Hiring the right person for your business can be a challenge. You don’t want to miss out on great candidates, but you also don’t want to waste time and money interviewing applicants who aren’t a good fit for your open position.
Pre-employment screening software enables you to evaluate the skills and qualities a candidate will bring to your company. That way, you can hire the right person for every role as quickly as possible.
To get the most out of pre-employment screening, you need software that meets your recruitment needs. This guide compares TestGorilla and Searchlight.ai, two popular platforms for assessing job applicants.
TestGorilla is a pre-employment testing software that helps you evaluate candidates’ technical skills, soft skills, and personalities through customizable assessments.
The platform comes with 400+ tests across categories such as:
Cognitive ability
Personality and culture
Programming skills
Software skills
Language proficiency
Job-specific skills
Situational judgment
You can mix and match up to five tests to create a custom candidate assessment and add your own questions. TestGorilla also supports one-way video interviews, which enable you to learn more about an applicant before you invite them for an in-person interview.
TestGorilla is packed with features to prevent cheating and ensure you can trust your assessment results. It’s very easy for candidates to use, and assessments typically take around 45 minutes to complete.
Furthermore, our platform supports businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. For example, our free forever plan lets you start testing job applicants at no cost, and you scale up as your business grows.
Searchlight.ai is an HR management platform that helps organizations identify the key traits and qualities required for any job role.
It collects data from managers and employees about productivity, personality type, and more. Then, users can implement Searchlight’s AI-powered assessments to evaluate candidates’ skills instead of relying solely on their past credentials.
While Searchlight.ai’s main focus is enabling companies to increase employee productivity and retain talented team members, its psychometric assessments pinpoint job candidates’ soft skills, culture fit, and technical abilities. You can also customize assessments to find the right candidates for your specific roles.Â
In addition to assessments, Searchlight.ai offers an automated reference check system and automated candidate screening.
In a nutshell, the platform sends a digital survey to an applicant’s references, then crunches the received data to report on the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. With Searchlight’s AI filters, you can quickly uncover candidates with important skills without sifting through resumes.Â
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Businesses large and small need to hire the right employees to continue running smoothly. So, pre-employment screening software should cater to startups, enterprises, and every company in between.
TestGorilla offers multiple pricing options to suit businesses with different hiring needs.
Our free forever plan is ideal for small businesses making just a few hires each year.Â
We also have two tiered plans to suit companies that hire more frequently.
TestGorilla integrates with popular ATS platforms like Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, and JazzHR. If your business uses an in-house hiring system, you can integrate with TestGorilla using our API.Â
TestGorilla also enables you to use a unique invitation link for each job board you post a position to. This is useful for tracking how applicants find out about your open roles.
To help enterprises manage volume hiring needs and smaller businesses improve efficiency, TestGorilla lets you send out candidate invites, reminders, and rejections in bulk. This way, your hiring process is geared towards skills assessments, not time-consuming logistics.Â
Additionally, we ensure all your candidates’ data is secure by maintaining GDPR compliance. And for businesses looking to grow quickly, you can plug our skills-based job description templates into your recruitment process and post your openings on our job board for remote roles.
Lastly, all our tests are available in 12 languages, so you can hire talent from around the globe or fill roles in international offices.
See how TestGorilla leads the way in skills assessments. Sign up for our free live demo and discover a better way to evaluate candidates.
Searchlight.ai offers distinct plans for each service: applicant screening, assessments, reference checks, and quality of hire. You can mix and match plans or just choose one, giving organizations of all sizes the flexibility to tailor their pre-employment assessment strategy.
Searchlight.ai integrates with 71 ATS and HR information system platforms. It also integrates with Slack, Gmail, and Outlook.Â
However, there’s no API available, and the software is only available in English.
TestGorilla | Searchlight.ai | |
ATS integration | Yes | Yes |
Multiple users and role-based rights management | Yes | Unknown |
GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes |
Multiple candidate invitation options | Yes | Unknown |
Public links to invite candidates | Yes | Unknown |
Public links for each candidate source | Yes | Unknown |
Bulk invite candidates (CSV/XLSX upload) | Yes | Unknown |
Track candidate stages from invited to hired | Yes | Yes |
API access | Yes | No |
Bulk actions to manage candidates | Yes | Unknown |
Reporting features are critical when helping you make hiring decisions based on pre-employment assessment results. Look for interactive and shareable reports that promote collaboration within your hiring team.
TestGorilla’s reports focus on candidates' performance in role-specific and soft skills tests. You can see an applicant’s overall assessment score, their score for each test in the assessment, and how they responded to questions.
Our scoring benchmarks enable you to view candidates side-by-side and rank them based on their performance. Reports can be annotated, making it easy to collaborate with your hiring team.
At TestGorilla, we realize that not every test is going to be equally relevant to a particular role. That’s why we implemented our weighted scoring feature, so you can determine which test has the most impact on a candidate's final score.Â
You can export reports in PDF, XLSX, or CSV formats or send them to your ATS. For example, our PDF reports give you a 360-degree view of candidates' skills and areas for improvement so you’re armed with all the data you need before making a hiring decision.
