§ The result
4 points separate Handshake and Brainner.
Under rubric v1.0, Handshake and Brainner finish 4 points apart, 50 to 46, as two Screening entries. The 7 criteria split 5 to 1 in favour of Handshake, with 1 level: Handshake is ahead on Bias Audit Transparency and Brainner on Article 11 Technical Documentation. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Brainner 42, Handshake 52 — and at an 18% weight it carries 46% of the weighted advantage Handshake holds across the 5 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Brainner
Brainner is an AI screening layer for applicant tracking systems that scores and ranks applicants against recruiter-weighted criteria with per-criterion justifications, and flags suspected fake applicants using third-party identity and fraud data.
Vendor profile
Handshake
Handshake is an early-career recruiting network whose employer tools use AI to rank applicants against employer-set criteria, find and message matching students and graduates, and target job promotions.
§ The record
Brainner and Handshake are both filed under Screening AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Sourcing.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Brainner | Handshake |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Low | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2023 | 2014 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 38% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Brainner 42 · Handshake 52
1.8 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 59% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Brainner 50 · Handshake 58
1.0 weighted points to Handshake
20% weight · 76% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Brainner 52 · Handshake 48
0.8 weighted points to Brainner
15% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Brainner 53 · Handshake 57
0.6 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Brainner 45 · Handshake 48
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Brainner 58 · Handshake 60
0.2 weighted points to Handshake
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to -3.1 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 4.7 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -4 beside that -3.1.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Brainner minus Handshake.
| Category | Weight | Brainner | Handshake | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 52 | 48 | +4 | +0.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 42 | 52 | -10 | -1.8 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 53 | 57 | -4 | -0.6 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 50 | 58 | -8 | -1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 45 | 48 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 60 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 46 (F) | 50 (F) | -4 | -3.1 |
§ Evidence
Cited sources and documented absences, criterion by criterion.
An absence is a finding, not a blank: the reviewer looked for a named artefact and recorded that it is not located. Where a source sits is a fact about hosting only.
| Criterion | Weight | Brainner | Handshake | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 33 | 4 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Brainner has 37 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 33 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; Handshake has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 27 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Brainner and Handshake sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 71 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 37 for Brainner, across 2 distinct source domains, and 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Brainner last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
HireAIScore scores are editorial research, not legal advice, and no vendor pays for placement, scoring or removal — see the methodology, conflicts policy and terms.
§ Where next