eSkill vs Criteria (2026): customisation, ATS and volume. The short answer eSkill is the more customisable of the two: a large skills-test library where you can mix questions, upload your own, and have eSkill build a custom job simulation. Criteria is the stronger choice for standardised aptitude and personality testing at volume, with tests such as the CCAT, game-based and mobile-first options, video interviewing, and a long list of named ATS integrations. Both integrate with the major applicant tracking systems. * eSkill says it covers 600+ subjects and 70,000 questions, with 45+ integrations including Workday, Greenhouse and iCIMS. * Criteria's integrations page names dozens of ATS and HRIS partners, including Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Lever, SmartRecruiters and Bullhorn. * Choose eSkill to test specific job skills; choose Criteria to screen many applicants on aptitude and fit. * Neither shows prices on the pages Cohesyve, Inc. checked; check their sites. Cohesyve publishes this comparison and sells a different kind of tool, described near the end. Neither eSkill nor Criteria is ours. eSkill and Criteria Corp are both long-established pre-employment testing vendors, and both are used for high-volume hiring. They start from different places. eSkill starts from job skills: what can this person do with Excel, a chat queue or an accounting ledger? Criteria starts from aptitude and personality: how quickly does this person learn, and how do they tend to work? This comparison uses what each company says on its own website, checked in October 2026. One disclosure: Cohesyve, which publishes it, sells job simulations for hiring. Cohesyve, Inc. cover that as a separate option at the end. What is the difference between eSkill and Criteria? eSkill is a skills-testing platform built for customisation; Criteria is a talent assessment platform built around validated aptitude and personality tests. Use eSkill when you need to check specific, practical job skills and want the test shaped to your role. Use Criteria when you want a consistent, research-backed screen of general ability and fit across a large number of applicants. eSkill describes its tests as covering "hard skills, job ability, and behavioral fit", across hard skills, soft skills, behavioural, personality, aptitude, cognitive and job simulation tests. Criteria calls itself "the talent signal platform" and groups its products into assessments, interviewing and employee development. eSkill and Criteria side by side. | / | eSkill | Criteria | | Starting point | Job skills and simulations | Cognitive aptitude and personality | | Test library | 600+ subjects and 70,000 questions (its figure) | A catalogue of named tests: CCAT, UCAT, EPP and others | | Customisation | Mix and match questions, upload your own, write new ones; custom simulations built by eSkill | Choose and combine tests per role; pick CTRS modules; set score ranges per job; build your own tests in TestMaker | | Simulations | MS Office, digital literacy, multitasking, chat, and custom job simulations | Not its focus; skills tests include computer skills and Microsoft Office | | Cognitive tests | Aptitude and cognitive tests in the library | CCAT (50 questions in 15 minutes), language-independent UCAT, game-based Cognify and GAME | | Personality | Personality and behavioural tests | EPP (12 traits), Big Five CPI, sales and customer service profiles | | Interviews | One-way interviews | Asynchronous and live video interviewing, AI scoring add-on | | ATS integrations | 45+, including Workday, Taleo, Greenhouse, iCIMS, SAP SuccessFactors, ADP | Dozens of named ATS and HRIS partners, including Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Bullhorn | | Proctoring | AI-assisted proctoring and anti-cheat tools | AI proctoring | | Pricing | Subscription options. Check their site | Pricing page and free trial. Check their site | Comparing eSkill and Criteria? Try a third option on a live role Cohesyve takes a job description, finds candidates, reaches out to them and runs an AI job simulation of the real work, then returns a ranked shortlist. Ten candidates free, no card. Which offers better customisation? eSkill. Its site says you can "mix and match questions, upload existing questions, or create them from scratch", and its team can create a custom simulation that "mirrors your real-world job tasks". That suits roles with specific, checkable skills: office administration, customer service, accounting, industrial and healthcare jobs. Criteria's customisation is mostly in which tests you combine, which modules you include in its modular CTRS cognitive test, and the score range you set for each role. Its core tests such as the CCAT are standardised and normed, which is the point: a CCAT score means the same thing across every employer that uses it. Criteria also has TestMaker, a tool for building your own tests from questions you write, such as a skills test to check job knowledge. Which has