A Checkr alternative for registry and criminal checks: Checkr vs OffenderSearch, feature by feature.
Checkr sells a screening report per candidate. OffenderSearch sells a registry or criminal-record search per call. Here is how the two line up, row by row, on the things a developer, HR or operations buyer actually compares.
| What matters | OffenderSearch | Checkr |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A search API and dashboard for the 58 US sex offender registries, with a criminal-records API on the same key | A background-screening platform and FCRA consumer reporting agency: criminal, identity, employment and education verification, driving records and drug testing |
| Unit of purchase | One search at a time — $0.15, falling to $0.11 past 2,000 a month | A report per candidate; its pricing page lists packages from $29.99 |
| Published price | Every rate on the pricing page, including volume | Basic $29.99, Essential $59.99, Complete $94.99; standard third-party court and database access fees may apply, passed through at cost |
| Free evaluation | 25 searches on real data, no card, with the API key issued at sign-up | No free trial listed on its pricing page; a staging environment with mocked data is available on request |
| Time to first result | The answer returns in the same HTTP request, from records already held | Checkr says most criminal checks complete within an hour; county searches and verifications can take longer |
| Sex offender registry search | The product itself: 58 registries in one call, each match scored, cited and linked to the official record | Included in its screening packages, as one part of a candidate report |
| Criminal records | County court, jail booking, state prison, warrant and federal records through the criminal records API, priced like a registry search | National, county, state and federal criminal searches as report components |
| Which registries answered | Every response lists the registries searched and whether each one completed | Reported inside the candidate report |
| Match evidence | matchConfidence, matchBasis and matchState on every record — full date of birth, birth year, age or name only | Adjudicated within the report workflow |
| Candidate consent and invitation flow | FCRA orders carry the end user, permissible purpose and consent attestation (FCRA Orders API); the standard lookup needs none | Built in: candidates receive an invitation and give consent |
| FCRA consumer reports | Yes — FCRA orders with disputes and a consumer portal through FCRA Partner Access; standard lookups are separate and not a consumer report | An FCRA consumer reporting agency, with adverse-action and dispute handling built in |
| Employment and education verification | Not offered | Offered |
| Drug testing and driving records (MVR) | Not offered | Offered |
| Ongoing monitoring | Person ($3/mo) and address ($10/mo) watches with email or signed webhook alerts | Checkr offers continuous criminal search at $1.70 per individual a month and continuous MVR at $2.50 per driver a month |
| Bulk and batch | POST /v1/batch with up to 1,000 people per request, or a CSV in the dashboard | One report per candidate |
| AI-agent access | An MCP server for registry search from Claude and other MCP clients (private beta, by request); any tool-calling agent can use the REST API today | See Checkr’s developer documentation |
| International screening | US registries and US criminal records only | Offered |
Checkr is a trademark of its respective owner; this comparison is for informational purposes and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Checkr. Statements about Checkr reflect its own public website. Standard OffenderSearch results are public-record data, not a consumer report; employment, tenancy and other FCRA-covered decisions run through FCRA Partner Access.
Why people switch from Checkr for registry checks. The registry question, asked on its own and priced on its own.
Registry search as the whole product
One call searches the 58 US registries and returns scored, de-duplicated matches with the registry named on each record. You can call it on its own, without ordering a full candidate report.
Priced per search, not per candidate
A volunteer roster, a marketplace sign-up flow or a periodic re-check is many small registry questions. At $0.15 a search with 25 free, a registry check costs a fraction of a screening package.
An answer in the request, not a report later
A search returns in one round trip, so a sign-up, booking or onboarding step can wait on it. There is no candidate invitation to send and no report to poll for.
Instant key and a no-code dashboard
The API key works the moment you sign up. Operations staff can search names or upload a CSV in the dashboard the same day, while engineering wires up the API.
Every search tells you what answered
Each response lists the registries searched and any that did not complete, so an outage can never be read as a clean result.
Criminal records on the same key
County court, jail booking, state prison and warrant records through the criminal records API, at the same per-search price, with async searches and webhooks.
What Checkr and OffenderSearch have in common
Parity stated plainly. These are not reasons to switch, and we do not pretend they are.
