Best startup-friendly employment assessment tools

Employee assessment tools play a critical role in helping startups hire the best employees to get great ideas off the ground.

Startups depend on their employees to wear a lot of different hats and work well in a fast-moving environment. They often rely on small teams, so every new hire has a significant impact on a startup’s productivity and work culture. If your startup isn’t using an employee assessment tool, you could be missing out on talent or risk making a bad hire.

In this guide, we compare the four best startup-friendly employment assessment tools to help you hire the perfect candidate for your growing business.

Top 4 talent assessment software for startups at a glance

Top 4 talent assessment software for startups: Comparisons

Let’s take a closer look at the four best pre-employment screening tools your startup can use today.

1. TestGorilla

TestGorilla is a flexible and easy-to-use pre-employment screening software with tons of features for startups.

It offers more than 300+ tests for both technical and soft skills, so you can assess candidates on all the attributes that matter to your business. There are a number of tests for job-specific skills, including programming and developing, as well as personality and culture add.

TestGorilla lets you mix and match up to five tests to create a custom assessment. You can also add your own custom questions to any assessment. There are extensive anti-cheating measures in place to ensure assessments are fair and their results are accurate.

With TestGorilla, it’s easy to review results with interactive and shareable reports. You can take notes on candidate responses, helping your team work together to decide which applicant would make the best addition to your growing startup.

Another benefit is that TestGorilla’s tests are available in 11 languages, so you can use the software to hire talent internationally.

Best for: Startups that want to build custom assessments

Features:

• 310+ tests to assess job-specific, technical, and soft skills

• Add custom questions to assessments

• One-way video interviews

• Add an introductory video to your assessments

• Robust anti-cheating measures

• Rank candidates based on assessment performance

Pros:

• Free-forever plan provides unlimited access to 10 tests

• ATS integrations, including Workable, Greenhouse, and more

• Tests available in 11 languages, including English, Spanish, German, and French

• Mobile-friendly interface enables candidates to take tests on any device

• Notes on candidate reports for streamlined collaboration within hiring teams

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer its own built-in ATS

• Doesn’t support live video interviews

Pricing:

• Free forever at $0 - 10 free tests, including all personality tests.

• Depending on the size of your company, paid plans begin with:

• Starter from $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront)  - start with skills-based hiring for all roles. There is also the option to pay monthly, starting from 85 USD per month.

• Pro from $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront) - maximize your hiring with advanced features. There is also the option to pay monthly, starting from $130 USD per month.

Verdict:

TestGorilla is the best pre-employment screening platform available for startups today. You can start building assessments for free, and the two other plans are perfect for scaling up and bigger businesses.

On top of that, TestGorilla covers both technical and soft skills. So, it can help all sorts of startups – from tech companies looking for new developers to local businesses in need of a sales guru and everything in between.

2. Testlify

Testlify is a pre-employment testing platform with more than 750 tests covering software and programming skills, cognitive ability, and more. The test library skews towards technical skills, with only three personality tests and none that test culture fit.

Testlify stands out for startups looking to open a new international office or hire abroad. The software’s tests are available in English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, French, and Dutch. 

Testlify also offers live video interviews. This way, hiring teams can learn more about a remote candidate before spending time and money on an in-person interview.

Best for: Startups looking to grow internationally

Features:

• 750+ tests, mainly for software and programming skills

• Create custom questions

• Live video interviews

• Live coding assessments

Pros:

• Tests available in eight languages

• Integrates with 100+ ATS platforms

• Host tests on a custom, branded domain

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer one-way video interviews

• No culture fit test

Pricing:

• Starter: $228 per year (unlimited assessments, 100 candidates per year)

• Basic: $468 per year (unlimited assessments, 300 candidates per year)

• Business: $2,388 per year (unlimited assessments, unlimited candidates)

• White label: $7,188 per year (unlimited assessments, unlimited candidates)

Verdict:

With live video interviews and multilingual tests, Testlify makes it easy for startups to hire remotely. It also integrates with virtually every major ATS platform, so startups don’t have to modify their current hiring tools to work with Testlify.

Testlify’s tests are mainly focused on technical skills, including software and programming skills. It’s less suitable for helping startups decide which candidate will fit best within their existing team.

3. Pulsifi

Pulsifi is a pre-employment testing software that can help startups find the candidates who will mesh best with their existing team. It offers six tests that assess personality, culture fit, motivation, and reasoning skills.

Pulsifi’s reports provide a summary of the situations that make a candidate thrive or struggle. This can help hiring teams determine how each applicant might perform in the work environment. 

Current employees can also take assessments, and Pulsifi will calculate an “organizational fit” score for each new applicant against existing workers’ scores.

In addition, Pulsifi offers one-way video interviews with custom questions. However, users can’t add one-way video questions to any of Pulsifi’s premade tests.

Best for: Startups that want to build a cohesive team

Features:

• Six tests focused on personality, culture, and reasoning

• Organizational fit score for each test-taker

• One-way video interviews

• Reports show average scores across all applicants

Pros:

• Evaluate candidates in the context of the current team

• Tests take less than 15 minutes to complete

• 30+ ATS integrations available

Cons:

• Cannot integrate one-way video interviews into tests

• No tools for assessing technical skills

Pricing:

Contact Pulisifi for pricing options

Verdict:

Pulsifi can help startups evaluate whether an applicant is a good fit for their work environment and team. This is useful for startups that need a candidate with the right attitude but not necessarily a wide range of technical skills.

Pulsifi has some limitations. It doesn’t support custom questions, and current employees will need to complete assessments in order for hiring teams to get the most out of Pulsifi’s reporting tools.

4. Vervoe

Vervoe is an employment assessment tool with more than 300 tests for technical and soft skills. It lets hiring teams create custom questions to add to tests as well. The platform also supports live video interviews but not one-way video interviews.

Vervoe offers immersive role-specific job simulations for cybersecurity and customer service positions, so it’s especially good for hiring for these types of jobs.

Startups will appreciate Vervoe’s Pay & Go plan, which supports one assessment for up to 100 candidates for only $228 per year. However, there’s no free plan available.

Best for: Startups on a budget

Features:

• 300+ tests to assess technical and soft skills

• Live two-way video interviews

• Interactive job simulations for cybersecurity and customer service

• Randomizes questions to prevent cheating

Pros:

• Add custom questions to any test

• Uses AI to automatically grade assessments

• Comment on candidate reports to make hiring collaborative

Cons:

• No offer one-way video interviews

• Limited options for company branding

Pricing:

• Pay & Go: $228 per year (one assessment, 100 candidates per year)

• Custom pricing available

Verdict:

Vervoe offers a wide range of tools to help startups find the right candidate. You can build custom tests, host a live video interview, or even simulate a cybersecurity incident and see how a candidate responds.

Vervoe’s Pay & Go plan is very affordable for startups that only need to hire for one role. However, there’s no free plan, and Vervoe can get pricey if you need to create multiple assessments.

Conclusion: Our top 3 choices

TestGorilla, Testlify, and Pulsify are the three best employee assessment tools for startups. TestGorilla and Testlify offer a huge range of tests and features like video interviews, while Pulsify helps you identify candidates who will mesh well with your current team. Sign up for your free-forever plan with TestGorilla and start making smart hiring choices for your startup.

Disclaimer: The information on TestGorilla competitors has been taken from the relevant competitor website and is accurate at date of publication.