# Candidate assessment for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "pre-employment assessment platform" and as "skills testing tool for hiring", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/talent/candidate-assessment/smb

**Standing:** TestGorilla leads with 68% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [TestGorilla](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/testgorilla/index.md) | 68% | 5% | 60 |
| 2 | [Canditech](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/canditech/index.md) | 14% | 4% | 23 |
| 3 | [EmployTest](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/employtest/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 17 |
| 4 | [Toggl Hire](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/toggl-hire/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 14 |
| 5 | [Codility](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/codility/index.md) | 2% | 12% | 17 |
| 6 | [Criteria Corp](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/criteria-corp/index.md) | 2% | 37% | 30 |
| 10 | [HackerRank](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/hackerrank/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 27 |
| 11 | [Testlify](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/testlify/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 15 |
| 12 | [TestDome](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/testdome/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 13 | [Vervoe](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/vervoe/index.md) | 0% | 32% | 28 |
| 107 | [HireVue](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/hirevue/index.md) | 0% | 80% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 107 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, CodeSignal, Criteria Corp, HackerRank
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: TestGorilla; alternatives Coderbyte, Testlify, The Predictive Index, Truffle
- Perplexity Sonar: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, Codility, EmployTest, HackerRank
- Grok 4.20: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, Testlify, Toggl Hire, Vervoe
- Mistral Small: Canditech, TestGorilla; alternatives Codility, HackerRank, TestDome
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, Criteria Corp, Testlify, Vervoe
- Llama 4 Maverick: Codility; alternatives Canditech, EmployTest, HackerRank
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Topaz; alternatives Aptitude.ai, Criteria Connect, Great Jobs, TestDome
- Kimi K2: TestGorilla; alternatives Testlify, Toggl Hire
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: TestGorilla; alternatives Codility, Testlify, Vervoe
- MiniMax M2.5: TestGorilla; alternatives Canditech, Criteria Corp
- GPT-6 Luna: TestGorilla; alternatives Criteria Corp
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Canditech, EmployTest; alternatives Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, TestGorilla

## Sources the answers cite

72 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- capterra.com: 44 answers, 83 citations
- leadchangegroup.com: 36 answers, 56 citations
- spotsaas.com: 33 answers, 43 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 32 answers, 46 citations
- g2.com: 25 answers, 43 citations
- testgorilla.com: 25 answers, 39 citations
- fitsmallbusiness.com: 22 answers, 22 citations
- softwareworld.co: 22 answers, 22 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://leadchangegroup.com/pre-employment-testing-software/small-business (34 answers)
- https://capterra.com/pre-employment-testing-software/s/small-businesses (25 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/hr/pre-employment-assessment-tools-comparison/small-business (23 answers)
- https://softwareworld.co/pre-employment-testing-software-for-small-businesses (21 answers)
- https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-pre-employment-assessment-tools (19 answers)
- https://spotsaas.com/list/pre-employment-testing-software/for-small-business (17 answers)
- https://testgorilla.com/pricing (14 answers)
- https://firsthr.app/compare/hiring/pre-employment-assessment (13 answers)
- https://spotsaas.com/list/assessment-software/for-small-business (13 answers)
- https://testtrick.com/blogs/hiring-assessment-tools-small-mid-sized-teams (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Criteria Corp: 11 of 30 labels negative. "Criteria Corp is shown at 42% negative, 14 of 33 labels negative · 9 of 14 models · 7 hard negative" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Vervoe: 9 of 28 labels negative. "Vendors to avoid on a tight budget ... Criteria Corp, Vervoe and HireVue publish no price at all" (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- HireVue: 8 of 10 labels negative. "This is one of the most controversial assessment platforms on the market... AI bias concerns" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- SHL: 6 of 7 labels negative. "high-end HR suites like Korn Ferry or SHL if you don’t have a dedicated HR analyst" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: TestGorilla at 68%.

- Canditech: 2% to 14%, +12. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 6 → 2 of 107.
- TestGorilla: 76% to 68%, −8. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 1 of 107, unchanged.
- EmployTest: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 2 → 3 of 107.
- Codility: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 5 of 107.
- Criteria Corp: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 64 → 6 of 107.
- HackerRank: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 10 of 107.
- TestDome: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 → 12 of 107.
- Vervoe: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 13 of 107.
- Toggl Hire: 4% to 4%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 3 → 4 of 107.
- Testlify: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 10 → 11 of 107.
- The Predictive Index: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 57 → 74 of 107.
- SHL: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 79 → 106 of 107.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.