- Both search US sex offender registries
- Both offer an API for software teams
- Both offer ongoing monitoring
- Both support FCRA-regulated use — Checkr directly, OffenderSearch through FCRA Partner Access
- Both publish pricing on their websites
- Both cover criminal records as well as registries
When to choose Checkr instead of OffenderSearch. We would rather you pick the right tool than switch twice.
Choose OffenderSearch if…
- You need to search sex offender registries or criminal records from code, today
- You want a free trial and a public per-search price
- You run many small checks — rosters, sign-ups, periodic re-checks
- Your product flow has to wait on the answer, in seconds
- You are building registry checks into an app or an AI agent
- You want FCRA orders and fast standard lookups from the same API and key
Choose Checkr if…
- You are hiring employees or contractors and need an FCRA consumer report
- You need an end-to-end employment screening suite with adjudication
- You need verifications, driving records or drug tests in one workflow
- You want one vendor to own FCRA notices, disputes and adverse action
- You screen candidates outside the US
We would rather you pick the right tool than switch twice. If that is Checkr, this page did its job.
For “search sex offender registries and criminal records from my code, today” — a key at sign-up, $0.15 a search, 58 US registries in one call, scored and cited — OffenderSearch is the faster and cheaper path. For full FCRA employment screening, Checkr is the right tool, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
How to switch from Checkr to OffenderSearch. A key, a first search, then your list.
Most teams that look for a Checkr alternative are adding a registry or records check, not replacing a screening vendor. That takes an afternoon.
- 1
Get a key
Sign up and the key works at once, with 25 free searches and no card.
X-API-Key - 2
Search a person
Send a name and date of birth; get scored matches across the 58 registries.
POST /v1/search - 3
Screen a list
Send up to 1,000 people per batch request, or upload a CSV in the dashboard.
POST /v1/batch - 4
Keep the FCRA path
Hiring decisions stay with your CRA, or run through FCRA Partner Access.
Checkr pricing vs OffenderSearch pricing: per report or per search
Checkr publishes its packages; so do we. The units differ, and the unit is the whole story.
Checkr’s public pricing page lists Basic at $29.99, Essential at $59.99, Complete at $94.99 per report (October 2026). It also notes that standard third-party court and database access fees may apply, passed through at cost, and enterprise pricing is by quote through Checkr sales. Each package bundles several searches into one consumer report on one candidate.
On OffenderSearch a search is $0.15. Past 2,000 searches in a calendar month each additional search is $0.11, with no subscription, no seats and no minimum on search. Criminal-record searches are priced the same; live re-verification adds $0.02 per completed registry, capped at $2.00 a search; a verification PDF is $0.02. The full schedule is on the pricing page, with volume maths on background check API pricing.
So the fair comparison is by job. For a full hiring screen, compare Checkr with other consumer reporting agencies. For registry and records checks on their own, compare per-search prices — the table below shows what that difference looks like.
Checkr alternative pricing: a 500-person roster is $75 at $0.15 a search, with no package to buy.
| Registry searches / month | OffenderSearch |
|---|---|
| A 500-person roster | $75.00 |
| 2,000 | $300.00 |
| 10,000 | $1,180.00 |
| 50,000 | $5,580.00 |
What Checkr pricing and OffenderSearch pricing look like at volume
Illustrative only: the two columns buy different things. The Checkr column is the entry package price times the count, before fees.
| Checks a month | OffenderSearch registry or criminal search | Checkr entry package (Basic) |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | $15.00 | $2,999.00 + fees |
| 1,000 | $150.00 | $29,990.00 + fees |
| 10,000 | $1,180.00 | $299,900.00 + fees |
OffenderSearch: $0.15 for the first 2,000 a month, $0.11 after. Checkr: published Basic price × checks, October 2026; enterprise volume pricing is by quote with Checkr. A consumer report and a public-records lookup are different products.
