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There are seemingly countless pre-employment testing software solutions available, so figuring out which is best for you is tough. You want to evaluate abilities, personality traits, and work-related behaviors in order to make informed hiring decisions—but now need to figure out which tool is the best fit. In this post, I make things simple, leveraging my experience as an HR specialist using dozens of different pre-employment testing tools to bring you this shortlist of the best pre-employment testing software overall.

What is Pre-Employment Testing Software?

Pre-employment testing software is a tool used by employers to evaluate job candidates. It tests skills, knowledge, personality, and work behavior. This software helps in identifying the best fit for a job, ensuring candidates meet job requirements.

Key features of pre-employment testing software include skill assessments for specific job roles, personality and behavioral evaluations, cognitive ability tests, and job-specific knowledge quizzes. It often provides customizable test options, automated scoring and reporting for efficiency, and integration capabilities with HR systems.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Pre-Employment Testing Software

Here’s a brief description of each pre-employment testing software to showcase each tool’s best use case. Keep reading to find additional bonus picks at the bottom of the list.

Best for auto-scored skill tests with real job simulations

  • Free trial available
  • From $45/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 5/5

Canditech is a pre-employment assessment platform that simplifies the hiring process through skill assessments and job simulations. It features a library of over 500 customizable assessments to evaluate candidates' technical and soft skills, cognitive abilities, and personality traits. 

Canditech stands out as a pre-employment testing software with its comprehensive and customizable assessment tools. The platform offers a variety of question types, including text, video, multiple choice, Google Sheets, Excel, code, and SQL, allowing employers to create tailored evaluations that accurately reflect job-specific skills. Additionally, Canditech's advanced anti-cheating features, such as cheating detection and plagiarism prevention, ensure the integrity and reliability of the assessment results.

Integrations include Lever, SmartRecruiters, Greenhouse, Workable, Pinpoint, Ashby, Comeet, JazzHR, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, OpenAI, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Teams, and Zendesk.

Pricing begins from $45/month (billed annually), with a free trial available.

Best for industry and role-specific assessments

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.5/5

eSkill is a pre-employment testing platform that helps organizations assess candidates' skills and suitability for various roles. By offering a range of customizable assessments, eSkill enables employers to make informed hiring decisions. 

I chose eSkill for its extensive test library, which includes over 800 job- and subject-based assessments. This variety allows your team to select tests that align closely with specific job requirements across various industries, ensuring candidates are evaluated on relevant skills. Additionally, eSkill offers advanced simulations, such as MS Office, chat, and multitasking exercises, enabling you to observe how applicants perform tasks they would encounter in their roles.

I also like that you have the ability to create customized assessments by selecting questions from multiple tests and adding your own content. This flexibility ensures that evaluations are tailored to your organization's unique needs, providing a more accurate measure of a candidate's capabilities. Furthermore, eSkill's platform includes behavioral assessments to help identify candidates who not only have the right skills but also fit well with your company culture.

Some integrations include Paylocity, iCIMS, Workday, UKG Pro, Bullhorn, Avionte BOLD, Jobvite, SAP SuccessFactors, ApplicantPro, Greenhouse, and Taleo.

Best for evaluating candidate motivations

  • Free demo available
  • From $195/month

PrevueHR is a pre-employment testing software designed to help you make informed hiring decisions. By assessing candidates' cognitive abilities, motivations, and personality traits, it provides a comprehensive view of their potential fit for your organization. 

I like PrevueHR for its aptitude assessment, which evaluates a candidate's learning speed and proficiency with words, numbers, and shapes. This feature allows you to gauge how quickly a candidate can acquire new skills and adapt to the role's requirements, providing valuable insight beyond what a resume can offer.

Another standout aspect is the motivations assessment, which measures whether a candidate's interests align with the job's demands. By understanding what drives a candidate, you can better predict their job satisfaction and long-term commitment, leading to improved employee retention.

PrevueHR also includes a personality assessment, which evaluates 13 definable traits to uncover a candidate's behavioral tendencies and interaction style. This helps you understand how a candidate might fit within your team's dynamics.

Customizable assessment software with AI grading

  • Free trial and free demo available
  • From $109 USD/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Vervoe’s system comes pre-loaded with 300 pre-employment assessment test templates designed by leading industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists. These can be used as is, or easily customized with your own questions, or additional items from their bank of 300,000 questions. For technical positions, their platform includes challenges in 8 common coding languages. They also boast strong assessment capabilities for other industries such as marketing and advertising, customer service, retail, healthcare, and call-center recruiting. To ensure candidates are the right fit, hiring teams can use their Customer Service Simulator to develop simulations of what each role is actually like, to see how applicants cope.

