HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › AI recruiting assistants › Small business › September 2026 Edition

AI recruiting assistants for small business buyers

Asked as “AI recruiter”, and as “AI-powered candidate screening tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Manatal
Contested
25% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

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 businessManatal25%ContestedThis pageMid-marketGoPerfect19%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseEightfold AI32%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
01Manatal25%0%33accepted challenger
02Pin22%0%25accepted challenger
03Workable12%7%27accepted challenger
04Breezy HR8%6%18accepted challenger
05Zoho Recruit2%0%25accepted challenger
06Juicebox2%0%10accepted challenger
07Truffle2%0%10accepted challenger
08Paradox2%30%10criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09HireVue0%60%10criticized 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
GoPerfect vs WorkableGoPerfect vs ManatalWorkable vs Manatal

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
P02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Manatal25%
02Pin22%
03Workable12%
04Breezy HR8%
05Zoho Recruit2%
06Juicebox2%
07Truffle2%
08Paradox2%
09HireVue0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, 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.
HireVue
60%
6 of 10 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Platforms like **HireVue** that "score" candidates based on facial expressions... should be avoided by small businesses.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Eightfold AI
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Kistler v. Eightfold AI class-action lawsuit alleged that algorithmic scoring tools violate the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Workday
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“In the ongoing Mobley v. Workday class-action lawsuit, a federal judge ruled that algorithmic screening tools can be held liable under federal anti-discrimination laws” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Greenhouse
38%
3 of 8 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid overspending on enterprise tools** like Sense or Greenhouse unless you already have a larger hiring volume” GPT-5.4 mini, 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

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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 861 links across 232 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

hiretruffle.com
40 answers · 52 citations · 11 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin31 answers · 72 citations · 10 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews28 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
lindy.ai
18 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
goperfect.com
vendor site · GoPerfect16 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
chamberstalent.com
16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
easyhire.me
vendor site · EasyHire14 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
theundercoverrecruiter.com
14 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
zapier.com
vendor site · Zapier14 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
cvviz.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
hirevire.com
vendor site · Hirevire12 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
greenhouse.com
vendor site · Greenhouse11 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.