Checkr add-on pricing: county searches, MVRs, verifications and drug tests
Beyond the packages, Checkr publishes à-la-carte prices. These are the ones buyers ask about most.
| Checkr add-on | Published price |
|---|---|
| County criminal search | $25 a check, plus pass-through fees |
| State criminal search | from $10 a check, plus pass-through fees |
| Federal criminal search | $10 a check |
| Motor vehicle record (MVR) | $9.50 a check, plus state DMV fees |
| Identity verification | $4.99 a check |
| Employment verification | from $12.50 a check |
| Education verification | from $12.50 a check |
| Drug screening | from $10 a test |
| Continuous criminal search | $1.70 per individual a month |
| Continuous MVR | $2.50 per enrolled driver a month |
| Adjudication (Assess Standard) | $2.49 a report |
| International Basic | from $32 a check, varying by country |
From Checkr’s pricing page, October 2026; pass-through fees are charged at cost on top where marked. Checkr’s tenant screening line is priced separately (Starter $24.99, Essential $34.99 and Complete $44.99 a report). OffenderSearch does not sell verifications, MVRs or drug tests; its only add-ons are live re-verification ($0.02 a registry, capped at $2.00), a verification PDF ($0.02) and monitoring.
Checkr background check packages vs an OffenderSearch search: what is inside
What each unit of purchase returns, as each company publishes it.
| Unit | What it returns |
|---|---|
| Checkr Basic ($29.99) | SSN trace, sex offender registry search, global watchlist search and national criminal search |
| Checkr Essential ($59.99) | Everything in Basic plus identity verification and unlimited county criminal searches |
| Checkr Complete ($94.99) | Everything in Essential plus unlimited state criminal searches and a federal criminal search |
| OffenderSearch registry search ($0.15) | Matches across the 58 US sex offender registries, each scored (matchConfidence, matchBasis, matchState), with the registry named, a link to the official record and the status of each registry searched |
| OffenderSearch criminal search ($0.15) | Court cases and dispositions, jail bookings, state prison custody, warrants and federal records, each labelled by record type so a booking is never read as a conviction |
Checkr package contents as listed on its pricing page, October 2026. Package contents change; check Checkr’s site before you buy.
Checkr turnaround time vs an instant registry search API
Checkr says most of its criminal checks complete within an hour. A full report completes when its slowest component does, and county court searches, verifications and drug tests can take longer. That is the nature of a screening report: some components wait on a county court or a verifier, and the report completes when the slowest one does.
An OffenderSearch search returns in the same HTTP request, because it answers from records already held and continuously updated rather than dispatching research. Every response carries elapsedMs and the status of each registry searched. For bulk work there is an async endpoint, POST /v1/searches, that you collect by polling or with a webhook.
If your product blocks on the answer — a marketplace sign-up, a booking approval, a volunteer roster before Saturday — that architectural difference decides the choice. If the answer feeds a hiring decision, the slower, regulated report is the right tool.
Checkr API vs OffenderSearch API: order a report or run a lookup
The Checkr API orders a report: you create a candidate, send an invitation, and receive a finished consumer report when it completes, with webhooks for status changes. That is the right shape when the output is a hiring decision. The OffenderSearch API is a lookup: you send a name and date of birth to POST /v1/search or POST /v1/criminal/search and scored records come back in the same request.
The endpoint-by-endpoint mapping, code and webhook details are on the Checkr API alternative page; the full reference is in the API docs.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/search \
-H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \
-d '{"query":{"firstName":"Jordan",
"lastName":"Sample","dob":"1980-04-12"}}'
{ "status": "complete",
"counts": { "sourcesQueried": 58,
"sourcesComplete": 58,
"records": 1 },
"records": [ { "matchState": "dob_match",
"matchConfidence": 0.98 } ] }Checkr FCRA compliance vs OffenderSearch FCRA Partner Access
If a result will help decide whether to hire someone or rent to them, the check has to run as an FCRA-regulated consumer report, with a permissible purpose, disclosure and consent, accuracy controls and a dispute path for the person. Checkr is a consumer reporting agency and carries those duties in its product, including pre-adverse and adverse-action notices.
OffenderSearch’s standard search and API are not a consumer report and must not be used for those decisions. The regulated path is FCRA Partner Access, for background check companies and screening platforms under a written FCRA agreement, with an FCRA API, a disputes API and a consumer portal. FCRA pricing is quoted per partner, so contact us for pricing.