System admins have the ability to customize the candidate experience through Vervoe by including a video introduction that welcomes candidates, introduces their company and provides instructions prior to the actual skill testing. As skill tests are completed, Vervoe uses AI to score and rank candidate results in real-time. Top performers are automatically moved to the top of the results dashboard and identified with trophies and badges highlighting their top skills. Hiring managers can use the platform to compare top applicants side-by-side to support decision-making. Once users mark a candidate as ‘hired’ this further enhances the machine learning algorithm for assessing future candidates.

Vervoe integrates with other popular recruiting and workflow tools such as Greenhouse, PageUp, SmartRecruiters, Zapier, and others. Their API also allows for additional integrations customizations.

Pricing for Vervoe starts at $109 USD/month. A free demo and free trial can also be requested through their website.

Comprehensive, AI-powered skills assessment software with digital proctoring capabilities

  • Free trial and free demo
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.4/5

With over 2,500 skill tests in their library, iMocha is a comprehensive pre-employment testing option for a wide range of industries with technical needs. Beyond all the classic programming languages, users can also initiate tests for other programs like the full Adobe suite, Amazon-specific portals, cybersecurity risk management, specific enterprise-level software systems (like SAP, Salesforce and the full Microsoft suite) and many other applications.

To ensure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) among candidates, their bias-free assessment report focuses exclusively on skill-based analyses, while anonymizing other candidate details for more objective comparisons. Their AI-powered system also proctors assessments through real-time images, audio, and video, ensuring that answers are 100% authentic. This type of digital automation makes it a natural fit for virtual campus hiring drives or assessing other remote candidates. To further support university recruitment, iMocha also assesses the job-readiness of graduates with tips for skill gaps they need to address.

iMocha integrates with popular ATS software including Greenhouse, Jobvite, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters, Level, and Taleo.

Pricing details for iMocha are only available upon request, but a free trial and free demo can be requested through their website.

Well-rounded online assessment tool with advanced security and digital proctoring features

  • Request a free demo
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.5/5

Talview’s online assessment platform covers four main styles of testing: an essay test, typing test, online coding tests, and advanced STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) tests. Their programming/coding assessments are available in 52 programming languages including Java, Ruby, Python and many others. They’re a useful tool for pre-screening large volumes of technical applicants—such as university students—ensuring you only spend time interviewing the top talent in the group.

Their security features are noteworthy, and stand out against other testing providers in this list. Tests are completed within their Talview Secure Browser which locks down access to other system resources like applications, other web tabs, or offline information when an assessment is underway. Remote cognitive proctoring automatically monitors for fraudulent activity via video, flags any suspicious activities, and warns or blocks candidates who appear to be cheating. They also have a 360° Test Environment Check feature that prompts candidates to visually verify elements of their exam room before initiating the test, including their table/desk, ceiling, floor, and the absence of earphones, plus a 360 degree video capture of the entire room.

Talview integrates with several other software providers including Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and TalentLMS.

Pricing details for Talview are only available upon request, though you can request a free demo through their website.

AI-powered online programming assessment test for recruiters hiring for technical positions

  • 10 tests free
  • From $99/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.3/5

Wild Noodle is an online platform that enables employers to assess candidates before hiring them. It offers a suite of tests to help employers make data-driven decisions regarding staffing their teams. It has an extensive assessment library with various assessments, including soft skills such as communication and problem-solving and hard skills such as coding and web design.

Employers can select whichever assessments are most relevant to their situation to get a comprehensive picture of each candidate's abilities and aptitudes before deciding whether they should be hired. This level of insight helps reduce turnover rates by ensuring employees are better suited to their position before they even begin work. Wild Noodle makes test administration straightforward with its user-friendly dashboard interface. Its reporting feature also enables employers to compare candidates against each other and make informed decisions about which candidate is best suited for a given position.

Wild Noodle helps employers create custom tests tailored to their needs. This makes it easier to evaluate potential hires based on the skills they need most. Additionally, the software provides automated scoring and reporting options so employers can quickly compare applicants’ test results without having to do it manually. Wild Noodle saves time by automating many tasks associated with evaluating prospective employees. Users no longer have to score individual tests or compare multiple applicants manually. This allows recruiters to focus more on other aspects of the hiring process, such as interviews or background checks.

Wild Noodle helps ensure that all job candidates receive consistent evaluations regardless of who is doing the assessment. This increases fairness during the hiring process since everyone is evaluated according to the same criteria and standards an organization sets. This software eliminates human bias since it uses objective data rather than subjective opinions when deciding which applicants should move forward in the hiring process.

