First Move Assessment vs Traitify: Which Actually Fits a Contractor?
The short answer: Traitify fits an employer screening many hourly applicants that wants a short personality assessment built into its applicant tracking system or career site, or run from Traitify's hosted tool. Traitify sells through a demo request, says billing is typically annual, and lists no prices on its site.3 First Move Assessment fits a contracting business that wants to buy assessments one at a time and get a read on the move a candidate reaches for first in the exact trade seat it is hiring for. Traitify describes where a candidate falls on broad personality traits. First Move Assessment reads instinct in situations written for one trade seat.
We checked every Traitify fact on this page against Traitify's own public website, and the Brilliant AI announcement linked from it, on 8 October 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm on their site before you buy. Sources are listed at the bottom.
Who sells Traitify now
Traitify's own site now carries a banner that reads "Introducing Brilliant: A new era of hiring intelligence."1 The banner links to a 17 September 2026 announcement from Brilliant AI, which says it was "Formed from Crosschq, ApplicantX, and Traitify" and that the three companies "will continue to operate under their existing names".8 Traitify's press page also lists an earlier release headlined "Paradox Acquires Traitify to Further Streamline Hourly Hiring with Fast, Simple, Next-Generation Assessments".6 Traitify's terms of service name the contracting company as "Woofound, Inc. d/b/a Traitify".7 Ask which company would be on your contract and who supports the product.
Who each one is for
Traitify. Traitify's home page says a few minutes and a 95% completion rate let the assessment sit "at the top of your candidate funnel", and says word-based tests leave out job seekers who do not have "a laptop or college degree".1 Several releases on its press page focus on hourly and high-volume workers, from a funding round "aimed at hourly workers" to a product for developing "high-volume workers".6 Its FAQ says customers of its SaaS version include more than 200 organizations in a range of industries.3
First Move Assessment. Built for owners and managers who do their own hiring in nine trades: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, garage door, pest control, commercial mechanical, residential cleaning and commercial cleaning. Every seat in the company has its own written standard, from apprentice and service tech through dispatcher, CSR, comfort advisor, estimator and bookkeeper, up to the chief executive.
What each one measures
Traitify's personality assessment is based on the Big Five model of personality. The candidate sees a series of images, each with a short caption, and answers "Me" or "Not Me". Traitify says this takes 2 to 5 minutes.4 It validates against the Big Five and Holland career interest models, and says images make the test easier on a phone and easier to translate.2 To score a candidate for a job, Traitify's psychologists build job-based scoring criteria from job descriptions, interviews with subject matter experts, performance data from people already in the role and Big Five research, and they update the scoring ranges as hiring, termination and performance data come in.4
The Traitify Cognitive Assessment uses shapes to see how a candidate spots patterns and solves problems they have not met before. The questions are visual, so no reading is needed beyond the instructions, and Traitify says most people finish in about five minutes.5 Its home page says it measures General Mental Ability.1
Realistic Job Previews show the candidate a short video with the highs and lows of the role, followed by a quick series of tailored questions.1
First Move Assessment measures work instinct: the move a candidate reaches for first when the work gets hard. The candidate reads situations from the seat and picks the move they would make first. The report scores them out of 100 against the seat's written standard, with a margin of error printed beside the score, and shows where their instincts pull away from what the seat needs. It does not test skills or trade knowledge, describe personality or check backgrounds.
What that means in practice: Traitify tells you where a candidate falls on broad personality traits and how they handle unfamiliar pattern problems, and compares the personality results with scoring set for the job. First Move Assessment tells you which way the candidate leans on the calls one seat runs on: check first or jump in, fix what keeps causing the problem or the one in front of them, handle it or pass it to the right person.
