If you're evaluating Siftboard as a Handshake alternative for non-campus hiring, this page walks through the differences: where each product fits, how pricing and contracts compare, what a shortlist takes, and which one to use when.
Handshake and Siftboard both produce candidates, but they're solving different problems. Handshake is a campus recruiting platform built around employer-university partnerships. Siftboard is a shortlist generator that works for any team under 500 — campus or non-campus.
| Handshake | Siftboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Campus recruiter targeting | Core product — built around employer-university partnerships, career services relationships, and structured campus pipelines. | Works without a university partnership. Sources from a broader pool: any-school recent grads, bootcamp grads, career changers, seniors. |
| Employer self-serve | Available, but onboarding requires a university partnership and program setup before posting starts delivering student candidates. | Fully self-serve. Sign up, paste a job description, get a ranked shortlist in about 30 seconds. No program setup. |
| Pricing model | Enterprise contract, annual commitment, pricing scales with program scope and university reach. | $99/month flat. First shortlist free. No per-seat fees, no per-hire fees, no annual commitment. |
| Contract vs. self-serve | Sales-led. Pricing is in an MSA, not on a pricing page. | Self-serve subscription through Stripe. Try the first shortlist with no signup; subscribe only if it works. |
| Shortlist time-to-result | Weeks. Define the role, get university approval, post, screen inbound over a recruiting cycle. | About 30 seconds. Paste the job description, get 8 ranked candidates with personalized outreach emails. |
| Pipeline ownership | Candidates stay in Handshake's pipeline until you choose to move them into your ATS. | You get the shortlist, the outreach copy, and the contact data. Move candidates into whatever ATS you already use. |
Yes. Siftboard is built for teams under 500 that hire from a broader pool — recent grads from any school, career changers, bootcamp graduates, and senior candidates. Handshake's product is structured around employer-university partnerships and campus recruiting programs. If your hiring doesn't fit that template, Handshake gets expensive and noisy fast. Siftboard gives you a ranked shortlist from a pasted job description, no university partnership required.
The two products aren't strictly substitutes — many teams use both. Handshake handles the campus pipeline where university partnerships already exist. Siftboard covers everything else.
Handshake's pricing is contract-based: enterprise agreements, annual commitments, and pricing that scales with program scope and the number of university partnerships. The dollar number lives inside an MSA, not on a pricing page.
Siftboard is $99/month flat. Your first shortlist is free with no signup. There are no per-seat fees, no per-hire fees, and no annual commitment. Cancel anytime and keep whatever candidates you've already reached out to — your outreach emails and contact data live on your side.
Yes. Siftboard does not require any university partnership, career services office relationship, or campus program. You sign up, paste a job description, and get a shortlist.
This is the core difference from Handshake, where the platform is built around employer-university relationships and student access flows through those partnerships. If your team under 500 has junior hiring outside the traditional campus funnel — bootcamps, career changers, non-target schools — Siftboard is the part of your stack that covers it.
No — and that's intentional. Siftboard sits upstream of your ATS. We generate the shortlist of candidates worth moving into your process: eight ranked profiles with personalized outreach emails. Once a candidate responds, you move them into whatever ATS or tracking system you already use.
Siftboard is what you use before your ATS gets involved, not a replacement for it. For senior hiring, where Handshake's signal-to-noise drops off and LinkedIn Recruiter's per-seat cost gets hard to justify, Siftboard is the upstream filter.
Siftboard produces a ranked shortlist of eight candidates with outreach emails in about 30 seconds from a pasted job description. A typical Handshake campus campaign — defining the role, getting it approved by a university partner, posting it to student audiences, and screening the inbound — runs over weeks, not minutes.
The two products optimize for different parts of the funnel. Handshake is built for the long cycle of employer-university coordination and recurring campus programs. Siftboard is built for "I have a role open this week and I need eight people worth talking to."
Many teams under 500 use Handshake and Siftboard in parallel, and that's fine. Handshake handles the structured campus pipelines where your university partnerships already cover your intern and entry-level hiring. Siftboard covers everything else — non-campus junior candidates, bootcamp graduates, career changers, and senior hires where Handshake's signal-to-noise drops off.
Each product is doing what it's good at. The Handshake campus funnel keeps running. Siftboard fills the gaps outside that funnel, at $99/month flat, with no overlap cost.
Paste a job description. Get 8 ranked candidates with personalized outreach emails in 30 seconds. First shortlist is free, no signup required.
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