September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › 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. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · HireRight 27%
38First Advantage27HireRight18Checkr18others

38% 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
01First Advantage38%9%47endorsed leader
02HireRight27%19%53accepted challenger
03Checkr18%6%49accepted challenger
04Accurate Background4%13%30accepted challenger
05Sterling2%24%34accepted challenger
06Mitratech AssureHire2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07GoodHire0%10%20accepted challenger
08ScoutLogic0%0%10accepted 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
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% negative50%
Key
01First Advantage38%
02HireRight27%
03Checkr18%
04Accurate Background4%
05Sterling2%
06Mitratech AssureHire2%
07GoodHire0%
08ScoutLogic0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 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
19%
10 of 53 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Paid $2.6 million in 2012 for failing to ensure accuracy, not providing consumers copies of reports, and failing to reinvestigate disputes” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Sterling
24%
8 of 34 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“A lead plaintiff sued Sterling BackCheck ... for systematically failing to use reasonable procedures to ensure accuracy” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Instant Checkmate
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Be cautious of any "instant" or "consumer self-service" background check platforms (e.g., Instant Checkmate, BeenVerified)... not designed for employment screening” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
TruthFinder
100%
4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Paid $5.8 million in 2023 settlement for deceiving consumers about criminal record accuracy and failing to comply with FCRA requirements” MiniMax M2.5, 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

65 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. 1083 links across 290 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Checkr46 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Vetty38 answers · 44 citations · 9 models
vendor site · bib.com34 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
23 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Mitratech18 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Pin17 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Verified First16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · GoodHire14 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Gartner13 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
12 answers · 19 citations · 6 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
First Advantage fadv.com38%9874,0001,820128,337$1,781286
HireRight hireright.com27%11074,0001,24965,05412
Checkr checkr.com18%18374,0001,214498,605$77,362854
Accurate accurate.com
Accurate Background 4%
4%658,100561161,894 company$27171
Sterling sterlingcheck.com2%81135,00069,11392,6453
Mitratech mitratech.com
Mitratech AssureHire 2%
2%373,60015946,305 company$10,768106
Checkster harver.com2%8,635$1,2186
BackgroundChecker.com2%
First Advantage + Sterling2%
DISA disa.com
DISA Global Solutions 2%
2%13

