Identity Verification Cost 2026: Checkr $29.99, RentSpree $39.99, SmartMove $25, 6 Vendors Quote-Only

Three categories, one cost question

Buyers researching "identity verification cost" typically arrive with one of three workflows in mind: hiring a worker (employment background check), screening a tenant (rental application + credit / criminal), or onboarding a consumer (KYC for finance, gig-economy, government). Each category has its own dominant vendors, its own pricing model, and its own hidden-cost pattern. We cover all three so you can see the price of the adjacent option before committing to one.

All 11 vendors at a glance

Sorted alphabetically by vendor. Six are quote-only and shown with a Quote only badge, no inferred rates. Click any vendor to open the dossier with tier breakdown, hidden costs, and the link to the vendor's own sales contact.

The two facts most buyers get wrong

One. Checkr and GoodHire publish identical $29.99 / $54.99 / $89.99 per-check tiers as of 17 June 2026. Both were previously labelled Basic / Pro / Premier and have rebranded to Basic / Essential / Complete; the prices did not change. This is verified directly from each vendor's published pricing page, not from third-party listing sites.

Two. "TransUnion tenant screening" is two different products. SmartMove is the individual-landlord product with published per-report pricing of $25, $40, $48. ShareAble is the enterprise / multifamily product, sold quote-only, blocked from automated price verification. If you are an individual landlord and you have been quoted a custom rate, ask whether you are on SmartMove or ShareAble: the published rates are likely cheaper than the quote.

The hidden costs across all three categories

• Pass-through court access fees. Both Checkr and GoodHire pass through county-court and state-record access fees at cost. These add $5 to $40 per check depending on jurisdiction and are not in the published per-check rate.
• MVR and drug add-ons. Checkr's published add-on rates are $9.50 per Motor Vehicle Record and $60 per clinic-based drug test ($37 onsite). At 30% MVR uptake and 20% drug uptake, total cost per workforce check rises by roughly $15.
• Annual minimums and setup fees. Sterling, HireRight, Accurate Background, and First Advantage typically require an annual contract with a setup fee. Third-party listings cite $1,000 to $5,000 for HireRight setup and $175 for First Advantage; these are not confirmed by the vendors and we do not republish them as authoritative.
• Payment processing on tenant flows. RentSpree charges $3 per ACH rent transaction for landlords and 3% for tenants paying by credit card. These do not affect screening cost but affect landlord economics.
• Reusability discounts. ID.me and Yoti both price reusable credentials below per-verification fees; the more often a verified identity is reused, the lower the marginal cost.

Where to go next

• Run the multi-vendor calculator at your actual monthly check volume to see annual cost ranked by total spend.
• Open a per-vendor dossier from the matrix above for tier breakdown, source URL, last-verified date, and the link to vendor sales contact.
• Read quote-only vendors for the operational consequences of vendor pricing opacity (procurement timeline, NDA risk, benchmark difficulty).
• Read methodology for every source URL, verification date, and the rules we apply.
• For regulated-finance KYC pricing see sister site kycpricing.com.