§ The result
4 points separate Handshake and RippleMatch.
Handshake holds a 4-point edge over RippleMatch under rubric v1.0, 50 to 46, across the Screening and Sourcing cohorts. RippleMatch takes 1 of the 7 criteria, Bias Audit Transparency among them, against 5 for Handshake, whose share includes Post-Market Monitoring, and 1 is level. Post-Market Monitoring is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Handshake 48, RippleMatch 37 — and at a 12% weight it carries 40% of the weighted advantage Handshake holds across the 5 criteria on that side of the table.
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.
Vendor profile
RippleMatch
RippleMatch is an early-career recruiting platform that sources students and recent graduates for employers' roles, ranks applicants with a 0-100 Fit Score built from criteria the recruiter configures, and adds verified skill badges, applicant review, interview scheduling and campus-event tools.
§ The record
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, RippleMatch under Candidate sourcing AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Handshake | RippleMatch |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 2016 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
12% weight · 37% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Handshake 48 · RippleMatch 37
1.3 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 67% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Handshake 57 · RippleMatch 50
1.1 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 80% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Handshake 30 · RippleMatch 27
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
20% weight · 91% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Handshake 48 · RippleMatch 46
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
18% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Handshake 52 · RippleMatch 53
0.2 weighted points to RippleMatch
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Handshake 58 · RippleMatch 57
0.1 weighted points to Handshake
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to +3.2 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 3.5 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 +3.2.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus RippleMatch.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | RippleMatch | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 46 | +2 | +0.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 53 | -1 | -0.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 27 | +3 | +0.4 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 50 | +7 | +1.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 57 | +1 | +0.1 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 37 | +11 | +1.3 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 60 | - | - |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 46 (F) | +4 | +3.2 |
§ 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 | Handshake | RippleMatch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 7 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources 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 | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 7 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 7 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 35 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Handshake has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 27 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; RippleMatch has 42 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 35 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake and RippleMatch sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 76 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 42 for RippleMatch, across 5 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- RippleMatch 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