Tenstreet vs Foley: which problem are you actually trying to solve?
These two turn up on the same shortlist constantly, and the shortlist is usually a symptom of an unresolved question. They are not competing answers to one problem. They are answers to two different problems that happen to share a vocabulary.
Last updated 6 September 2026. This is a neutral comparison of two vendors, neither of which is us — see who wrote this.
If your trucks are parked because you cannot find drivers, buy Tenstreet. If your trucks are moving but your paperwork would not survive an audit, buy Foley. Tenstreet is recruiting software — you operate it, and it makes hiring faster by pre-filling applications, posting to job boards and running verifications through a driver network it already owns. Foley is a managed service — their staff operate it, acting as your third-party administrator for the DOT drug and alcohol program, running Clearinghouse queries, monitoring MVRs and standing behind you in an audit. The distinction that matters is not features, it is who does the work. A carrier hiring twenty drivers a month with a safety manager on staff wants Tenstreet. A ten-truck carrier with no safety manager and no intention of becoming one wants Foley. Carriers past roughly thirty trucks that are both hiring hard and regulated hard frequently run both, and that is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure to choose.
The real difference: software you run versus a service that runs itself
Almost every confusion between these two dissolves once you notice that one is a product and the other is a people business with a product attached. Tenstreet sells you a system and you drive it. Your recruiter logs in, posts the job, works the applicants, chases the verifications. The software is genuinely good at removing keystrokes, but the labour is still yours.
Foley sells you an outcome. As a certified third-party administrator it administers your DOT drug and alcohol testing programme, runs your random selection pool, files FMCSA Clearinghouse queries, monitors motor vehicle records and provides audit support. You are buying the fact that somebody whose full-time job is compliance is doing it, rather than it landing on a dispatcher who already has another job.
This is why comparing them feature-by-feature misleads. Both can legitimately claim "driver qualification files" and "Clearinghouse". In Tenstreet that means a well-built screen where your team does the work. In Foley it means the work arrives done. For a carrier with a safety manager, the screen is worth more. For a carrier without one, the screen is another thing nobody has time to open.
What Tenstreet actually is
Tenstreet has operated since 2006 and organises itself into a Hiring Center, a Safety Center and an Optimization Center. Its centre of gravity is unmistakably hiring. IntelliApp is an application that pre-populates from a driver profile already held on Tenstreet's network, which is the single biggest reason carriers cite for choosing it — a driver who has applied anywhere else on the network does not retype their history. Job Store pushes one posting to around twenty job boards. Driver Pulse is the driver-facing mobile app, and Xchange is an electronic DOT employment verification network spanning more than 11,000 carriers.
The compliance side is more real than sceptics expect. Enhanced DQF keeps driver qualification files with three-year retention for terminated drivers, annual MVR and certificate-of-violation tracking, bulk MVR ordering and expiration alerts. Tenstreet runs Clearinghouse queries with an in-house team and pulls PSP reports straight from the dashboard. Drug testing and background screening are handled through integrated partners such as eScreen and HireRight rather than by Tenstreet itself — a distinction worth holding onto, because it is precisely the part Foley does in-house.
Tenstreet acquired DriverReach, its closest competitor, in March 2025. If you are reading comparisons written before then, they are describing a market that no longer exists — we cover what changed in our Tenstreet vs DriverReach page.
What Foley actually is
Foley is a managed DOT compliance provider with a platform layered over the service. Its published plan ladder runs Essential, Professional and Power. Essential is aimed at "small fleets and owner-operators who need to stay compliant and get the basics covered" and includes driver qualification files, the DOT drug and alcohol programme, Clearinghouse queries, compliance alerts, standard screening and audit risk monitoring.
Professional adds the monitoring layer that carriers usually discover they needed after a bad roadside inspection: CSA monitoring, MVR and PSP scoring, ongoing MVR monitoring, customisable workflows and audit support services. Power adds customisable digital applications, a document review service and HCM system integrations. The upgrade path is essentially "how much of this do you want a human to look at".
Foley does not publish prices. The pricing page presents the three tiers with feature lists and routes every call to action to a demo booking form; no dollar amounts appear anywhere on it, and no contract length is stated. That is a genuine drawback and we are not going to dress it up — but it is also normal for a service business where the price depends on driver count and how much of the programme you hand over.
Where the overlap is real, and where it only looks real
There is one genuine overlap: driver qualification files. Both keep them, both alert on expirations, and if that is your only requirement then you are making a real comparison — and you should probably buy neither, because a dedicated DQF vendor will cost a fraction of either. Our FileFlo vs DOTDriverFiles comparison covers that cheaper end of the market, where both vendors publish their prices.
