September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Background screening

Asked as “background check provider”, and as “employment screening service”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
43%
Clear leader
43Checkr14GoodHire12BackgroundChecks.com31others

43% 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 mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Checkr43%6%49endorsed leader
02GoodHire14%2%41accepted challenger
03Certn12%0%23accepted challenger
04BackgroundChecks.com12%8%13accepted challenger
05Verified First7%0%17accepted challenger
06Accurate Background2%7%27accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10TruthFinder0%79%14criticized challenger
09Sterling0%42%26criticized challenger
08HireRight0%32%34criticized challenger
07First Advantage0%27%30criticized 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
T10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Checkr43%
02GoodHire14%
03Certn12%
04BackgroundChecks.com12%
05Verified First7%
06Accurate Background2%
07First Advantage0%
08HireRight0%
09Sterling0%
10TruthFinder0%

What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 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.
TruthFinder
79%
11 of 14 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“The FTC specifically took action against TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate for allegedly deceiving users about report accuracy and violating FCRA requirements” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt
Sterling
42%
11 of 26 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Numerous complaints about extremely slow processing times (weeks to months), poor customer service... Many reviewers report lost job opportunities due to delays.” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
HireRight
32%
11 of 34 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“HireRight are massive players with deep international capabilities, they are generally a poor fit for mid-market B2B companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
Instant Checkmate
75%
6 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“The FTC specifically took action against TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate for allegedly deceiving users about report accuracy and violating FCRA requirements” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 814 links across 209 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · bib.com43 answers · 47 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Checkr41 answers · 58 citations · 12 models
24 answers · 24 citations · 11 models
vendor site · GoodHire23 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Vetty19 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Pin17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Mitratech13 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 9 models
vendor site · FirstHR13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
vendor site · HireShield12 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
12 answers · 12 citations · 8 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
Checkr checkr.com43%18374,0001,214498,605$77,362854
GoodHire goodhire.com14%1112,40045219,964401
Certn certn.co12%1001,900423,223$378
BackgroundChecks.com backgroundchecks.com12%551,60026250,895$5,14618
Verified First verifiedfirst.com7%204,40025511,301119
Accurate accurate.com
Accurate Background 2%
2%658,100561161,894 company$27171
Mitratech mitratech.com
Mitratech AssureHire 2%
2%373,60015946,305 company$10,768106
HireShield hireshield.com2%169008,493
Background Investigation Bureau2%
EDIFY Screening edifyscreening.com2%1

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, goodhire.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 mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employment screening service would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top background check providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best background check provider for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a background check provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which background check providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5EDIFY Screening
Four alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight, iprospectcheck
no first choiceChangedCheckr, First Advantage
Four alternativesBchex, GoodHire, HireShield, Vetty
Checkr
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: First Advantage, HireRight, Intellicorp Records
GPT-5.4 miniCheckr
Three alternativesGoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
CheckrHeld
Five alternativesAtlantic Employee Screening, Cisive, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr, GoodHire
Two alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage
against: Intelius, PeopleFinders, TruthFinder
Checkr, GoodHireno first choiceagainst: Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashVerified First
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, iprospectcheck
against: First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
CheckrChanged
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, Verified First
against: First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Five alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Social Catfish, TruthFinder, Vetty
Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, ClearChecks
against: BeenVerified, ShareAble for Hires, TruthFinder
Verified First
Four alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
against: BeenVerified, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Radaris, RentGrow, Spokeo, TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, TruthFinder, Whitepages
Perplexity SonarMitratech AssureHire
Four alternativesBchex, Checkr, GoodHire, Verified First
CheckrChanged
Two alternativesGoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
no first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Intelius, Social Catfish, Sterling, TruthFinder
Grok 4.20Checkr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Bchex, GoodHire, Verified First
CheckrHeld
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, TransUnion SmartMove, Verified First
against: BeenVerified, TruthFinder
Certn
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GoodHire
no first choice
Five alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire
against: ADP Screening and Selection Services, General Information Services, Instant Checkmate, MyLife.com, TruthFinder
Mistral SmallCheckr, GoodHire
One alternativeCertn
Background Investigation BureauChanged
Two alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr
no first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesGCheck, HireShield
no first choiceagainst: Sterling
DeepSeek V4 FlashVerified First
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, Orange Tree
against: First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
CheckrChanged
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Verified First
Checkr
Six alternativesCertn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling
Certn, GoodHire
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GCheck
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, BeenVerified, Checkr, First Advantage, General Information Services, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling, TruthFinder, e-Background-checks.com
Llama 4 MaverickBackgroundChecks.com
Three alternativesBchex, GoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
no first choiceChangedno first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: Intelius, TruthFinder
Qwen 3.7 FlashCheckr
Three alternativesCertn, First Advantage, GoodHire
GoodHireChanged
Two alternativesCheckster, HireRight
against: Sterling
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, GoodHire, ShareAble for Hires
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling, The PeopleDataLabs
Kimi K2Accurate Background, Checkr
Four alternativesBchex, Certn, Mitratech AssureHire, Verified First
against: GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr, GoodHireChanged
One alternativeAccurate Background
Checkr
Four alternativesCertn, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: Everify, Inc., InfoPay, Inc., Instant Checkmate, Intelligator, Inc., MyLife.com, TruthFinder
GLM 4.7 FlashXCheckr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, GoodHire, Verified First
against: HireRight, Sterling
CheckrHeld
Two alternativesGoodHire, Sterling
against: First Advantage, HireRight
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Intelifi
Certn, HireShield
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire, Verified Credentials
against: Checkr
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, Creative Services Inc., DISA Global Solutions, General Information Services, Instant Checkmate, Mercor, National Public Data, TruthFinder, e-Background-checks.com
MiniMax M2.5Checkr
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
CheckrHeld
Three alternativesAccurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, First Advantage
no first choiceGoodHire
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, First Advantage, Sterling
no first choiceagainst: Checkr, First Advantage, Sterling
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.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:00yes910 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:25yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:54yes2127 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:12yes209 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:01yes3519 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:19yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:26yes1421 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:18yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:41yes529 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:28yes955 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:55yes14250 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:25yes826 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:57no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:04yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes836 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:20yes156 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:37yes2314 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:23yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:17yes1518 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:25yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:21no030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:11yes1536 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:12yes1067 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:59yes515 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:24yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:06yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:05yes1456 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:07yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:32yes2415 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:16yes99 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:55yes2320 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:18yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:52yes1961 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:17yes1032 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:58yes2459 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:35yes511 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:19yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:38yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:11yes1818 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:32yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:40yes2512 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:24yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:06yes914 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:34yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:34yes513 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:42yes519 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:44yes1327 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:32no07 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:07no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:44no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:49yes1424 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:48yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:49yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:53no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:19yes2445 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:53yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:01yes527 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:06yes1026 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:38no0154 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:19no061 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:11yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:02yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes1441 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:40yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:43yes4117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:31yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:21yes2972 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:33yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:17no029 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:11yes1521 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:32yes20166 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:21yes1520 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
Unresolved, counted raw
Clerify/Certn
Everify, Inc.
Google Social Search
InfoPay, Inc.
Intelifi
Intellicorp Records
Intelligator, Inc.
My Trusted Vendor (MTV)
Radaris
The PeopleDataLabs (PDL)
VerifiedReports
VerifyMinds
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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