Pre-employment testing streamlines recruitment processes and helps eliminate bias in hiring decisions.
By using pre-employment testing, your organization can adopt a skills-focused recruitment strategy. This approach evaluates candidates on objective abilities and competencies instead of relying solely on a resume.
Choosing the right pre-employment testing platform for your business can be a challenge. This article breaks down the differences between TestGorilla and Criteria.
Both offer a range of assessment options, but TestGorilla has the edge with highly customizable features.
Table of contents
- How does TestGorilla work?
- How does Criteria work?
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Test libraries
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Functionalities for hiring developers
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Video interviews
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Candidate experience and company branding
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Enterprise and startup friendliness
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Quality control
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Anti-cheating measures
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Reporting and analytics
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Customer support
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Pricing
- TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Ease of use
- Conclusion: TestGorilla vs. Criteria
- Streamline your hiring process with pre-employment testing
- ✅ Get started with TestGorilla today
How does TestGorilla work?
TestGorilla makes recruitment more accurate, customized, and fair with a range of aptitude, skills, and personality tests. More than 280 scientifically validated tests let you create an assessment tailored to each position.
Assessments are easy to create for recruiters and user-friendly for candidates. Tests can be accessed on any device, making it more likely candidates will complete them.
TestGorilla’s assessments can target a wide range of roles, including specialized positions for software developers. Custom video questions and coding challenges make it easy to fit the assessment to the job role.
TestGorilla offers reports that are comprehensive and easy to understand. Reports provide accurate and objective data to rank candidates fairly.
Making the right hiring decision reduces employee turnover and limits recruitment costs. TestGorilla’s platform helps improve the overall quality of each hiring decision while limiting the time to hire.
How does Criteria work?
Criteria offers a range of assessments aimed at revealing candidate strengths and weaknesses in areas like job-specific skills, cognitive aptitude, and personality. Assessments can be accessed on any device.
A wide range of roles are covered, although Criteria doesn’t offer any coding challenges or developer-specific skills tests.
Criteria integrates with a wide range of ATS and HRIS platforms. It offers insights intended to assist with managing existing talent in addition to recruiting new talent.
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Test libraries
A large test library of scientifically vetted questions makes it easier to tailor assessments to the job you’re hiring for. A suite of test types gives a clearer picture of a candidate by testing a range of skills, personality traits, and aptitudes.
TestGorilla’s test library
TestGorilla offers more than 280 pre-employment screening tests across a range of categories. Tests can measure everything from personality traits to customer service skills to coding proficiency.
Tests include a variety of question formats, including multiple-choice, video responses, open-text answers, and file uploads. Tests can be completed in 15 minutes on any device.
TestGorilla can improve recruitment for global businesses with localized websites in 11 different languages. This makes it easier to build assessments for candidates regardless of their location.
Criteria’s test library
Criteria offers a range of pre-employment screening tests. They can be combined to reveal a detailed picture of the candidate across many dimensions, including cognitive aptitude, personality, emotional intelligence, risk, and job-specific skills.
Tests can be customized, and a custom test generator recommends tests relevant to individual business needs.
However, Criteria’s test library doesn’t include programming tests.
Test libraries: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| Cognitive ability tests | Yes | Yes |
| Situational judgment tests | Yes | Yes |
| Job-specific tests | Yes | Yes |
| Software tests | Yes | Yes |
| Programming tests (including coding challenges) | Yes | No |
| Language tests | Yes | No |
| Personality tests | Yes | Yes |
| Culture-add test | Yes | Yes |
| Your own custom tests | Yes | Yes |
| Custom questions per assessment | Yes | No |
| Test recommendations for each job role | Yes | No |
| Multiple tests per assessment | Yes | Yes |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Functionalities for hiring developers
Resumes are a poor measure for coding proficiency. Developer skill-related tests can fairly and clearly indicate a candidate’s familiarity with coding languages and development frameworks.
Look for features like coding and debugging challenges, as well as options to review how candidates approached each challenge.
Hiring developers with TestGorilla
TestGorilla’s evaluations cover a broad range of coding languages, including JavaScript, Python, C#, Scala, and more.
Coding challenges can also be customized to reflect scenarios or issues likely to arise in your organization.
When candidates complete a coding challenge, their screen can be recorded for later review. This gives the option to follow the candidate’s process and evaluate their speed.
Hiring developers with Criteria
Criteria enables customers to develop their own programming skills tests but doesn’t offer any premade tests. Coding challenges can only be created by the customer individually.