The research behind each
Traitify says it is "Backed by decades of science".1 Its science page says it has run "dozens of multi-month studies with 10,000s of participants", that its construct validity for the Big Five, measured against established questionnaires, "ranges from 0.52 to 0.75," and that its Big Five test-retest scores "range from 0.66 to 0.77". It adds: "Predictive Validity is established on a proprietary basis upon request."2 Its FAQ reports a Cronbach's alpha of 0.94 for its Career assessment.3 Traitify says an independent bias audit covering over 400,000 candidates found selection rates did not differ by gender and ethnicity.4
First Move Assessment is built on situational judgment, a hiring method with 30 years of published evidence. Candidates face real situations from the seat and pick the move they would make first. What the published research on the method has found:
- A meta-analysis pooling 118 results found situational judgment tests predicted job performance at .26 (McDaniel, Hartman, Whetzel and Grubb, 2007, Personnel Psychology).
- Tests built around teamwork situations predicted at .38, and leadership situations at .28 (Christian, Edwards and Bradley, 2010, Personnel Psychology).
- The approach lines up with decades of research on tacit knowledge, the practical know-how that separates experienced performers (Sternberg and Wagner, 1985; Lievens and Motowidlo, 2016).
The limits page explains how these findings on the method relate to this assessment.
Ask before you buy: request any predictive validity study Traitify has run on jobs like the seats you fill.
Trade-specific content
Traitify offers "Assessments for any role".1 It tailors them to a job through the job-based scoring its psychologists build, and through the realistic job preview for the role.41 Its main pages do not name construction, mechanical contracting, cleaning or the trades. Ask whether the images change from job to job or only the scoring does, and whether it has scoring built for seats like a service tech, dispatcher, estimator or night crew cleaner.
First Move Assessment is trade-specific all the way through. Each situation is written from inside one seat in one trade, in that trade's own words: a night crew cleaner alone in a locked building who finds a floor that is not on the route sheet, or an estimator with a bid due and a scope question the general contractor has not answered. A dispatcher is read against what a dispatch board demands, a bookkeeper against what the books demand.
Pricing
Traitify lists no prices on its site. Its FAQ says you get started by requesting a demo, and that billing is "typically completed on an annual basis."3 Unless an order form says otherwise, its terms invoice annual subscription fees once a year in advance.7 Its demo page says it cannot give an assessment demo to individuals and takes requests from organizations.9
First Move Assessment charges per assessment. One assessment is $149. Packs run $595 for 5, $995 for 10 and $1,995 for 25. The Practice License is 100 assessments a year for $4,950. Every seat costs the same, assessments never expire, and the first one is covered by a 30-day refund. Full details are on the pricing page.
The honest math: with no published Traitify price, there is no fair per-candidate comparison to make. An annual subscription for a few-minute test at the top of the funnel makes the most sense for an employer screening hundreds or thousands of applicants a year. A shop that puts 20 to 50 finalists a year through knows its cost up front: 25 First Move Assessments cost $1,995. Ask Traitify for a quote at your volume and its minimum term, then divide by the candidates you actually ran last year.
Setup and support
Traitify says you can put it "directly into your ATS or career site via our personality API" or use its "hosted SaaS tool."1 We found no list of named integrations on Traitify's own site. Brilliant AI says the combined company integrates with more than 40 HR and talent systems, is a Platinum Workday partner, and works alongside Oracle, SAP, iCIMS, Greenhouse and Salesforce.8 On the candidate side, Traitify says the assessment can be completed from any device, works with screen readers, and that candidates may receive a report of their own.43
First Move Assessment takes almost no setup. Your account email arrives within a minute of buying, and you set a password from it. Pick the seat, type the candidate's name and email, and the link goes out. The candidate finishes on their phone in about 10 to 20 minutes, with no app and no account, and the report lands in your inbox. Questions go to support@firstmoveassessment.com.
