Side-by-side · Rubric v1.0
Handshake vs Textkernel
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.
Substantial gaps
Screening
Textkernel
Textkernel provides AI-powered CV/resume and job parsing, semantic search, and candidate-job matching technology (including the acquired Sovren engine) embedded inside ATS, job board, and HR systems.
Substantial gaps
Sourcing
The result
1 point separates Textkernel and Handshake.
Textkernel (Sourcing) edges Handshake (Screening) by 1 point under rubric v1.0, 51 to 50. Textkernel leads 5 of the 7 criteria, including Article 11 Technical Documentation, while Handshake leads 2, including Post-Market Monitoring. Article 11 Technical Documentation, at 20%, is the heaviest weighted swing and goes to Textkernel (Handshake 48, Textkernel 55), 53% of the weighted advantage it holds, while the widest raw gap is Post-Market Monitoring, Handshake 48 to Textkernel 40.
Criteria won
7 criteria
- Handshake2
- Textkernel5
- Widest raw gap
- Post-Market Monitoring48 vs 40
- Heaviest weighted swing
- Article 11 Technical Documentation20% weight
The record
Categories, scope and company facts.
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Textkernel under Candidate sourcing AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of
| Record | Handshake | Textkernel |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | NL |
| Founded | 2014 | 2001 |
What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
- 1
Article 11 Technical Documentation
20% weight36% of the movement so far
Handshake48Textkernel551.4 weighted points to Textkernel
- 2
Post-Market Monitoring
12% weight61% of the movement so far
Handshake48Textkernel401.0 weighted points to Handshake
- 3
Bias Audit Transparency
18% weight74% of the movement so far
Handshake52Textkernel550.5 weighted points to Textkernel
- 4
FRIA Support
15% weight82% of the movement so far
Handshake30Textkernel320.3 weighted points to Textkernel
- 5
Data Governance Disclosure
15% weight90% of the movement so far
Handshake57Textkernel550.3 weighted points to Handshake
- 6
Human Oversight Design
12% weight96% of the movement so far
Handshake58Textkernel600.2 weighted points to Textkernel
- 7
Customer Documentation
8% weight100% of the movement so far
Handshake60Textkernel620.2 weighted points to Textkernel
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -1.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 3.9 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -1 beside that -1.4.
Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Textkernel, coloured for whichever of the two it favours.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Textkernel | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 55 | -7 | -1.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 55 | -3 | -0.5 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 32 | -2 | -0.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 55 | +2 | +0.3 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 60 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 40 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 62 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 50F | 51F | -1 | -1.4 |
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 | Textkernel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | 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 | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 13 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Handshake has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 27 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; Textkernel has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 52 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 18 for Textkernel, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Textkernel 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.