--- title: Xref Reviews meta_title: 'Xref Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 482 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Xref works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.6 review_count: 482 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-06-22' parent_category: name: Pre-Employment Screening url: https://www.g2.com/categories/pre-employment-screening --- # Xref Reviews **Vendor:** Xref **Category:** [Reference Check Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/reference-check) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 482 ## About Xref Simplify your talent journey and make confident, people-focused decisions with Xref. Xref is a best-in-class, global solution that services HR professionals across all industries. Since 2010, Xref has been trusted by businesses all over the world to empower great people decisions. Our vision is to bring data-informed feedback to the talent lifecycle. Catering for the niche needs of the HR industry, Xref automates reference, pulse and exit surveys, for data-driven, actionable insights. Accessible from any device, and with multi-language capabilities, Xref integrates with multiple leading HR tools and ATS platforms to offer seamless, end-to-end workflows to recruit, retain and remember your talent with ease. Popular features: Templates and custom surveys - Using a template, you can create a survey request in 30 seconds. By using our library of best-practice survey questions, you can reduce unconscious bias. Or create your own customised survey for any role. Talent Pool - Candidates, referees and departing employees can opt-in to to a talent pool to be hired by your organisation. On average, our customers have a 60% opt-in rate. The talent pool automatically collates skills, competencies and preferred roles to reduce recruitment spend and make filling your next open role easier. Suspicious activity detection- Xref's unique algorithm monitors for unusual activity during a reference and raises a red flag if anything suspicious is detected, like a fraudulent reference, helping give you confidence in your hires. ## Xref Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users find Xref to be **extremely user-friendly** , enabling quick and efficient reference checks for candidates. (39 reviews) - Users value the **speed and efficiency** of Xref, streamlining background checks and enhancing the recruitment process. (23 reviews) - Users value the **time-saving efficiency** of Xref, streamlining background checks and enhancing the recruitment process. (18 reviews) - Users value Xref for its **efficient reference checks** , enabling seamless communication and timely tracking of candidates and referees. (16 reviews) - Users commend Xref for its **exceptional customer support** , providing timely follow-ups and insightful guidance throughout the recruitment process. (12 reviews) - Notifications (8 reviews) - Simple (8 reviews) - Efficiency (7 reviews) - Users commend the **helpful customer support** of Xref, noting its responsiveness and tailored assistance for diverse needs. (7 reviews) - Process Efficiency (7 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users report **issues with reporting** , including clunky transitions and confusing submission steps that hinder the process. (9 reviews) - Users find the **intrusive notifications** to be overwhelming and distracting, impacting their overall experience negatively. (5 reviews) - Users find the **unclear information** regarding steps and formats confusing, impacting their overall experience with Xref. (5 reviews) - Users experience **inadequate feedback** from Xref, as scoring can mislead hiring managers and disrupt the reference process. (4 reviews) - Users find **limited customization** options in Xref frustrating, limiting control over reminders and survey configurations. (4 reviews) - Notification Issues (4 reviews) - Users face challenges with **poor reference sorting** and lack of customizable options, complicating the management process. (4 reviews) - Survey Functionality (4 reviews) - Assessment Issues (3 reviews) - Missing Features (3 reviews) ## Xref Reviews ### 1. User friendliness could be improved **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vanessa A. **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2025 **What do you like best about Xref?** I like the reminder emails that go to candidates and referees. **What do you dislike about Xref?** When I click on the candidate the cancel button is on the right hand side. When I click on export and want to exit screen, the cancel button is now on the left hand side. It would be good to have consistency and have the cancel button on the same side of the screen irrespective of the page. I've shared this feedback already. Would be good to review the survey questions when selecting the survey. It's difficult to view them on a different page and then make the selection on a different page, especially when templates have similar titles. There's a bit of troubleshooting needed every now and then as referees see error messages when they click on the link to answer survey questions. would be nice to resolve this and make it seamless. