In today's competitive job market, finding and hiring top tech talent is a significant challenge for organisations. Pre-hiring assessments have emerged as an effective method to objectively evaluate candidates' job-specific technical skills, helping recruiters identify the most skilled and knowledgeable individuals. With over 200 talent assessment solutions available, choosing the right tool can be daunting. Key considerations when selecting an assessment tool include its ability to assess different roles, an exhaustive question bank, quality of candidate experience, product and customer centricity, and fair pricing.
This post compares leading tech hiring platforms, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and explains why Equip stands out as the premier choice.
Top Platforms for Tech Hiring
Here’s a breakdown of the top tech hiring platforms, starting with Equip:
1. Equip
Equip is a leading technical assessment solution that helps recruiters screen candidates with automated assessments across various skills. It is highly rated for user satisfaction globally on G2, scoring 99/100, and is even preferred by some companies who switched from HackerRank.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Affordable and Transparent Pricing: Equip operates on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning no subscription, annual commitment, or recurring fees. It offers an extremely low per-candidate cost, starting at $1 per candidate (or less for bulk purchases), and credits never expire. Users get 10 free credits upon creating a free account without needing card details.
- Superior Tech Hiring Assessments: Equip features a large Question Bank including Quizzes, Programming Tests, SQL tests, and CSS tests. It allows users to create role-based assessments by mentioning years of experience.
Programming Tests support multiple languages, and partial points are automatically awarded for partially correct submissions. Equip covers over 100 technical skills, from Python and JavaScript to Data Structures and Jenkins, enabling tailored assessments for roles from entry-level web developers to expert AI/ML wizards. - Customisation and Flexibility: Recruiters can control the number of questions from Equip's Question Bank and add their own questions in a Custom Test. Time limits can be controlled to ensure assessments are concise (around an hour). Custom tests can bundle multiple questions as a single reusable unit and can be cloned easily. Equip offers unique question types like voice input and transcription, which can be useful even for technical roles requiring communication skills.
- Advanced AI-Proctoring: Equip integrates AI-powered proctoring features like AutoProctor to ensure test integrity. This includes tab-switch detection, real-time face detection, audio monitoring, session recording (replaying how candidates interacted with their screens), disabling copy-paste, detecting multiple monitors, and enforcing full-screen mode. It automatically calculates a Trust Score.
- Scalability: Equip is designed to test 10,000+ candidates simultaneously, making it highly scalable for mass-hiring and large recruitment drives.
- Ease of Use and Support: Equip is very easy to use, allowing assessment creation within minutes. It is compatible across all devices without extensions. Equip offers 24/6 live chat support to recruiters and candidates.
- Integration: Equip can be integrated into your website in a white-labelled manner, allowing UI and functionality customisation.
2. HackerRank
HackerRank is a popular platform focused on technical assessments and remote hiring interviews specifically for tech talent, helping recruiters screen, interview, and rank developers for over 30 roles. Its G2 rating is 4.5/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Extensive Technical Focus: Supports over 50 programming languages and has a wide range of technical screening questions with candidate benchmarking.
- Robust IDE: Provides a strong Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for programming tests, enhancing candidate experience.
- Proctoring: Includes anti-cheating features like screen recording to detect malpractices.
- Auto-grading: Automatically evaluates code submissions and provides scores.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Challenge Difficulty: Candidates sometimes find coding assessments to be above their competency level.
- Pricing Structure: Offers subscription plans (e.g., Starter plan at $100/month) with lock-ins, and the cost per test attempt ($10-$20) can be high.
- Limited Customisation: While it offers Custom tests, questions are added individually to the library, making reuse cumbersome.
- Proctoring Gaps: Lacks some advanced anti-cheating features such as detecting audio, enabling auto-submit on tab switch, or capturing screenshots of switched tabs.
- Limited MCQs: While HackerRank is well-known for it's coding challenges, the number of MCQs per skill are limited.
