This complete guide to pre-employment assessment software brings you a collection of the top 30 pre-employment assessment tools, together with their key features and pricing details.
Choosing the best pre-employment testing tools for your business can be tricky in light of all the options available. For many hiring managers, researching the very best candidate testing tools on the market will surely make their heads spin. So, what to do?
Well, as experts in the field, we wanted to help and have done all the research for you (you’re welcome!) From who has the best user interface to the latest AI-powered tools and more, we’ve selected the best of the best to help you find top talent and win the best candidates.
Let’s get stuck in, shall we?
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Pre-employment assessments, like skills assessments or personality tests, provide hiring managers with invaluable insight into potential candidates and are used by 80% of Fortune 500 companies.
The market is flooded with options – from targeted testing of technical skills to more general tests – making it difficult for hiring teams to know which pre-employment tool is right for them.
Pre-employment assessment tools can be broken down into different categories: from skills-based and technical assessments to psychometric and personality tests to testing that relies heavily on a specific technology like video and AI.
For Technical Assessments, check out Coderbyte, Lytmus, and Toggl Hire as unique platforms to find candidates with the best software programming skills tests.
Criteria, HighMatch, and Wisnio are great tools for understanding qualified candidates’ personality traits and cognitive abilities with psychometric tests.
Try out Owiwi, eSkill, and Pymetrics as specialized platforms for testing soft skills.
For an all-in-one skills-based hiring platform, consider Toggl Hire. Our pre-employment assessment platform enables companies to identify the perfect candidates with pre-built assessments and custom Skills Tests, pre-recorded Video Intros, and Homework assignments.
What is a pre-employment assessment tool?
A pre-employment assessment tool refers to the software used to screen and assess potential candidates by testing their skillset or cultural fit for the particular position they’re applying for.
Assessments include questions related to the position, industry, problem-solving, personality, soft skills, cognitive ability, situational judgment, communication, motivation, and aptitude. They can be customizable or pre-made, offering real-time job performance and reports.
In reflection of the diversity of roles and requirements out there, there are multiple test types and many different types of testing software available. Here are a few examples:
Personality tests — to evaluate how individuals might handle different or challenging situations in the workplace.
Job knowledge tests — these are used to ensure that a candidate has the competencies required for the role.
Integrity tests — used to test for counterproductive behavior.
Cognitive ability tests — to measure a candidate’s intellectual capabilities.
Skills tests — to assess more practical skills, such as coding, performance marketing, or customer service.
In summary, thoughtfully selected pre-employment assessment tools are invaluable resources for hiring departments and HR, allowing them to efficiently evaluate candidate skillsets, behaviors, and abilities.
How to choose the right pre-employment testing tool for you?
As a hiring manager or recruiter, choosing the right pre-employment assessment tool pre-hire can be a daunting task. With so many tools available for different roles and industries, it’s important to consider various factors to ensure you pick the right one.
Before buying a pre-screening tool, you should think about 4 key things:
Timing — You need to decide whether to screen candidates before or after the initial interviews. Assessing skills before the interviews can save time, while evaluating them after can help you make the final hiring decision.
Range of testing options — Make sure the tool offers tests that meet your needs and helps you screen the relevant skill types (hard skills, soft skills, aptitude tests, etc.) for technical or non-technical roles.
Integrations with Applicant Tracking Systems — Consider whether you need a pre-employment testing tool that integrates with an existing applicant tracking system or one with built-in ATS capabilities if you don’t have one.
Pricing options — Pre-employment assessment tools have various pricing models to suit different budgets and needs, such as pay-per-candidate for low hiring frequency or monthly subscriptions for regular recruitment.
Yes, there is a wide range of pre-employment screening tools on the market. But we’ve got you covered! To help you choose yours, we’ve handpicked the best 30 tools across the following categories:
| Types of Pre-employment Tests | Pre-employment Testing Software |
| Skills-based hiring platform | Toggl Hire |
| Technical assessments | Coderbyte, Codility, DevSkiller, Lytmus, TestDome, Adaface, Toggl Hire |
| Psychometric tests | Alva Labs, Psycruit, Criteria, HighMatch, TalentSorter, TestInvite, Wisnio |
| Personality tests | The Predictive Index, Traitify, Prevue HR, Hogan Assessments |
| Testing for soft skills | Softfactors, Owiwi, Pymetrics, eSkill |
| The best AI-powered tools | iMocha, Mercer Mettl Assessments, HireMojo, AssessFirst |
| Video assessment tools | HireVue, Harver, Willo Video Interviewing, Woven |
Tip! Already know what you’re looking for? Then why not skip down to the section relevant to you.
