Index › Performance and talent management › Skills intelligence › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Skills intelligence for small business buyers

Asked as “skills intelligence platform”, and as “skills taxonomy and inference tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Skills Base

Contested

35% 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 business

Skills Base35%ContestedThis page Mid-market

TalentGuard19%ContestedStanding →Enterprise

Eightfold AI33%ContestedStanding →

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

Skills Base4%28endorsed leader

MuchSkills7%14accepted challenger

SkillPanel0%12accepted challenger

agyleOS0%18accepted challenger

AG58%12accepted challenger

Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Eightfold AI77%22criticized challenger

Gloat69%13criticized challenger

Pluralsight Skills20%10accepted challenger

iMocha17%12accepted challenger

SkillsDB8%12accepted 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

TalentGuard vs Skills Base TalentGuard vs iMocha Skills Base vs iMocha

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 →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%

Key

Skills Base35%

MuchSkills7%

SkillPanel5%

agyleOS2%

AG52%

SkillsDB0%

iMocha0%

Pluralsight Skills0%

Gloat0%

Eightfold AI0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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.

Eightfold AI

77%

17 of 22 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative

“Avoid platforms like **Eightfold AI**, **Gloat**, or **Firefly Talent** unless you have over $1M in annual HR spend.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt

Gloat

69%

9 of 13 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“are out of the question. They are expensive, require heavy implementation” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt

Udemy Business

62%

5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“Mass-market platforms (e.g., Udemy) offer thousands of courses but have **limited quality control** and wildly inconsistent instructor standards.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

Freelancer.com

100%

4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Platforms to **Avoid or Be Highly Cautious With**: - **Freelancer.com**: ... Reviews call it "one of the worst" for hiring” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative 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

61 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. 867 links across 291 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

firsthr.app

vendor site · FirstHR34 answers · 41 citations · 8 models

cloudassess.com

vendor site · Cloud Assess21 answers · 33 citations · 10 models

fuel50.com

vendor site · Fuel5021 answers · 28 citations · 9 models

hrtechsaas.com

vendor site · HRTechSaaS21 answers · 23 citations · 9 models

f6s.com

19 answers · 21 citations · 8 models

g2.com

18 answers · 38 citations · 9 models

goskills.com

vendor site · GoSkills13 answers · 24 citations · 8 models

peoplemanagingpeople.com

vendor site · People Managing People12 answers · 14 citations · 5 models

docebo.com

vendor site · Docebo12 answers · 13 citations · 8 models

aihr.com

vendor site · AIHR11 answers · 11 citations · 6 models

skillsinventory.com

10 answers · 11 citations · 5 models

skillpanel.com

vendor site · SkillPanel9 answers · 12 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.

firsthr.app/compare/training/skills-management-software

34 answers · 8 models

hrtechsaas.com/blog/skills-intelligence-software

20 answers · 9 models

cloudassess.com/blog/best-skills-intelligence-platforms

19 answers · 10 models

docebo.com/learning-network/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms

12 answers · 8 models

goskills.com/resources/best-lms-small-business

12 answers · 8 models

fuel50.com/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms

11 answers · 6 models

aihr.com/blog/skills-intelligence

9 answers · 6 models

f6s.com/software/category/skills-intelligence

9 answers · 6 models

peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-skills-management-software

9 answers · 5 models

clickup.com/blog/skills-management-software

8 answers · 4 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 skills intelligence platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which skills taxonomy and inference tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top skills platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best skills intelligence platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a skills intelligence platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which skills platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Four alternatives

Ashby, Docebo, Metaview, hireEZ

against: Eightfold AI, Gem, Gloatno first choiceHeldno first choicePin

Five alternatives

Arya Pulse, Ashby, Gem, Metaview, hireEZ

no first choiceagainst: Absorb LMS, Growthspace, Skillsoft Percipio

GPT-5.4 miniCobrainer, SkillPanel

One alternative

Codility

Lightcast's Skills Taxonomy + Classification APIChangedno first choiceSkills Base

Two alternatives

MuchSkills, SkillPanel

against: 365Talentsno first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashMuchSkills

Four alternatives

AG5, SkillPanel, Skills Base, agyleOS

against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, Workday Skills CloudCinode, Lightcast Open SkillsChanged

