Predictive Index (PI) has a big following, particularly in North America, and is well rated by its users. It combines a behavioural assessment with a short cognitive test, and it's built a wider set of team and management tools around them.
But PI is sold as a full talent platform, and if you mainly need it for assessing candidates, it can be more than you need. Its behavioural assessment also uses PI's own four-factor model rather than a widely used one like the Big Five, so getting the most from the results usually means sending people on PI's two-day certification workshop. If you want behavioural and cognitive insight that your hiring managers can read straight away, here are the alternatives worth considering.
Criteria
Criteria is one of the closest like-for-like alternatives to PI, combining a well-known cognitive aptitude test with Big Five-based personality assessments and skills tests in a self-service platform. Because its personality model is the Big Five rather than a proprietary one, hiring managers can read results without any training, and it's sold for hiring rather than as a wider talent management suite.
What you give up is PI's team and management tools, and they are more popular in the USA than the UK, if that's where you're based. A practical choice if you want PI's cognitive and behavioural combination in a simpler, hiring-focused tool.
Test Partnership
Test Partnership gives you the same two building blocks as PI, personality and cognitive ability, without tying you into a full talent management platform you may not need. Pricing is tailored to your annual assessment volume and the features you actually use, and every plan includes unlimited users.
Our personality questionnaires are grounded in the Big Five, the most widely researched model of personality, so results are easy to explain to hiring managers and no training or certification is needed to read them. And rather than one questionnaire for everyone, you can choose the one that fits the role.
On the cognitive side, where PI offers a single short test, we offer a full range of numerical, verbal and inductive reasoning and critical thinking tests, plus MindmetriQ, our gamified cognitive assessments, which are built to be AI-resistant from the ground up, something that matters more every year as candidates turn to AI during online tests.
We use these tests as part of our recruitment process and have found it very insightful. I found the system very easy to use. I would definitely recommend.
If you like PI's idea of matching candidates to a target profile for the role, you can take it further with Test Partnership and build a bespoke assessment around your own competencies, values or the traits your highest performers share, rather than a generic profile. Vitality, for example, worked with us on a validity study to identify the behaviours linked to success in their roles, which became the basis of a custom assessment to identify the applicants most likely to stay, be engaged and perform well.
Conclusion and next steps
PI is a capable platform, and if you use its team and management tools as well as its assessments, it may well be worth keeping. If you mainly need it for hiring, the choice comes down to how far you want to go.
If you want PI's cognitive and behavioural combination in a simpler, hiring-focused tool, Criteria is an option. If you want results anyone can read, a choice of personality questionnaires matched to the role, a full range of ability tests and AI-resistant cognitive assessment, Test Partnership gives you all of that in one platform. And if you want to define your own target profile, our bespoke assessments are built around what success looks like in your organisation.
You can explore our personality tests, aptitude tests and gamified assessments, or see what's included on our pricing page.
Sources: Predictive Index, Predictive Index on Capterra, Predictive Index on G2, PI behavioural factors, PI certification workshops, Criteria, Criteria on Capterra.
Joshua Hancock
Digital Marketing Manager at Test Partnership. Over seven years' experience as a writer, content strategist, SEO and digital marketer.