How each one uses AI
Traitify. Traitify's main pages do not call its assessment AI, though a 2017 post on its blog argues A.I. can help determine personality fit.10 Its home page describes "a sophisticated statistical process that combines employee performance data and personality data to prioritize applicants who match top performers", which adapts the matching as new batches of data arrive.1 Traitify commissioned an independent bias audit from Holistic AI in connection with New York City's Local Law 144, most recently completed on April 21, 2025.4 Brilliant AI says it unites Traitify's assessments with Crosschq and ApplicantX in one "continuously learning platform", trained on more than 200 million hiring outcomes, and that over time the products will become more connected through Brilliant's intelligence.8 Ask whether any AI model takes part in scoring or ranking your candidates, today or after that change.
First Move Assessment: AI tools helped draft the seat standards and the situations a candidate reads, and checked them against occupational research. Every standard then had to pass a fixed set of rules and was approved before use. No AI takes part when a candidate sits the assessment, when it is scored, or when the report is written.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Traitify now?
Traitify's site points to Brilliant AI. It links to a September 2026 announcement from Brilliant AI, which says it was formed from Crosschq, ApplicantX and Traitify and that Traitify will keep operating under its own name.8 Traitify's privacy statement says it is covered under Crosschq, Inc.'s certification to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.7 Its press page also lists an earlier release on Paradox acquiring Traitify.6
What does the Traitify assessment measure?
Its personality assessment measures the Big Five personality traits through images with short captions, answered "Me" or "Not Me".4 Traitify also offers a shape-based cognitive assessment of General Mental Ability and a realistic job preview.15
How long does the Traitify assessment take?
Traitify says the personality assessment takes 2 to 5 minutes and most people finish the cognitive assessment in about five.45 First Move Assessment takes about 10 to 20 minutes on a phone.
How much does Traitify cost?
Traitify publishes no prices. Its FAQ says billing is typically annual, and you start by requesting a demo.3 First Move Assessment is $149 for one assessment and drops to $49.50 a candidate on the Practice License.
Is Traitify validated?
Traitify says yes. It reports construct validity of 0.52 to 0.75 against Big Five questionnaires and test-retest scores of 0.66 to 0.77, and says predictive validity is established on a proprietary basis upon request.2
Is there a Traitify alternative built for the trades?
First Move Assessment is written for nine trades, with a standard for every seat from apprentice to chief executive, and is sold one assessment at a time. Traitify offers assessments for any role, and its main pages do not name the trades.1
What is the difference between Traitify and First Move Assessment?
Traitify measures broad personality traits and problem-solving ability in a few minutes, and compares the personality results with scoring set for the job.45 First Move Assessment reads the move a candidate reaches for first in situations from one trade seat, scored out of 100 against that seat's written standard.
Which one covers commercial mechanical and cleaning companies?
Traitify's main pages do not name either industry, though it offers assessments for any role.1 First Move Assessment has written seat standards for commercial mechanical, residential cleaning and commercial cleaning, including project managers, estimators, night crew cleaners, day porters and commercial supervisors.
Sources
Traitify facts checked on traitify.com, and on the Brilliant AI announcement linked from its home page, on 8 October 2026.
- Traitify home page: https://www.traitify.com/
- Traitify science page: https://www.traitify.com/science
- Traitify FAQs: https://www.traitify.com/faqs
- Traitify ethical assessments page: https://www.traitify.com/ethical-assessments
- Traitify Cognitive Assessment page: https://www.traitify.com/cognitive
- Traitify press and media page: https://www.traitify.com/press-media
- Traitify terms of service: https://www.traitify.com/legal
- Brilliant AI launch announcement, linked from Traitify's home page: https://brillianthire.ai/press/brilliant-ai-creates-hiring-intelligence-category
- Traitify demo page: https://www.traitify.com/demo
- Traitify blog, "Should A.I. be used to determine personality fit?" (2017): https://www.traitify.com/blog/should-a-i-be-used-to-determine-personality-fit
First Move Assessment reads the first instinct a candidate brings to one seat in your trade before you hire: get the three sample reports.
Traitify is a trademark of its owner. Brilliant is a trademark of its owner. First Move Assessment is not affiliated with or endorsed by Woofound, Inc. d/b/a Traitify; Paradox, Inc.; Crosschq, Inc.; or Brilliant AI.