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September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Background screening for small business buyers

Asked as “background check provider”, and as “employment screening service”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
41%
Clear leader
41GoodHire31Checkr12BackgroundChecks.com16others

41% of first choices, clear leader.

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 a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01GoodHire41%4%53endorsed leader
02Checkr31%9%58endorsed leader
03BackgroundChecks.com12%14%36accepted challenger
04Certn6%3%29accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08HireRight0%65%20criticized challenger
07Sterling0%62%16criticized challenger
06First Advantage0%50%18criticized challenger
05Accurate Background0%28%18criticized 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01GoodHire41%
02Checkr31%
03BackgroundChecks.com12%
04Certn6%
05Accurate Background0%
06First Advantage0%
07Sterling0%
08HireRight0%

What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2 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
65%
13 of 20 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Be especially cautious with **HireRight** and **First Advantage** given their documented accuracy and customer service failures.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Sterling
62%
10 of 16 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Sterling Infosystems** – False warrants, accuracy issues” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
TruthFinder
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“The FTC has taken action against **TruthFinder** and **Instant Checkmate** for deceiving users about report accuracy and violating the FCRA” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt
Instant Checkmate
100%
7 of 7 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“FTC has taken action against **TruthFinder** and **Instant Checkmate** ... that's a red flag for hiring use” 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. 988 links across 179 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Checkr58 answers · 76 citations · 14 models
vendor site · GoodHire37 answers · 53 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Pin31 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
29 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
vendor site · GCheck27 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Mitratech27 answers · 31 citations · 11 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 11 models
23 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G218 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 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
GoodHire goodhire.com41%1012,40045219,964401
Checkr checkr.com31%15874,0001,214498,605$77,362854
BackgroundChecks.com backgroundchecks.com12%601,60026250,895$5,14618
Certn certn.co6%681,900423,223$378
ShareAble shareable.com
ShareAble for Hires 4%
4%84001,342
Verified Credentials verifiedcredentials.com4%3
Zinc2%
Verified First verifiedfirst.com0%324,40025511,301119
HireShield hireshield.com0%149008,493
Accurate accurate.com
Accurate Background 0%
0%888,100561161,894 company$27171