pin.com/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-small-teams
30 answers · 10 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/ai-recruiting
27 answers · 10 models
hiretruffle.com/blog/ai-recruiting-software
24 answers · 10 models
lindy.ai/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-2024
17 answers · 7 models
chamberstalent.com/blog/7-best-ai-recruiting-tools-for-small-businesses-in-…
16 answers · 8 models
easyhire.me/blog/ai-recruiting-tools-for-small-business
14 answers · 8 models
theundercoverrecruiter.com/ai-recruit-tools
14 answers · 8 models
zapier.com/blog/ai-recruiting-tools
14 answers · 8 models
goperfect.com/blog/best-ai-candidate-screening-software-for-small-and-mid-s…
10 answers · 9 models
hireforge.ai/articles/best-ai-recruitment-software-smb
10 answers · 5 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 AI recruiter for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI-powered candidate screening tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top AI recruiting tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI recruiter for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an AI recruiter. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI recruiting tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Four alternativesManatal, Noon, Workable, Zoho Recruit
WorkableChanged
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Manatal
Manatal
Four alternativesBreezy HR, Recruiterflow, Zoho Recruit, hireEZ
Breezy HR, HiredAI
Four alternativesHiveMind, JazzHR, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniWorkable
Four alternativesBraintrust AIR, HireVue, Recruiterflow, Zoho Recruit
TruffleChanged
Two alternativesScreened, WorkScreen
Greenhouse
Two alternativesLever, Workable
against: JobviteWorkable
Two alternativesJazzHR, Zoho Recruit
against: Braintrust AIR, Greenhouse, Senseno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashJuicebox
Three alternativesHiredAI, Pin, Workable
against: LinkedIn RecruiterHireMike, SorsXChanged
Three alternativesBreezy HR, TestGorilla, Vervoe
Juicebox, Pin
Four alternativesFetcher, Manatal, Metaview, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, WorkdayManatal
Three alternativesBreezy HR, HiredAI, Truffle
against: LinkedIn Recruiterno first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday
Perplexity SonarPin
Four alternativesHirevire, Manatal, Workable, Zoho Recruit
ManatalChanged
Two alternativesHirevire, Workable
Pin
Seven alternativesBreezy HR, Hirevire, Manatal, Recruiterflow, Truffle, Workable, Zoho Recruit
against: FetcherBreezy HR, Manatal
Three alternativesGoPerfect, Pin, Zoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastManatal
Two alternativesPin, Workable
against: ParadoxManatalHeld
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
against: Workable, hireEZManatal
Four alternativesBreezy HR, Pin, Workable, Zoho Recruit
against: HireVue, ParadoxManatal
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
Bullhorn
Two alternativesPhenom, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, HireVue, LinkedIn Recruiter, Pymetrics, SeekOut, Workday, hireEZ
Mistral SmallWorkable
Three alternativesBraintrust AIR, Juicebox, Pin
WorkableHeld
One alternativeManatal
Pin
Two alternativesManatal, Recooty
Pin
Three alternativesGoPerfect, HiredAI, Weekday
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashPin
Two alternativesManatal, Workable
against: FetcherManatalChanged
Two alternativesClearMatch, Hirevire
Manatal
Six alternativesBraintrust AIR, Juicebox, Metaview, Pin, Truffle, Zoho Recruit
against: Breezy HR, WorkablePin, Zoho Recruit
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Manatal
against: Ashbyno first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Workday, Workday Candidate Skills Match
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceGoPerfectChanged
Three alternativesHirevire, Truffle, Workable
no first choicePin
Three alternativesEasyHire.me, GoPerfect, HiredAI
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashPin
Three alternativesAshby, Fetcher, SeekOut
Modernize HiringChanged
Three alternativesJobScan, Paradox, Vervoe
against: SeekOutManatal, Pin
Three alternativesFetcher, Metaview, Zoho Recruit
against: HireVueManatal
Four alternativesApollo.io, Breezy HR, ChatGPT, HireQuotient
against: Eightfold AI, Paradoxno first choicenothing named
Kimi K2Pin
Three alternativesEasyHire.me, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
HirevireChanged
Two alternativesTeamtailor, Workable
Pin
Five alternativesFetcher, Juicebox, Manatal, Metaview, Qureos
against: hireEZManatal
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXPin
Six alternativesEasyHire.me, HireVue, Manatal, Paradox, Workable, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceChangedManatal
Four alternativesHiredAI, Juicebox, Truffle, Zoho Recruit
Manatal
Six alternativesClearMatch ATS, GoPerfect, MokaHR, Pin, Truffle, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Amazon, Ashby, Eightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Workday
MiniMax M2.5Paradox, SmartRecruitersHirevireChanged
Three alternativesHeyMilo, TestGorilla, Workable
Pin
Four alternativesHeroHunt.ai, Manatal, Paradox, Zoho Recruit
Breezy HR, Pin
Two alternativesHirevire, Manatal
no first choicenothing named
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 21:13yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:41yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:35yes1722 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:19yes208 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:30yes3819 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:13yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:48yes2320 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:50yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:32yes722 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:33yes719 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:44yes1250 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:13yes520 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:53yes1510 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:02yes57 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:22yes623 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:30yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:05yes3814 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:28yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:07yes2247 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:59yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:18no032 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:46yes1941 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:53yes1084 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:27yes1048 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:45yes1511 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:24yes510 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:05yes2625 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:17yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:41yes3117 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:22yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:44yes1621 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:55yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:42yes2279 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:53yes1549 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:45yes2839 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:25yes2547 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:13yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:19yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:05yes1553 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:16yes197 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:54yes3417 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:01yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:57yes2722 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:48yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:32no033 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:22yes1927 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:06yes1316 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:57yes1328 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:25no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:00no013 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:02yes1253 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:07yes2012 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:53yes1413 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:46no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:19yes2637 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:19yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:22no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:09yes1015 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:34yes1568 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:46no049 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:03yes1811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:16yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes2347 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:01yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:12yes3717 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:04yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:48yes2727 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:16yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:00yes519 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:23yes921 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:32yes1330 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:52yes514 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
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Mokka read as MokaHR
Zoho read as Zoho Recruit
Unresolved, counted raw
Betterleap
ClearMatch
ClearMatch ATS
HiveMind
Modernize Hiring
Paraform
Qureos
Screened
SorsX
WorkScreen
Workday Candidate Skills Match
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in talent acquisition

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