# Sterling Software Reviews, Demo & Pricing - 2026 > Review of Sterling Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs. Source: https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile --- [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Background Check Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/background-check-comparison/) / Sterling Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. Overview [Reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/reviews/)[Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/alternatives/) # Sterling 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing Wondering if Sterling is right for your organization? Our Background Check Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less. On this page - Overview - User Interface - Popular Alternatives - Pricing and Plans - Features - Integrations - User Reviews - Popular Comparisons ## Overview Sterling 4.0 [(30)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/reviews/) Pricing Pricing available upon request ### About Sterling Sterling Talent Solutions provides tech-enabled human resource services related to background screening and candidate onboarding. Designed for financial services, retail, healthcare, staffing, nonprofit and gig economy organizations, it helps simplify recruitment, tracking and monitoring of applicants. Additionally, it assists HR professionals and franchise owners in creating secure work environments for their employees, customers and partners. Key features of Sterling Talent Solutions include criminal background checks, verifications, workforce monitoring, drug and health screening. Moreover, it provides fingerprint services, which facilitates electronic fingerprint submissions, reduced rejections, regulated compliance and faster onboarding. Sterling Talent Solutions integrates with Bullhorn, Greenhouse, Icims, Jobvite, SAP Success Factors, Snagajobs, Workday, Lever, Agile HR, Ceridian, Cornerstone and various other third-party software for streamlining HR operations. The prices of the software platform vary on the basis of business requirements and support is provided through email, phone and FAQs measures. Wondering if Sterling is right for your organization? Our Background Check Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less. ## Sterling User Interface ## Popular Sterling Alternatives Main Product Sterling 4.0 [(30)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.17Ease of use - 4.10Value for money - 3.67Customer support - 4.10Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price Alternative Product [Zinc](https://www.softwareadvice.com/product/284930-Zinc/) 4.8 [(221)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/product/284930-Zinc/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.81Ease of use - 4.66Value for money - 4.85Customer support - 4.76Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price Alternative Product [Paycom](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/paycom-profile/) 4.4 [(1281)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/paycom-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.37Ease of use - 4.26Value for money - 4.34Customer support - 4.37Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price Alternative Product [HiPeople](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/hipeople-profile/) 4.8 [(1563)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/hipeople-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.87Ease of use - 4.62Value for money - 4.68Customer support - 4.77Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price Alternative Product [Checkr](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr-services/checkr-profile/) 4.5 [(301)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr-services/checkr-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.69Ease of use - 4.39Value for money - 4.18Customer support - 4.53Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price Alternative Product [Mitratech AssureHire](https://www.softwareadvice.com/reference-check/assurehire-profile/) 4.6 [(36)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/reference-check/assurehire-profile/#reviews) Ratings Breakdown - 4.72Ease of use - 4.55Value for money - 4.51Customer support - 4.53Functionality Pricing Available upon request Get Price ## Sterling Pricing and Plans Starting price: $1.00 Free Trial Free Version Basic $1.00 No plan information available Confused about pricing? We've got you covered. Get a personalized pricing breakdown tailored to your specific needs—no guesswork, no generic estimates. ## Sterling Features - Popular features found in Background Check Background Screening Batch Processing Employment Screening Online Applications Reference Checking Reporting & Statistics Screening Services Integration Self Service Portal Status Tracking Tenant Screening - More features of Sterling Alerts/Notifications API Compliance Management Dashboard Data Verification Employee Onboarding Employment Eligibility Verification Identity Verification Onboarding Records Management Reporting/Analytics Summary Reports Third-Party Integrations ## Sterling Integrations Agile HR Integration rated undefined from -1 review Avature Integration rated undefined from -1 review Mitratech TalentReef Integration rated undefined from -1 review Fountain Integration rated undefined from -1 review LinkedIn for Business Integration rated undefined from -1 review Cornerstone HR Integration rated undefined from -1 review See all 14 integrations ## Sterling User Reviews Overall Rating 4.0 Ratings Breakdown 5 47% 4 23% 3 23% 2 0% 1 7% Secondary Ratings Ease of Use 4.2 Value for money 4.1 Customer support 3.7 Functionality 4.1 Tanim A. Verified reviewer Internet 10000+ employees Used weekly for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed January 2022 Probably the best I have ever used 5 Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Functionality Pros: The best thing about this is, it is simple and easy to use. It is pretty works very well for Background checks, I-9 verifications and others. It is quite feature rich. Cons: It is a little slow, most of the times. Other than that, I like pretty much everything. Read More CC Chris C. Verified reviewer Automotive 1001-5000 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed August 2024 Sterling is a solid product. Everything you want in a background screening provider. 