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Sterling
Sterling Overview:
What Is Sterling?
Sterling — a leading provider of background and identity services — offers background and identity verification to help over 40,000 clients create people-first cultures built on a foundation of trust and safety. Sterling’s tech-enabled services help organizations across all industries establish great environments for their workers, partners, and customers. With operations around the world, Sterling conducts more than 75 million background checks annually.
Who Uses Sterling?
We cater to clients in healthcare and life sciences; retail and staffing; industrials, government, and education; finance and business services; and technology, hospitality, entertainment, and media.
Where can Sterling be deployed?
Cloud-based
On-premise
View 6 more
Overall rating
See all reviews
Based on 30 reviews
Reviews sentiment
Positive
70%
Neutral
23%
Negative
7%
Starting Price
US$1.00
Per User, Per Month
Free trial
About the vendor
- Sterling
- Located in New York, US
- Founded in 1975
Sterling support
- Phone Support
Countries available
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Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra
Countries available
Countries where the product is available. Note: Customer support may not be accessible in that country.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Angola
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Aruba
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bermuda
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cape Verde
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Congo - Brazzaville
- Congo - Kinshasa
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- French Guiana
- French Polynesia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Hong Kong SAR China
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macao SAR China
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Martinique
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Norfolk Island
- North Macedonia
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestinian territories
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Réunion
- Saint Helena
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkmenistan
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Tuvalu
- Türkiye
- US Virgin Islands
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican City
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Wallis and Futuna
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
- Åland Islands
Languages
Show more details
English
Compare with a popular alternative
Show more details
Sterling
US$1.00
Free version
Free trial
4.2 (30)
4.1 (30)
3.7 (30)
VS.
Starting Price
Pricing Options
Ease of Use
Value for Money
Customer Service
US$19.00
month
Free version
Free trial
4.7 (141)
4.5 (141)
4.6 (141)
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Top rated features
Applicant Tracking Software
Job Posting
Top rated features
Background Screening
Criminal History Verification
Top rated features
Activity Dashboard
Self Service Portal
Top rated features
Recruitment Management
Test/Quiz Creation
Top rated features
Payroll Management
W-2 Preparation
Top rated features
Employee Database
HR Management
Top rated features
Criminal History Verification
Identity Verification
Top rated features
Reporting/Analytics
Training Administration
Top rated features
Employee Database
HR Management
Capterra verified reviews for Sterling
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Overall rating
Based on 30 reviews
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Lisa
Operations Manager in Canada
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
"Sterling Review"
July 15, 2024
I have had a positive experience with Sterling.
Pros:
Sterling is very user friendly and the process is very timely.
Cons:
Sometimes the different options available can be confusing.
Reviewer Source
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Anonymous reviewer
Insurance Software, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
"Good Services, Poor Customer Service, Dated User Experience"
January 6, 2025
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.
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)
Reviewer Source
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John
Registered Nurse in US
Hospital & Health Care, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
"Bottom-dollar pricing represents bottom-barrel quality"
September 23, 2025
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.
.
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.
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.)
Reviewer Source
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Victoria
HR Generalist II in US
Food & Beverages, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
"Good for Background Checks and Reference Checks"
January 15, 2026
New
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.
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.
Reviewer Source
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Chris
Director of Human Resources in US
Automotive, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
"Sterling is a solid product. Everything you want in a background screening provider."
August 15, 2024
Overall excellent experience. Salesforce is top notch and customer service has been responsive.
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.
Reviewer Source
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