Tests for skills-based hiring
Skills-based hiring focuses on a candidate’s job-related skills rather than their academic credentials or experience. Assessments such as technical tests, soft skills evaluations, skill tests, and custom assessments are used to evaluate a candidate’s abilities.
#1 – Toggl Hire
Toggl Hire goes beyond resumes and uses short skills challenges as the initial filter.
Candidates apply for a job by taking a short skills challenge. The system then automatically checks the answers and gives you a short list of the best performers based on their actual job-related skills and knowledge, not their resume keywords.
This skills-based screening approach helps companies attract more candidates, evaluate everyone automatically, and find high-quality candidates faster. The platform supports multiple types of assessments, including technical, soft skills, language proficiency, fundamental math, and 100% custom tests!
Key features:
- 150+ skills and 180+ Job-specific templates to pick from
- Multiple test types, including skills tests, pre-recorded video tests and take-home assignments.
- Anti-cheating tracking to flag suspicious candidate activity.
- Option to automate initial candidate screening with a pass threshold.
- Kanban-style candidate pipeline with easy drag-and-drop setup.
- Test questions are created by real-world experts and validated via an extensive peer review process.
- Built-in team collaboration for smooth hiring.
Does it offer a free plan? Yes. Find out more here.
Pricing? Paid plans start from $17/per month
Technical assessments
For technical roles, hiring managers rely on technical tests to evaluate a candidate’s skills and ability to perform job-specific tasks. For example, problem-solving exercises, coding challenges, or technical interviews.
#2 – Coderbyte
Coderbyte helps you build coding skills and gain technical proficiency with web development courses and coding challenges. It’s a great resource for interview prep and advancing your technical skills — and it helps you to grasp the hiring pipeline.
Key features:
Users love the pre-made questions.
Google search within the code editor.
It’s easy to video capture the user’s screen.
Quick to implement with no setup necessary.
Does it offer a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starting from $199 per month.
#3 – Codility
Codility enables companies to evaluate developers’ coding abilities and make informed hiring decisions. This platform uses evidence to predict how a candidate will perform in real-life scenarios.
Key features:
Extensive database of tests and tasks.
It is a well-polished platform that is user-friendly.
Candidates can work at their own pace.
Excellent customer service.
Does it offer a free plan? No.
Pricing? No pricing is available.
#4 – DevSkiller TalentScore
DevSkiller is a platform that streamlines the hiring process for companies looking to hire developers. It features pre-employment assessment tools, coding tests for various programming languages and frameworks, video interviews, and automated candidate reports to offer a complete review of a candidate’s technical knowledge.
Key features:
Wide range of code libraries available.
Feature set helps to reduce the candidate drop-out rate.
Plagiarism detection.
Easy to navigate with an intuitive UI.
Does it offer a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starting from $499 per month.
#5 – Lytmus
Lytmus is one of the most unique technical pre-employment assessment tools. It uses cloud-hosted virtual workspaces to present real-world challenges like analyzing data or setting up servers to candidates. The tool collects detailed workflow info, such as project documents and workflows, to assess a candidate’s technical proficiency.
Key features:
Test candidates with a fully functional virtual machine that runs in their browser.
Included a pre-loaded interview question library with scenarios.
Records the candidate’s session.
Data gathering to improve the interview process.
Does it offer a free plan? Yes.
Pricing? Starting from $250 per month.
#6 – TestDome
TestDome is an online platform that assists employers in assessing and hiring skilled developers. Its assessments cover a range of programming languages, software frameworks, and other technical skills. TestDome’s customizable assessments, real-time coding environments, and anti-cheating measures guarantee accurate results.
Key features:
Large library of tests that are easy to customize.
