

TestGorilla’s reporting and analytics features

TestGorilla enables you to set a scoring benchmark and will automatically rank candidates based on their results. You can view candidates’ results on your dashboard and compare candidates by test scores, answers to custom questions, and responses to multiple-choice questions. 

Our platform also provides easy-to-read reports following assessments. These show candidate results and summarize their suitability for the role. 

TestGorilla also provides the option to generate reports that give an overview of all current and past applicants. 

Reports can be exported in PDF, CSV, and Excel formats. You can easily share reports with your hiring team and add notes and ratings for each candidate.

Kolbe’s reporting and analytics features

Candidates taking the Kolbe A Index test independently can access their results immediately after the test. Depending on their answers, they’re assigned a 4-number result and guidance on how to improve communication, career, studying, and more. 

Kolbe’s RightFit tool – used by employers for hiring – sends an email to the direct supervisor containing an individual’s candidate report. This report assigns a letter grade (from A to F) to indicate their suitability for the role.

If there are multiple candidates, Kolbe’s RightFit sends a Candidate Summary report containing each candidate’s letter grade.

For job roles with Cooperatives involved in the evaluation process, the summary report will also indicate the candidate’s impact on team synergy.

While sharing reports using email is easy, hiring teams must go back and forth to make decisions and give feedback on candidates.

Reporting and analytics: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Customer support

Standout pre-employment testing platforms offer quick, helpful customer support. This helps employers address issues and assists candidates facing problems while completing assessments.

TestGorilla’s customer support

TestGorilla offers top-notch customer support to help companies make the most of our features.

All customers and test-takers can access support through a 24/7 live chatbot, online help center, and FAQs.

Customers on any plan can also access TestGorilla’s customer service by email and get a free onboarding tour when they first start using the platform. This way, they know all the ins and outs from the get-go. 

Additionally, we keep customers informed through our blog, featuring the latest information on recruitment, hiring, and more.

Kolbe’s customer support

Kolbe provides customer service through phone, email, and a request form. Users who opt to work with a Kolbe consultant can also contact them directly for support.

The platform also has a blog and FAQs to help businesses and test-takers use the Kolbe Indexes more efficiently.

Customer support: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Pricing

Pre-employment testing companies offer a range of payment plan options, but some are complicated and may come with hidden costs. The best solution is to research pricing for the size of plan that you need, and ensure there are no hidden fees.

TestGorilla’s pricing 

TestGorilla offers three pricing plans that are transparent and easy to understand: 

• Free forever at $0: Full access to five free tests and five custom questions that you can roll out to unlimited candidates.

• Starter from $75 USD per month, or $900 per year paid upfront for companies with 1-15 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs).* This plan gives you access to TestGorilla’s complete test library plus custom questions. 

• Pro from $115 USD per month, or $1,380 per year paid upfront for companies with 1-15 FTEs. Get access to everything on the Starter plan, plus advanced features such as ATS integrations and custom branding. 

*An FTE is any one person or combination of people working a full-time schedule – for instance, one person working 40 hours per week or five people working eight hours per week each. 

Kolbe’s pricing 

Kolbe doesn’t use a subscription payment model. Instead, individuals can purchase the Kolbe A Index for $55 USD, Kolbe B Index for $45 USD, a combination of tests (such as the Kolbe A and B Index) for $94 USD, and other resources at additional cost.

Businesses must purchase the Kolbe WAREwithal software to use RightFit. 

Kolbe also offers custom pricing for each customer, so you must contact the team for a quote. Additional purchases of Index Credits (needed to complete the assessments) may be required.

Pricing: Comparison chart at a glance

TestGorilla vs. Kolbe: Ease of use

An intuitive interface and easy-to-use features make candidate selection easier and keep candidates engaged throughout the assessment process.

TestGorilla’s ease of use 

TestGorilla is effortless to use. Once you enter the role you’re hiring for, our platform will automatically suggest tests to add to your assessment. You can also easily add more tests and custom questions to create a comprehensive assessment.

You can use public links to source candidates. Hiring teams can keep track of all candidates and their results at a glance using an intuitive dashboard. They can perform bulk actions for better candidate management and integrate with other ATS software to create a cohesive environment.

The user experience for candidates is equally smooth. They can complete assessments on any device without logging in and use various support options while taking tests.

You can also send automated emails to keep candidates updated every step of the way.

Why TestGorilla excels in candidate screening

Find out what sets TestGorilla apart in hiring. Sign up for our free plan and access comprehensive tools for effective candidate screening.

Kolbe’s ease of use

Kolbe is straightforward to use. Companies can use the WAREwithal software to monitor hiring efforts and buy Index Credits so candidates can complete the Kolbe A Index. 

Candidates must log in to complete the assessment, which usually takes 10-15 minutes. 

Candidate reports are sent via email. However, there are no bulk operations, integrations with ATS applications, or public links to paste on job boards. Every candidate must be sent an individual invitation to take the A Index.

The verdict: TestGorilla vs. Kolbe 

TestGorilla and Kolbe offer effective tests designed to hire employees based on their abilities. While TestGorilla focuses on skills tests to assess capabilities, Kolbe uses a questionnaire to measure instinctive strengths.

Both platforms offer reports containing insights about candidates’ strengths and weaknesses and their fit for the role.

Kolbe’s assessments are best used as part of many tests, including job-specific skills tests, to rate candidates. TestGorilla, on the other hand, offers hundreds of customizable skills and personality tests, along with extensive features for candidate management. Its customer support options and anti-cheating tools are also exceptional.

TestGorilla is the ideal pre-employment testing solution for businesses of all sizes. Our dynamic platform can easily cater to your hiring needs with flexible pricing options and a long list of features.

Streamline your hiring process with pre-employment testing

Pre-employment screening tests provide valuable insights into a candidate’s skills and traits that a resume alone can’t provide.

These assessments reduce bias in the hiring process, save time, and ensure the most qualified candidates get the job. This, in turn, boosts productivity and employee retention.

With the best features, affordable pricing, and a complete testing solution, TestGorilla is the leading pre-employment testing platform for all organizations. Sign up for a free live demo today to see how you can transform your hiring decisions with TestGorilla!