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Less time taken to get reference checks done. **Official Response from Lee Seymour:** > Thanks so much for your feedback. Reviewing survey data during selection is on the roadmap. Depending on whether a Call To Action (CTA) button is required, we will shift the "Cancel" button slightly to the left so the CTA becomes more prominent. Rest assured that all feedback on user experience is discussed and prioritised. Please keep providing your thoughts via support or your account manager as we always action great ideas for improvement. ### 2. Good referencing platform **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mitchell B. | Recruitment Business Partner, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2025 **What do you like best about Xref?** Ease of use. Simple and plain interface. d **What do you dislike about Xref?** The job title could be more prominent when the references go out **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Gain the references from candidates ### 3. Recruitment **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Faiza N. | HR and Talent Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 07, 2024 **What do you like best about Xref?** User-friendly features. Talent Management made easy. **What do you dislike about Xref?** evaluation of candidate background with efficiency. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** easy and quick informtion. **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thank you for leaving your review Faiza! We’re glad to hear that you find the Xref platform features user-friendly and that it makes talent management easier for you. If you need any assistance, feel free to contact us at support@xref.com. We're committed to making your experience with Xref even better! ### 4. More infor on overview would be nice **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tweety H. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2023 **What do you like best about Xref?** The new version has less feature than the previous one. **What do you dislike about Xref?** In the overview page, not much information display. It will be better to have the Internal Ref table. Also it will be good if we are able to edit the candidate's contact details after the request is sent. In the Reference report, Note to candidate and Note to referee need to be have more characters so that we can include the link of the PD for reviewing. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Xref can provide unusual activities of the reference reports, which is very helpful for our recruitment process. **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thank you for taking the time to share your review. We agree that one of the significant advantages of using Xref is the ability to flag suspicious candidate activity. We’re all about offering teams a better and faster way to conduct reference checks, so we’re happy to know that Xref has helped your recruitment process. We are continually working to ensure our customers have a great experience. Our new Enterprise platform has many survey tool functionalities to choose from. With regard to your feedback on the overview page, we will pass it on to our product development team for their reference. Thanks again for your review. ### 5. Automated reference checks **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vinu N. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 07, 2024 **What do you like best about Xref?** Streamlined , secure way of automating and managing reference checks. It hardly takes a couple of seconds to initiate a reference check. **What do you dislike about Xref?** Doesn't give the hiring manager an option to add or edit referee details unlike 'Referoo'. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managing referecne checks in bulk **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thank you for sharing your feedback with us! We're thrilled to hear that you find Xref to be a streamlined and secure solution for automating reference checks. In regards to your point about editing referee information, it’s for security purposes that the option is not provided. If the referee details need to be edited or added, the candidate needs to access the Xref link. We understand the importance of managing reference checks in bulk as it saves hours of work, and we're glad that Xref is benefiting you in this aspect. ### 6. Voice Project Engagement Survey **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2024 **What do you like best about Xref?** The support, experience, expertise and guidance from Louise Parkes. **What do you dislike about Xref?** The backend reporting is really not user friendly. It's way to manual and should be far more sophicated. Far to much time was spent summarising the comments for us. We spent at least 5 days pulling and customising reports. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's solving hearing our members voice and being able to facilitate the discussions on how we can strengthen engagement, progress and wellbeing. **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We’re delighted to hear that you appreciate Louise Parkes's support and guidance. Regarding your comment about backend reporting and the manual effort involved, we understand that summarising numerous comments can be time-consuming. To address this, we offer a cost-effective AI service designed to assist with these tasks. Additionally, we can provide further support in curating and creating custom reports with shared views and links. If you’d like us to assist you in this area, please reach out to your Engage consultant. We’re pleased that Xref Engage is helping you facilitate discussions and enhance engagement, progress, and wellbeing within your organisation. ### 7. Works well but could make some improvements **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Health, Wellness and Fitness | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 16, 2021 **What do you like best about Xref?