Functionalities for hiring developers: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| Coding languages | JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, C, C#, C++, SQL, Kotlin, Ruby, TypeScript, Go, R, Scala, React, and Swift | N/A |
| Web-development frameworks | Yes | N/A |
| Mobile-development frameworks | Yes | N/A |
| Algorithmic-thinking challenges | Yes | N/A |
| Debugging challenges | Yes | N/A |
| Language-specific concept challenges | Yes | N/A |
| Your own custom coding challenges | Yes | N/A |
| Code-playback function | Yes | N/A |
| Automated scoring | Yes | N/A |
| Live peer coding | No | N/A |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Video interviews
Using one-way video interviews for preliminary screening can be a time-saving and cost-effective alternative to traditional interviews. Candidates can record their responses in their own time, and all candidates respond to the same set of questions.
Video interviews also add value to the hiring process by offering insights into each candidate’s communication skills.
TestGorilla’s video interviews
TestGorilla supports one-way video interviews, as well as custom video questions within tests. These features make it easier to perceive the candidate’s communication style and also offer an interactive way for candidates to engage in the process.
Video interviews are fully customizable, letting you set the maximum answer length and add comments to a candidate’s response for easy sharing.
Criteria’s video interviews
Criteria also supports one-way video interviews. Options are available to mask personal details and disguise the candidate’s voice to reduce unconscious bias. Video interview questions can also be customized.
Video interviews: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| One-way video interview | Yes | Yes |
| Custom video questions | Yes | Yes |
| Record the number of candidates’ attempts | Yes | No |
| Record and playback on any device | Yes | Yes |
| Rate and comment video answers | Yes | Yes |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Candidate experience and company branding
A positive candidate experience reduces test abandonment. It also encourages candidates to view pre-employment testing as a valuable component of the hiring process.
Features that support a good candidate experience include reasonable test length, mobile friendliness, and accessible customer support.
It’s also a good idea to look for pre-employment testing platforms that tie in company branding. Options to add your company logo and colors present a consistent experience for candidates.
The candidate experience with TestGorilla
TestGorilla includes features that make it easy for candidates to complete assessments. These include reasonable test lengths and enabling candidates to complete tests on any device.
Tests can be completed in as little as 10 minutes, and most assessments can be completed in 30-60 minutes. Candidates can access support as needed to ensure they complete tests to the best of their ability.
Company branding is included, and communications can be customized. You can add intro or outro videos to assessments as well as your organization’s logo and colors to keep the focus on your business.
The candidate experience with Criteria
Criteria offers a mobile-friendly test platform but doesn’t provide an average assessment length.
Candidates must set up a login with Criteria before they can access assessments.
Companies can brand Criteria assessments with their logo and colors. The same can be added to candidate communications and intro and outro videos.
Candidate experience and company branding: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| Your company’s intro and/or outro video | Yes | Yes |
| Assessments branded with your company logo and colors | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable invitation and rejection emails | Yes | Yes |
| No login required for candidates | Yes | No |
| Mobile friendly | Yes | Yes |
| Help and support for your candidates | Yes | Yes |
| Typical assessment length | 30-60 minutes | Unclear |
| Qualifying questions prior to assessment | Yes | No |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Enterprise and startup friendliness
Pre-employment testing should have the ability to scale with your business. Look for options that fully integrate with your hiring process and match your recruitment needs.
Features that support scaling businesses include ATS integrations, GDPR compliance, and API access. Flexibility is important to ensure pre-employment testing adds value regardless of your organization’s size.
TestGorilla’s enterprise and startup friendliness
TestGorilla caters to all types of businesses, from startups to large enterprises. You can customize assessments to suit your organization’s size and requirements, and our Free plan and Pay as you go plan are tailored specifically for smaller ventures.
TestGorilla offers a range of features that make larger, enterprise-level recruitment seamless. These include ATS integrations, easy file-sharing options, and multiple user controls for managing large-scale recruitment.
TestGorilla is fully GDPR compliant, ensuring personal data is handled securely.
Criteria’s enterprise and startup friendliness
Criteria targets businesses of all sizes. However, it doesn’t offer as much flexibility to scale testing up or down with shifting hiring needs.
Criteria integrates with a range of ATS software and offers optional upgrades to customize ATS integrations. Candidates can be tracked throughout the hiring process, and bulk action pipelines help streamline administrative tasks. Criteria is also GDPR compliant.