better ATS integration? Both integrate with the systems most high-volume employers use, so check your own ATS against each list. eSkill names more than 45 integrations, featuring ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Neogov, Paycor, Paylocity, UKG Pro and Workday, with an API for custom set-ups. Criteria's integrations page gives no total but names dozens of ATS and HRIS partners, including Ashby, Bullhorn, Fountain, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Jobvite, Lever, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors, SmartRecruiters, Workable and Workday. The depth of each integration matters more than the count. Criteria's Greenhouse integration, for example, can send a test automatically when a candidate reaches a workflow stage or in bulk, and returns scores to the candidate's record. Ask either vendor for the same detail for your ATS: what triggers the invitation, which scores come back, and whether reports open inside the ATS. Which is better for high-volume hiring? For screening very large applicant pools on general ability, Criteria. Short standardised tests, mobile-first and game-based options, and asynchronous video interviews are designed for volume, and Criteria says it has delivered more than 80 million assessments. For high-volume roles where a practical skill decides the hire, such as contact centre, data entry or office administration, eSkill's simulations test the work itself, which a general aptitude test cannot. A high-volume team can use both kinds of test in sequence: a short aptitude or fit screen first, then a skills test for those who pass. If you do that, keep the total candidate time short; every extra step costs completions. How do eSkill and Criteria price? Neither showed prices on the pages Cohesyve, Inc. checked. eSkill links to subscription options; Criteria has a pricing page and a free trial. Prices change and depend on volume, so check each vendor's site and compare the total for a year at your real hiring volume. Its guide to assessment software pricing explains the common models. Choose eSkill if... * You want to test specific, practical job skills such as Microsoft Office, chat handling or accounting. * You want to edit the test: mix questions, add your own, or have a custom simulation built. * You hire in many different job families and want one large library to draw from. Choose Criteria if... * You want a validated, standardised aptitude test such as the CCAT as your first screen. * You want personality, emotional intelligence and risk tests from the same vendor. * You want video interviewing and later employee development on the same platform. * You screen international candidates and need a language-independent test such as the UCAT. A third option: job simulations from your job description. Some teams compare these two because they want the practical signal of a skills test without building one. Cohesyve, which publishes this comparison, works from your job description: it sources and contacts candidates, puts them through an AI job simulation of the real work, and returns a ranked shortlist, so interviews go to the strongest applicants. Plans are subscriptions sized to annual hiring volume, from $199 a month. It does not offer normed aptitude or personality tests, so a team that needs a CCAT-style screen would still look to Criteria for that. More comparisons. Sources. Checked 21 October 2026. Vendor claims are the vendors' own. Cohesyve · Skill assessments for hiring Set Cohesyve beside eSkill and Criteria on one of your roles. Cohesyve takes a job description, finds candidates, reaches out to them and runs an AI job simulation of the real work, then returns a ranked shortlist. Run it on a role you are hiring for now and compare what you get. assessments completed faster time-to-hire from JD to assessment No credit card · 10 free candidates · Plans sized to your hiring volume For candidates Sitting an eSkill or Criteria test yourself? Practise on AI job simulations of the real work. 3 free tests, no card. Tools for this

eSkill, a pre-hire assessment platform, has launched Linea, an AI-powered intelligence layer integrated into its platform. The tool helps recruiters create customised assessments and find relevant test content from eSkill's library of over 70,000 expert-validated questions. Linea debuts with two capabilities. Linea Build generates draft assessments in seconds when recruiters input job titles or descriptions, mapping questions to required skills and knowledge. Linea Search uses AI-powered semantic search to surface relevant questions even when search terms don't match exact library wording. The tool runs on Anthropic's Claude language models and doesn't use candidate personal information for AI training. All questions come from eSkill's existing library, tagged against ESCO standards. Recruiters maintain full control to edit recommendations and audit reasoning. Linea Build and Linea Search are now available to eSkill customers.