Best alternatives to The Work Number for background check companies

Keep The Work Number for contributing employers. Add Truework or Experian Verify for a second database or cascade, Truv or Argyle when the applicant will connect payroll, and leftover phone, email and fax chase for restaurants, trucking shops and small LLCs none of them hold.

This is for a verifications manager at a mid-size background-check firm on TazWorks or AIO Data that already buys The Work Number and is pricing what to run on the leftover.

Who wins which queue

Prices below are from each vendor’s own page, read 2026-10-09. This is not a ranked list. The Work Number still wins the files it holds: seconds, more than 5.06 million contributing employers and 839 million-plus employee records on theworknumber.com, read 2026-10-09. Superunit’s State of Employment Verification 2026, from 200,000-plus verifications in its own leftover mix, says about one in three files resolved in an instant database. Keep that lookup. Price the miss separately. How much does The Work Number cost per verification?

Job	Truework	Truv	Argyle	Experian Verify	Superunit leftover chase
Public price	VOE $59.95, VOI $64.95, VOE reverification $19.95	Pay as you go $35. Same page still says $40 at the bottom	Quote only	Quote only	Starts at $1.50 per completed order. Volume unpublished
What it returns	VOE or VOI from instant data, a payroll login, or Smart Outreach	Titles, dates, employer from payroll when the applicant connects	Live payroll and bank when the applicant connects	Instant payroll, then a permissioned login or docs, then research	Employer-confirmed facts on leftover files
What a miss costs	One completed-request fee, they say, even if several methods ran	No connection, no report. File still open	No connection, no report. File still open	Unpublished. A Preview Report is meant to show what is instant before you buy	You were not billed. The TAT stays on your queue
Who it covers	Instant 54 million-plus records on their coverage page. Credentials, 150-plus payroll providers. Leftover via Smart Outreach	80-plus payroll providers they name, including ADP, Workday, Paychex, Gusto, UKG	They claim 91% of the U.S. workforce and a 55%+ verification rate	They claim 100% of U.S. workers through the waterfall. Second-largest instant employer payroll network, their words	Restaurants, trucking, small LLCs, phone-tree HR
Turnaround	Seconds on instant. Login when they connect. Outreach after	Minutes when they connect. They say most within 24 hours	They claim 15 seconds when connected	Instant, then the applicant step, then research	Their table, 50% in 24 hours, 75% in 48 hours
What lands in the file	A Truework VOE or VOI report	Payroll-sourced employment history	Direct-source data. They say the current employer is not alerted	Preview, VOE, or a research result	Recording and transcript on completed confirms

Truework wins a printed VOE and VOI rate, and a $19.95 reverification. Truv wins the lowest published payroll-connect price a CRA can click. Argyle wins a Checkr-scale payroll connection with no public card. Experian Verify wins a TWN-like waterfall that includes research. Superunit’s pay-on-success price is the lowest published leftover rate.

Truework

Truework is a cascade, not a second Work Number. Checkr acquired it in 2025; Truework’s own post, dated 14 May 2025, read 2026-10-09, says it still runs as its own platform. The help center, read 2026-10-09, routes pay-as-you-go through Instant Network first, then Credentials and Smart Outreach together, and charges one price per completion: VOE $59.95, VOI $64.95, VOE reverification $19.95.

Truework’s coverage page, read 2026-10-09, puts instant data at 54 million-plus employee records and claims 97% U.S. worker coverage and a 75%+ completion rate across six methods, including bank, tax, outreach and document upload. The Work Number’s instant store is 839 million-plus records. Instant coverage is still Equifax’s row. Truework wins the printed rate and the cascade after a miss. Smart Outreach is leftover chase inside the same ticket. A diner that will not pick up is still a diner.

Truework’s partner list, read 2026-10-09, includes Vault Verify, Thomas and Co and CCC Verify. It does not list The Work Number. Those are where HR already sits, not a SKU you buy instead of Equifax.

