"Free" front doors
Free for the landlord usually means the applicant is paying, roughly US$35–55, for a lighter report. Ask: free for whom, and what does the applicant get in exchange?
Tenant screening comparison
What the market checks. What it leaves out.
A category comparison of what tenant screening services actually check, Canada versus the US — not a brand-name one. It reflects the published feature sets of typical Canadian screening services, US landlord software and rent-reporting tools as of September 2026.
What tenant screening services check, Canada vs US
| Check | RentKey | Typical Canadian screening service | Typical US landlord software | Rent-reporting tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bureau credit report & score | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Photo-ID verification with facial liveness | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sanctions & watchlists (OSFI, OFAC, UN) | Yes | No | No | No |
| PEP screening | Yes | No | No | No |
| Interpol & FBI notices | Yes | No | No | No |
| Court, tribunal & eviction records | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Official RCMP CPIC check Optional add-on | Yes | No | No | No |
| One product for Canada and the US | Yes | No | No | No |
| SIN / SSN never required | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Activity ledger Who opened what | Yes | No | No | No |
| Landlord-pays option | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Applicant-pays option | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
| No subscription | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Rent assurance | NoWe sell certainty up front, not insurance after. | Partial | Yes | No |
| Typical price | TBD | About CA$25–30 | Free for landlords; applicant pays ~US$35–55 | CA$11–20 credit; CA$100–200 screening |
Categories reflect publicly published feature sets and pricing as of September 2026. "Partial" means offered in some markets, tiers or products in that category, not all of them.
How to read the market
Five phrases you'll see everywhere. Five questions to ask back.
"Backed by a bureau"
A bureau name signals the credit file is real, not that the applicant was verified. Ask: which bureau, and is the person behind the file confirmed to be who they say?
Speed claims
Minutes sounds reassuring, but speed is a function of what's being checked. Ask: fast against what — a typed name, or a verified identity?
Star ratings & brand backing
A rating or a familiar brand describes the software experience, not the screening depth. Ask: ratings for what, exactly — ease of use, or what got checked?
Rent-guarantee insurance
A risk-reversal offer pays out after something goes wrong. Ask: insurance or certainty — would you rather be covered for a bad tenancy, or avoid one?
Where RentKey deliberately differs
Choices we made on purpose.
Identity before credit
A credit file is only meaningful if it belongs to the applicant in front of you. RentKey verifies the person first, then ties the credit pull to that verified identity.
Global lists, not just domestic databases
Sanctions, PEP registers, Interpol Red Notices and FBI wanted lists are checked alongside domestic records — an applicant with no local footprint doesn't pass through by default.
Findings itemized, never a bare fail
Every hit shows the designating authority, matched name and aliases, nature, date and a confidence score. You judge the finding; RentKey doesn't judge it for you.
One account for both countries
Canadian and US properties run on the same report format, in the same account, instead of two separate tools with two separate standards.
A ledger instead of a promise
Every open, download and share is recorded in an append-only ledger — a record you can produce, not a policy you have to take on faith.
Pay per report
No monthly fee and no minimum. You pay for the screening you run, or the applicant does — either way, nothing is billed until a report is produced.
What we don't do
Said plainly, not buried in an FAQ.
No payout in place of a check
We sell certainty up front — verified identity, credit, sanctions and record checks. Rent assurance, when it comes, will sit on top of a verified report, never instead of one.
No social-media scoring
Reports show verifiable records — credit, sanctions, court and eviction history — never a score built from someone's social profile.
No "AI risk score"
Every finding names its source and its confidence. RentKey doesn't collapse a report into a single opaque number for you to trust blindly.
No lease or rent-collection suite
RentKey focuses on screening. Lease management and rent collection are planned integrations through partners, not a bolt-on we half-build ourselves.
Questions
Straight answers about this comparison.
Why doesn't RentKey name the services it's compared against?
Feature sets change and vary by plan, so we compare categories — typical Canadian screening services, US landlord software and rent-reporting tools — rather than naming specific brands. You can check any provider's current published pricing and feature list against the rows above.
Where do the market figures come from?
They reflect publicly published pricing for these categories as of September 2026. RentKey's own pricing is shown on our pricing page.
Does "partial" mean a feature is unreliable?
No — it means the feature is offered in some markets, tiers or products in that category but not consistently across all of them. "No" means it typically isn't part of that category's core offering.
Is this page kept up to date as the market changes?
We review it periodically against publicly published feature sets and pricing. If you spot something that's changed, let us know.
Early access
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