Three alternatives

MuchSkills, TalentGuard, Teammeter

against: Eightfold AI, Workday Skills CloudSkills Base

Three alternatives

MuchSkills, Teammeter, agyleOS

against: Cornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, GloatSkills Base

Three alternatives

MuchSkills, SkillPanel, agyleOS

against: Eightfold AI, Gloat, TechWolfMuchSkills, SkillPanel

One alternative

Cinode

against: Cornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, Gloatagainst: Cornerstone OnDemand, Coursera, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, HackerRank, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy Business, Upwork, Workday Learning

Perplexity SonarLessie AI

Five alternatives

Loxo, SwipeGuide, agyleOS, edyoucated, iMocha

against: Beamery, Eightfold AILightcast Open SkillsChangedGoSkills, SkillPanel, Skills Base

Four alternatives

360Learning, AG5, Pluralsight Skills, TalentLMS

Skills Base

Two alternatives

Pin, Udemy Business

no first choiceagainst: Cornerstone OnDemand, Docebo, Kajabi, SAP Litmos, SAP SuccessFactors, Udemy Business

Grok 4.1 FastSkills Base

One alternative

SkillsDB

against: Eightfold AI, GloatO*NETChanged

Three alternatives

ESCO, Lightcast Open Skills, Tanova's open-source technical skills taxonomy

Skills Base

Four alternatives

GoSkills, SkillsDB, TestGorilla, agyleOS

against: Fuel50, GloatSkills Base

Two alternatives

SkillPanel, SkillsDB

against: TestGorillano first choice

Four alternatives

365Talents, Fuel50, Gloat, TechWolf

against: Eightfold AI, Phenom, Workeraagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, IBM Watson, Upwork

Mistral SmallMuchSkills, Skills Base

Two alternatives

Cloud Assess, edyoucated

HubSpot CRM, LinkedIn's Skills taxonomyChanged

Seven alternatives

Airtable, Google Sheets, Notion, Salesforce Skills Taxonomy, SeekOut, Toggl Hire, Zendesk Sunshine

against: Eightfold AIKahuna, Skills Base

Four alternatives

Eightfold AI, OpenSesame, Udemy Business, agyleOS

Published

Two alternatives

Skills Base, TalentLMS

no first choiceagainst: New Skills Academy, Skillshare, TalentLMS, Udemy Business

DeepSeek V4 FlashSkills Base

Four alternatives

AG5, Kahuna, SkillsDB, agyleOS

against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, SeekOut, TalentGuardLightcast Open Skills, SkillGraph AIChanged

Three alternatives

Skills Base, Skills Extractor, SkillsDB

against: Aon SkillsGraph, Clarivex, iMochaSkillPanel, TestGorilla

Four alternatives

CoderPad, Coderbyte, Pluralsight Skills, TestDome

against: 365Talents, AG5, Criteria Corp, HireVueSkills Base

Two alternatives

MuchSkills, SkillsDB

against: Eightfold AIno first choiceagainst: Udemy Business

Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceagyleOS

Two alternatives

SwipeGuide, edyoucated

no first choiceagainst: 360Learning, MuchSkills, Skills Base, SkillsDB

Qwen 3.7 FlashLattice

Four alternatives

Airtable, BambooHR, Notion, Pluralsight Skills

against: Eightfold AI, Firefly Talent, GloatGilt EdgeChanged

Two alternatives

JobScan, Paradox

against: ESCO, O*NET15Five, Lattice

Four alternatives

Airtable, BambooHR, Mantle, Notion

against: SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayLessie AI

Two alternatives

SkillPanel, iMocha

no first choiceagainst: Craigslist, Facebook Groups, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, Indeed, Monster, Upwork

Kimi K2Skills Base

Two alternatives

SkillsDB, agyleOS

against: Eightfold AI, TechWolfLightcast Open Skills, Skills BaseChanged

One alternative

ESCO

against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, LinkedIn Talent InsightsGoSkills, Udemy Business

One alternative

LinkedIn Learning

against: Pluralsight SkillsSkills Base

Three alternatives

MuchSkills, SkillsDB, agyleOS

against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, PhenomAG5, Cloud Assess

Two alternatives

agyleOS, edyoucated

against: 360Training.com, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, NovoEd, Udemy Business

