We reviewed many of the top tenant screening services by going through the application process and purchasing real reports. We evaluated the entire process for both landlords and applicants, and then considered the quality of the reports.
Here are the top factors we considered in determining the best tenant screening service:
This review will not discuss speed of delivering reports, FCRA compliance or soft credit pulls as all the reviewed services are roughly the same on these criteria.
Pricing: $24.99 – $34.99 (View Sample Reports)
MyRental’s tenant screening service (powered by CoreLogic’s SafeRent) provides perhaps the best combination of price, experience, and reporting of any tenant screening service.
For just $35, landlords get access to nearly all the information a landlord could want, including a few extras not seen in other services (including a proprietary SafeRent score and the ability to compare to other tenants’ scores in the area). They are missing an automated income verification process, but landlords should follow up with employers anyway to verify this.
The signup process for both landlords and applicants requires little time, and the tenant application is one of the best in the industry. Every step of the process intuitively works in a seamless way.
Perhaps the only downside is that their reports are a bit long and at times redundant. Scrolling through all of them can be a bit of a slog, yet they still present them in an easy-to-read way.
Even at their low price, MyRental compares favorably to services that charge $20 more per screening, which is why we have them as the best overall service.
Disregarding price, Avail might be the best tenant screening service available on the market. Their reports are top-tier, the application is customizable, and every process looks and feels great.
In truth, the downsides feel a bit nitpicky. Applicants are taken through a few extra screens before the real application starts, but even that only takes a few extra seconds to click through.
Landlords who are working with higher-end apartments or want to create a more exclusive application process—and therefore don’t mind the higher price—will find Avail to be one of the best options on the market.
Apartments.com is primarily known as a the web’s largest site for connecting renters with landlords and isn’t often seen as a tenant screening service. However, they are one of the better services out there, and at the best price we’ve seen.
While their $29 won’t get you all the bells and whistles, Apartments.com’s screening reports do include the most important information (credit, criminal, and eviction reports). In addition, tenants can pay the fee once and share their application and screening reports with up to 10 other landlords. It might seem counterintuitive to make it easy for applicants to apply to other properties, but Apartments.com’s huge reach and renter-friendly approach will bring in more overall eyes.
Their lower price doesn’t mean a lesser overall experience, either. Everything is well-designed and beautiful. There is plenty to like about Apartments.com in addition to the price, and they’ve predictably put together a solid tenant screening service that rates near the very best.
When it comes to easy-to-read reports, there’s no one else in the industry that can beat RentSpree. Busy landlords will appreciate how easy it is to find the right information in the reports, rather than sifting through mountains of poorly structured data.
Their reports aren’t quite as thorough as some other services, but we believe they provide plenty for landlords to make a decision.
Despite the downsides, their price is fair ($38) which entices more applicants, and their reports and process look great. While we’re not reviewing RentSpree’s other rental management tools, landlords who decide to use those can also find a good-enough tenant screening process to pair with them.
TurboTenant’s tenant screening service provides perhaps the best application process of all the services we reviewed. They are the best combination of design, completeness, and speed. Going through the process is a breeze, and there doesn’t seem to be even a single superfluous question or click. Applicants will find the process a delight compared to other services.
However, the prohibitive price will turn off some applicants, and the inclusion of only basic reports will dissuade many landlords.
Many tenant screening services provide some type of applicant-provided income verification, but few provide a true third-party report. For landlords who value the most possible transparency with an applicant’s income, LeaseRunner is the clear winner.
Their Financial Report accesses the applicant’s bank account to provide the following:
While purchasing all of their reports gets pricey ($61), landlords have the option to use a different tenant screening service for the bulk of their applicants. Then, they can order the Financial Report through LeaseRunner for only their most qualified applicants.
Pricing: $29.95 – $49.95 (View Sample Reports)
AAOA has one big thing going for them—perhaps the most comprehensive reports in the industry. In addition to the basic reports, they’ll provide you with:
Unfortunately, their overall process and functionality lags behind. It’s not always clear what the next step should be and their overall design leaves a lot to be desired. They also provide so many pricing options that figuring out what you need becomes confusing and time-consuming.
However, a landlord who cares most about getting as much information as possible in their tenant screening reports—as well as working with a trusted name—may decide that AAOA is the best option.
Pricing: $24.99 – $39.99 (View Sample Reports)
TransUnion’s SmartMove service shines with a smooth, simple process at every step of the way. They offer uncomplicated packages, have an easy-to-navigate application, and their reports are user friendly. Every step makes sense, and both landlords and applicants can move through the process with ease.
However, they lack some of the deeper options provided by competing services (such as MyRental). Perhaps the biggest downside is that they won’t provide criminal data for some states.
As long as you don’t live in a state without criminal reporting available, they are a top-tier service, and one of our favorites on this list.
Zillow, like Zumper and Apartments.com, offers tenant screening service as a part of their much larger apartment-finding service. While Zillow compares favorably to Zumper, they’re both lagging behind Apartments.com—in price, features, and user experience. However, if you’re a landlord already using Zillow for listing rental properties, their tenant screening does a good enough job that you could pair those features together.
If not for a few hiccups in the process, Zumper would be right up there with Apartments.com. However, their process is a bit clunkier, and we can’t get over that they want bank and loan information. It’s a tedious step for applicants, and that information is pulled in automatically on a credit report. Add in that landlords have to go through perhaps the longest signup process of any tenant screening service and you’ll see why we can’t give our full endorsement.
Pricing: $21 – $40 (View Sample Reports)
The process of signing up, requesting reports, and going through the tenant application was one of the best of all tenant screening service. Their reports are thorough and lay out the information in a nice. However, we bumped them down the list here because they’re a no-go if you’re in one of the areas where they don’t provide criminal history. With most other services providing criminal history in all 50 states, it’s a serious issue that RentPrep doesn’t offer this.
Pricing: $21.95 – $36.95 (View Sample Reports)
E-Renter’s overall functionality leaves a lot to be desired. Multiple times during our process of ordering and filling out an application we were forced to poke around or even contact support. While their reports are thorough, it didn’t make up for the bugs we ran into or the time wasted figuring things out.
Pricing: $24.95 – $49.95 (View Sample Reports)
Our favorite services on this list include a full application along with the screening request. TenantAlert doesn’t do this, meaning that landlords must collect a full application, and then later have tenants fill out a separate screening service request. It’s a clunky process, and not our favorite. They do have one service that sets them apart in that they will call employers on your behalf, but they charge you $16.95 to do this.
Every service we reviewed included the following in their screening reports:
If a tenant screening service doesn’t provide all of these, look elsewhere.
These reports were included in some of the services we reviewed:
These reports are of varying usefulness to landlords, and some services charge more for including these reports. Landlords must each decide which services are essential to them and find tenant screening services that provide them. In this review, some weight was given for including these extra reports (especially sex offender, tax liens, bankruptcies, and civil judgments), but it wasn’t a top factor.