Experian Verify

Experian Verify for employment screening, read 2026-10-09, is the closest TWN-shaped alternative: an instant payroll network, then a permissioned login or document upload, then research with an online form, conversational AI and a call center. Experian calls it coverage of 100% of U.S. workers and the second-largest instant employer payroll network. Instant share is unpublished. Superunit’s 2026 mix put Experian Verify at 8% of named third-party platforms, behind The Work Number at 73%.

Price is quote only. The Preview Report is meant to show which employers are instant before you buy a full VOE. TazWorks is on Experian’s partner strip. Research is leftover chase inside Experian’s ticket. It does not make a five-truck shop an instant hit.

Truv

Truv’s background-screening order page, read 2026-10-09, is built for CRAs. Pay as you go is $35 per verification. Bundles step from $300 a month (10 reports, $30 each) to $1,500 a month (100 reports, $15 each). The same page’s last line still says pay $40, and Truv’s directory card lists background screening from $40. Use the $35 card you can click, and confirm the invoice.

The applicant gets a link and connects payroll. Truv names 80-plus providers including ADP, Workday, Paychex, Gusto and UKG. First Advantage, Accurate and TazWorks appear on that order page. Checkr acquired Truv in August 2026, per HousingWire, read 2026-10-09. Stacking Truv and Truework is stacking one parent.

Truv’s own comparison on that page says no manual verification fallback. That is the stop. A cook who will not log into Gusto is leftover outreach. What to do when The Work Number has no record is that job.

Argyle

Argyle’s background-check page, read 2026-10-09, is consumer-permissioned payroll and bank. Price is quote only. The page claims 80% savings potential compared to The Work Number, 15-second verifications when connected, and 95% coverage of direct-deposit accounts. Argyle’s homepage, read the same day, claims 91% of the U.S. workforce and a 55%+ verification rate. The gap is leftover.

Checkr is an Argyle customer on that page. Argyle says the current employer is not alerted. The applicant still has to complete the connection flow. A refused login is the same miss Truv has. Argyle does not publish a CRA card you can compare to Truework’s $59.95.

Superunit leftover chase

Superunit, read 2026-10-09, starts at $1.50 per completed order. Volume is unpublished. A file is complete when Superunit confirms the facts at the source. If it cannot confirm, you are not charged. That is the cheapest published leftover rate, and it is also why a silent employer stays on your TAT.

Superunit’s 2026 report, from its own leftover mix, puts restaurants and food service at 54% complete, transportation and logistics at 49%, a median of 5 touches, and 17% of completed files at 11 or more. The background-screening page, read 2026-10-09, prints 70%+ employment completion. Superunit’s pricing table puts in-house leftover files at $15 to $40+. Those are Superunit’s numbers. Superunit’s own FAQ says it complements the database.

A documented non-response is how some CRAs stop the TAT when the source never confirms. Superunit does not bill that as a completion.

What most CRAs actually run

Most mid-size firms on TazWorks or AIO Data already run The Work Number first. That is the right order. Equifax answers in seconds when the employer contributes. A no-record is a paid miss, then leftover. Superunit’s mix says about 65% of files still needed calls, emails or faxes.

Run a second path on the miss, not instead of the lookup.

• Known contributor, clean SSN and employer code: The Work Number. Nothing cheaper beats a hit.
• Applicant will authenticate at ADP, Workday, Gusto or similar: Truv or Argyle, or Truework Credentials.
• One vendor after the instant miss: Truework’s cascade or Experian Verify’s research step.
• Diner, five-truck shop, five-person LLC, phone-tree HR: leftover phone, email and fax. Superunit, or an in-house specialist who already has a book on that employer.
• Freeze: Equifax’s freeze page, read 2026-10-09, lets a consumer block verifiers at no cost. A freeze looks like a miss. Ask the client before you spend the TAT.

Each order needs the applicant’s signed authorization and a permissible purpose under the FCRA before outreach starts. Recording and autodial rules vary by state. Check counsel. This is not legal advice.

Pull this week’s leftover queue export from TazWorks or AIO Data, last month’s Work Number invoice, and the employers that miss most. Those files already show which of these five belongs on which order.