Every category where a model named Sterling 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%	42 of 59	42%	26	criticized challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Sterling 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 Sterling across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

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

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

Direct14 labels1

Paraphrase14 labelsNone

Comparative17 labelsNone

Budget-constrained4 labelsNone

Scale-constrained7 labelsNone

Negative18 labelsNone

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative74 labels in all, every segment counted; 1 of the 1 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.

“*Sterling*, *First Advantage*, or *HireRight* are the traditional enterprise giants... but their onboarding can be slower and more rigid.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Background screening · scale prompt · alternative

“Regulated industries (e.g., finance/tech B2B) ... Robust global/compliance; more service-heavy.” Grok 4.1 Fast · Background screening · paraphrase prompt · alternative

“Choose Sterling, HireRight, or Cisive if you expect more enterprise-style compliance needs” GPT-5.4 mini · Background screening · paraphrase prompt · alternative

“offers competitive rates for small companies and has flexible pricing tiers” MiniMax M2.5 · Background screening · budget 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.

“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 · Background screening · negative prompt · hard negative

“First Advantage (which acquired Sterling) and HireRight are massive players ... generally a poor fit for mid-market B2B companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Background screening · direct prompt · hard negative

“For example, Sterling has been criticized by users for poor performance and service quality.” Mistral Small · Background screening · negative prompt · hard negative

“For small businesses, many recommend avoiding them.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Background screening · negative prompt · hard negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Sterling, over the 74 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Sterling was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

HireRight65 of 749Not in the top three

Checkr58 of 7427Not in the top three

First Advantage48 of 7414Not in the top three

GoodHire43 of 746Not in the top three

Accurate Background39 of 742Not in the top three

Certn20 of 741Not in the top three

Verified First14 of 743Not in the top three

Mitratech AssureHire9 of 740Not in the top three

BackgroundChecks.com8 of 741Not in the top three

Bchex8 of 740Not 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 Sterling. 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 57 of the 74 answers that named Sterling and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

checkr.com43

bib.com40

vetty.co28

fadv.com24

expertinsights.com21

checkrreviews.com18

pin.com17

bestrecruitingtools.com13

gartner.com13

goodhire.com13

230 of the 230 domain citations in answers naming Sterling came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

bib.com/blog/best-background-screening-companies-comparison38

checkr.com/resources/articles/best-background-checks32

vetty.co/blog/best-background-check-companies-for-employers-in-2026-complete-comparison-gu27

expertinsights.com/compliance/the-top-background-check-solutions21

fadv.com/article/background-check-providers21

checkrreviews.com/best-background-check-services18

pin.com/blog/background-check-tools-recruiters17

bestrecruitingtools.com/blog/best-background-check-software-enterprise-202613

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as Sterling

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

Sterling Check 2Sterling (now First Advantage) 1Sterling (now part of First Advantage) 1Sterling Global Resources (Sterling Talent Solutions) 1Sterling Infosystems 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 Sterling'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 Sterling, 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 sterlingcheck.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.