HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › September 2026 Edition

Candidate assessment

Asked as “pre-employment assessment platform”, and as “skills testing tool for hiring”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
TestGorilla
Clear leader
68% 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 businessTestGorilla71%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketTestGorilla68%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseSHL24%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
01TestGorilla68%7%54endorsed leader
02Criteria Corp10%3%33accepted challenger
03Vervoe2%5%22accepted challenger
04Testlify2%0%13accepted challenger
05iMocha2%6%16accepted challenger
06The Predictive Index2%13%15accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10HireVue0%20%10accepted challenger
08Codility0%12%17accepted challenger
09Harver0%9%11accepted challenger
07HackerRank0%4%23accepted 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
TestGorilla vs Criteria CorpTestGorilla vs VervoeCriteria Corp vs Vervoe

One product takes 68% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Zero products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
ProctorU
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Reviewers describe the platform as “completely unreliable,” with frequent technical glitches, long wait times, and unhelpful support.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
TestGorilla
7%
4 of 54 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“Frequent complaints about buggy tests, irrelevant or erroneous questions, unrealistic time limits... steep pricing with rigid annual subscriptions, and poor customer support” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Honorlock
75%
3 of 4 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Chrome-extension-only, which excludes many students; heavy AI monitoring ... creates frequent false positives” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Proctorio
75%
3 of 4 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Repeatedly named in complaints over excessive biometric data collection and opaque AI.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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

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. 859 links across 231 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

testgorilla.com
vendor site · TestGorilla27 answers · 42 citations · 8 models
testlify.com
vendor site · Testlify25 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
jobcannon.io
vendor site · JobCannon21 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
testtrick.com
vendor site · TestTrick20 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR19 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
criteriacorp.com
vendor site · Criteria Corp15 answers · 23 citations · 6 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
g2.com
14 answers · 34 citations · 6 models
getapp.com
13 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
bryq.com
vendor site · Bryq13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
unstop.com
vendor site · Unstop12 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.