Enterprise and startup friendliness: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| ATS integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple users and role-based rights management | Yes | No |
| GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple candidate invitation options | Yes | No |
| Public link to invite candidates | Yes | No |
| Public links for each candidate source | Yes | No |
| Bulk invite candidates (CSV/XLSX upload) | Yes | Yes |
| Track candidate stages from invited to hired | Yes | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Quality control
Pre-employment testing must be accurate to add value. Quality-control measures ensure results are reliable and valid, with minimal errors or bias.
Look for a platform that prioritizes scientific question development, solicits feedback from customers and candidates, and refreshes questions regularly.
TestGorilla’s quality-control processes
TestGorilla ensures test quality by undergoing a comprehensive 28-step quality-control process before tests are published. This includes rigorous peer review and evaluation by a psychometric testing expert.
TestGorilla further improves test quality by employing built-in quality-control features, like the replacement of questions after a set number of uses.
Feedback is solicited from both customers and candidates to continuously enhance test quality and optimize the assessment experience.
Criteria’s quality-control processes
Criteria extensively reviews its assessments during initial development and on a continuous basis. This includes evaluating each assessment for validity, including construct, content, and criterion validity.
No mention is made on Criteria’s website as to whether test questions are replaced after overexposure.
Criteria solicits feedback from customers and test-takers to optimize assessments.
Quality control: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| Proprietary algorithms that continuously improve the quality of each test | Yes | Yes |
| Extensive quality checks before tests go live | Yes | Yes |
| Questions replaced after reaching exposure limit | Yes | Unknown |
| Customer feedback used to improve tests | Yes | Yes |
| Test-taker feedback used to improve tests | Yes | Yes |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Anti-cheating measures
Anti-cheating measures keep test results accurate and fair. If some test-takers cheat by researching or sharing questions, this damages the validity of test results for everyone.
Features like test time limits, full-screen detection, and screen monitoring prevent candidates from seeking an unfair advantage.
TestGorilla’s anti-cheating measures
TestGorilla has implemented several anti-cheating measures, including disabling copy and paste and detecting when a candidate leaves the full-screen test window.
Tests are time-limited, making it more difficult for candidates to conduct research or share questions.
TestGorilla also offers candidate monitoring features, such as logging the candidate’s IP address and taking webcam snapshots (with permission). These measures help ensure it’s actually the candidate completing each test.
Criteria’s anti-cheating measures
Criteria provides very little information on its anti-cheating features and recommends employers re-test candidates on-site if they progress in the hiring process.
The platform logs the candidate’s location and sets time limits on tests to discourage cheating. Additionally, each test pulls from a large pool of questions and randomizes the questions that appear.
Anti-cheating measures: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| IP address logging (to avoid multiple attempts by the same candidate) | Yes | No |
| Logging of a candidate’s location | Yes | Yes |
| Webcam snapshots (with the option to turn on/off) | Yes | No |
| Full-screen mode detection (to avoid research during the test) | Yes | No |
| Randomized questions per test | Yes | Yes |
| Large question pool for each test | Yes (100+) | Yes |
| Questions and answers not visible to employers to protect test integrity | Yes | No |
| Time limit on tests | Yes (typically 10 minutes) | Yes |
| Copy-paste disabled | Yes | No |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics draw valuable insights from candidate test results. They should summarize a candidate’s skills quickly and objectively.
Effective analytics help you easily decide which candidates move forward in the hiring process. Reports should be easy to access and simple to understand.
TestGorilla’s reporting and analytics
TestGorilla includes a range of analytics and reports. These include summarized and detailed analyses of each applicant’s performance. Candidates can be easily ranked within their talent pool and against set benchmarks.
Reports enable annotations to facilitate real time recording of impressions and easier sharing with hiring team members.
Reports can also be downloaded in PDF, XLSX, or CSV format.
Criteria’s reporting and analytics
Criteria includes reporting features within its platform, but it’s unclear who can access them and whether each report is comprehensive.
Reporting and analytics: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| PDF reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | N/A |
| Excel and CSV reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | N/A |
| Comprehensive overview for all current and past candidates | Yes | N/A |
| Scoring benchmarks for candidates (including percentile rank scoring) | Yes | N/A |
| Add your ratings and personal notes for candidates | Yes | N/A |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Customer support
High-quality customer support helps recruiters build effective assessments quickly and confidently and provides candidates with assistance when completing a test.
Many platforms offer customer support through a range of channels, including live chat, email, or phone support.
