HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › September 2026 Edition

Background screening

Asked as “background check provider”, and as “employment screening service”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Checkr
Clear leader
43% of first choices, clear leader.
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 businessGoodHire38%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketCheckr43%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseFirst Advantage38%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Checkr43%6%49endorsed leader
02GoodHire14%2%41accepted challenger
03Certn12%0%23accepted challenger
04BackgroundChecks.com12%8%13accepted challenger
05Verified First7%0%17accepted challenger
06Accurate Background2%7%27accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10TruthFinder0%79%14criticized challenger
09Sterling0%42%26criticized challenger
08HireRight0%32%34criticized challenger
07First Advantage0%27%30criticized 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
Checkr vs GoodHireCheckr vs CertnGoodHire vs Certn

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
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Checkr43%
02GoodHire14%
03Certn12%
04BackgroundChecks.com12%
05Verified First7%
06Accurate Background2%
07First Advantage0%
08HireRight0%
09Sterling0%
10TruthFinder0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 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.
TruthFinder
79%
11 of 14 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“The FTC specifically took action against **TruthFinder** and **Instant Checkmate** for allegedly deceiving users about report accuracy and violating FCRA requirements” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt
Sterling
42%
11 of 26 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Numerous complaints about extremely slow processing times (weeks to months), poor customer service... Many reviewers report lost job opportunities due to delays.” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
HireRight
32%
11 of 34 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**HireRight** are massive players with deep international capabilities, **they are generally a poor fit for mid-market B2B companies**” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
Instant Checkmate
75%
6 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“The FTC specifically took action against **TruthFinder** and **Instant Checkmate** for allegedly deceiving users about report accuracy and violating FCRA requirements” GPT-5.4 mini, 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

63 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. 725 links across 195 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

bib.com
40 answers · 44 citations · 10 models
checkr.com
vendor site · Checkr38 answers · 52 citations · 11 models
fadv.com
22 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
goodhire.com
vendor site · GoodHire20 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
vetty.co
vendor site · Vetty18 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
checkrreviews.com
16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
expertinsights.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 9 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
mitratech.com
vendor site · Mitratech12 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR12 answers · 12 citations · 7 models
pcmag.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 8 models
disa.com
vendor site · DISA10 answers · 10 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.

