Sterling Company Background Check: What You Need to Know

Understanding Sterling Background Checks

Sterling is one of the largest background check providers in the employment screening industry. Founded in 1975, the company has grown to conduct more than 75 million background checks annually and serves over 40,000 clients worldwide. Sterling is now part of First Advantage, which expanded their global reach and service capabilities.

If you're researching Sterling for your business needs—whether you're evaluating them as a vendor, going through their screening process as a candidate, or looking for alternatives—this guide covers everything you need to know about how their system works and what to expect.

What Sterling Background Checks Include

Sterling offers a comprehensive suite of screening services designed for different industries and use cases. Their standard offerings typically include:

• Criminal Background Checks: Searches conducted at local, state, and federal levels, including county court records, state repositories, and national criminal databases
• Employment Verification: Confirmation of past employment history, including job titles, duration of employment, and reason for leaving
• Education Verification: Validation of degrees, certifications, and academic credentials
• Motor Vehicle Records (MVR): Driving history for positions requiring vehicle operation
• Credit Reports: Financial history checks for positions involving financial responsibility
• Drug and Health Screenings: Substance testing through their network of testing facilities
• Social Security Number Tracing: Identity verification and address history

The specific checks included in your screening depend entirely on what the hiring company requests. Sterling customizes packages based on industry requirements, regulatory compliance needs, and position sensitivity.

How Long Does a Sterling Background Check Take?

Turnaround time is one of the most common concerns for both employers and candidates. Here's what Sterling's actual processing times look like:

Sterling completes 65% of criminal background checks within 15 minutes, 70% within one hour, and 90% within one day. Their CourtDirect technology provides direct digital access to approximately 89-90% of US criminal records, which significantly speeds up the process.

However, education, employment, credentials, and reference verifications typically take three to five business days to complete. This is because these checks often require contacting third parties—former employers, educational institutions, or licensing boards—who may have their own response times.

Several factors can cause delays:

• Court access limitations: Some counties don't permit digital record access and require in-person research
• Unresponsive employers: Previous employers may be slow to verify employment history
• International verifications: Degree verification from international institutions can take significantly longer—sometimes a week or more
• Complex histories: Candidates who have lived in multiple jurisdictions require more extensive searching

If you're a candidate waiting on results, you can check your status through Sterling's Candidate Hub portal using your email address and the last four digits of your Social Security Number.

Sterling Background Check Costs

Sterling does not publicly disclose their pricing, which can be frustrating for businesses trying to budget for screening services. Costs vary based on several factors:

• The types of checks included in your package
• Volume of background checks conducted annually
• Industry-specific requirements
• Geographic scope of searches

For reference, one institutional client (University of Washington) pays $20.73 per background check for their screening package, though this represents negotiated enterprise pricing that may not be available to smaller organizations.

Sterling historically offered a self-service option called SterlingNOW for small and medium-sized businesses conducting fewer than 100 checks per year, though availability of this service has varied.

Comparing Costs Across Solutions

When evaluating background check providers, remember that the lowest price isn't always the best value. Factors like accuracy, turnaround time, and compliance support matter significantly—especially since making hiring decisions based on inaccurate information creates serious legal liability.

For B2B professionals who need quick verification of business contacts rather than full employment screening, there are faster alternatives. Our free Background Checker tool provides instant trust scores and basic verification for sales prospecting and business development purposes—useful when you need to vet a potential client or partner quickly without the formality of employment-grade screening.

How Sterling Compares to Alternatives

Sterling competes with several other major background check providers. Here's how they stack up:

Sterling vs. GoodHire: Both offer similar pricing structures, but Sterling provides services in multiple languages and regions including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, while GoodHire is English-only.

Sterling vs. AccurateNow: Similar services and pricing, but Sterling offers more extensive enterprise software integrations and industry-specific screening packages that AccurateNow lacks.

Sterling vs. Checkr: Checkr is known for their AI-driven platform and developer-friendly API, making them popular with tech companies. Sterling offers broader global coverage and more established compliance infrastructure.

User reviews for Sterling are mixed. The platform has a 4.4-star rating on Trustpilot based on over 2,800 reviews, but there are also notable complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau. Common positive feedback mentions their nice interface, responsive customer service, and good network for drug screens. Criticism tends to focus on data accuracy issues and site usability problems.

What "Consider" Means on a Sterling Report

If you see a "Consider" status on a Sterling background check, it doesn't automatically mean disqualification. For criminal searches, "Consider" indicates that some information appearing on the report needs to be reviewed by the hiring company. For Motor Vehicle Record searches, it means you didn't meet a specific qualification related to your driving record.

The hiring company makes the final decision based on their policies and how the findings relate to the position. Sterling provides the information; they don't make hiring recommendations.

Disputing Inaccurate Information

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have the legal right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your consumer report. If you find errors in a Sterling background check:

1. Contact Sterling directly at their consumer disputes line
2. Clearly identify the inaccurate information
3. Provide documentation supporting your dispute

Sterling must conduct a reasonable investigation of your dispute free of charge. If information is found to be inaccurate, they must correct it and notify other consumer reporting companies they shared the data with. You're also entitled to one free copy of your Sterling report every 12 months if they have a file on you.

Building Your Own Contact Verification Workflow

While Sterling focuses on formal employment screening, many B2B professionals need faster, lighter-weight verification for everyday business activities. Here's a practical workflow for verifying business contacts:

Step 1: Verify Email Legitimacy
Before reaching out to a new contact, use our Email Verifier to confirm the email address is valid and deliverable. This catches typos, identifies abandoned addresses, and flags risky domains that might indicate fraud.

Step 2: Basic Identity Verification
Cross-reference the contact's LinkedIn profile, company website bio, and any other public presence. Look for consistency in their job history, connections, and professional activity.

Step 3: Company Verification
Verify that the company they claim to work for is legitimate. Check incorporation records, physical address, and online presence. Our Background Checker can help establish trust scores for individuals and businesses you're evaluating.

Step 4: Direct Contact
For high-stakes deals, find a direct phone number to verify the person exists at the company they claim. Don't rely solely on email—sophisticated scams can spoof corporate email addresses convincingly.

When to Use Professional Background Screening

Sterling-level background checks make sense in specific situations:

• Hiring employees: Full FCRA-compliant screening is essential and often legally required
• Engaging contractors with access to sensitive data: Protects your company from liability
• Financial services and healthcare: Regulated industries with mandatory screening requirements
• Positions involving vulnerable populations: Childcare, eldercare, and similar roles

For B2B sales, partnerships, and vendor evaluation, formal background checks are usually overkill. What you need is enough verification to establish trust before committing time or resources to a relationship. That's where quick verification tools shine—they give you actionable intelligence in seconds rather than days.

Key Takeaways

Sterling is a well-established background check provider with global reach and comprehensive services. Their criminal checks are fast (90% within one day), but verification services take longer (3-5 business days). Pricing isn't public but is negotiable based on volume.

For formal employment screening, Sterling is a legitimate choice, though you should also evaluate alternatives like Checkr, GoodHire, or Lusha depending on your specific needs. For quick B2B contact verification, lighter-weight tools often make more sense—you can verify a contact's email and basic information in minutes rather than waiting days for a formal report.

The right approach depends on your use case. Match the verification level to the risk involved, and you'll make better decisions without creating unnecessary friction in your business development process.