3. iMocha
iMocha is a skills intelligence platform for talent development teams, allowing data-driven, skills-based decisions from hiring to retirement. Its G2 rating is 4.4/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Comprehensive Skill Coverage: Can be used for both technical and non-technical skills screening.
- Advanced Proctoring: Features such as detecting audio from the candidate's surroundings and enforcing full-screen mode.
- Unique Question Types: Offers AI-LogicBox (a patented question type) and analysis of question difficulty levels.
- Mobile Compatibility: Assessments are compatible with mobile devices.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Pricing Transparency: Free plan details are not listed publicly and require direct contact.
4. Mettl
Mercer | Mettl is an online platform providing solutions for online examinations, hiring, and learning & development, including psychometric, behavioral, and cognitive assessments. Its G2 rating is 4.4/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- In-depth Analytics: Provides detailed skill, candidate, and group-level analytics with benchmarks.
- Advanced Proctoring: Offers advanced proctoring and session recordings.
- Diverse Assessments: Includes Personality, Behavior, Cognitive & Domain Assessments, which can complement technical evaluations.
- Live Interviews: Supports live interviews.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Pricing Opacity: Pricing information is not listed on their website, requiring sales contact, and can be expensive.
- Candidate Experience: May require candidates to install a Chrome extension.
- Proctoring Bias: Utilises human proctoring, which can introduce biases.
5. CodeSignal
CodeSignal is a technical interview and assessment solution that incorporates job simulation technology into the hiring process. Its G2 rating is 4.5/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Job Simulation Technology: Offers job simulation technology for assessments.
- Advanced IDE Features: Provides an Advanced IDE with dynamic live preview for frontend & mobile tasks, integrated terminal, coding playback, and support for building full-stack applications.
- Predictive Coding Score: Includes a Predictive Coding Score.
- Structured Interviews: Offers templates and test reviews for structured interviews.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Pricing Transparency: Pricing plans for hiring talent are not transparent on their website.
6. Coderbyte
Coderbyte is a platform for technical assessments, interviews, and projects. Its G2 rating is 4.4/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Technical Assessments: Offers technical assessments, interviews, and projects.
- Coding Challenge Features: Includes masking coding challenge titles to prevent solutions from being easily found, and Big-O analysis for submissions.
- Additional Test Types: Supports Spreadsheet tests and unique question types like Long Answer and Video Response.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Pricing: Starts at $10 per candidate with credits expiring within a year, and free trial requires a work email and credit card. Monthly plans start higher than some competitors.
- Limits: Caps assessments at 50 candidates at a time and 500 invites per day.
- Support: Live chat support is only available when all add-ons are purchased.
7. Codility
Codility is a technical hiring platform designed to test the coding skills of developers and support evidence-based hiring decisions. Its G2 rating is 4.6/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Live Coding Interviews: Supports live coding interviews with features like pair programming, screen sharing, and collaborative coding environments.
- Robust Anti-Cheating: Includes strong anti-cheating measures such as plagiarism detection.
- Test Customisation: Allows recruiters to create their own coding challenges, choose from a library, or modify existing ones.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Pricing: While a Starter plan is available at $100/month, costs per candidate can be higher ($15 on their Starter Plan compared to HackerRank's $20). Some plans begin at $500 monthly for 25 invites.
- Access: Requires a demo call before account creation, unlike some platforms offering instant access.
8. TestGorilla
TestGorilla provides pre-employment assessment tests for both tech and non-tech roles. Its G2 rating is 4.5/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Broad Role Coverage: Caters to both technical and non-technical roles.
- Intuitive Interface: Praised for its intuitive interface.
- Proctoring: Includes full-screen tracking as an anti-cheating feature.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Programming Test Quality: Users suggest improvements are needed for programming tests, including variety in languages, inclusion of beginner-friendly and advanced questions, adding more than one programming test per custom test, and awarding partial points.