The overlaps that only look real are Clearinghouse and screening. Tenstreet runs Clearinghouse queries; so does Foley. But Foley is the third-party administrator for your entire drug and alcohol programme — the random selection pool, the collection sites, the MRO relationship, the consequences when someone tests positive. Tenstreet queries the Clearinghouse as part of hiring. Those are not the same purchase, and a carrier that assumes Tenstreet covers its drug and alcohol obligations has a compliance gap it does not know about.
Conversely, Foley is not going to fill your trucks. It has no driver network, no job-board distribution and no applicant marketplace. If your problem is that nobody is applying, no amount of compliance service fixes it.
Tenstreet vs Foley, at a glance
Every dollar figure below was read off the vendor's own website, and the URL is in sources. Where a vendor does not publish a price, the row says quote only — we have not estimated, and we have not repeated a third-party directory's number as if it were the vendor's.
| Tenstreet driver recruiting & onboarding software | Foley managed DOT compliance service | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Software you operate — driver recruiting, onboarding and driver files | A managed service with a platform — their staff run your compliance programme |
| Who does the work | Your recruiter or safety manager | Foley's team, with you reviewing |
| Best for | Carriers hiring at volume who have someone to run the system | Carriers with no safety manager who want compliance handled |
| Pricing | Quote only — no figures published | Quote only — three tiers named (Essential, Professional, Power), no dollar amounts on the pricing page |
| Contract | Publishes that "An annual contract does not have to be signed"; On-Demand plan is month-to-month | Not published — confirm with the vendor |
| Hardware | None | None |
| DQF / driver files | Enhanced DQF — 3-year retention, annual MVR & COV tracking, bulk ordering, expiration alerts. You maintain it | Included from the Essential tier. Foley maintains it |
| Recruiting / ATS | The core product — IntelliApp, Job Store to ~20 job boards, Driver Pulse app, drip marketing | No driver sourcing. Digital applications appear at the Power tier |
| Drug & alcohol / Clearinghouse | Runs Clearinghouse queries in-house; drug testing via integrated partners (eScreen, FSSolutions) | Certified third-party administrator — runs the whole DOT drug and alcohol programme plus Clearinghouse queries |
| MVR monitoring | Annual MVR tracking and bulk ordering within DQF | Ongoing MVR monitoring and MVR/PSP scoring from the Professional tier |
| Audit support | Records are organised for audit; no representation service | Audit support services from the Professional tier — a headline reason carriers buy |
| ELD / HOS | No | No |
| Support model | Software support — you operate the product | Service delivery — the people are the product |
Neither vendor publishes pricing, so no figures are shown for either and none have been estimated. Foley's tier names and inclusions are taken from its own pricing page and Tenstreet's capabilities from its own product pages, all read on 6 September 2026. Contract length is published by Tenstreet and not by Foley, and is reported accordingly. Vendor packaging changes without notice — confirm before buying.
Which one should you actually buy?
Choose Tenstreet if…
Your constraint is empty seats, and you have someone whose job includes filling them.
- You are hiring continuously rather than occasionally — the network pre-fill compounds the more you recruit.
- You have a recruiter or safety manager who will actually log in daily. Software with nobody driving it is shelfware.
- You want the applicant funnel, onboarding and driver files in one place instead of handing off between systems.
- You need employment verification at speed; Xchange spans more than 11,000 carriers and is free to join.
- You hire in bursts — On-Demand is month-to-month, and Tenstreet says job openings stay visible so drivers can still apply while the subscription is inactive.
Choose Foley if…
Your constraint is that compliance is nobody's actual job, and you would rather buy the outcome than the tool.
- You have no safety manager and no intention of hiring one. This is the single clearest signal to choose a service over software.
- You need a third-party administrator for the DOT drug and alcohol programme — random pool, collections, MRO. Tenstreet does not do this.
- You have an audit coming, or you have been through one badly. Audit support from the Professional tier is what carriers actually buy.
- You want continuous MVR and CSA monitoring rather than an annual check you might forget.
- You hire rarely. Paying for a recruiting platform to onboard three drivers a year is the wrong shape of spend.
What neither one solves
The honest weakness these two share is that neither will tell you what it costs until you have spoken to a salesperson. For a carrier under ten trucks that is a genuine obstacle, and it is the most common reason small fleets abandon the search and go back to a folder of PDFs. There are structural gaps too.
- Neither publishes a price. You cannot size either against your budget without booking a demo, and neither states a contract length publicly.
- Neither is an ELD. Hours of service, GPS and dashcams remain a separate purchase whichever you pick.