TestGorilla’s customer support
TestGorilla offers customer support to both hiring teams and candidates.
Customers and test-takers receive live chat and email support.
An online help center provides comprehensive guides and answers to FAQs for companies and candidates.
TestGorilla offers a detailed onboarding tour to help new customers get started and learn how to use all of TestGorilla’s features.
Criteria’s customer support
Criteria offers comprehensive customer support. An onboarding tour is included for new customers as they first begin to navigate the platform.
Candidates can access a range of FAQs and online help articles.
Customer support: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | |
| Live chat | Yes | Yes |
| Help center | Yes | Yes |
| Email support | Yes | Yes |
| Training and onboarding tour | Yes | Yes |
| Phone assistance | No | No |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Pricing
Most pre-employment testing platforms offer monthly subscriptions based on a per-user or per-test model. Pricing plans may also be offered on an annual basis.
It’s important to pay close attention to what’s on offer. Some platforms limit the number of users or candidates that can access the platform each month. While others may offer free trials or a free plan.
TestGorilla’s pricing
TestGorilla offers four pricing plans (billed annually), including a free plan:
Free plan at $0
- Free forever
- 10 tests including JavaScript, communication, and personality tests
Pay as you go plan at $312 per year
- Includes one assessment and up to 100 candidates per year
- $150 for each additional assessment and $1.20 for each additional candidate
- Access to all tests in TestGorilla’s library
- Includes essay, multiple-choice, and file upload question/response types
Scale plan at $3,900 per year
- Includes 15 assessments and up to 1,500 candidates per year
- $120 for each additional assessment and $0.90 for each additional candidate
- Brand assessments with your company’s logo and colors
- Integrate with 15+ ATS systems
Business plan at $26,400 per year
- Includes 125 assessments and up to 12,500 candidates per year
- $95 for each additional assessment and $0.70 for each additional candidate
- API access for custom integrations
- Custom onboarding training program
Custom pricing is also available by request.
Criteria’s pricing
Criteria offers three pricing plans:
- Essentials: For smaller teams
- Professional: For most business types and sizes
- Enterprise: For large businesses with complex hiring needs
Pricing for all Criteria plans is by request only. Although no free plan is available, you can access a free trial.
Pricing: Comparison chart at a glance
| TestGorilla | Criteria | ||
| Plan | Price (billed annually) | Plan | Price |
| Free | $0 | No free plan | |
| Pay as you go | $26 per month | Essentials | By request |
| Scale | $325 per month | Professional | By request |
| Business | $2,200 per month | Enterprise | By request |
TestGorilla vs. Criteria: Ease of use
Your hiring team and candidates are more likely to be open to a pre-employment testing platform that is easy to use.
It’s important to seek out a platform that is straightforward to navigate, offers an intuitive interface, and provides clear instructions and support.
TestGorilla’s ease of use
TestGorilla provides an accessible and user-friendly pre-employment testing platform that is appreciated by customers and candidates alike.
Customers enjoy TestGorilla’s intuitive interface. You can create and send out your first assessment in minutes, and candidate tracking features make it easy to find where candidates are in the hiring process at any point.
Candidates also appreciate uncomplicated tests which are simple to access and complete. Clear instructions, one-click access, and available support prevent assessments from becoming a burden for candidates.
Criteria’s ease of use
Criteria offers a simple testing invitation procedure that can be used at any stage in the hiring process. Test options are recommended by job, and tests are available for more than 1,100 positions. However, it’s unclear how easily test results can be shared amongst hiring team members.
Criteria’s mobile-friendly platform makes it simple for candidates to complete tests where and when they prefer.
Conclusion: TestGorilla vs. Criteria
TestGorilla and Criteria provide similar approaches to pre-employment screening, but TestGorilla is more comprehensive and flexible.
Both platforms offer a wide range of tests that measure job-specific skills, personality traits, and general aptitude. TestGorilla includes tests for programming skills that are not available through Criteria.
TestGorilla also offers more flexible pricing, including a Free plan. This means TestGorilla can support your needs whether you are hiring your first employee or your next thousand.
Streamline your hiring process with pre-employment testing
Pre-employment testing lets you take a skills-based approach to recruitment and reduces the influence of unconscious bias. It also saves your organization time and minimizes the cost of ineffective mis-hires.
Sign up for a free demo today to start seeing how TestGorilla can benefit your business. We’ll help you find the best plan to improve your company’s hiring process.
