HR AI Index

Index › Vendors › First Advantage · September 2026 Edition

1 category · Ranked

First Advantage

88Judge labels

17First choices

16Negative labels

12 of 12Models named it

1Category

September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.1, every buyer segment counted.

Best standing

38% in Background screening for enterprise buyers

Rank 11 of 59 in the mid-market standingcriticized challenger

0 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 27% of its 30 labels there were negative.

By buyer segmentAn enterprise product: leader at enterprise, not named at small business or mid-market.

Small business35 of 61

criticized challenger

Mid-market11 of 59

criticized challenger

Enterprise1 of 49

endorsed leader

In background screening · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading

Standing by category

Every category where a model named First Advantage for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant
Background screening	Talent acquisition	0%	11 of 59	27%	30	criticized challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for First Advantage yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated First Advantage across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	2	0	1	4
GPT-5.4 mini	0	1	0	0	1
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	2	0	2	4
Perplexity Sonar	0	0	1	0	1
Grok 4.1 Fast	0	2	0	0	2
Mistral Small	0	0	1	0	1
DeepSeek V4 Flash	0	2	1	2	5
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	1	0	1
Qwen 3.7 Flash	0	2	0	1	3
Kimi K2	0	1	1	0	2
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	1	0	1	2
MiniMax M2.5	0	2	1	1	4

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct16 labels6

Paraphrase15 labels6

Comparative27 labels6not counted in share

Budget-constrained10 labels5

Scale-constrained4 labelsNone

Negative16 labels4not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative88 labels in all, every segment counted; 17 of the 27 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“First Advantage is one of the world's largest background check providers, and following its acquisition of Sterling in 2024, offers the scale, technology, global reach” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Background screening · comparative prompt · first choice

“offers the scale, technology, global reach, and candidate experiences needed to support complex hiring programs, from mid-sized organizations to many of the world's largest employers” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Background screening · direct prompt · alternative

“the traditional enterprise giants, great if you have heavy international hiring needs... but their onboarding can be slower and more rigid” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Background screening · scale prompt · alternative

“The most reputable providers mentioned in research include First Advantage, Checkr, HireRight, Verify First, and Accurate Background” Kimi K2 · Background screening · negative prompt · alternative

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“multi-month processing delays, nearly inaccessible customer service, systematic accuracy problems... Candidate experience ratings are notably poor (1.2/5).” MiniMax M2.5 · Background screening · negative prompt · hard negative

“First Advantage Background Services faced a class action lawsuit alleging FCRA violations” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Background screening · negative prompt · hard negative

“they are generally a poor fit for mid-market B2B companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Background screening · direct prompt · hard negative

“Large-scale enterprise giants (like First Advantage, which acquired Sterling, and HireRight) are often too rigid and slow for mid-market companies.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Background screening · paraphrase prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as First Advantage, over the 88 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and First Advantage was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

HireRight75 of 886Not in the top three

Checkr74 of 8828Not in the top three

Sterling48 of 881Not in the top three

Accurate Background47 of 881Not in the top three

GoodHire36 of 884Not in the top three

Certn22 of 880Not in the top three

Verified First18 of 883Not in the top three

Mitratech AssureHire13 of 880Not in the top three

TruthFinder10 of 880Not in the top three

Bchex8 of 880Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named First Advantage. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 75 of the 88 answers that named First Advantage and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

checkr.com57

bib.com54

vetty.co43

fadv.com39

expertinsights.com30

pin.com23

checkrreviews.com21

goodhire.com20

bestrecruitingtools.com18

accurate.com16

321 of the 321 domain citations in answers naming First Advantage came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

bib.com/blog/best-background-screening-companies-comparison51

checkr.com/resources/articles/best-background-checks49

vetty.co/blog/best-background-check-companies-for-employers-in-2026-complete-comparison-gu42

fadv.com/article/background-check-providers33

expertinsights.com/compliance/the-top-background-check-solutions30

pin.com/blog/background-check-tools-recruiters23

checkrreviews.com/best-background-check-services20

bestrecruitingtools.com/blog/best-background-check-software-enterprise-202618

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as First Advantage

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as First Advantage; a claim can dispute any of them.

First Advantage (Sterling) 1First Advantage (incorporating Sterling) 1First Advantage Background Services 1

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when First Advantage's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as First Advantage, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at first.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.