** The opt in option for references who may be interested in work opportunities themselves The integration with our ATS is great. Customer service from the team with tips and tricks on reference questions etc. **What do you dislike about Xref?** Could make some improvements such as sms notification to the candidate and the ability to update, create and amend the questionnaires yourself. Expensive for what it is in comparision to other systems on the market **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Saves us time as completely automated and also flags potential fraud which is great. Give us a pipeline of candidates for other positions to be filled also **Official Response from Lorna:** > Thanks so much for your review - we're so glad to hear the ATS integration is working well and you're happy with the support provided by our customer success team. It's also good to know you're benefitting from the assurance of our unusual activity feature that detects potential fraud. We are always looking for opportunities to enhance and improve our services, so we appreciate your suggestion about adding SMS updates as a feature Thanks again for taking the time to share your feedback! ### 8. Functional **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jonah B. | Resourcing Advisor, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 15, 2023 **What do you like best about Xref?** Being able to request a reference check quickly. **What do you dislike about Xref?** The update emails are a little bit too frequent. Waiting for email for code to login is annoying **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Not having to complete reference checks over the phone. **Official Response from Annalise Richardson:** > Hi Jonah, Thank you for your review. Xref allows you to create and send a reference request in as little as 30 seconds, with results received on average in 18 hours. This saves time and adds convenience to the reference checking process. With regard to your feedback about email frequency, we like to encourage faster turnaround times to reduce time to hire. However, in this this busy environment, we understand. You can reach out to our Customer Success team on support@xref.com and they can assist you to update your email reminder frequency. By emailing reference checks, Xref offers a functional solution avoiding the need for phone tag. Thanks again for your review Jonah. ### 9. Custom 360 Feedback Survey **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Human Resources | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 25, 2023 **What do you like best about Xref?** Client partner (Louise) was very helpful and accomodating, supported timely action with requests, and a clear pathway for design, development and delivery. The system is functional and easy to use. The portal is easy to navigate; and is responsive to evolving needs (i.e., allows for us to re-open, make changes, etc.) **What do you dislike about Xref?** The design of the custom report is messy, and this undermines the professionalism of the product due to inconsistent formatting that cannot easily be edited. Query additional support on validity and reliabilty assessment on measures used? Construct validity? **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Alignment to our custom framework makes conversations with the stakeholders we are debriefing easier. Easy to set up and manage internally (on-demand, as needed). **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thanks for your feedback. We aim to provide the greatest possible experience to our customers, so we are happy to hear you find value in the personalised support offered from our expert team. With regard to your comment on the custom report design, our support team is happy to review your reporting needs again and assist you with formatting changes that you’d like to have. You’re welcome to get in touch with Louise as your dedicated consultant for any assistance. Thanks again for your review ### 10. Cumbersome but has potential **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Government Relations | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 08, 2024 **What do you like best about Xref?** Automated messaging and reminders, templates **What do you dislike about Xref?** Domain issues preventing access to the service (did not recognize my business email as a valid domain, received error message) **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Takes care of initial contact and need to follow up **Official Response from Shieanne Dcruz:** > Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We're glad to hear that you appreciate the automated messaging and reminders, as well as the templates. Regarding your feedback on the domain issues you are facing, you could reach out to your customer success manager or support@xref.com for assistance in this area. We would be happy to help where possible. We strive to make it as efficient and intuitive as possible so that professionals like yourself can focus on the other important areas of your role. ### 11. Experience issues quite frequently with candidates **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2022 **What do you like best about Xref?** Once you send it you dont have to worry about it until you get a notification (set and forget) Handy for Volume recruitment **What do you dislike about Xref?