- Pricing Model: Pricing increases with company employee count, which can be prohibitive. Most paid plans require a 1-year commitment, and monthly payment options are not available for INR pricing plans.
- Customisation Limits: Limits customising the number of questions in a test, impacting assessment duration and candidate experience.
- Proctoring Gaps: Cannot detect if a candidate connects multiple monitors while taking an assessment.
9. WeCP
WeCP streamlines technical hiring by offering a unified platform to evaluate candidates' software engineering, cloud, and data science skills. Its G2 rating is 4.8/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring:
- Unified Technical Platform: Focuses on evaluating technical skills across a broad range of technical domains in one platform.
- ATS Integration: Seamlessly integrates with leading ATS platforms, automating workflows and streamlining hiring cycles.
- Coding & Video Interviews: Provides coding tests and codepair video interviews.
- Advanced Anti-Cheating: Includes IP tracking, webcam proctoring, and browser monitoring.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring:
- Pricing Transparency: Publicly available plans may not detail all features like API access and SSO, and the question bank size is not specified. The entry point for the Premium Plan is $240/month.
- Test Variety: Compared to Equip, it offers a narrower range of unique test types such as Typing Tests, Excel Tests, DISC, OCEAN Personality Tests, and Language Proficiency Tests.
10. eSkill
eSkill specialises in customizable employment assessments to minimize hiring errors, reduce recruiting costs, and enhance outcomes. Its G2 rating is 4.5/5.
Strengths for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Customisable Assessments: Allows organisations to fully customise tests by combining proprietary and pre-built questions, tailoring assessments to specific job roles.
- Broad Skills Coverage: Caters to both technical and non-technical roles, including soft skills and language proficiency.
- Job Task Simulations: Includes job task simulations.
- EEOC Compliance: Maintains a perfect EEOC compliance record, ensuring unbiased and legally defensible assessments.
Weaknesses for Tech Hiring (and overall):
- Pricing Transparency: Pricing is not listed on their website and requires direct consultation. Some sources indicate subscriptions start at $850, with costs per candidate as high as $34.
- No Free Trial: Does not come with a free trial.
Why Choose Equip for Tech Hiring?
Equip stands out as an exceptional choice for tech hiring due to several compelling reasons, directly addressing the common challenges recruiters face:
- Cost-Effectiveness: Equip's pay-as-you-go model eliminates recurring fees and long-term commitments, offering a $1 per candidate cost that is significantly more affordable than many competitors, especially for startups and enterprises managing variable hiring volumes. This saves both time and money, which is crucial in today's economic climate.
- Comprehensive and Flexible Assessments: Unlike platforms that specialise solely in technical assessments, Equip provides a single platform for both technical and non-technical roles. It offers a wide variety of test types including programming, SQL, CSS, quizzes, psychometric tests, and video responses, with the flexibility to customise test duration and question selection from its vast question bank of 100+ skills. This versatility ensures you don't need multiple tools for different hiring needs.
- Advanced Anti-Cheating Measures: Equip's AI-powered proctoring (AutoProctor) is a best-in-class solution, offering features like real-time face detection, audio recording, tab-switch screenshots, session recording, and the ability to detect multiple monitors and disable copy-paste. This ensures the integrity of assessments and provides peace of mind for recruiters.
- Scalability and Ease of Use: Equip is built to handle massive concurrency, allowing 10,000+ candidates to be tested simultaneously. Its intuitive interface allows recruiters to create and share assessments in minutes, simplifying the hiring process from start to finish.
- High User Satisfaction: Equip is rated #1 for User Satisfaction among talent assessment software on G2, indicating a strong positive user experience.
In conclusion, while many talent assessment solutions exist in the market, Equip distinguishes itself by offering a highly effective, user-friendly, and cost-efficient platform for both technical and non-technical hiring. Its robust features, particularly in tech assessments and proctoring, combined with its flexible pricing model, make it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes looking to streamline and enhance their recruitment process.