Small business=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 13 pointsRank 22 → 23 of 125
3 categories · RankedToptal
84Judge labels
0First choices
22Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.7, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
0% in Internal talent marketpl for mid-market buyers
Rank 15 of 102 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 6% of its 17 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Toptal →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business24 of 129
0%19 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market15 of 102
0%17 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise12 of 86
0%10 labels
accepted challenger
In internal talent marketpl · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Toptal for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal talent marketplace | Performance and talent management | 0% | 15 of 102 | 6% | 17 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Contingent workforce management | Workforce planning and analytics | 0% | 23 of 121 | 20% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by VectorVMS at 16% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Skills intelligence | Performance and talent management | 0% | 65 of 127 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Skills Base at 18% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Toptal held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 13 points.
Best category · Internal talent marketpl · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 13 pointsRank 19 → 14 of 93
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 13 pointsRank 17 → 14 of 76
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal talent marketpl | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 19 → 15 of 102 |
| Contingent workforce man | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 25 → 23 of 121 |
| Skills intelligence | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 69 → 65 of 127 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 13 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Toptal across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Toptal across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct3 labelsNone
Paraphrase6 labelsNone
Comparative40 labels2not counted in share
Budget-constrained0 labelsNone
Scale-constrained1 labelNone
Negative34 labels5not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative84 labels in all, every segment counted; 0 of the 7 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Toptal: Vetted talent (senior-focused), lower scam risk, but higher rates and less client control.” Grok 4.1 Fast · Contingent workforce man · negative prompt · first choice
“Safer Alternatives - Toptal – Rigorous vetting (~3% acceptance), but high quality” Kimi K2 · Internal talent marketpl · negative prompt · first choice
“Stick to large, well-established marketplaces (Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr, LinkedIn Jobs)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Skills intelligence · negative prompt · alternative
“For top-tier vetted talent (e.g., elite devs): Consider Toptal (premium pricing).” Grok 4.1 Fast · Contingent workforce man · paraphrase prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“avoid Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal for core workforce needs” Mistral Small · Contingent workforce man · negative prompt · hard negative
“Toptal is a vetted platform, but its screening process expects years of professional experience, which can be a barrier for beginners.” Mistral Small · Internal talent marketpl · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Toptal, over the 84 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Toptal was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Toptal, over the 84 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Toptal was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Toptal. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 82 of the 84 answers that named Toptal and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
upwork.com39
g2.com29
fiverr.com25
hiringmanager.net25
golance.com22
awesomic.com21
outsourceaccelerator.com20
peoplemanagingpeople.com20
hr-ai-index.com18
hrtechsaas.com15
234 of the 234 domain citations in answers naming Toptal came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
toptal.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Toptal takes 0% of first choices and Fuel50 takes 47%.ShowHide
Search and answers
toptal.com is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, Toptal takes 0% of first choices and Fuel50 takes 47%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “talent marketplaces”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “internal talent marketplace”
–
not in the top ten
- Searches for its name, Google
- 22,200 a month (“toptal”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 372 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 434,648 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 45,700 · 3,025 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 50,182
- Paid Google search
- 11 searches its ads show for, about 42 clicks and $3,105 a month (estimate)
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
0%
rank 15 of 102 in internal talent marketpl
Segment leader
47%
Fuel50
- First choices
- 0 across its categories
- Named in
- 84 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 82 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on toptal.com
10,000
subdomains included
Content
1,321
counted in the table below
Documentation
7,047
Product · Integration
1 · 0
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case study | 811 | undated | Applicant tracking syste | ||
| Blog | 182 | undated | |||
| Conference or event | 137 | undated | |||
| Comparison | 62 | undated | |||
| News or press | 53 | undated | |||
| Podcast or video | 31 | undated | |||
| Glossary or explainer | 16 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 15 | undated | |||
| Webinar or virtual event | 12 | undated | |||
| Template or tool | 2 | undated |
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page toptal.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Follow Toptal
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Toptal is its own company.ShowHide
The company
Toptal is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- We connect expertly vetted talent with world-class clients.
- For
- world-class clients
- Price stated
- Client agrees to be charged and to pay Toptal a monthly subscription fee in the amount indicated on the subscription sign up (or communicated to Client thereafter) toptal.com/platform-subscription-tos
- Free plan or trial
- Work with your new team member on a trial basis (pay only if satisfied) toptal.com
- Certifications
- Premier Tier Services Partner Status within the AWS Partner NetworkAWS Devops Competency
- Hosting
- Global
- Customers named
- BridgestoneUSCCleveland CavaliersSalesforceFortune 500s
- Not stated on the pages read
- Starting price, integrations
What Toptal's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: toptal.com, toptal.com/services/management-consulting/pricing-consulting, toptal.com/developers/security/job-description, toptal.com/platform-subscription-tos. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Toptal's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Toptal, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Toptal by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Toptal is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Toptal, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.