Trust and safety, volunteer and resident-safety checks, research and personal safety are the jobs the standard API is for; the line is drawn use by use on the non-FCRA background check API page.
Checkr alternative by use case: which job is yours?
A registry search and a background check answer different questions. Pick by the question.
| Your situation | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Screening volunteers or a youth-league roster | OffenderSearch | A registry check per person, priced per search, with a stored record |
| A marketplace checking new sign-ups | OffenderSearch API | A per-call registry and criminal check inside your own flow, answered in the request |
| Re-checking an existing roster every quarter | OffenderSearch batch or monitoring | 1,000 people per batch request, or a $3 person watch |
| A CRA adding registry data to its reports | OffenderSearch FCRA API | Registry and criminal data under a written FCRA agreement |
| Watching an address for new registrants | OffenderSearch monitoring | $10 a month per address, alerts when records change |
| An AI agent that needs to check a name | OffenderSearch API | A tool-calling agent can call the REST API; an MCP server is in private beta |
| Hiring an employee or contractor in the US | Checkr or another CRA | An FCRA consumer report with notices, consent and dispute rights |
| Drug test, MVR or employment verification | Checkr | We do not offer these |
Our pick for registry and criminal lookups: OffenderSearch. Hiring and tenant screening must run as an FCRA-regulated consumer report. See the employment background check API and tenant screening API.
Checkr continuous monitoring vs OffenderSearch monitoring
Checkr offers continuous criminal search at $1.70 per individual a month and continuous MVR at $2.50 per driver a month. It is built for a workforce that has already been screened through Checkr.
OffenderSearch monitoring watches a person by name and date of birth for $3 a month — registry or criminal — or an address and radius across the 58 US registries for $10 a month, and sends an email or a signed webhook when a matching record is added, changes or is removed. Monitors are created with POST /v1/monitors; see sex offender monitoring. Monitoring is not a consumer report and must not drive FCRA-governed decisions.
How to evaluate a Checkr alternative: an eight-point checklist
The questions that separate a good fit from a second migration, whichever vendor you pick.
- Is the output a consumer report? If it will decide a job or a tenancy, run it as an FCRA order — OffenderSearch's FCRA Orders API does that. If not, the standard lookup is cheaper and faster.
- What is the unit of price? Per report, per search or per seat — and is it published, or a quote?
- Can you test on real data before a contract? A free tier on production data beats a demo.
- Does the response say what was searched? A clean result is only clean if every source answered.
- How are matches explained? Look for match basis and confidence, not just a hit.
- Does the answer return in the request? Or do you poll for a report, and how long does that take at the tail?
- Bulk, webhooks and monitoring? Rosters and re-checks are where the bill and the engineering effort grow.
- Who carries FCRA duties? Notices, disputes and adverse action belong to someone — make sure you know who.
Our pick for registry and criminal checks: OffenderSearch — a published per-search price, a free production key, the status of each registry on every response, match basis and confidence on every record, and the answer in the request.
Other Checkr alternatives and Checkr competitors
Our pick: OffenderSearch, for every check that is a lookup rather than a hiring report — $0.15 a search against Checkr’s $29.99 entry package. If you are replacing Checkr as your hiring screener, the like-for-like alternatives are other consumer reporting agencies. We compare them — with their published prices, APIs and self-serve options — on the Checkr alternatives page, and rank background check APIs on the best background check API.
Every other comparison we publish is on the alternatives hub.
Checkr alternative FAQ: what people ask before switching
Is OffenderSearch a replacement for Checkr?
How much does Checkr cost compared with OffenderSearch?
Is there a cheaper alternative to Checkr?
Why would a developer choose OffenderSearch over Checkr?
How fast is a Checkr background check compared with an OffenderSearch search?
Is a Checkr sex offender search the same as an OffenderSearch search?
Can I use OffenderSearch for employment or tenant decisions?
Can a screening company use OffenderSearch alongside Checkr?
Does Checkr or OffenderSearch offer continuous monitoring?
What does an OffenderSearch search cover?
How fast can I start?
Beyond Checkr: what else OffenderSearch searches
Try a Checkr alternative free — 25 searches, no card
No subscription. Your API key and the no-code dashboard both work the moment you sign up.