Editor’s Note: This service has been removed from our side-by-side comparison because it has been replaced by another service. You can still read our original review below, but Top Ten Reviews is no longer updating this product’s information.
KnowX, powered by international database giant LexisNexis, has built one of the biggest collections of available reports on the market. This is one of the best background check services for finding business and financial data. Its website and pricing structure can be confusing, but once you understand how it works, you can find a lot of information for a low cost.
KnowX offers quick and inexpensive reports such as the basic people finder report, which is available for just a few dollars. Background searches and Tracer reports, or advanced online people searches, cost a little more. However, these options are still less expensive than most other background check services we reviewed.
If you have multiple searches to conduct, you can gain access to unlimited searching with monthly memberships and day passes. Separate subscriptions are available for almost every type of record. In contrast, many competing search services offer memberships that provide only a handful of free searches per month. These companies often charge extra for additional reports.
You may use this service to order more than 40 types of reports. You can locate people, locate businesses, find affiliations, search divorce and marriage records, conduct background checks, evaluate assets and utilize small business tools for items such as OFAC compliance, professional license verification and business research. There are more choices with KnowX than with any other service we reviewed. Unfortunately, some of the reports are less comprehensive than some competitors' reports. The people search report, for example, provides only a name, phone number, address and length of residence. Reports from many competing services show possible email addresses, ages, relatives and associates. The basic online background check looks for bankruptcies, judgments, lawsuits, liens and UCC filings against a person or business.
Finding accurate information is vital with any background search service, so we tested all the top competitors to make sure their records are correct and complete. We found most of the people we searched for in this service’s basic search, but KnowX didn't find licensing information for the majority of doctors we searched. It also didn't find any of the numbers we used in the reverse phone search. It also failed to find most of the addresses we used with the reverse address search, but a free preview alerted us to this fact.
You can't use KnowX services for pre-employment screening or tenant screening because its records aren't certified by the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). If you aren't properly credentialed, you may not get access to criminal records here. Even if you are authorized, you can only search U.S. records with this service, and you can't find social networking profiles or email addresses.
The KnowX website has a useful FAQs page and it offers an email address you can use to request information or ask questions. Unfortunately, our requests went unanswered for several days. Additional support options let you pose questions and suggestions or speak to representatives via online chat.
KnowX is not the best for a quick and simple people search and we had mixed results with some types of queries. However, if you are primarily interested in business data, bankruptcies or other financial records, this site can get you the information you need.