GLM 4.7 FlashXSkills Base

Four alternatives

Fuel50, Skills Inventory Manager, SkillsDB, iMocha

Skills BaseHeld

One alternative

SkillsDB

against: iMochaMuchSkills, Skills Base

Five alternatives

365Talents, CodeSignal, Pluralsight Skills, SkillPanel, agyleOS

Skills Base

Five alternatives

AG5, MuchSkills, Skills Inventory Manager, Talantrix, iMocha

against: Pluralsight Skillsno first choicenothing named

MiniMax M2.5Betterteam, Sprout

One alternative

Assessly

Lightcast Open SkillsChanged

Two alternatives

ESCO Skill Extractor, iMocha

Skills Base

Five alternatives

AG5, Kahuna, Pluralsight Skills, SkillPanel, Workprove

against: 365TalentsSkills Base

Three alternatives

SwipeGuide, agyleOS, edyoucated

against: Eightfold AIno first choiceagainst: Fiverr, Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour

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.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:10	yes	9	8 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 20:31	yes	3	6 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 22:06	yes	17	46 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:21	yes	20	8 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:53	yes	36	17 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:25	yes	12	9 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 18:37	yes	14	19 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 18:30	yes	5	3 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 18:40	no	0	60 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:52	yes	11	19 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 21:41	yes	22	87 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:38	yes	5	18 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:58	no	0	3 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 18:56	yes	3	5 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:54	yes	23	45 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:51	yes	20	6 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 20:35	yes	40	20 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 18:57	no	0	6 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 18:40	yes	23	24 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:58	yes	5	4 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:14	no	0	42 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 20:02	yes	29	45 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 19:32	yes	25	95 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:19	yes	14	74 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 19:47	yes	9	10 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 17:58	yes	4	6 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 18:45	yes	22	28 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:59	yes	20	8 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 21:08	yes	35	22 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 21:18	yes	5	10 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 17:58	yes	20	19 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 18:52	yes	5	3 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 21:21	no	0	34 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 19:40	yes	20	43 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 18:57	yes	16	39 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:08	yes	19	66 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 20:51	yes	9	7 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 20:44	yes	4	5 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:51	yes	19	21 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 20:57	yes	20	6 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 21:15	yes	41	16 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 21:45	yes	5	4 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 18:29	yes	17	17 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 20:15	yes	5	2 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 17:55	yes	9	26 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 20:39	yes	12	24 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 21:33	yes	12	57 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:21	yes	10	22 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 17:57	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 18:50	no	0	9 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 18:25	yes	12	28 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 18:08	yes	20	10 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:57	yes	11	13 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 20:19	no	0	9 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 19:32	yes	15	22 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 18:20	yes	8	5 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 20:56	no	0	28 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 20:05	yes	14	23 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 20:54	yes	12	135 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 19:17	no	0	13 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 19:39	yes	18	8 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 18:44	no	0	3 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 21:52	yes	27	74 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 19:58	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 19:55	yes	38	18 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 17:53	yes	15	8 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 20:37	yes	20	18 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 19:49	yes	5	4 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 19:37	yes	24	78 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 18:47	yes	15	44 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 19:52	yes	29	156 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 18:04	yes	10	37 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

Acorn read as Acorn PLMS

Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand

Coursera for Business read as Coursera

Criteria read as Criteria Corp

Eightfold read as Eightfold AI

Eightfold Talent Intelligence read as Eightfold AI

Guru read as Guru.com

Lightcast read as Lightcast Open Skills

Litmos read as SAP Litmos

Pluralsight read as Pluralsight Skills

SAP read as SAP SuccessFactors

Skillsoft read as Skillsoft Percipio

Unresolved, counted raw

AWS

Angi

Aon SkillsGraph

Assessly

Clarivex

Cloud Academy

Cobrainer

CompTIA

Cord

Cyara

DevSkiller TalentBoost

ESCO Skill Extractor

Firefly Talent

Fueler

Gilt Edge (Talent Inc.)

Google

HirePython

Lightcast's Skills Taxonomy + Classification API

Mantle

MyOutDesk

New Skills Academy

Published

Salesforce Skills Taxonomy

SkillGraph AI

Skills Extractor

Talantrix

Tanova's open-source technical skills taxonomy

Time etc.

Visual Workforce

Workprove

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Skills intelligence for small business buyers

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in performance and talent management