The First Advantage alternative built for zero-document candidate flows.
First Advantage runs large, established programs — but candidates still chase W-2s, pay stubs, and HR callbacks. Ethur verifies employment and income directly at the payroll and bank source, with a 4-minute median turnaround and no document uploads.
Why teams move from First Advantage to Ethur.
No manual outreach
Employment history comes from payroll systems of record instead of HR phone trees and email chains.
No documents to upload
Candidates consent once; Ethur pulls the data. No W-2s, offer letters, or pay stubs to collect and re-key.
Minutes, not weeks
4-minute median turnaround on verified employment and income, with live status the whole way.
What replacing First Advantage actually looks like.
Real Ethur surfaces — the dashboard your recruiters open, the portal your candidates see, and the biometric verifications running behind them.
- Name
- Marcus Bennett
- Date of birth
- February 10, 1992
- Phone number
- (415) 555-3030
- marcus.b@mail.com
Texas Health & Human Services
- Authority
- Texas Health & Human Services
- Full name
- Marcus Bennett
- Registry database
- Texas Medicaid Provider Exclusion and Suspension List
- Sanction 1
- Federal Exclusion
/ Candidate portal · live
Payroll-direct verifications
Employment history in seconds via direct payroll — no phone calls, no waiting.
AI-fraud defenses
Liveness + document authenticity built to defeat generated IDs and deepfakes.
Transparent pricing
One package price. No per-check surcharges, no county passthrough surprises.
Modern API + webhooks
Ship a working integration in a day, not a quarter.
Ethur vs. First Advantage
| Capability | Ethur | First Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll-direct employment | Included, 50+ providers | Manual outreach + documents |
| Candidate document uploads | None required | W-2s / pay stubs common |
| Median verification turnaround | ~4 minutes | Days to weeks |
| Bank-direct income | Included | Limited |
| Biometric IDV | Passive liveness on every check | Add-on |
| Continuous monitoring | Included | Separate product |
| Implementation | Same-day self-serve | Enterprise onboarding project |
| REST API & webhooks | First-class, versioned | Enterprise integration work |
Comparison based on publicly available product documentation and customer reports as of 2026. First Advantage is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with Ethur.
Purpose-built for the AI-fraud era.
Primary-source data
Employment, income, and identity anchored to payroll providers, financial institutions, and biometrics — not paperwork.
Zero-document candidate flow
One consent screen replaces the document-collection back-and-forth that stalls traditional checks.
Transparent per-report pricing
Published pricing with verifications bundled instead of quote-driven contracts and per-item surcharges.
FCRA-defensible by default
Pre-adverse, adverse action, and dispute workflows with complete audit trails.
Switching from First Advantage.
How is Ethur different from First Advantage?
Ethur verifies employment and income directly from payroll and bank sources, so candidates never upload documents and results land in minutes rather than days.
Do candidates need to provide W-2s or pay stubs?
No. Candidates give consent once and Ethur retrieves the data from the system of record.
Can Ethur handle enterprise volume?
Yes — configurable packages, adjudication rules, ATS sync, and API-driven ordering support high-volume programs.
How long does implementation take?
You can order your first check the same day; no enterprise onboarding project required.
Ready to switch from First Advantage?
See a live Ethur report on your own hiring workflow. Most teams migrate in under two weeks.