Certn

Certn is a Canada-based, globally operating background check and identity verification platform. Its RESTful API lets HR, property management, gig, and marketplace platforms order and retrieve criminal record checks, identity verification, credit, employment, education, credential, and reference checks across 200+ countries, then receive results and adjudicated reports. The API authenticates with OAuth 2.0 client credentials (Client ID / Client Secret exchanged for a Bearer token) and pushes status updates via signed webhooks. The original api.certn.co v1 REST API is deprecated (discontinued 2026-08-05) in favor of the newer CertnCentric APIs; both are modeled here honestly.

Certn publishes 6 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Applications API, Checks API, Packages API, and 3 more. Tagged areas include Background Checks, Identity Verification, Criminal Record Check, Screening, and HR Tech.

Certn’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, engineering blog, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

38.5/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-24 · rubric v0.13.0

AccessPaidSelf serve

6 APIs

Background Checks Identity VerificationCriminal Record CheckScreening HR Tech Compliance Trust and Safety

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-24 · rubric v0.13.0

Composite quality — 38.5/100 · thin

Contract Quality 14.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 4.8 / 20

Access Clarity 7.9 / 20

Operational Transparency 4.4 / 13

Contract Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 7.4 / 10

Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/certn: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 6

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Certn Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 3

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: certn
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/certn/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Certn
kind: company
description: Certn is a Canada-based, globally operating background check and identity verification platform. Its RESTful
  API lets HR, property management, gig, and marketplace platforms order and retrieve criminal record checks, identity verification,
  credit, employment, education, credential, and reference checks across 200+ countries, then receive results and adjudicated
  reports. The API authenticates with OAuth 2.0 client credentials (Client ID / Client Secret exchanged for a Bearer token)
  and pushes status updates via signed webhooks. The original api.certn.co v1 REST API is deprecated (discontinued 2026-08-05)
  in favor of the newer CertnCentric APIs; both are modeled here honestly.
accessModel:
  pricing: paid
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Paid · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/certn.png
tags:
- Background Checks
- Identity Verification
- Criminal Record Check
- Screening
- HR Tech
- Compliance
- Trust and Safety
created: '2026-07-03'
modified: '2026-07-03'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: certn:certn-applications-api
  name: Certn Applications API
  description: Invite or instantly screen applicants and list applications (HR and PM surfaces).
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Application
  tags_raw:
  - Applications
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-applications-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
- aid: certn:certn-checks-api
  name: Certn Checks API
  description: Individual check types requested and returned within an application.
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Checks
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-checks-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
- aid: certn:certn-packages-api
  name: Certn Packages API
  description: Predefined bundles of checks and application upgrades.
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Packages
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-packages-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
- aid: certn:certn-reports-api
  name: Certn Reports API
  description: Consolidated applicant screening reports and results.
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Reports
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-reports-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
- aid: certn:certn-teams-and-users-api
  name: Certn Teams and Users API
  description: Organizational hierarchy - Superteams, Teams, Users, reference templates.
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Teams and Users
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-teams-and-users-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
- aid: certn:certn-webhooks-api
  name: Certn Webhooks API
  description: Signed server-to-server callbacks for screening status updates.
  humanURL: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  baseURL: https://api.certn.co/api/v1
  tags:
  - Webhook
  tags_raw:
  - Webhooks
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/certn-webhooks-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/api-reference/hr
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/certn.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/certn.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://certn.co/background-screening-api/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/guides/use-the-api/webhooks
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.certn.co/api/start/demo-account/understand-your-general-resources
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/certn-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/certn-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/certn-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/certn-authentication.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/Certn
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/certn
- type: Website
  url: https://certn.co
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.certn.co/api
- type: Plans
  url: plans/certn-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/certn-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/certn-finops.yml
- type: Blog
  url: https://certn.co/blog/feed
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools

Call it yourself

curl for this page

This provider

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/certn"

All providers

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers?limit=25"

Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/certn/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/certn/evidence"

Discovery needs no key. Ratings and market analysis are Pro.

Get an API key

Free tier, no email required.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.