User-friendly pre-employment testing software with 2D job simulations to maximize candidate engagement

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $50/user/month

HR Avatar’s employee testing software has a library of 200+ tests to choose from, including skills and knowledge assessments, personality and emotional intelligence tests, cognitive abilities, past behaviors, workplace competencies, and a job-specific all-in-one assessment. Or, you can also use their Custom Test Builder to create your own blended evaluations. Their easy-to-use platform goes beyond pre-employment tests and includes other features like live or recorded video interviews, remote test proctoring, automated reference checks and advanced reporting, all rolled into the same per-candidate price.

As their name suggests, HR Avatar specializes in job simulations using 2D character animation to maximize candidate engagement during the testing process. Upon receiving their testing link, candidates are greeted by an HR Avatar who walks them through the testing process and asks them to perform job-related tasks. Upon completion, system admins receive a detailed report by email or text that includes scores for each individually measured competency, as well as a match rating for the specific job role. Built upon decades of job research, their reports also include expert interview questions tailored to each candidate’s results to help you conduct an effective follow-up interview.

Pricing for HR Avatar starts at $45 USD/candidate, and is available in additional candidate ‘packs’ at scale. You can also request a free demo or a 14-day free trial through their website.

Technical coding assessment platform with revealing code playback feature for deeper programmer insights

  • Request a free trial
  • Pricing upon request

Qualified’s performance-based coding assessment platform takes the guesswork out of evaluating programming and software development skills. Their system supports assessments in 29 programming languages and has a library of pre-built assessment situations to make technical assessments easy to implement. Or, you can use their challenge authoring suite to create your own custom challenge, but still benefit from their automated candidate scoring and other features.

Their assessment reports include benchmarking statistics that compare candidates to all other developers within Qualified’s platform. To ensure applicants are submitting original work, they have a built-in risk detection feature to flag potentially plagiarized code. Another interesting feature is their optional blind review function that ensures talent is identified based on skills and merit and not other personal characteristics. Their code playback feature is also really useful as it records applicants as they develop their code. This allows technical employees to watch how applicants work and gain deeper insight into each programmer’s thought process and problem solving ability.

Qualified integrates with applicant tracking systems (ATS), including Greenhouse, Workable, and BambooHR. Further integrations are available through their API, webhooks, or integration with Zapier.

Pricing details for Qualified are only available upon request, but a free trial can be requested through their website.

Straightforward pre-employment testing provider with a comprehensive test library and “on demand” pricing

  • Free demo
  • From $10 to $75 USD per test

Research Associates has a library of 200+ pre-employment tests covering a wide range of job categories. They also have different styles of assessments, including cognitive ability, mental reasoning, personality style, and many role-specific tests too. Overall their assessments test 40+ personality dimensions and 30+ aptitude dimensions. The different testing modules can be combined depending on what you need. Or, you can create custom assessments by drawing from their bank of valid personality dimensions and aptitude tests too.

Resource Associates is a great option for any teams that are new to the idea of pre-employment assessments and want to test it out without a formal commitment. Their testing library is available “on demand” meaning you can browse through their list of tests to find the job or skills you’re looking for, then purchase a license for that particular test. Once you’ve paid, you’ll receive the login details to send to your candidate. Once your candidate completes the test, you’ll receive a link to view their results. While it may not be as fancy as some of the other systems in this list, it’s certainly a functional and low cost option to get a feel for the process.

Pricing for Resource Associates varies depending on the assessment you select. The typical range is between $10 to $75 USD per test. Beyond that, there are no minimum orders, contracts or subscriptions required. You can also request a free demo through their website, and view sample reports of all the assessments before you purchase one too.

The 10 Best Pre-Employment Testing Software Summary

Other Options

Using my extensive experience as an HR expert, I reviewed and evaluated the top pre-employment testing software to shortlist the best tools to assess job candidates’ skills, knowledge, and suitability for a role.

  1. The Hire Talent

    Easy-to-use pre-employment testing tool with detailed candidate performance reports

  2. Woven

    Sophisticated engineering assessment platform focused on architecture, systems design, and debugging

  3. Criteria

    Well-rounded psychometric testing platform including game-based assessments

  4. TestGorilla

    Affordable testing software with deep test library, including language proficiency tests

  5. Mercer Mettl Assessments

    Advanced talent and coding assessment platform with hackathon hosting feature, well-suited for campus recruiting

  6. Willo

    For its candidate interview portals and ease of interview submission

  7. Zoho Recruit

    With customizable assessment questionnaires for candidates

  8. Unnanu Hire

    For creating custom tests

  9. Wizehire

    Candidate assessment and pre-screening software with predictive skills tests and DISC+ (decisive, interactive, stable and cautious + motivators) personality assessments.

