HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Performance and talent management › Internal talent marketpl › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Internal talent marketplace for small business buyers

Asked as “internal talent marketplace”, and as “internal mobility platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
TalentGuard
Contested
24% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessTalentGuard24%ContestedThis pageMid-marketFuel5026%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseGloat49%Clear leaderStanding →

01The 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
01TalentGuard24%0%23accepted challenger
02Fuel509%48%25criticized challenger
03Gloat4%73%33criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Eightfold AI0%80%25criticized challenger
07Freelancer.com0%67%15criticized challenger
05Upwork0%50%22criticized challenger
06Fiverr0%48%23criticized challenger
04Toptal0%22%18accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Fuel50 vs 365TalentsFuel50 vs Engagedly365Talents vs Engagedly

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% negative40%
Key
01TalentGuard24%
02Fuel509%
03Gloat4%
04Toptal0%
05Upwork0%
06Fiverr0%
07Freelancer.com0%
08Eightfold AI0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
Fiverr
48%
11 of 23 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“High volume of negative Trustpilot feedback... Lacks strong vetting for non-Pro gigs, leading to inconsistent work” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Upwork
50%
11 of 22 labels negative · 10 of 12 models
“Open general marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com when you need highly consistent quality... can require significant DIY screening and management.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Freelancer.com
67%
10 of 15 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“platforms to avoid or approach with extreme caution ... Some of these platforms (most notably Freelancer.com) are highly criticized for user-unfriendly terms, including hidden fees” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Gloat
73%
24 of 33 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“typical enterprise-grade Internal Talent Marketplaces (ITMs) like **Gloat, Eightfold AI, or Fuel50** are off the table” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

66 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 977 links across 282 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner41 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
fuel50.com
vendor site · Fuel5029 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
talentguard.com
vendor site · TalentGuard26 answers · 46 citations · 10 models
recruiterslineup.com
25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
sprad.io
vendor site · Sprad23 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People20 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
g2.com
19 answers · 29 citations · 8 models
awesomic.com
vendor site · Awesomic18 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
docebo.com
vendor site · Docebo17 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
mentorcliq.com
vendor site · MentorcliQ16 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
sourceforge.net
14 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
wifitalents.com
13 answers · 15 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.

