AI Indexes
HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Talent acquisition › Background screening › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Background screening for enterprise buyers

Asked as “background check provider”, and as “employment screening service”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 55 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
27%
Contested · Checkr 24%
27HireRight24Checkr20First Advantage29others

27% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01HireRight27%21%63accepted challenger
02Checkr24%7%54accepted challenger
03First Advantage20%6%48accepted challenger
04Sterling13%22%51accepted challenger
05Mitratech AssureHire5%0%13accepted challenger
06Accurate Background4%8%36accepted challenger
07Verified First2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10GoodHire0%47%15criticized challenger
09Certn0%40%10criticized challenger
08Cisive0%0%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01HireRight27%
02Checkr24%
03First Advantage20%
04Sterling13%
05Mitratech AssureHire5%
06Accurate Background4%
07Verified First2%
08Cisive0%
09Certn0%
10GoodHire0%

What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and GLM 4.7 FlashX changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
HireRight
21%
13 of 63 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Has faced significant legal and compliance issues, including a $2.6 million FTC settlement in 2012 for FCRA violations.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Sterling
22%
11 of 51 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Sterling Infosystems and First Advantage have the most extensive recent litigation and regulatory record.” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
GoodHire
47%
7 of 15 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**GoodHire** for very large, global enterprise use: ... implying GoodHire is less suitable for that scale.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Instant Checkmate
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“These are red flags for enterprise hiring because they were alleged to market reports for employment/tenant screening while failing to meet FCRA obligations.” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1098 links across 265 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Checkr44 answers · 59 citations · 13 models
35 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Pin33 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
33 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
28 answers · 34 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Mitratech25 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Verified First21 answers · 24 citations · 11 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
17 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Cisive16 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · iprospectcheck15 answers · 16 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “background check provider”, “background check providers”, “best background check provider”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
HireRight hireright.com27%11274,0001,24965,05412
Checkr checkr.com
Checkr 24%, Checkr Trust 0%
24%15874,0001,214498,605$77,362854
First Advantage fadv.com20%9174,0001,820128,337$1,781286
Sterling sterlingcheck.com13%86135,00069,11392,6453
Mitratech mitratech.com
Mitratech AssureHire 5%
5%273,60015946,305 company$10,768106
Accurate accurate.com
Accurate Background 4%
4%888,100561161,894 company$27171
Verified First verifiedfirst.com2%324,40025511,301119
Zinc2%
Sterling/First Advantage2%
aINSIGHT2%