4 Overall excellent experience. Salesforce is top notch and customer service has been responsive. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 4 Value for money 4 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: Sterling has a very nice interface and overall it's a smooth running program. Great network for drug screens and timely background screening results. Cons: I would like the move to their Modern Hub completed. Right now we have the two options and can toggle between them. Do the Modern view and just continue to improve that. Reasons for switching to Sterling Customer Service and Overall network available for Drug Screens Read More JJ John J. Verified reviewer Hospital & Health Care 51-200 employees Used monthly for less than 6 months Review source Reviewed September 2025 Bottom-dollar pricing represents bottom-barrel quality 1 Checking on this company after my own horrible experiences, I wasn’t surprised to find that it is popular specifically because it costs less for client companies than most of their companies. However, bottom-dollar usually comes with bottom-of-the barrel quality, and companies need to recognize that before signing on with Sterling. — In my recent experience with two of their service sites for background checks and information verification, I found that accurate data entry is nowhere near the Sterling strengths, as they’ll literally list a college course completion as being 5 years before you even started attendance. Or past employers will be listed with dates up to TWENTY YEARS off! Trying to enter or correct info is a nightmare, with site connectivity/ operation simply dropping if you hit the “Next” tab at the bottom of page. And, as if their site being slower than dial-up internet weren’t bad enough, you may have to enter and re-enter the SAME data 6 or 7 times before it finally saves. . Oh, and customer service? There is none, as everything is automated, including their listed phone support service. You’re looking at a minimum of two days response, usually just in the form of a new link sent for your info entry process. (Yes, their site drops you — only on 2-3 pages into their 22-page required process — and then you can’t automatically get back into it.) So, the “twenty minutes” their site says it will take at the start is really more like 8 hours of the most frustrating and slow website design you’ll ever encounter. Literally, it takes longer to finish their required online data entry than it takes for them to collect your background results… which will be wrong because you couldn’t fully enter or edit your info on time. . And, it doesn't get any better after that, as the rest of the Sterling processes on other sites/ links will also be bad. Like where you’re asked to enter citizenship, you won’t find the United States or the United Kingdom among their options. Just entering a telephone number, finding your country code is difficult, and then you have to enter the area and the actual telephone number all in separate (slow) data boxes. And, OMG, just avoid entering dates if you can, because the site won’t let you just TYPE a date, instead giving a calendar for the current month… and making you go backwards month-by-month to provide a date. . Think about that. You going to enter your 30-year old wife’s date-of-birth in such a system? . Absolutely, the worst system I’ve ever seen… and I been around since before the internet. Ratings Breakdown 1 Ease of use 1 Value for money 1 Customer support 1 Functionality Pros: Nothing. It was the slowest and most difficult website I have EVER encounter, in over 30 years online. Truly a bad and time-wasting experience. Cons: The slow, low-quality website design in all their apps, and the horribly inaccurate data entry. Something as easy as entering a phone number or date is made excruciating frustrating with these people’s sites. You can’t even find the US or UK listed as nations one can have citizenship with. (US, just pick “American,” as it’s literally the closest option given.) Read More VW Victoria W. Verified reviewer Food & Beverages 501-1000 employees Used weekly for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed January 2026 Good for Background Checks and Reference Checks 4 Sterling was easy to use but did not offer other checks as part of the site which made it difficult because the organization had to rely on other vendors to get that information. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 4 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: I liked the ease of using the program, and the verification process was always very timely. Reference checks can also be conducted by employees for the organization saving HR time. Cons: I did not like that it did not integrate with the BOP which is a required check where we operate. I did not like that if there were a minor discrepancy or a reference check was not able to be completed, they would flag the account. Read More VR Verified Reviewer Real Estate 2-10 employees Used monthly for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed December 2018 TENANT APPLICATIONS AND SCREENING 5 The low cost and ease of use makes this product perfect for our needs. