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Sterling Backcheck is now part of First Advantage. Here is what changed, what did not, and how Credibled compares if you are reviewing your options.
Verified 6 September 2026. Sources: sterlingbackcheck.ca and First Advantage investor materials.
First Advantage Corporation completed its acquisition of Sterling Check Corp on 31 October 2024, in a transaction valued at $2.2 billion including the assumption of Sterling's debt. Sterling Backcheck, the Canadian business, is now part of First Advantage, which is headquartered in Atlanta and listed on the NASDAQ.
The Sterling Backcheck brand and Canadian website are still in use. As of 6 September 2026, the site carries a notice that the global website experience is being updated during the transition from Sterling to First Advantage, and the legal, conduct and compliance links in the footer now point to fadv.com.
We have no inside knowledge of their roadmap. These are the questions any client should ask during a vendor transition.
Sterling Backcheck has operated in Canada for more than 40 years. They are PBSA accredited, run a fully bilingual site, and publish detailed Canadian compliance material. Their client list includes Hockey Canada, Skate Canada, Purolator and Boston Pizza.[2]
What they bring that we do not:
If any of those is decisive for you, they have it and we do not.
Credibled returns a Canadian criminal record check in about 15 minutes. For a staffing agency, that gap decides whether a candidate starts Monday or Tuesday, and at volume it compounds across every file.
Sterling Backcheck publishes a benchmark for Canadian criminal searches closing within one day, sourced to their own 2024 corporate stats.[2]
Credibled has open signup. Work email, account created, first check the same day. No qualification call, no scoping, no waiting for a rep to come back to you.
Sterling Backcheck's Canadian site has a client login and a set of contact forms. Prospective clients are routed to a potential client contact form. There is no self-serve account creation on the site.[2]
Every Credibled account gets a named account manager, at 5 checks a month or 5,000. The same person, who knows how you hire and what you screen for.
Sterling Backcheck describes dedicated teams providing custom solutions and has a small and mid-sized business section on their services page. What a smaller account gets in practice is not published.[4]
No Canadian screening company can. Sterling Backcheck's own material explains why: a Vulnerable Sector Query can only be initiated by the police service where the applicant lives, the applicant must request it, and the result may only be provided to the applicant. Screening companies cannot facilitate the query except through a partnership with the local police, and only for constituents of that jurisdiction.[3]
If a role genuinely requires Vulnerable Sector screening, the candidate goes to their local police service. Any provider suggesting otherwise is worth a second look. Our guide to reading Canadian criminal record check results covers what each outcome does and does not mean.
Brad Semotiuk co-founded Credibled while running Pure Staffing Solutions, a Canadian staffing firm. He was not solving a market opportunity. He was solving the screening problem he dealt with every week, which is why the product looks the way it does.
Meet the people behind CredibledCredibled is built to run without a person in the loop. You are not waiting on a coordinator to pick up your file, and you are not the one sending the third follow-up email to a referee who has stopped answering. See how reference verification works.
| Attribute | |
Sterling Backcheck |
|---|---|---|
| Speed and access | ||
| Canadian criminal check turnaround | About 15 minutes | Benchmark published as one day |
| Self-serve signup | Yes | Contact form, no signup path |
| Named account manager, any volume | Yes | Not published for smaller accounts |
| Pay per check, no minimum | Yes | Contact their sales team |
| Checks | ||
| Enhanced check (CRJMC) | Available | Available |
| Quebec Criminal Court Search | Available | Available |
| Vulnerable Sector Check | Not available | Not available |
| Under-18 criminal record check | Not offered | Available |
| International criminal checks | 200+ jurisdictions | Global checks available |
| References and safeguards | ||
| Reference checks | Automated, priced per candidate | Available |
| Automated reference reminders | Every 24 hours, up to 10 days | Not published |
| Reference checks surface leads | Yes | Not offered |
| Duplicate check detection | Yes | Not listed |
| Company | ||
| Ownership | Canadian owned, bootstrapped | Part of First Advantage, US listed |
"Not published" and "not listed" mean we could not confirm it from public sources, not that it is unavailable.
Comparing more than one provider? We have also compared Credibled and Triton.
Yes. Sterling Backcheck continues to operate as part of First Advantage, which completed its acquisition of Sterling Check Corp in October 2024.
That is a question for your account contact. Worth asking whether your account is moving to a new platform, whether pricing and terms carry over, and whether your integration continues to be supported.
About 15 minutes in most cases, depending on the jurisdiction and whether a record requires further review.
No. Vulnerable Sector Queries can only be initiated by the police service where the applicant lives, and no Canadian provider automates them.
Yes. Sign up at app.credibled.com/signup with a work email.
No. Pay per check, no subscription and no minimum.
Create a free account with a work email, add a card when you trigger your first check, and pay per completed check. Your account manager is assigned the same day.
Methodology. Verified 6 September 2026. All information about Sterling Backcheck and First Advantage comes from publicly available pages on sterlingbackcheck.ca and First Advantage investor materials, linked where cited. Where a capability could not be confirmed from their site we write "not published" or "not listed", which is not a statement that it is unavailable. Corrections from Sterling Backcheck or First Advantage are welcome at [email protected] and will be made promptly. This page is reviewed every 6 months.
