§ The result
3 points separate Spark Hire and Handshake.
Spark Hire (Video interview) edges Handshake (Screening) by 3 points under rubric v1.0, 53 to 50. Spark Hire leads 5 of the 7 criteria, including Article 11 Technical Documentation, while Handshake leads 1, including Post-Market Monitoring, and 1 is level. One criterion, Article 11 Technical Documentation, is both the widest raw gap (Handshake 48, Spark Hire 58) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 20% weight it makes up 40% of the weighted advantage Spark Hire holds across the 5 criteria it leads.
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
Spark Hire
Spark Hire is a hiring platform combining one-way (async) and live video interviewing with an applicant tracking system (via its Comeet acquisition), and adds AI features that score and rank candidates' resumes and one-way video responses to help recruiters prioritize submissions.
§ The record
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Spark Hire under Video interview 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. Only Spark Hire is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Handshake | Spark Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 2012 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 32% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Handshake 48 · Spark Hire 58
2.0 weighted points to Spark Hire
18% weight · 61% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Handshake 52 · Spark Hire 62
1.8 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 80% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Handshake 48 · Spark Hire 38
1.2 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 88% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Handshake 58 · Spark Hire 62
0.5 weighted points to Spark Hire
15% weight · 95% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Handshake 57 · Spark Hire 60
0.4 weighted points to Spark Hire
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Handshake 60 · Spark Hire 64
0.3 weighted points to Spark Hire
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to -3.9 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 6.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -3 beside that -3.9.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Spark Hire.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Spark Hire | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 58 | -10 | -2.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 62 | -10 | -1.8 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 60 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 62 | -4 | -0.5 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 38 | +10 | +1.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 64 | -4 | -0.3 |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 53 (F) | -3 | -3.9 |
§ 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 | Spark Hire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2 | 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 | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources 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 | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 16 | 4 | 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; Spark Hire has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake and Spark Hire sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 54 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 20 for Spark Hire, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Spark Hire last reviewed
- June 7, 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