- Neither covers the truck. Vehicle files, annual inspections, maintenance history and DVIRs are a different system again — and Part 396 findings are among the most common audit failures.
- Neither pays anyone. Driver settlements, per-mile and percentage pay, deductions and advances sit outside both products.
- Buying both, which many mid-size carriers end up doing, means two vendors, two invoices and two places the driver record lives.
Disclosure: this comparison is published by Fleetive. We build DOT compliance software, so we overlap with parts of both vendors above and you should read us with that in mind — which is why we have kept ourselves out of the argument until here. The third shape, for completeness: software rather than a service, priced and published rather than quoted, covering driver qualification files, credential expirations, vehicle and maintenance records and driver settlements in one place. It suits a carrier who wants to own compliance cheaply, not one who wants to outsource it — if you genuinely want the work done for you, Foley is the better answer and we will say so. Our compliance features and pricing are public if you want to compare.
Tenstreet vs Foley: common questions
Are Tenstreet and Foley competitors?
Only at the edges. They overlap on driver qualification files and, loosely, on Clearinghouse queries. Everywhere else they solve different problems: Tenstreet is recruiting and onboarding software that your team operates, and Foley is a managed compliance service whose team operates it for you. Plenty of carriers run both without redundancy.
Does Tenstreet handle DOT drug and alcohol testing like Foley does?
Not in the same way, and this is the most consequential misunderstanding between the two. Tenstreet runs FMCSA Clearinghouse queries with an in-house team and integrates drug-testing partners such as eScreen and FSSolutions. Foley acts as a certified third-party administrator for the entire programme — random selection pool, collection sites, medical review officer and the process when a result comes back positive. If you assume Tenstreet covers your Part 382 obligations, you will have a gap.
Which is cheaper?
Neither publishes pricing, so an honest answer is not available. Tenstreet states that an annual contract is not required and offers a month-to-month On-Demand plan for small fleets, which suggests a low entry point for occasional hirers. Foley prices as a service and will generally scale with driver count and how much of the programme you hand over. Get both quotes; do not rely on figures from software directories, which are frequently wrong for both.
I am a five-truck carrier. Do I need either?
Possibly neither at full scope. If you hire two drivers a year, a recruiting platform is oversized. If you can keep on top of the paperwork yourself, a full managed service may be more than you need — though the drug and alcohol consortium is one thing almost every small carrier does outsource, because you cannot run a random pool of one. A common small-carrier setup is a consortium or third-party administrator for the drug and alcohol programme plus something cheap and specific for driver files.
Can I use both together?
Yes, and mid-size carriers commonly do: Tenstreet for the hiring funnel and onboarding, Foley for the drug and alcohol programme, MVR monitoring and audit support. The cost is duplication — the driver record exists in two systems and you own reconciling them. Decide deliberately which system is the source of truth for the driver qualification file before you turn both on.
Does either one keep me compliant on hours of service?
No. Neither Tenstreet nor Foley is an electronic logging device and neither records hours of service. Any carrier running CDL drivers subject to the HOS rules needs a registered ELD in addition to whichever of these you choose. Our neutral Samsara vs Motive comparison covers the two most-shortlisted ELD vendors.
Sources
Checked 6 September 2026. Vendor sites change without notice — confirm anything that will drive a purchase.
- Foley pricing page — Essential / Professional / Power tiers, quote-based, no dollar amounts published
- Foley — company and services overview
- Tenstreet pricing page — quote-only, and the "annual contract does not have to be signed" statement
- Tenstreet Safety Center — Clearinghouse, MVR and PSP capabilities
- Tenstreet Enhanced DQF — driver qualification file features
- Tenstreet On-Demand — month-to-month plan for small fleets
- Tenstreet integrations — drug screening and background partners
- FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse — what a carrier is actually required to query
Related comparisons
Most carriers shortlist three or four vendors before they sign anything. These cover the rest of the field.
- FileFlo vs DOTDriverFiles Both publish real prices, so the comparison can do arithmetic. DOTDriverFiles undercuts FileFlo below about 40 drivers — but the two are not selling the same thing.
- Foley vs SambaSafety Both monitor MVRs, and that is roughly where the similarity ends. One is a driver-risk data company serving every industry; the other is a DOT-specific managed service for motor carriers.
- J. J. Keller vs Foley The two default small-carrier compliance vendors. The decision is not features — it is whether you have somebody on staff to operate a platform, or need the work done for you.
If you want our own view of these vendors
The pages below are not neutral — they are Fleetive's own comparisons, and they argue our side. Linked here so you can tell the two kinds of page apart.