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First check free — one per company · then £9 · no card

Evidence you can show an inspector, for under a tenner.

Up to five checks on each referee — the address, the employer's record at Companies House, the dates, and the sender checks the referee's domain publishes. Each result carries the evidence behind it, and the report is issued minutes after the references you asked for are in, or the closing date has passed.

  • No card needed
  • Companies House data
  • No cookies or tracking
  • UK based
A care home manager reviewing paperwork at her desk
Julia Hartley · VerifiedMeadowbrook Care Ltd
Report ready2m from the closing date to the finished report
Built onCompanies House dataPayments by StripeUK GDPRCQC Regulation 19 · KCSIE

£9

per check, up to 10 referees

5

checks on every professional referee

Minutes

to the finished report, once the references you asked for are in, or the closing date has passed

0

accounts for your candidate or their referees

How it works

You do step one. We do the rest.

Name, email, role. Then the report arrives.

  1. You1

    Name, email, role. Referees are optional.

    Three fields, about a minute.

  2. Candidate2

    Nothing reaches a referee before the candidate says yes.

    They confirm or nominate the referees.

  3. Us3

    The chasing is the work. We do it, you do not.

    Short form. We send the reminders.

  4. Us4

    2 minutes from the closing date to the finished report.

    Minutes after the references you asked for are in, or the closing date has passed.

Up to 3 reminders, sent in the first week, by us — never a call or an email you have to send yourself.

What you get

A report you can hand to an inspector.

Every referee checked, every result linked to its evidence, and a PDF for the file.

An extract of a PreHire sample reference check report

Extract from a Reference check report.

The evidence, on one page

A Companies House record, domain and mail records, dates and a reply — open any result to see where it came from.

Ready for your file

A dated PDF and a full activity trail, so a Regulation 19 or KCSIE question is answered before it is asked.

Nothing you don’t need

No CV, no ID documents, no date of birth. Candidates and referees never make an account.

No reply, no charge

If nobody replies to any of your referees, we still send the report and return your credit.

2 public sources — read by three of the five checks, the same two /privacy names.

First check free — one per company
£9 flat, no subscription
Credit back if no referee replies
No cookies or trackers
What we check

Five checks, each with its own evidence.

Three read public records you can open yourself.

  1. Referee email

    Whether the address belongs to the employer's own domain, or is a free webmail account.

  2. Employer record

    Whether there is a registered company at Companies House matching the employer named, and whether it is active.

  3. Employment dates

    Whether the dates the referee gave agree with the dates the candidate stated, within 45 days.

  4. Email authenticity

    Whether the referee's domain publishes the sender checks that stop mail being sent in its name.

  5. Response

    Whether the referee answered using the link we emailed to them. A referee who never answers is recorded as an outcome.

Why it matters
A small business owner laughing while reading something on a laptop

17%

of more than 1,000 UK companies surveyed by the BBC with the Federation of Small Businesses found employees whose references did not stand up when checked.

Most references are never checked. A form comes back, it reads fine, it goes on file. PreHire checks it for you, in the background.
Pricing

Neither of the big two will tell you what they charge

£9per check

  • First check free — one per company
  • Packs of 10 and 25
  • Credit back if no referee replies
  • Buy in minutes, no sales call
Start your first check
PreHireRefNowZinc
Price you can see£9HiddenHidden
Buy without talking to salesYesYes, 5-credit minimumYes, for small teams
Verifies the referee is realYes, with evidenceNot statedNot stated
Credit back if no referee repliesYes, automaticNot statedNot stated
Full comparison →Compiled from each provider’s public website, September 2026.

Your next hire's reference is either checked, or taken on trust

Run a real check on a real candidate and keep the report. Your first check is free — one free check per company email domain.