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (checkr.com, fadv.com, goodhire.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
HireRightChanged
Two alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage
Checkr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage + Sterling, HireRight, ScoutLogic
Checkr
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, First Advantage, HireRight, Spokeo, US Search
GPT-5.4 miniFirst Advantage
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight
First AdvantageHeld
Two alternativesCheckr, HireRight
no first choiceCheckr
One alternativeGoodHire
no first choiceagainst: AppFolio\u2019s tenant screening service, Instant Checkmate, RentGrow, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashCheckr, First Advantage
Two alternativesHireRight, Verified First
Checkr, First AdvantageHeld
Two alternativesAccurate Background, HireRight
First Advantage
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, Cisive, HireRight
First Advantage
Three alternativesADP Screening and Selection Services, Checkr, Vetty
no first choiceagainst: BeenVerified, First Advantage, General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Spokeo, Sterling, TruthFinder, Whitepages
Perplexity SonarHireRight
Five alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, First Advantage, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
First AdvantageChanged
Three alternativesCheckr, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
First Advantage, Mitratech AssureHireno first choiceagainst: Bchex, Checkr, GoodHire, Sterling, Verified First
Grok 4.20Sterling
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, First Advantage, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire, ScoutLogic
First AdvantageChanged
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight
Checkr
Three alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight
HireRight
Two alternativesCheckr, First Advantage
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, Cisive, Creative Services Inc., First Advantage, General Information Services, HireRight, National Public Data, Sterling, e-Background-checks.com
Mistral SmallFirst Advantage, HireRight
One alternativeCheckr
HireRightChanged
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, Sterling
Checkr
Four alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire, Sterling
First Advantage, HireRightno first choiceagainst: General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com, HireRight, IDScan.net, Instant Checkmate, Sterling, TruthFinder
DeepSeek V4 FlashCheckr, First Advantage
Two alternativesHireRight, ScoutLogic
First AdvantageChanged
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight, ScoutLogic
Checkr, First Advantage
Three alternativesAccurate Background, HireRight, ScoutLogic
Accurate Background
One alternativeCheckr
against: First Advantage + Sterling, SmartFastBackgroundChecks
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Sterling/First Advantageagainst: Accurate Background, BeenVerified, Checkr, First Advantage, HireRight, InfoTrack, Instant Checkmate, National Public Data, Sterling
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceCheckrChanged
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceCheckr
Two alternativesClearChecks, GoodHire
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCheckster
Two alternativesGoodHire, Sterling
First Advantage, HireRightChanged
One alternativeScoutLogic
First Advantage
Four alternativesCheckr, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
against: Accurate Background
Accurate Background
Two alternativesGoodHire, Sterling
no first choiceagainst: BackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GoodHire, PublicDataResources / BackgroundCheck.info, Sterling
Kimi K2First Advantage, HireRight
Two alternativesCheckr, Sterling
First Advantage + SterlingChanged
Two alternativesCheckr, HireRight
First Advantage
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight, Sterling
BackgroundChecker.com
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
against: Accurate Background, HireRight, Sterling/First Advantage
no first choiceagainst: General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com, HireRight, Sterling
GLM 4.7 FlashXHireRight
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, First Advantage
HireRightHeld
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, ScoutLogic, Sterling
First Advantage, HireRight
Five alternativesCertn, Checkr, DISA Global Solutions, Mitratech AssureHire, ScoutLogic
First Advantage
One alternativeHireRight
no first choiceagainst: DISA Global Solutions, General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com, HR‑Revolution LLC, HireRight, National Public Data, Sterling
MiniMax M2.5DISA Global Solutions, First Advantage
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, HireRight
HireRightChanged
Two alternativesADP Screening and Selection Services, Sterling
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire, ScoutLogic, Sterling
First Advantage, HireRight
One alternativeCheckr
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, Advanced Background Check Inc., HireRight, Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
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 19:31yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:47yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:38yes1523 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:01yes204 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 19:17yes3329 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:02yes99 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:01yes2730 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:24yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:17no024 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:26yes918 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:31yes847 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:33yes718 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:52yes1511 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:01yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes1248 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:31yes206 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 18:59yes4318 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:30yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:12yes2422 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:48yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:35yes516 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:39yes1536 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:40yes24101 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:29no036 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:17yes169 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:12yes610 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:07yes1653 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:58yes209 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 21:14yes1816 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:16yes87 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:36yes1328 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:43yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:47no035 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:55yes1934 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:02yes3057 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:00yes518 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:07yes189 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:49yes37 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:07yes2859 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:45yes206 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 19:52yes4220 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:50yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:35yes2731 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:34yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:15no034 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:19yes2736 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:30yes2330 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:46yes2145 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:46yes1812 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:37no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:02yes1128 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:48yes2012 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 20:49yes1913 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:33no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:44yes2028 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:50yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:50yes1038 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:26yes2941 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:01yes2974 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:37yes1418 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:17yes2813 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:35yes25 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:06yes1224 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:59yes208 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 18:14yes4622 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:14yes1310 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:43yes2931 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:46yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:12no018 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:01yes1527 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:26yes2544 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:38yes2246 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
Unresolved, counted raw
Advanced Background Check Inc.
AppFolio\u2019s tenant screening service
AuthBridge
BackgroundChecker.com
Equifax
Experian
HR‑Revolution LLC
IDScan.net
InfoTrack
PublicDataResources / BackgroundCheck.info
SmartFastBackgroundChecks
Tech Mahindra
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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