Allows to specialized tests beyond standard interview questions.
Easy to understand.
Does it offer a free plan? Yes.
Pricing? Starting from $100 per month.
#7 – Adaface
Adaface is a candidate-friendly skills assessment tool used by companies to automate the first round of interviews for multiple candidates. It offers pre-built assessments for on-the-job skills and engages candidates in a friendly chat involving relevant challenges, eliminating the need for trick questions on a test.
Key features:
Offers a unique and friendly candidate experience.
Pre-made library of questions used to test for fit as opposed to code memorization.
Candidate reports with ratings.
Regular upgrades to keep all questions and pre-employment assessments up-to-date.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starting from $180 per year.
Psychometric tests
Tests to assess personality traits and cognitive abilities are designed to measure an individual’s behavior, cognition, skills, and motivations. Common tests include personality tests, aptitude checks, and psychometric tests.
#8 – Alva Labs
Alva Labs offers a data-driven approach to recruitment, helping companies quickly and confidently identify candidates who are most likely to have a positive impact. Their platform includes leading psychometric tests, a plug-and-play platform that can be easily integrated with your ATS, and a great candidate experience that reduces bias and saves time.
Key features:
High-quality customer support.
The system is easy to understand for hiring departments.
Questions are data-driven.
Easy to integrate with an ATS
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starting from €149 per year.
#9 – Psycruit
Psycruit helps hiring managers assess a candidate’s compatibility with their workplace by providing psychometric reports. These include Personality Profiles, Onboarding Tips, Team Strengths, Interviewer Reports, and Leadership Reports, all crafted by a team of business psychologists.
Key features:
Interviewer-friendly results
Candidate matching facility with bespoke scoring algorithms
Open API
Accredited and certified by the British Psychological Society
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
#10 – Criteria
Criteria provide evidence-based talent decisions and reduce bias in the recruitment process. Their rigorously validated assessments and decision-making tools highlight every candidate’s potential while providing an experience that candidates love. By taking a scientific approach to their products, Criteria aims to create a fairer and more efficient talent selection custom assessment process that reduces the risk of bias and gives everyone an equal opportunity to prove their worth.
Key features:
Wide variety of skills and personality type assessments.
Fast support team.
Includes EPP, aptitude, and cognitive tests.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
#11 – HighMatch (formerly Berke)
With a mix of personality and problem-solving tests, HighMatch aims to deliver personalized insights at every stage of the hiring cycle. Their easy-to-understand job fit score and interview guide tailored to each candidate’s knowledge makes choosing the best person for the job simple.
Key features:
Built for small to large-scale enterprises.
Supplies hiring teams with actionable insights.
Assessment contextualizes behaviors based on job requirements, portraying all candidates positively.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
#12 – TalentSorter
TalentSorter offers advanced human analytics to assess and uncover applicants’ core skills that contribute highly toward their potential to become productive employees. Their candidate behavioral pre-employment assessments integrate into any application process for any position at small or large companies.
Key features:
Includes interview guides.
Integrated with Jobvite.
Helps to give candidates a good impression of your company.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starts at $499.
#13 – TestInvite
TestInvite is an online exam software that enables the creation and delivery of various types of assessments, including aptitude tests, personality inventories, and cultural fit assessments. With advanced reporting, analytics, and automation, TestInvite’s pre-employment assessment tools help streamline recruitment.
Key features:
Custom pre-employment tests and options.
Allows for written and oral exams.
Offers virtual keyboards for a wide range of languages.
Responsive customer service.
Does it have a free plan? Yes.
Pricing? Starts from $100 per 250 credits.
#14 – Wisnio
Wisnio is a talent analytics platform that uses behavioral science and machine learning to provide actionable talent data for hiring, succession planning, and team development. It is used by executive search firms, private equity/venture capital investors, and leadership advisory/coaching teams to improve hiring success rates and build a data-driven process.
Key features:
Offers team analysis and insights into where you may be missing talent.
Includes in-depth interview guides.
Easy to follow and use interface.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? €500 a month.
Personality test
Personality tests are often used to help employers assess how well a candidate’s personal ethic, work style, values, and attitudes match the job and company culture. In addition to helping make the right hire, these tests are often used to help assess the potential for success in the role.