** The tone of what the referee is saying is lost & it is also very impersonal **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Volume recruitment You can ceter the questionnaires to what you need to focus on or target with the candidates experience **Official Response from Annalise Richardson:** > Hi there, Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We’re glad to hear that you find Xref useful for creating your own tailored reference checking surveys and getting through the volume when recruiting. Like you, many of our customers find Xref saves them time because as you said, it makes the reference checking process a “set and forget”. With regard to your feedback around the tone of the referee being lost and the nature of automated reference checking being impersonal - if this is a cause for concern for our customers, they can rely on our Sentiment Analysis report, accessible once a reference check is completed. This tracks word count. The higher the word count, the more engaged a referee is with a candidate, tending towards a positive sentiment. Additionally, some of our customers like to follow up referees with a call to further understand the tone and create that personal connection to understand the detail better. With regard to your comments around experiencing issues frequently with candidates, are you please able to let us know what type of issues? We are continually working to ensure our customers have a great experience and 2.5 stars isn’t the best. Our friendly Customer Success team can be reached on support@xref.com They can help you solve some issues or will raise them with our Development team so they can be fixed. Thanks again for taking the time to leave this review. ### 12. Works well if you use standard questionairre templates **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Staffing and Recruiting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Xref?** A great, secure platform that saves time having to schedule calls, type up references. No room for error as the referee answers are not able to be edited or taken out of context. **What do you dislike about Xref?** We use customised questionairres for each reference check based on the role and outcomes from the interview process. The ability to load customisable templates is cumbersome and reliant on the support team being available - taking 1-2 business days. If we were able to upload our own customised questions without having to go through the support team we would rate the service much higher. **Recommendations to others considering Xref:** Works well if you use standard questionairre templates **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Saves time having to schedule calls (some of our references are international across varying time zones), or type up references. **Official Response from Lorna:** > Hi there, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review. We're so glad to hear you're benefitting from the speed and convenience of the platform, as well as the assurance that no referee feedback will be taken out of context. We appreciate your feedback about editing templates. While the questions included in a questionnaire are at the discretion of an employer, we are committed to ensuring that all questions are compliant and optimised to offer the best feedback in return. If you haven’t already, I would recommend you check out our Template Builder tool, which enables you to create a template on the fly, from a database of thousands of compliant and high-performing questions, You can then add the template directly to your Xref account. I’ve included the link to Template Builder below. Thanks again for your review, we really appreciate it. ### 13. Love it! Automates and streamlines the reference checking process. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Cesar C. | Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 02, 2019 **What do you like best about Xref?** You can without much of a stretch offer the outcomes with the enlisting chief and it has fascinating investigation about the tone and what amount is composed It is dependent upon your contender to round their references out in the framework and it will advance a lot of modified inquiries for the arbitrator It will likewise think about the word tally of the competitor contrasted with the normal Ease of utilization, quick turnaround time of getting references finished and amount of input gave in the official's own words. **What do you dislike about Xref?** I wish you had the capacity to alter and transfer your very own reference frames as opposed to experiencing a Customer Success Manager I think XRef as similarly as substantial as telephone calls. I don't think there is any at this stage I don't think there is any at this stage **Recommendations to others considering Xref:** Choose how significant the reference procedure is to your association, and how Xref would compliment your present procedure I'd express it's pleasant to have, yet some enlisting administrators still don't care for that reality it's not done via telephone, despite the fact that it's simple enough to catch up Decide how significant the reference procedure is to your association, and how Xref would compliment your present procedure The details represent themselves **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Enables enrollment specialists to invest more energy selecting than pursuing references It is simpler for contender to get their references to round out the XREF questions and spares us in enlistment a ton of time The best advantages we have acknowledged are time reserve funds and quality improvement. It is simpler for possibility to get their references to round out the XREF questions and spares us in enlistment a ton of time ### 14. Good experience **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2020 **What do you like best about Xref?