You are not really asking whether an app runs background checks. You are asking whether the person about to be in your kitchen, alone with you or with your kids upstairs, is someone you should let in. Those turn out to be different questions, and the badge answers the smaller one.
So here is what each of the big platforms actually checks, quoted from their own help pages, and where the gap sits.
The short version
| Platform | Who gets checked | Who does not | Licence verified? |
|---|---|---|---|
| TaskRabbit | Every Tasker — identity plus criminal records, via Checkr and Persona | — (Taskers are individuals, so the person checked is the person who arrives) | Not stated as verified |
| Angi | The owner, principal or relevant manager of the business | Employees and crew — Angi says it is unable to check every employee | No — self-reported by the business |
| Thumbtack | New account owners, re-run annually | Employees, contractors and workers — the owner's responsibility | No — users are told to check it themselves |
| GigNGo (us) | Nobody. We verify a phone number, and that is the whole of it | Everyone | No |
The gap almost nobody explains: the badge follows the account, not the person
On Angi and Thumbtack, the thing being screened is a business account. If a three-person painting outfit signs up, the owner passes a criminal check and the badge appears. The two people who actually turn up on the day were never checked by anyone.
Angi says this outright:
"Unfortunately, we are unable to perform a background check on every employee of a business — the background checks are performed only on the owner or principal." — Angi, "What does the background check cover?"
Thumbtack puts it as a matter of whose job it is:
"All new account owners must undergo a criminal background check through a nationally accredited third-party provider when they create a Thumbtack account." … "Account owners are responsible for ensuring their employees, contractors and workers adhere to our Terms of Use and all applicable federal, state and local laws." — Thumbtack, Your Safety
Neither company is hiding this. It sits in the help centre, phrased reasonably, and almost nobody reads it — because the badge on the profile has already answered the question in the reader's head.
TaskRabbit is the genuine exception, and the reason is structural rather than virtuous. Taskers sign up as individuals, not as companies. There is no crew to be a gap. When TaskRabbit checks a Tasker, it has checked the person who will be standing in your hallway.
Even a real check is not the thing you wanted
The most useful sentence any of these companies has written about screening is TaskRabbit's, and it is the one arguing against its own badge. TaskRabbit states that it does not endorse, certify or guarantee a Tasker's skills or qualifications, or whether they are trustworthy, safe or suitable, on the basis of a completed background check.
That is worth sitting with, because it is true of all of them. A criminal records search reports what has been prosecuted and entered into the databases it covers, and those databases vary by state. It cannot tell you whether someone is careful with your things, honest about what a job costs, sober on a Tuesday, or good at the work. Most of what makes a person a bad idea in your home has never been to court.
A background check is a floor, not a verdict. It rules out one narrow category of person. It says nothing at all about the much larger category of people who are simply careless, dishonest about price, or not as skilled as they claimed.
What we do, which is less
We verify that a phone number belongs to the person using it. That is the whole of it. No criminal background check, no identity document, no confirmation of a licence or an insurance policy. A profile on GigNGo is not us vouching for anyone, and if you want the same assurance TaskRabbit offers on screening, TaskRabbit is the one giving it.
We would rather say that plainly than put a word like "verified" on a profile and let it do work it has not earned. If a homeowner relaxes because of a badge we put there, and something goes wrong, the badge caused the harm.
What we do instead is give you more to actually look at. Locals post video of work they have really done, and you pick the person yourself rather than being routed to whoever paid for the lead. That is a different kind of information, and for the question who is this person we think it is worth more than a pass/fail flag. But it is not screening, and we are not going to call it screening.
The filter we do have, and what it is not
Saying we check nobody is only half the picture, so here is the other half. Every screening badge in the table above is a filter that runs once, at signup, against a database. Ours runs continuously and in public: to get work here, somebody has to film the job they just finished, put it on a profile with their name on it, say which streets they work, and then do it again next week.
That is real, repeated, identifiable effort, and it is the cost a person with something to hide is least willing to pay. It is also the reason this works for good workers who are bad at profiles — it asks them to be good at the job, not good at describing themselves.
The limit, said out loud, because it matters more than the argument. A determined person can film a driveway too. Effort filters for commitment, not for character — and anybody who would be caught by a criminal-records check is not caught by this. It is a different filter with a different failure mode, not a replacement for one, and we are not going to call it a background check.
It is also an argument rather than a measurement. We have not shown that locals who post their work produce better outcomes, because the platform is young enough that there is very little to measure. If the numbers ever disagree with the reasoning, the reasoning is what should go.
What to actually do, since no badge will do it for you
None of this means hiring is dangerous. It means the check you were relying on is narrower than it looked, so a few minutes of your own diligence carries more weight than you thought.
- Ask who is coming. Not the company — the person. "Will you be doing the work yourself, or sending someone?" On a business account, that single question closes most of the gap this article is about.
- Look up the licence yourself. Every state has a searchable board for the trades that need one. Angi and Thumbtack both tell you to do this, because neither of them verifies it.
- Ask for the insurance certificate, not the claim. A real one names the insurer and an expiry date, and takes about a minute to send. For anything involving water, roofs, or electricity, this matters more than any badge.
- Watch the first five minutes. Whether someone is on time, explains what they are about to do, and is willing to write the price down tells you more than a records search will.
- Do not be alone if you would rather not be. Having someone else in the house for a first visit is a completely normal thing to arrange, and nobody decent will find it strange.
If you want the longer version of that last group of questions, we wrote one on what the first five minutes tell you, and one on the red flags worth walking away from.
Questions people ask
Does TaskRabbit background check its Taskers?
Yes. TaskRabbit says all US Taskers pass an identity check and a criminal background check covering national, local and sex offender databases, run through third parties including Checkr and Persona. Because Taskers are individuals rather than businesses, the person checked is the person who arrives. TaskRabbit also states that a completed check does not mean it endorses or guarantees that a Tasker is trustworthy, safe or suitable.
Are Angi pros background checked?
The business owner is, not the crew. Angi's FAQ says the owner, principal or relevant manager of every Angi Approved business must pass a criminal background check, and that Angi is unable to perform a background check on every employee. Licensing is self-reported by the business, and Angi encourages homeowners to confirm it with local regulators.
What does the background check badge mean on Thumbtack?
It applies to the account owner, and Thumbtack re-runs it annually. Employees, contractors and workers are the account owner's responsibility rather than Thumbtack's. Thumbtack also encourages users to check a pro's occupational licence and verify their insurance independently.
Do you run background checks?
No. We verify a phone number and nothing else. On screening we do less than TaskRabbit, Angi and Thumbtack, and we would rather you know that before you hire than after. What we ask for instead is effort a person with something to hide will not spend: film the work, attach it to your name and the streets you work, and keep doing it. That is a filter with a real cost, and it runs every week rather than once at signup — but it is not a background check and we will not call it one.
Is a background check enough to know someone is safe?
No, and the platforms say so themselves. It reports what has been prosecuted and recorded in databases that vary by state. It says nothing about whether someone is careful in your home, honest about price, or good at the work.
Sources. Quotations are from each company's own published documentation, read on 3 September 2026. Policies change — check the current page before relying on any of it.