gartner.com/reviews/market/internal-talent-marketplaces
41 answers · 10 models
fuel50.com/blog/internal-talent-marketplace-platforms
25 answers · 10 models
recruiterslineup.com/best-talent-marketplace-platforms-reviewed
24 answers · 10 models
talentguard.com/blog/best-talent-marketplace-platforms
20 answers · 10 models
sprad.io/blog/internal-talent-marketplace-software-in-2025-vendors-features…
19 answers · 10 models
talentguard.com/blog/best-internal-talent-marketplace-platforms
19 answers · 9 models
docebo.com/learning-network/blog/internal-mobility-platforms
17 answers · 10 models
awesomic.com/blog/ultimate-list-talent-marketplaces-for-businesses-in-2025
14 answers · 8 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-talent-marketplace-platform
12 answers · 8 models
wifitalents.com/best/talent-marketplace-software
11 answers · 8 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best internal talent marketplace for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which internal mobility platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top talent marketplaces for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best internal talent marketplace for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an internal talent marketplace. What should we look at?”Negative“Which talent marketplaces should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Fuel50
Three alternativesEightfold AI, Hitch, Phenom
no first choiceChangedagainst: Docebo, Eightfold AI, Fuel50, GloatPeoplePerHour
Four alternativesCloudPeeps, Codeable, Gun.io, Lemon.io
against: Fiverr, UpworkSpacewalk
Three alternativesGigged.AI, SAP, Workday
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloatno first choiceagainst: Fiverr, Upwork
GPT-5.4 miniNeobrainERINChanged
Two alternatives365Talents, Hitch
Upwork
Three alternativesFiverr, Freelancer.com, Toptal
Workday Talent Marketplaceagainst: Eightfold AI, Gloatno first choice
Four alternativesAirtable, Google Sheets, Notion, Slack
nothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashMuchSkills
Three alternatives365Talents, Skills Base, TalentGuard
against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, PhenomLatticeChanged
Two alternativesSpacewalk, Virkware
against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, PhenomLemon.io, Toptal
Five alternativesArc.dev, Contra, Fiverr, Upwork, Wellfound
Nestor, Teammeter
Eight alternativesAirtable, BambooHR, Gusto, Microsoft Teams, Notion, Rippling, Slack, TalentGuard
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, GloatGoogle Sheets, Notion
Six alternativesAirtable, Deel, Lattice, Rippling, Slack, Trello/Asana
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloatagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Guru, PeoplePerHour, Toptal, Upwork
Perplexity SonarEngagedly, Fuel50against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, SAP, WorkdayTalentGuardChanged
One alternativeBambooHR
against: Fuel50, Gloat, ServiceNowFuel50, Gloat
Two alternativesSAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace, Workday
against: Eightfold AITalentGuard
Three alternativesCornerstone-related options, ServiceNow Opportunity Marketplace, Skima AI
against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, SAP, Workdayno first choiceagainst: Dribbble, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Gun.io, Toptal, Upwork
Grok 4.1 FastTalentGuard
One alternativeFuel50
against: Eightfold AI, GloatSAP SuccessFactorsChanged
Two alternativesFuel50, TalentGuard
against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, WorkdayFiverr, Upwork
One alternativeToptal
against: Freelancer.comAirtable, Google Forms + Sheets
Five alternativesSlack, TalentGuard, Teamflect, Trello/Asana, Zapier
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloatno first choiceagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Guru, PeoplePerHour, Upwork
Mistral Small365Talents, Gloat
Two alternativesEightfold AI, Fuel50
Gloat, TalentGuardChangedFractional Jobs, Upwork
Four alternativesFiverr, PeoplePerHour, Shiny, TalentLoft
Spacewalk
Two alternativesBraintrust, Guru
no first choice
Three alternativesGoogle Workspace, Notion, Trello
against: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Upwork
DeepSeek V4 FlashTalentGuard
One alternativeGoFIGR
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloat, Workday Skills CloudFuel50Changed
Two alternatives365Talents, TalentGuard
against: Avature, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Workday Talent MarketplaceUpwork
Seven alternativesA.Team, Awesomic, Braintrust, Contra, Fiverr, Superside, Toptal
Airtable, Google Sheets
Eight alternativesGoogle Forms, Make, Notion, Slack, TalentGuard, Teamflect, Trello, Zapier
against: 365Talents, Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloat, Phenom, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayno first choiceagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Guru, PeoplePerHour, Upwork
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceTalentGuardChanged
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, Gloat, MentorcliQ
no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Toptal
Qwen 3.7 FlashRippling
Six alternativesBambooHR, Fuel50, Gusto, Hyring, Spreadsheet + Slack/Teams Workflow, TalentGuard
against: Eightfold AI, GloatZoho RecruitChanged
Two alternativesManatal, Recruit CRM
Fiverr, Upwork
Three alternativesContra, PeoplePerHour, Toptal
Airtable, Notion
Three alternativesGoogle Forms, Slack, TalentGuard
against: Fuel50, GloatAirtable, Notion
Two alternativesLattice, Rippling
against: 99designs, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Toptal, Upwork
Kimi K2TalentGuard
Two alternatives365Talents, SAP SuccessFactors
against: Fuel50, Gloat, PhenomSpacewalkChanged
Two alternativesEngagedly, Fuel50
against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, Workday/SAP SuccessFactorsArc.dev, Lemon.io
Five alternativesContra, Fiverr, Gun.io, Toptal, Upwork
Skills Base, TalentGuard
Three alternativesBaserow, NocoDB, SkillsDB
against: 365Talents, Fuel50, Gloat, WorkdayAirtable/Notion skills databaseagainst: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloatagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Upwork
GLM 4.7 FlashXFuel50
Four alternativesDIY, Docebo, Gloat, TalentGuard
against: Eightfold AITalentGuardChanged
Two alternativesBreezy HR, JazzHR
Gloat
Two alternativesEightfold AI, SkyHive
Airtable
Three alternativesExcel, Google Sheets, TalentGuard
no first choiceagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Upwork
MiniMax M2.5TalentGuard
Three alternatives365Talents, Airtable, Google Forms + Sheets
against: GloatRecruit CRMChanged
Two alternativesHireSweet, Zoho Recruit
against: Docebo, GloatUpwork
Three alternativesContra, Fiverr, Toptal
TalentGuard
One alternativeZendikt
no first choiceagainst: Greenhouseagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Upwork
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:23yes149 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:05yes37 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:39yes2223 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:14yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:48yes3717 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:56yes56 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:58yes2020 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:55yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:20yes1890 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:16yes1831 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:14yes2438 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:46yes1327 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:16yes1610 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:18yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1451 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:37yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:39yes4020 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:40yes88 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:53yes2528 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:26yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:43yes668 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:30yes1835 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:55yes35123 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:08yes523 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:20yes1712 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:24yes36 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:07yes1659 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:50yes2014 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:39yes1312 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:19yes1411 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:10yes2238 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:25yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:41yes1552 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:22yes2039 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:45yes2058 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:10yes1527 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:17yes139 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:34yes27 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:27yes2121 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:46yes208 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:35yes3418 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:44yes97 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:45yes2261 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:16yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:10yes18126 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:41yes2133 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:44yes18136 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:43yes925 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:01yes99 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:32no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:18yes920 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:03yes1911 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:37yes1713 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:42no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:35yes914 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:01yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:42no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:51no059 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:16yes1442 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:54no067 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:55yes2715 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:58no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:02yes1654 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:07yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:20yes3819 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:27yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:28yes3053 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:49yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:34yes3043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:03yes1020 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:07yes2484 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:56yes2238 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Freelancer read as Freelancer.com
Google Sheet read as Google Sheets
Guru.com read as Guru
Unresolved, counted raw
360 Review
Airtable/Notion skills database
BambooHR + HRIS-integrated job board
Baserow
CloudPeeps
Cornerstone-related options
DIY (Google Forms + Sheets, Airtable, Slack, Trello/Asana)
ERIN
FlexTal
GigX
Go Fractional
Google Workspace add-ons
HireSweet
LinkedIn Internal Skills & Opportunities
LinkedIn's internal groups
Make
Microsoft Viva Jobs / Yammer
NocoDB
Spreadsheet + Slack/Teams Workflow
Uvik
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in performance and talent management

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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