#15 – The Predictive Index
The Predictive Index offers a modular platform that supports “talent optimization” – the concept that every business problem is a people problem, and people data should guide every step of an employee’s journey. With PI Hire, PI Design, PI Inspire, and PI Diagnose, the platform helps businesses streamline their hiring, build optimized teams, manage employees, and diagnose and solve engagement problems.
Key features:
Short and to-the-point employment testing.
Includes behavior models and charts.
Has a management strategy guide.
Offers users a yearly one-on-one session.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? €500 a month.
#16 – Traitify
Traitify is a full human resource and insight platform that helps businesses attract, hire, and retain talent through mobile-first and visual-based assessments with high completion rates. Their products provide actionable understanding for candidates, employees, and employers, resulting in lower turnover and increased employee retention. They serve industries such as retail, restaurants, hospitality, job marketplaces, and more.
Key features:
Mobile-first solution for candidates on the go.
Built-in links to job websites.
Easy to customise.
Impressive candidate organization.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
#17 – Prevue HR
Prevue is an ATS designed for small to medium-sized companies, offering integrated employee profiling and job board connectivity. Their pre-employment assessments and custom reports help make objective hiring decisions, reduce turnover, and create better team fits, with satisfied users ranging from SMEs to large corporations globally.
Key features:
Assessments are easy to administer.
Adds insight into the individual’s personality, numeracy, reading, communication, etc.
Different customizable areas.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? From $307 per month.
#18 – Hogan Assessments
Hogan offers a pre-employment testing suite to create new hiring roles, conduct assessments, and more. With over 30 years of experience, their comprehensive approach to personality assessment helps businesses reduce turnover, increase productivity, and build better leaders by identifying the right talent for the job.
Key features:
It supports several applications, like Salesforce CRM.
Supplies detailed results of candidate assessments.
Provides an excellent candidate experience.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
Testing for Soft Skills
In addition to hard skills, employers today value applicants’ soft skills, such as adaptability, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and leadership. As these important qualities go towards creating a positive work culture and ultimately drive business success.
#19 – Softfactors
Softfactors, a cloud-based recruitment solution that measures and compares both resumes and soft skills, helping organizations hire employees who fit with the position, manager personality, and company culture. With the ability to work with existing HCM via a documented API.
Key features:
Easy to collaborate during the recruitment process.
Intuitive user interface.
Can handle a large number of applications at once.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not publically available.
#20 – Owiwi
As a psychometric tool that measures skills through an immersive game, Owiwi is suitable for rapidly growing mid-market companies and SME/SMBs. It takes away the stress for candidates and minimizes recruiter risk by providing data-driven and bias-free insights and standardized automation to accelerate the screening/shortlisting process.
Key features:
Immersive game with a gripping story to assess candidates.
Provides extensive results on candidates.
Unique system that is easy to use.
Does it have a free plan? Yes.
Pricing? Starting from €24 per assessment.
#21 – Pymetrics
This company uses behavioral science and AI technology to redefine the hiring and talent assessment tools industry. Using neuroscience games and bias-free AI, Pymetrics helps recruiters evaluate candidates across the entire talent lifecycle objectively, predictively match people with jobs, and improve talent engagement, mobility, and retention while maintaining ethical growth.
Key features:
Eases candidates into tests by making them feel like they’re playing games.
Clear and concise instructions for candidates.
Build profiles based on current successful archetypes
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
#22 – eSkill
The eSkill Talent Assessment Platform offers skills and behavioral assessment tools for large to medium-sized businesses. Clients can choose pre-prepared assessments or create their own with simulation questions and video response questions to get a comprehensive view of candidates. The platform also integrates with applicant tracking systems and ensures compliance with regulations during employment testing.
Key features:
Send candidates multiple assessments as a singular test.
Quickly create custom assignments.
Intuitive processes.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
The best AI-powered tools
AI-driven tools help provide recruiters and hiring managers with data to make decisions swiftly and accurately in the pre-employment assessment pipeline. AI-powered tools are used to assess candidate skills, predict job fit, minimize bias, and enhance the candidate experience.