bib.com/blog/best-background-screening-companies-comparison
38 answers · 10 models
checkr.com/resources/articles/best-background-checks
25 answers · 11 models
fadv.com/article/background-check-providers
22 answers · 10 models
checkrreviews.com/best-background-check-services
16 answers · 9 models
vetty.co/blog/best-background-check-companies-for-employers-in-2026-complet…
16 answers · 8 models
expertinsights.com/compliance/the-top-background-check-solutions
13 answers · 9 models
pin.com/blog/background-check-tools-recruiters
13 answers · 7 models
firsthr.app/compare/general/employee-background-check-services
12 answers · 7 models
mitratech.com/resource-hub/blog/top-2026-background-check-vendors
12 answers · 7 models
pcmag.com/picks/the-best-employment-background-check-services
12 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 background check provider for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which employment screening service would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top background check providers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best background check provider for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a background check provider. What should we look at?”Negative“Which background check providers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5EDIFY Screening
Four alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight, iprospectcheck
no first choiceChangedCheckr, First Advantage
Four alternativesBchex, GoodHire, HireShield, Vetty
Checkr
Two alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight
no first choiceagainst: First Advantage, HireRight, Intellicorp Records
GPT-5.4 miniCheckr
Three alternativesGoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
CheckrHeld
Five alternativesAtlantic Employee Screening, Cisive, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr, GoodHire
Two alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage
against: Intelius, PeopleFinders, TruthFinderCheckr, GoodHireno first choiceagainst: Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
Gemini 3.5 FlashVerified First
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr, iprospectcheck
against: First Advantage, HireRight, SterlingCheckrChanged
Three alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, Verified First
against: First Advantage, HireRight, SterlingCheckr
Five alternativesFirst Advantage, HireRight, Social Catfish, TruthFinder, Vetty
Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, ClearChecks
against: BeenVerified, ShareAble for Hires, TruthFinderVerified First
Four alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling
against: BeenVerified, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Radaris, RentGrow, Spokeo, TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, TruthFinder, Whitepages
Perplexity SonarMitratech AssureHire
Four alternativesBchex, Checkr, GoodHire, Verified First
CheckrChanged
Two alternativesGoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
no first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: HireRight, Intelius, Social Catfish, Sterling, TruthFinder
Grok 4.1 FastCheckr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Bchex, GoodHire, Verified First
CheckrHeld
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, TransUnion SmartMove, Verified First
against: BeenVerified, TruthFinderCertn
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GoodHire
no first choice
Five alternativesCheckr, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Mitratech AssureHire
against: ADP Screening and Selection Services, General Information Services, Instant Checkmate, MyLife.com, TruthFinder
Mistral SmallCheckr, GoodHire
One alternativeCertn
Background Investigation BureauChanged
Two alternativesAccurate Background, Checkr
no first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesGCheck, HireShield
no first choiceagainst: Sterling
DeepSeek V4 FlashVerified First
Three alternativesCertn, Checkr, Orange Tree
against: First Advantage, HireRight, SterlingCheckrChanged
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Verified First
Checkr
Six alternativesCertn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling
Certn, GoodHire
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, GCheck
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, BeenVerified, Checkr, First Advantage, General Information Services, HireRight, Instant Checkmate, Sterling, TruthFinder, e-Background-checks.com
Llama 4 MaverickBackgroundChecks.com
Three alternativesBchex, GoodHire, Mitratech AssureHire
no first choiceChangedno first choiceBackgroundChecks.com
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: Intelius, TruthFinder
Qwen 3.7 FlashCheckr
Three alternativesCertn, First Advantage, GoodHire
GoodHireChanged
Two alternativesCheckster, HireRight
against: SterlingCheckr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
Checkr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, GoodHire, ShareAble for Hires
no first choiceagainst: Accurate Background, First Advantage, HireRight, Sterling, The PeopleDataLabs
Kimi K2Accurate Background, Checkr
Four alternativesBchex, Certn, Mitratech AssureHire, Verified First
against: GoodHire, HireRight, SterlingCheckr, GoodHireChanged
One alternativeAccurate Background
Checkr
Four alternativesCertn, GoodHire, HireRight, Sterling
BackgroundChecks.com, Certn
Two alternativesCheckr, GoodHire
no first choiceagainst: Everify, Inc., InfoPay, Inc., Instant Checkmate, Intelligator, Inc., MyLife.com, TruthFinder
GLM 4.7 FlashXCheckr
Four alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, GoodHire, Verified First
against: HireRight, SterlingCheckrHeld
Two alternativesGoodHire, Sterling
against: First Advantage, HireRightCheckr
Six alternativesAccurate Background, Certn, First Advantage, GoodHire, HireRight, Intelifi
Certn, HireShield
Three alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, GoodHire, Verified Credentials
against: Checkrno first choiceagainst: ADP Screening and Selection Services, Creative Services Inc., DISA Global Solutions, General Information Services, Instant Checkmate, Mercor, National Public Data, TruthFinder, e-Background-checks.com
MiniMax M2.5Checkr
Two alternativesCertn, GoodHire
CheckrHeld
Three alternativesAccurate Background, BackgroundChecks.com, First Advantage
no first choiceGoodHire
Four alternativesBackgroundChecks.com, Checkr, First Advantage, Sterling
no first choiceagainst: Checkr, First Advantage, Sterling
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 20:00yes910 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:25yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:54yes2127 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:12yes209 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:01yes3519 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:19yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:26yes1421 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:18yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:41yes529 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:28yes955 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:55yes14250 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:25yes826 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:57no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:04yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes836 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:20yes156 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:37yes2314 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:23yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:17yes1518 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:25yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:21no030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:11yes1536 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:12yes1067 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:59yes515 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:24yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:06yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:05yes1456 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:07yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:32yes2415 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:16yes99 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:55yes2320 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:18yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:52yes1961 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:17yes1032 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:58yes2459 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:35yes511 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:19yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:38yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:11yes1818 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:32yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:40yes2512 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:24yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:06yes914 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:34yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:34yes513 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:42yes519 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:44yes1327 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:32no07 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:07no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:44no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:49yes1424 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:48yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:49yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:53no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:19yes2445 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:53yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:01yes527 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:06yes1026 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:38no0154 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:19no061 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:11yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:02yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes1441 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:40yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:43yes4117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:31yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:21yes2972 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:33yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:17no029 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:11yes1521 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:32yes20166 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:21yes1520 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
Accurate read as Accurate Background
Unresolved, counted raw
Asurint
Clerify/Certn
Everify, Inc.
Google Social Search
InfoPay, Inc.
Intelifi
IntelliCorp
Intellicorp Records
Intelligator, Inc.
My Trusted Vendor (MTV)
Radaris
The PeopleDataLabs (PDL)
TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions (TURSS)
TransUnion SmartMove
VerifiedReports
VerifyMinds
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.
← Applicant tracking systeCandidate assessment →