September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › 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. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · Checkr 23%
38GoodHire23Checkr12BackgroundChecks.com27others

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 a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01GoodHire38%0%48endorsed leader
02Checkr23%2%54accepted challenger
03BackgroundChecks.com12%6%32accepted challenger
04Certn12%3%29accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09HireRight0%55%22criticized challenger
08Sterling0%50%14criticized challenger
07Accurate Background0%40%10criticized challenger
06First Advantage0%36%11criticized challenger
05ShareAble for Hires0%20%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 small business.
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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01GoodHire38%
02Checkr23%
03BackgroundChecks.com12%
04Certn12%
05ShareAble for Hires0%
06First Advantage0%
07Accurate Background0%
08Sterling0%
09HireRight0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX 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
55%
12 of 22 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“This global giant has been the subject of multiple class-action lawsuits alleging FCRA violations.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Sterling
50%
7 of 14 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Providers to Avoid or Approach with Extreme Caution: Sterling (now part of First Advantage): Frequently called "the worst"...” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
TruthFinder
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Consumer "People Search" Sites (Avoid Completely)... NOT compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for employment purposes.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Instant Checkmate
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid consumer "people search" sites (BeenVerified, Spokeo, Instant Checkmate) for employment decisions” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget 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

67 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. 836 links across 182 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Checkr54 answers · 65 citations · 12 models
vendor site · bib.com37 answers · 42 citations · 11 models
36 answers · 41 citations · 9 models
vendor site · GCheck30 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
vendor site · GoodHire29 answers · 37 citations · 12 models
22 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
vendor site · FirstHR22 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
18 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · G216 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Vetty14 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
14 answers · 14 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
GoodHire goodhire.com38%1112,40045219,964401
Checkr checkr.com23%18374,0001,214498,605$77,362854
BackgroundChecks.com backgroundchecks.com12%551,60026250,895$5,14618
Certn certn.co12%1001,900423,223$378
HireShield hireshield.com4%169008,493
GCheck gcheck.com2%61,60008,5820
Bchex bib.com2%61,0001120,1950
Verified Credentials verifiedcredentials.com2%6
Secure Screening Services2%
SentryLink sentrylink.com2%1

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (checkr.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 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 4.5no first choiceCheckrChanged
Three alternativesFirst Advantage, Genesis B2B Screening, GoodHire
HireRightGoodHire, Verified Credentials
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, First Advantage, HireRight, National Public Data, Sterling
GPT-5.4 miniCheckr
Two alternativesADP RUN, GoodHire
GoodHireChanged
One alternativeCheckr
against: BackgroundChecks.com
Checkr
Four alternativesADP RUN, BackgroundChecks.com, Certn, GoodHire
against: DISA Global Solutions
GoodHire
One alternativeCheckr
against: ADP Screening and Selection Services, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: AppFolio, Instant Checkmate, RealPage, RentGrow, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashCheckr
Five alternativesCreditsafe, Dun & Bradstreet, Genesis B2B Screening, HireShield, KarmaCheck
CheckrHeld
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
Checkr
Three alternativesCertn, ShareAble for Hires, Verified First
against: BeenVerified, Spokeo, TruthFinder
SentryLink
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, GoodHire
against: BeenVerified, ShareAble for Hires, Spokeo, TruthFinder
no first choice
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, Sterling
against: BeenVerified, First Advantage, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Intelius, PeopleLooker, Spokeo, Sterling, TruthFinder
Perplexity SonarGoodHire
One alternativeCheckr
GoodHireHeld
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, HireRight
against: DISA Global Solutions
Checkr
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Bchex, Certn, GoodHire
GoodHire
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20GoodHire
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr
against: HireRight, Sterling
GoodHireHeld
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Bchex, Checkr
Checkr
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, GoodHire, Trusted Employees
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, Cisive, HireRight, Sterling
Mistral SmallBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, HireShield
Two alternativesADP RUN, Mitratech AssureHire
CheckrChanged
Two alternativesBchex, GoodHire
Checkr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck, GoodHire
against: HireRight, iprospectcheck
BackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesCertn, Checkr
no first choiceagainst: Sterling
DeepSeek V4 FlashGoodHire
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, ShareAble for Hires
GoodHireHeld
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GCheck
Checkr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, GoodHire
against: ShareAble for Hires
Certn
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Backgrounds Online, Checkr, GoodHire
against: BeenVerified, Instant Checkmate, Spokeo
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, BeenVerified, Certn, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
Llama 4 MaverickBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, HireShieldSecure Screening ServicesChangedCheckr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn, First Advantage
BackgroundChecks.com, Bchex, Checkrno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCheckr, GCheck
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, ShareAble for Hires
GoodHireChanged
One alternativeCheckr
Checkr
Three alternativesCertified First / Verified First, GoodHire, HireShield
against: First Advantage
GoodHire
Two alternativesCertn, Checkr
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Sterlingagainst: Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, ClearChecks, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling/First Advantage, TruthFinder
Kimi K2GoodHire
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, ShareAble for Hires
GoodHireHeld
Three alternativesAsurint Small Business, Checkr, ShareAble for Hires
GCheck
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, GoodHire
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
against: Accurate Background, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr, GoodHire
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Certn
against: Checkr, General Information Services (GIS) / e-Background-checks.com
GLM 4.7 FlashXCheckr
Three alternativesCertn, GCheck, GoodHire
GoodHireChanged
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, ShareAble for Hires
Checkr
Five alternativesAccurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire
Certn
Five alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GCheck, GoodHire, Verified Credentials
no first choiceagainst: AppFolio, CoreLogic, First Advantage, General Information Services, HireRight, National Background Data, e-Background-checks.com
MiniMax M2.5Checkr
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck, GoodHire
Checkr, GoodHireChanged
Two alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GCheck
Checkr, GoodHire
Two alternativesCertn, Sterling
against: HireRight
GoodHire
One alternativeCertn
no first choicenothing named
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 21:21yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:06yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:40yes819 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:29yes205 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 20:14yes3317 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:37yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:21yes813 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:24yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:02yes525 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:08yes1324 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:38yes1338 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:31yes916 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:16yes168 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:37yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:39yes1525 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:41yes206 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 18:39yes2314 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:19yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:59yes1916 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:08yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:23yes521 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:48yes816 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:47yes2448 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:26yes1030 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:12yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:06yes622 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:54yes1524 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:56yes2011 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 18:00yes1616 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:13yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:16yes1718 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:44yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:40yes519 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:33yes1747 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:19yes2975 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:47yes914 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:56yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:13yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:21yes2021 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:04yes205 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 18:58yes2115 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:27yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:31yes910 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:42yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:35yes922 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:26yes715 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:16yes1120 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:54yes531 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:33no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:13no017 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:33no012 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:56yes208 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 19:29yes1310 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:32no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:27yes940 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:45yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:51no031 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:42yes1024 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:12yes1058 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:39yes519 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:12yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:03yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:56yes2049 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:56yes186 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 20:03yes4617 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:00yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:20yes2547 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:01yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:20yes1026 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:48yes1842 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:53yes2960 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:09yes519 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
DISA read as DISA Global Solutions
RUN Powered by ADP read as ADP RUN
ShareAble read as ShareAble for Hires
TransUnion ShareAble for Hires read as ShareAble for Hires
Unresolved, counted raw
Asurint Small Business
Certified First / Verified First
Checked.com
CoreLogic
Creditsafe
InCheck
Infomart
National Background Data
Secure Screening Services
SentryLink
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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