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (checkr.com, fadv.com, verifiedfirst.com). The first result for “background check provider” is accurate.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best background check provider for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employment screening service would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade background check providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best background check provider for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a background check provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which background check providers should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Checkr
Three alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight
SterlingChanged
Three alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, ScoutLogic
First Advantage
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight, ScoutLogic
First Advantage
One alternativeCheckr
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, DISA Global Solutions Inc., Facts on Demand, Health and Safety Council, National Public Data, North American Background Screening Consortium
GPT-5.4 miniCheckr
Two alternativesAccurate Background, HireRight
CheckrHeld
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, Sterling
Checkr, First Advantage
One alternativeHireRight
against: GoodHire
Checkr
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
no first choiceagainst: Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashFirst Advantage
Three alternativesCheckr, HireRight, Verified First
First AdvantageHeld
Three alternativesCheckr, HireRight, Verified First
First Advantage
Five alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, Cisive, HireRight, Verified First
Checkr, Verified Firstagainst: HireRight, Sterlingno first choiceagainst: AppFolio, BeenVerified, DISA Global Solutions, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, National Public Data, PeopleFinders, Spokeo, Sterling, TransUnion, TruthFinder, Whitepages
Perplexity SonarMitratech AssureHire
Five alternativesAccurate Background, Cisive, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
HireRightChanged
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
First Advantage
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, Cisive, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
Sterling
One alternativeHireRight
against: GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: GoodHire, Sterling
Grok 4.1 FastFirst Advantage, HireRight
Two alternativesAccurate Background, Sterling
against: Certn, Checkr
HireRightChanged
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, Sterling
against: GoodHire
First Advantage, HireRight
Two alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr
against: Certn
HireRight
Two alternativesCheckr, Sterling
Checkr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, Mitratech AssureHire, Zinc
against: BackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, HireRight, Intelius, SambaSafety, Sterling
Mistral SmallFirst Advantage
Two alternativesHireRight, Sterling
HireRight, SterlingChangedFirst Advantage, HireRight
Three alternativesCheckr, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
HireRight, Mitratech AssureHireagainst: Checkrno first choiceagainst: HireRight, Instant Checkmate, PeopleConnect, TruthFinder
DeepSeek V4 FlashCheckr, HireRight
Two alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage
HireRightChanged
Two alternativesCheckr, First Advantage
Sterling
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, First Advantage, HireRight
Checkr
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
against: Certn
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Sterlingagainst: Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, First Advantage, Sterling
Llama 4 MaverickCheckr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Cisive, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire
Mitratech AssureHireChanged
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
no first choiceCheckr
Three alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: GoodHire
Qwen 3.7 FlashHireRight, Sterling
Two alternativesGoodHire, Verimark
SterlingChanged
Two alternativesHireRight, Mitratech AssureHire
First Advantage
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, Checkr, HireRight
First Advantage
Two alternativesCheckr, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: AGSS, HireRight, ID.me
Kimi K2First Advantage
Two alternativesCheckr, HireRight
First AdvantageHeld
Two alternativesCheckr, HireRight
First Advantage
Five alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, Checkr, HireRight, Sterling
Zinc, aINSIGHT
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, P-Secure
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Sterlingagainst: General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com, HireRight, Sterling
GLM 4.7 FlashXHireRight
Three alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, Sterling
Accurate BackgroundChanged
One alternativeCheckr
Checkr
Four alternativesCertn, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
Checkragainst: First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterlingno first choiceagainst: DISA Global Solutions, First Advantage, Health & Safety Council, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, North American Background Screening Consortium, Sterling, TransUnion, TruthFinder
MiniMax M2.5HireRight
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, Sterling
HireRightHeld
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, LexisNexis HR Smart, Sterling
First Advantage, HireRight
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, Verified First
Checkr, HireRight, Sterling
One alternativeSmartFast Background Checks
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, HireRight, PeopleFacts
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:55yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:19yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:19yes1322 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:12yes194 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:51yes218 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:43yes146 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:54yes2328 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:22yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:12no039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:16yes1923 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:01yes1819 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:40yes1021 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:44yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:07yes37 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 12:18yes1059 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:42yes243 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:58yes227 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:07yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:52yes2533 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:31yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:37yes523 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:34yes1524 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:08yes1528 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:45no056 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:38yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:53yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:09yes1233 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:51yes183 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:51yes1711 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:23yes129 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:04yes2342 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:56yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:29yes843 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:35yes1828 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:46yes2022 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:14yes919 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:22yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:33yes26 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:43yes2037 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:57yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:12yes2212 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:08yes714 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:52yes2027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:00yes55 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:14yes1057 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:07yes2331 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:33yes2147 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:17yes1951 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:35yes1814 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:39no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:01no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:54yes165 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:32yes209 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:37no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:57yes2450 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 12:01yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:56no033 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:10yes2039 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:38yes2346 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:12yes1422 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:16yes1811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:11yes36 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:30yes1520 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:28yes173 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:23yes2511 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:04yes146 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:43yes2536 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:58yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:25no035 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:38yes2224 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:52yes2531 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:53yes2435 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
ADP read as ADP Screening and Selection Services
Accurate read as Accurate Background
Accurate (now part of HireRight) read as Accurate Background
Unresolved, counted raw
AGSS (formerly Accurate Personnel)
AccusourceHR
AssureHire
Checkr Trust
CyberCheck
DISA Global Solutions Inc.
Driver iQ
Facts on Demand
First Advantage Background Services Corp.
GIS
Health & Safety Council
Health and Safety Council
HireSafe
ID.me
LexisNexis HR Smart
Marlin
Moody's
OrangeTree
PreCheck
Reed Screening
RiskCloud
SambaSafety
SmartFast Background Checks
Sterling National Background Screening Services
UpGuard
Verimark
Whiteside
Zincwork
aINSIGHT
backgroundcheck
e-Backgroundchecks
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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