jobcannon.io/compare/best-pre-employment-assessments
20 answers · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-pre-employment-testing-software
20 answers · 10 models
pin.com/blog/pre-employment-assessment-tools
15 answers · 9 models
firsthr.app/compare/hiring/pre-employment-assessment
14 answers · 9 models
testtrick.com/blogs/hiring-assessment-tools-small-mid-sized-teams
14 answers · 9 models
aihr.com/blog/top-pre-employment-assessment-tools
11 answers · 5 models
bryq.com/blog/best-talent-assessment-platforms-2026
11 answers · 7 models
adaface.com/blog/pre-employment-assessment-tools
10 answers · 5 models
getapp.com/hr-employee-management-software/pre-employment-testing/org/mid-s…
10 answers · 7 models
intervue.io/blog/best-pre-employment-testing-software
9 answers · 6 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 pre-employment assessment platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which skills testing tool for hiring would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top assessment platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best pre-employment assessment platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a pre-employment assessment platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which assessment platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5The Predictive Index
Two alternativesCriteria Corp, TestGorilla
TestGorillaChanged
Two alternativesCriteria Corp, Vervoe
TestGorilla
Two alternativesC-Factor AI, Paradox
TestGorilla
Three alternativesTestlify, The Hire Talent, Vervoe
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniTestGorilla
Two alternativesHireVue, Talogy
against: SHLTestGorillaHeld
Three alternativesCriteria Corp, HackerRank, Testlify
no first choice
Eight alternativesCodeSignal, CoderPad, Codility, HackerRank, Mercer | Mettl, SHL, Talview, TestGorilla
TestGorilla
One alternativeEmployTest
against: SHL, Wonderlicno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashTestGorilla
Five alternativesCoderbyte, Criteria Corp, Intervue, The Predictive Index, Vervoe
TestGorillaHeld
Three alternativesCanditech, Criteria Corp, Testlify
no first choiceToggl Hire
Five alternativesJobCannon, TestDome, TestInvite, TestTrick, Truffle
against: Hogan Assessments, SHL, TestGorilla, The Predictive Indexno first choiceagainst: Codility, Eightfold AI, HackerRank, Honorlock, ProctorU, Proctorio, Respondus Monitor
Perplexity SonarCriteria Corp
One alternativeTestGorilla
against: Greenhouse + integrationsCriteria CorpHeld
Three alternativesHackerRank, TestGorilla, iMocha
no first choiceTestGorilla
Two alternativesEmployTest, Toggl Hire
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastTestGorilla
One alternativeCriteria Corp
TestGorillaHeld
Two alternativesHackerRank, The Predictive Index
against: Codility, Vervoe, iMochaTestGorilla, iMocha
Three alternativesCodility, HackerRank, Mercer | Mettl
TestGorilla
Four alternativesHirevire, TestTrick, Truffle, Vervoe
TestGorilla
Four alternativesAdaface, Criteria Corp, Harver, iMocha
against: Dugga, Glider.ai, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, ProctorU, TestGorilla
Mistral SmallTestGorilla
Three alternativesAdaface, Greenhouse, The Predictive Index
iMochaChanged
Three alternativesCriteria Corp, Greenhouse, Testlify
no first choiceCanditech, Vervoe
Three alternativesJobCannon, TestGorilla, Toggl Hire
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashTestGorilla
Two alternativesCriteria Corp, The Predictive Index
TestGorillaHeld
Five alternativesAdaface, CodeSignal, Criteria Corp, Harver, Sova
TestGorilla, Vervoe
Eight alternativesAbilityScreen, CoderPad, Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Mercer | Mettl, SHL, Testlify
TestGorilla
Four alternativesCanditech, EmployTest, JobCannon, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: Aon, Canvas, Examity, HireVue, Honorlock, Mathspace, PowerSchool, ProctorU, Proctorio, Pymetrics, Respondus, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickTestGorillaTestlifyChanged
Three alternativesEmployTest, TestGorilla, TestTrick
no first choiceJobCannonno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashTestGorilla
Three alternativesCodeSignal, HireVue, Talmundo
against: Mercer | SHLTestGorillaHeld
Seven alternativesAdaface, Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Plum, Repsnap, Vervoe
no first choice
Nine alternativesBryq, Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Harver, Mercer | Mettl, TestGorilla, Testlify, Vervoe
TestGorilla
Two alternativesTestTrick, Testlify
no first choiceagainst: HireVue, TestGorilla
Kimi K2Criteria Corp, TestGorilla
Two alternativesPlum, The Predictive Index
TestGorillaChanged
Four alternativesCodility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Vervoe
Hire-Match
Nine alternativesCodility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Harver, TestGorilla, Testlify, The Predictive Index, Vervoe, iMocha
TestGorilla
Two alternativesEmployTest, Vervoe
against: Criteria CorpTestGorilla
Two alternativesCriteria Corp, Vervoe
against: Harveragainst: Examity, Honorlock, ProctorU, Proctorio, Respondus
GLM 4.7 FlashXCriteria Corp
Three alternativesHarver, Plum, TestGorilla
TestGorillaChanged
Two alternativesCriteria Corp, Test Partnership
no first choiceTestGorilla
Three alternativesHirevire, JobCannon, Vervoe
against: Hogan Assessments, SHL, The Predictive Indexno first choiceagainst: British Council, Pearson Vue, ProctorU, SkillCheck, eSkill
MiniMax M2.5SHL, TestGorilla
One alternativeTest Partnership
VidCruiterChanged
Two alternativesTest Partnership, iMocha
Codility, HackerEarth
Seven alternativesExamSoft, Learnosity, Mercer | Mettl, Moodle, Questionmark, TestGorilla, eSkill
TestGorilla
Four alternativesEmployTest, Hirevire, Toggl Hire, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: Glider.ai, ProctorU, TestGorilla
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 19:26yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:47yes47 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes1243 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:17yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:41yes3619 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:06yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:26yes2338 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:36yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:44no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:41yes1329 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:35yes2353 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:05yes1127 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:27yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:03yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:07yes1264 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:14yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:04yes4017 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:16yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:45yes3019 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:30yes65 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:29yes823 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:46yes1046 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:16yes20156 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:09yes511 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:44yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:20yes49 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:54yes2023 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:19yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:01yes3317 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:21yes810 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:03yes1920 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:44yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:54yes518 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:02yes821 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:12yes1569 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:44yes545 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:33yes107 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:43yes2021 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:57yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:04yes3720 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:20yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:51yes1716 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:27yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:26yes1037 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:46yes1937 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:47yes1481 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:53yes822 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:29no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:16no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:59yes1126 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:39yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:49yes1512 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:28no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:37yes1416 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:43yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:48no025 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:59yes2037 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:41yes1399 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:07yes531 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:34no03 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:46yes67 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:33yes2028 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:44yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:34yes4719 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:54yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:56yes3026 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:59yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:35yes1036 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:51yes1017 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:31yes29102 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:23yes2036 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
Criteria read as Criteria Corp
Criteria (Criteria Corp) read as Criteria Corp
Hogan read as Hogan Assessments
Test Invite read as TestInvite
Unresolved, counted raw
ASC Smarter Assessment
ASSISTments
British Council (IELTS Online)
C-Factor AI
ClassMarker
Diffit
Dugga
Edulastic
Exam.net
Greenhouse + integrations
HighMatch
Isograd Testing Services
Learnology
MagicSchool AI
Mercer | SHL
Pearson Vue (OnVUE)
Repsnap
Respondus Monitor
Skillmeter
Socrative
TestGenius
The Hire Talent
The Talent Games
ThriveMap
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.
← Background screeningInterview scheduling →