** The speed of responses - Xref always has the final report ready within a day or two. **What do you dislike about Xref?** Translation services - We were not able to launch our French Xref platform for months. & The amount of emails they send (too many!). **Recommendations to others considering Xref:** Filter your inbox so that all Xref emails go into a specific folder. You will be getting a lot of emails from Xref. **What problems is Xref solving and how is that benefiting you?** Xref made collecting references for potential candidates faster than other services we have used. ## Xref Discussions - [How is it possible to see if an employee has received and read an Xref invite?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/38814-how-is-it-possible-to-see-if-an-employee-has-received-and-read-an-xref-invite) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [What is the best way to change a reference email that the "new hire" has submitted, in case they need support with that.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/34057-what-is-the-best-way-to-change-a-reference-email-that-the-new-hire-has-submitted-in-case-they-need-support-with-that) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [Is it possible to understand the reason for why referee's decline an XRef request?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-it-possible-to-understand-the-reason-for-why-referee-s-decline-an-xref-request) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [I have a hesitation to submit references requests on Friday due to weekend approaching](https://www.g2.com/discussions/i-have-a-hesitation-to-submit-references-requests-on-friday-due-to-weekend-approaching) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How does Xref compare to other online reference check companies?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-does-xref-compare-to-other-online-reference-check-companies) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Xref pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/xref-xref/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=3&open_modal_url=%2Fde%2Fproducts%2Fxref-xref%2Fwishlists%3Fhost_path%3D%252Fproducts%252Fxref-xref%252Freviews%253Ffilters%25255Bnps_score%25255D%25255B%25255D%253D3%26source%3Dsticky_header_pin§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-23+19%3A16%3A57+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=102bb7a1-75d9-496c-947d-5f4aaa0c69e6&secure%5Btoken%5D=07c1d5aee6647ef79327df417e943388eae96cedae533b748e926245b41b2ba3&format=llm_user) ## Xref Integrations - [Ashby](https://www.g2.com/products/ashby-ashby/reviews) - [Avature](https://www.g2.com/products/avature/reviews) - [Bullhorn](https://www.g2.com/products/bullhorn/reviews) - [Checkr](https://www.g2.com/products/checkr/reviews) - [CVCheck](https://www.g2.com/products/cvcheck/reviews) - [First Advantage](https://www.g2.com/products/first-advantage/reviews) - [Greenhouse](https://www.g2.com/products/greenhouse/reviews) - [JobAdder](https://www.g2.com/products/jobadder/reviews) - [Lever](https://www.g2.com/products/lever/reviews) - [LinkedIn Talent Hub](https://www.g2.com/products/linkedin-talent-hub/reviews) - [MyRecruitment+](https://www.g2.com/products/myrecruitment/reviews) - [Open API Documentation for Confluence](https://www.g2.com/products/open-api-documentation-for-confluence/reviews) - [PageUp](https://www.g2.com/products/pageup/reviews) - [SmartRecruiters](https://www.g2.com/products/smartrecruiters/reviews) - [SnapHire](https://www.g2.com/products/snaphire/reviews) - [Springboard](https://www.g2.com/products/springboard/reviews) - [TAS](https://www.g2.com/products/tas/reviews) - [Ucheck](https://www.g2.com/products/ucheck/reviews) - [Workday](https://www.g2.com/products/workday-workday/reviews) - [Workday Recruiting](https://www.g2.com/products/workday-recruiting/reviews) - [Zapier](https://www.g2.com/products/zapier/reviews) ## Xref Features **Platform Content** - Templates - Automated - Reports **Performance reviews** - customizable forms - 360 reviews **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **Platform Basics** - Performance Benchmarking - Reporting & Dashboards - Interoperability **Platform Basics** - Optimization - Interoperability - Performance **Feedback** - requesting feedback - continuous feedback **Platform Content** - Employee Pulse Surveys - Survey Customization - Goal and Challenge Creation - Science-based templates **Platform Additional Functionality** - Integrations - Identity verification - Fraud detection - Custom branding **Data** - Dashboard and Reporting - Historical Analysis **Platform Additional Functionality** - Employee Segmenting - Goal and Challenge Creation - Peer Recognition - Social Feedback Portal **Platform Data** - Visualization - Security and Compliance - Alerts and Notifications - GDPR Compliant **Platform** - Customization - Integration APIs - Internationalization - User, Role, and Access Management - Performance - Mobility - Reporting - Dashboards ## Top Xref Alternatives - [VICTIG Background Checks](https://www.g2.com/products/victig-background-checks/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (506 reviews) - [HiPeople](https://www.g2.com/products/hipeople/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (440 reviews) - [Checkr](https://www.g2.com/products/checkr/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (389 reviews)