#23 – iMocha
iMocha provides skill-based talent analytics to help enterprises make intelligent hiring decisions, which includes talent development. With the largest library in the world that has assessments for 2500+ skills and innovative coding simulators, the company values innovation, customer focus, trust, and collaboration.
Key features:
Provides clear analytics data.
Includes more than 500 tests.
Easy pre-employment testing software setup.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
#24 – Mercer Mettl Assessments
Mercer Mettl provides an all-in-one online assessment platform to help businesses measure potential candidates’ personality, aptitude, communication, and problem-solving skills. With a library of 200+ ready-to-use talent assessments and questions, Mercer Mettl offers recruitment, learning and development solutions, and online proctoring, all on one customizable platform.
Key features:
Comprehensive exams for employment testing.
Platform is easy to scale.
Custom questions can be easily imported.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
#25 – HireMojo
HireMojo is designed to simplify the hiring process, allowing hiring managers to focus on human elements such as interviews and extending offers. It uses AI and big data to automate manual administration processes.
Key features:
Smart job marketing and role generation.
Automatic candidate screening.
Automated employee referral options.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
#26 – AssessFirst
As a modern SaaS solution, AssessFirst offers advanced behavioral skill assessments to help HR, and hiring managers find the right candidates for the right roles. Trusted science and AI are baked into the platform, which has been used by over 10,000 recruitment, HR, and people leaders globally to accelerate time-to-hire.
Key features:
Custom tests and predictive models.
Supplies detailed information about candidates.
Includes training for hiring.
Does it have a free plan? Yes.
Pricing? Starting from £240 per month.
Video assessment tools
Video assessments allow employers to understand better a candidate’s personality, communication skills, and overall fit for the role. Hiring managers should decide between using a separate tool for video assessments or an all-in-one hiring platform like Toggl Hire.
#27 – HireVue
HireVue provides a hiring experience platform with video interview software, assessments, text-enabled recruiting tools, and conversational AI chatbots. Their platform uses predictive IO science and AI to augment human decision-making in the hiring process.
Key features:
Record candidate interviews.
Allows candidates to upload their own videos.
Includes both video and text-based questions.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? $35 000 per month.
#28 – Harver
Harver is a hiring solution designed specifically for volume hiring. Their suite of automated solutions combines data-driven matching, automation, candidate experience, and business intelligence to help organizations engage, hire, and develop the right talent in a fast and less biased way.
Key features:
Large selection of assignments.
Automates the CV selection process and role matching.
Present dynamic job role previews.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Not available.
#29 – Willo Video Interviewing
Willo is a video interviewing platform that helps companies of all sizes streamline their candidate screening processes, allowing candidates to record interviews on their own schedule and recruiters to avoid scheduling issues. It is perfect for fast-growing businesses that want to reduce costs and speed up the recruiting process.
Key features:
Supplies information about a candidate’s communication skills.
Customisable video interview templates.
Supplies APIs for platform integration.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? Starting from $56.25/month
#30 – Woven
Woven offers technical pre-employment assessment tools that go beyond code to test essential engineering and business skills, like debugging, architecture, and communication. Their scenario library is designed to assess skills beyond coding, with same-day results and feedback from real engineers. Woven serves early-stage startups and enterprise clients.
Key features:
Includes Github pull requests.
User-friendly interview preparation.
Incorporates real-world problems into its pre-employment assessment tools.
Does it have a free plan? No.
Pricing? $11 500 once-off.
Top tip:
Toggl Hire’s hiring platform enables you to conduct and review asynchronous video interviews at your own convenience, incorporate online coding tests, create custom assessments, and assess an applicant’s skill level all in a single place.
Choosing the best pre-employment testing tool
When selecting pre-employment testing software for your business, there are a number of factors to consider, like the ability to create custom assessments, the range, and quality of the assessment library, the user experience for both candidates and hiring teams, collaboration features, candidate management, and ease of integrations.
And for all of those, our customers choose Toggl Hire to streamline the pre-employment testing process and make better data-driven hiring decisions.
Juste loves investigating through writing. A copywriter by trade, she spent the last ten years in startups, telling stories and building marketing teams. She works at Toggl Hire and writes about how businesses can recruit really great people.