  10. pymetrics

    Modern skills assessment platform including 12 gamified tests that measure cognitive and emotional attributes within a unique and engaging testing experience.

Comparison Criteria

Wondering what I look for when selecting the best pre-employment testing software for this list? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria: 

  1. User Interface (UI): I look for software with a clean, colourful, and uncluttered interface that candidates would enjoy using. 
  2. Usability: I prioritize software that’s easy to set up and share with candidates, with results and data clearly organized and digestible to support quick decision-making. 
  3. Integrations: I prefer pre-employment testing software that integrates with other recruiting software such as applicant tracking systems or candidate sourcing software. 
  4. Value for $: I appreciate software with transparent pricing structures such as per-test or per-candidate options, or the ability to order tests in scalable packages. 

30% of tPre-Employment Testing Software: Key Features

Here’s a summary of the main features you can expect to find in the best pre-employment testing software: 

  1. A library of testing templates: A selection of ready-to-go templates designed for specific job roles or industries. 
  2. A range of testing types: Common sub-types of pre-employment testing include technical or coding assessments, software skills, psychometric tests, cognitive aptitude measures, behavioral assessments, personality tests, measures of emotional intelligence, computer or office skills tests, job-specific skill assessments, and assessments for other soft skills.
  3. Role-based simulations: These are engineered scenarios that reflect real-world job tasks. They allow human resources teams to assess how applicants would excel in a specific role. 
  4. Automated candidate ranking: A time-saving feature that automatically sorts candidates based on their test scores and overall job fit status. 
  5. Bias-reducing features: Candidate ranking that focuses solely on skill-based scoring, plus advanced features like blind reviews where the personal details of candidates are anonymized.
  6. Digital proctoring: Software features that prevent candidates from cheating, such as locked down browsers or other system features, video-based candidate ID verification features, visual environmental checks, and tools to identify plagiarized code. 

What Are The Benefits Of Pre-Employment Testing? 

Pre-employment testing can improve the quality of your recruitment process and the candidates you hire in many ways. Here are some of the main benefits you can expect to gain from using pre-employment testing software:

  1. You’ll accelerate your hiring process by:
    • spending less time sorting and screening applicants. 
    • only focusing on the top-scoring candidates.
  2. You’ll gain a realistic understanding of each applicant’s skill level for particular tasks.
  3. You’ll gain deeper insights into your candidates prior to interviewing them, allowing you to ask more effective follow-up questions when you finally do meet. 
  4. You’ll be able to assess applicants’ personality traits to predict future job performance. 
  5. You’ll be able to assess whether a candidate is a good culture fit for your team. 
  6. You’ll ensure hiring decisions are based on data rather than unconscious bias. 
  7. You’ll improve your candidate experience by offering them more opportunities to engage with your company, as well as post-test feedback for future opportunities. 
  8. You’ll gain valuable data that can be translated into onboarding and orientation training for candidates who are hired despite some skill gaps. 

How Important Is Pre-Employment Testing? 

With all of the benefits noted above, it’s hard to imagine not using some form of pre-employment testing. This is especially true for technical positions that require advanced skills. When you consider that the cost of a bad hire can reach as high as 30% of the employee’s annual salary, it makes sense to invest a little more in finding the best candidate for the position up-front.

In fact, recent research indicates that the global market for pre-employment testing software is on the rise. It’s expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11% between 2022 and 2028, with an estimated value of $292.4 million USD by 2028.

What Do You Think About This List?

I hope this article gave you a better understanding of pre-employment testing and how it can add value to your recruiting process. 

If you still need more help with candidate selection, take a look at our list of the best candidate sourcing software to help you find the best talent. 

You may also appreciate some other tips on how to maintain the candidate experience, especially if your company is going through a period of rapid growth.

We also have a free leadership assessment tool that measures 7 key skill areas, which is another great way to assess existing employees too.

Last but not least, I encourage you to subscribe to our People Managing People newsletter to stay on top of the latest trends in HR, leadership, and organizational development.

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Kim Behnke
By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR software writer and analyst for People Managing People, drawing on nearly a decade of hands-on experience in human resources. With a background spanning recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training, policy development, and HR analytics, she brings a deep understanding of the challenges HR teams face and how technology can solve them. Kim holds degrees in psychology, writing, and technical communication, and is a Certified Digital HR Specialist through the Academy to Innovate HR. Her work is driven by a passion for streamlining systems and optimizing workflows to help HR teams work smarter.