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (checkr.com, goodhire.com, money.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 a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employment screening service would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top background check providers for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best background check provider for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a background check provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which background check providers should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5GoodHire
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, Verified First
no first choiceChangedCheckr
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage
GoodHire
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, HireShield, Verified First, Vetty
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniCheckr
Three alternativesADP RUN, Atlantic Employee Screening, BackgroundChecks.com
CheckrHeld
One alternativeGoodHire
Checkr
Two alternativesAccurate Background, GoodHire
BackgroundChecks.com
One alternativeCheckr
no first choiceagainst: Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashGoodHire
Four alternativesBchex, Certn, HireShield, Verified First
against: BeenVerified, TruthFinder
CheckrChanged
Three alternativesScoutLogic, ShareAble for Hires, Vetty
Checkr
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, KarmaCheck, Verified First
against: TransUnion's ShareAble for Hires
ShareAble for Hires
Four alternativesGCheck, GoodHire, HireShield, Verified Credentials
against: BeenVerified, TruthFinder
Checkr
Three alternativesKarmaCheck, Verified First, Vetty
against: BeenVerified, First Advantage, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Intelius, Spokeo, Sterling, TruthFinder, Whitepages
Perplexity SonarGoodHire
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, Checkr, Mitratech AssureHire
GoodHireHeld
Three alternativesCertn, ClearChecks, HireRight
BackgroundChecks.com
Four alternativesCertn, Checkr, GoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
against: Accurate Background, First Advantage, GoodEgg/Foley, HireRight
Checkr
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastCheckr, GoodHire
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck
against: HireRight
GoodHireChanged
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, ShareAble for Hires
Checkr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, GoodHire
against: HireRight
BackgroundChecks.com
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: BackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, First Advantage, HireRight
Mistral SmallGoodHire
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, HireShield
GoodHireHeld
Two alternativesPin, Universal Background Screening
BackgroundChecks.com
Three alternativesCertn, HireShield, Mitratech AssureHire
Checkr
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: BeenVerified, Find Out The Truth, First Advantage, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, PeopleConnect, The Control Group, TruthFinder
DeepSeek V4 FlashGoodHire
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, Checkr, LexisNexis Diligence
GoodHireHeld
One alternativeCheckr
Checkr
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire, HireRight, ShareAble for Hires
against: Sterling
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choice
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
against: Certn, First Advantage, Sterling
against: Accurate Background, BeenVerified, Checkr, First Advantage, HireRight
Llama 4 MaverickGoodHire
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, HireShield, Mitratech AssureHire
CheckrChanged
Two alternativesCertn, HireRight
no first choiceCertn, Zinc
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
no first choiceagainst: Checkr, GoodHire, Sterling
Qwen 3.7 FlashGoodHire
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn
GoodHireHeld
Two alternativesCheckr, Checkster
Certn
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GoodHire
GoodHire
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, Zinc Works
no first choice
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
against: IBM, Sterling
against: Atlantic Screening, BeenVerified, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling, TruthFinder
Kimi K2Checkr, GoodHire
One alternativeCertn
against: Sterling
ShareAble for HiresChanged
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
GoodHire
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Bchex, Certn, Checkr
BackgroundChecks.com
Three alternativesBchex, First Advantage, True Hire
against: Accurate Background, Checkr
no first choiceagainst: BackgroundChecks.com, First Advantage, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
GLM 4.7 FlashXCheckr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck, GoodHire
GoodHireChanged
Two alternativesCheckr, Universal Background Screening
against: First Advantage, HireRight
Checkr, GoodHire
Six alternativesADP RUN, Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, Certn, GCheck, Verified First
Verified Credentials
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening & Selection Services, Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, First Advantage, HireRight, National Public Data, Sterling, WeCheckGlobal
MiniMax M2.5Checkr
Two alternativesAccurate Background, ShareAble for Hires
CheckrHeld
Three alternativesAccurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Checkr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck, GoodHire
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
One alternativeCheckr
no first choiceagainst: BackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, HireRight, People Finders, Sterling, USA People Search
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 10:05yes167 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:52yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:55yes1723 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:13yes173 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:05yes209 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:08yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:38yes2120 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:13yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:29yes517 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:37yes1018 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:42yes1741 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:02yes512 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:12no02 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:13yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 12:18yes1056 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:08yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:10yes247 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:51yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:48yes2127 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:55yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:01no022 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:11yes1419 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:07yes1563 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:05yes524 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:57yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:54yes47 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:12yes1726 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:21yes163 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:04yes2014 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:43yes139 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:02yes2145 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:02yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:15yes831 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:47yes1427 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:24yes2099 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:37yes912 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:18yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:57yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:26yes1821 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:28yes203 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:44yes228 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:51yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:49yes1926 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:32yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:19yes521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:22yes1422 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:25yes1952 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:02yes510 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:24no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:24no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 12:17yes1361 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:08yes175 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:23yes1813 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:32no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:27yes2244 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 12:10yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:54yes537 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:07yes1528 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:57yes1537 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:55no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:19yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:37yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:59yes3027 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:20yes183 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:14yes2512 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:05yes158 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:08yes2331 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:10yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:28yes1032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:47yes2529 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:51yes2349 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:58yes1654 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
Accurate read as Accurate Background
RUN Powered by ADP read as ADP RUN
Run Powered by ADP read as ADP RUN
Unresolved, counted raw
ADP Screening & Selection Services
Atlantic Screening
B&B Reporting
CI Checked SMB
DataCheck
GoodEgg/Foley
InfoTrack
LexisNexis Diligence
People Finders
PersonIQ
Signify
The Control Group (PubRec, IntelicareDirect)
TransUnion's ShareAble for Hires
True Hire
USA People Search
Verifications.com
Vertical Identity
WeCheckGlobal
Zinc Works
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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