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Functionality Pros: This work great for performing credit checks on rental applications. Work seamlessly and gives me results within 24 hours. Plus they only charge per check so easily billed out. Cons: They seem to have a really long billing cycle so I often get a bill long after the check so have to cross check to make sure the proper person is being billed. Read More VR Verified Reviewer Insurance 10000+ employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed January 2025 Good Services, Poor Customer Service, Dated User Experience 3 Overall, they are a good provider, and one of the only ones in Canada that doesn't a decent job at performing pre-employment checks. Their platforms needs updating as does their SLAs with customers. Ratings Breakdown 3 Ease of use 5 Value for money 2 Customer support 3 Functionality Pros: They have a variety of service offerings that are available to their clients and they often get completed packages in a short period of time. Cons: They customer service was slow to respond to requests. Their platform is dated, and it doesn't have the best user experience (customer or applicant) Reasons for choosing Sterling They were recently acquired by another organization that will position them to be a well known brand. Read More MP Matthew P. Verified reviewer Staffing and Recruiting 5001-10000 employees Used monthly for less than 12 months Review source Reviewed August 2024 Good Product. Beyond Terrible Customer Service 3 As mentioned in my Pros section, running background checks were relatively easy but the customer service gets a 0/10/. Only option to pay is by ACH without a service fee. $5500 in background checks over the course of a few months and now I have to ear 3% using credit card. Ratings Breakdown 4 Ease of use 2 Value for money 1 Customer support 3 Functionality Pros: Running background checks were relatively easy - single use and bulk Cons: Customer Service and Payment Method - no online payment. 3% fee to use credit card Reasons for choosing Sterling Came down to cost. They beat out their offer Reasons for switching to Sterling They were purchased by CheckR and they raised the prices through the roof Read More VR Verified Reviewer Computer Software 1001-5000 employees Used daily for less than 6 months Review source Reviewed July 2023 Not the best with integrations 3 So far, not great. The implementation and integration has not been a good experience. Ratings Breakdown 3 Ease of use 2 Customer support 3 Functionality Pros: I like that recruiters will be able to trigger the background check. Cons: The implementation and especially the integration was not smooth. Sterling was limited in how they could integrate with our ATS which required our team to make process changes that we did not want. Plus, when we were trying to set up the integration, it didn't work in its full capacity as advertised by Sterling, and they couldn't figure out why. Reasons for switching to Sterling We were looking for something more scalable and can integrate better. Read More Richard K. Verified reviewer 11-50 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed March 2018 Sterling works great under most circumstances. 3 Quick and helpful fulfillment of our diverse background screening process under low-to medium volumes. Ratings Breakdown 4 Ease of use 3 Value for money 3 Customer support 4 Functionality Pros: I appreciate the convenience of the user interface. The technical team at Sterling is educated in the background process law and are able to set up packages containing background check components specifically designed to meet my clients' needs. Cons: Sterling's process can get bogged down under high volume. There are times when my company processes 20 or more background checks per day. We've had some trouble with turn-around times under these situations. Read More VR Verified Reviewer Staffing and Recruiting 1001-5000 employees Used daily for less than 6 months Review source Reviewed May 2019 Sterling Backgrounds 3 Ratings Breakdown 3 Ease of use 5 Customer support 2 Functionality Pros: Easy to navigate and friendly user. Receive notifications for statuses. Cons: Too much data entry. Change of date results with no confirmation. Read More Showing 1 - 10 of 30 Reviews [See All Reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/reviews/) ## Sterling Popular Comparisons [Zinc vs Sterling](https://www.softwareadvice.com/compare/74964-sterling/vs/284930-Zinc/)[Paycom vs Sterling](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/paycom-profile/vs/sterling/)[HiPeople vs Sterling](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/hipeople-profile/vs/sterling/)[Checkr vs Sterling](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr-services/checkr-profile/vs/sterling/) [Compare All Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/sterling-profile/alternatives/) ## Other Top Recommended Background Check Software [Paycom](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/paycom-profile/) **4.4** (1281) Recently recommended **453** times [Deel](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/deel-profile/) **4.9** (4287) Recently recommended **122** times [Employment Hero](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/employment-hero-profile/) **4.4** (239) Recently recommended **32** times [Checkr](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr-services/checkr-profile/) **4.5** (301) Recently recommended **10** times Stuck Between Options? 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