Searchlight.ai offers several reporting features for its different services. For example, candidate reports focus on what their references said about them. Applicants are scored in areas like critical thinking, pragmatism, and proactiveness. Reports also display an applicant’s strengths and areas for growth. With Searchlight’s AI-power learning loop, you can use post-hire assessments to build custom Talent Profiles based on the behaviors, skills, and culture attributes of your best performers. These can be used as a standard for the next batch of candidates.Â
These reports use summary statistics and color coding to draw attention to top candidates. Searchlight.ai also ranks each candidate against your overall applicant pool using a percentile scale.Â
Although you can’t comment directly on reports, you share or export them as PDFs.
TestGorilla | Searchlight.ai | |
PDF reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | Yes |
Excel and CSV reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | No |
Comprehensive overview of all current and past candidates | Yes | Yes |
Scoring benchmarks for candidates (including percentile rank scoring) | Yes | Yes |
Add your ratings and personal notes for candidates | Yes | No |
Hiring teams need to be confident they can get help with their pre-employment testing software when they require it. Look for multiple ways to get in touch and extended support hours.
TestGorilla offers customer support by live chat and email. In addition, we have an online help center with tutorials that explain how to create assessments and evaluate candidates.
All new TestGorilla customers receive a free onboarding tour. This is a great opportunity to ask questions as you learn your way around the software. If you want to test drive the platform before making a decision, our free 45-minute demo is a smart choice.
We’re also always updating our blog with in-depth guides, skills-based hiring tips, interview best practices, and assessment strategies. This way, you can learn more about how our platform can improve every aspect of your hiring process and answer any lingering questions.
All Searchlight.ai plans include customer support, but the platform doesn’t specify what communication methods are available. While the website prompts you to contact sales or book a demo for answers, there’s no way to do so.
The Searchlight.ai website includes a blog, resource center, and FAQ section but not a dedicated help center that explains how each feature works.
| TestGorilla | Searchlight.ai |
Live chat | Yes | Unknown |
Help center | Yes | No |
Email support | Yes | Unknown |
Training and onboarding tour | Yes | Unknown |
Pre-employment screening software should offer scalable plans to meet the needs of a wide range of businesses. Some providers only offer monthly or annual contracts, while others offer pay-as-you-go plans that give your business more flexibility as your hiring needs change.
TestGorilla offers three pricing options with no hidden extra costs:
Free forever at $0: Full access to five free tests and five custom questions.
Depending on the size of your company, paid plans begin with:
Starter from $75 USD per month: Gives you complete access to the test library with unlimited concurrent assessments in multiple formats.
Pro from $115 USD per month: Gives you everything from the Starter plan, plus added video questions, ATS integrations, API access, custom branding, tests, and coding challenges.Â
Our pricing is based on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees in your company. For example, two part-time employees working 20 hours a week each count as one FTE.
If you have a small team with 1-15 FTEs, we offer an annual plan. For larger teams, our monthly pricing adjusts based on your team size. Plus, if you have a team of 50+ FTEs, you can take advantage of a 15-day free trial to check out our features without any commitment.
Regardless of the plan you choose, you'll get unlimited candidate testing, unlimited account users, and access to our job board.
Find out what sets TestGorilla apart in hiring. Sign up for our free plan and access comprehensive tools for effective candidate screening.
Searchlight.ai offers four pricing plans. You can mix and match plans or choose one, depending on your needs:Â
Applicant screening: Offers candidate ranking, AI-powered resume screening, ATS integrations, and skills-based screening.
Assessments: Offers everything from applicant screening, minus candidate ranking.Â
Reference checks: Offers AI-powered hiring recommendations and skills reports.
Quality of hire: Offers automatic quality of hire measurement, team analytics, and performance metric integrations.
For all plans, you must contact Searchlight.ai’s sales team for a quote.
TestGorilla |
| Searchlight.ai | |
Plan | Price | Plan | Price |
Free | $0 | No free plan | |
Starter | From $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront for companies with 1-15 FTEs)Â | Applicant Screening | Contact sales |
Pro | From $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront for companies with 1-15 FTEs)Â | Assessments | Contact sales |
|
| Reference Checks | Contact sales |
Quality of Hire | Contact sales |
TestGorilla and Searchlight.ai take very different approaches to pre-employment screening.
TestGorilla uses a library of 400+ customizable tests to help you evaluate what skills and qualities a candidate will bring to your company. You can directly compare applicants based on their assessment performances.
Searchlight.ai offers digital surveys to collect information from an applicant’s references and deliver a summary report. You can compare candidates, but you’re relying on what their references say rather than any direct applicant testing.
Searchlight.ai does offer skills assessments, but it's unclear exactly which skills these tests cover and how they work.Â
For most companies, TestGorilla’s approach provides more information about each candidate. More importantly, our pre-employment assessments offer a way to quantify how well an applicant will perform in the job role you’re hiring for.
Additionally, TestGorilla’s large test library and customization options ensure it can help with recruiting any job role for any company. We also offer a free plan for small businesses that want to try out pre-employment testing for the first time.
Overall, TestGorilla is the clear choice for streamlining your hiring process and making sure you choose the right candidate every time.
Pre-employment testing can help your business hire the best candidate for every open role. It removes unconscious bias from the recruitment process and promotes informed data-driven decisions.Â
TestGorilla is the best pre-employment testing software for businesses of all sizes. Check out our plans to learn more and accelerate your hiring process today.
Why not try TestGorilla for free, and see what happens when you put skills first.