Prentus
HandshakeHead-to-head comparison · 2026
Prentus vs Handshake
Handshake is built for employer recruiting. Prentus is the platform students use for everything career-related from day one through the day they are hired, and it can sit on top of Handshake instead of replacing it.
The short answer
Prentus wins for universities that need student engagement, coaching capacity, and verified career outcomes, because it runs as one platform students use for everything career-related from day one through the day they are hired, pairing a 24/7 AI advisor and voice-based AI mock interviews with AI-assisted outcomes collection across dozens of sources.
Handshake wins for employer recruiting reach, which is its core strength as the largest student-employer network in higher ed. Most schools never have to choose, because Prentus integrates with Handshake to keep that job flow running while your team picks up the advising capacity and the outcomes data a job board was never built to produce.
What Prentus is
Prentus is the career outcomes platform for higher education, one platform students use for everything career-related from day one through the day they are hired, with a 24/7 AI advisor plus scheduled meetings with your human coaches, voice-based AI mock interviews, its own job board plus a job engine finding roles across the internet, and AI-assisted outcomes collection across dozens of sources.
What Handshake is
Handshake is built for employer recruiting, and that is its core strength, with the largest student-employer network in higher ed and a portal and job-board centric model where students see jobs from employers in the Handshake network.
Side by side
At-a-glance comparison
Seven categories where the two platforms are genuinely different.
Want the wider field instead of one head-to-head? Read all Handshake alternatives compared, or run your own numbers before you commit to anything.
The honest part
When Handshake is the right call
Handshake earned its position. If employer recruiting is the center of your model, the largest student-employer network in higher ed is a real asset and no comparison page should talk you out of it. Here is where keeping it is the right decision.
- Employer recruiting reach is the outcome your leadership is measuring you on this year
- Your biggest asset is access to a broad employer network and you want to keep leaning on it
- The portal model is working for the students you most need to reach
- Your gaps sit downstream of the job posting, which is where a second layer belongs rather than a replacement
The pattern we see most often is not a swap. It is a school that keeps Handshake for recruiting reach and adds Prentus for the student activation, coaching capacity, and outcomes proof that come after the job is posted.
Switching risk
You do not have to rip and replace
The fear that stops most evaluations is losing the employer network. Prentus is built so that fear never has to be tested. Keep the Handshake job flow through the integration, bring your own employer relationships across, and grow the network with talent links that need no employer signup at all.
Keep the Handshake job flow
Prentus integrates with Handshake, so the jobs from employers in the Handshake network keep reaching your students while Prentus runs the advising, practice, and outcomes work around them.
Move your employer network and keep it
Schools bring their employer relationships to Prentus and manage them there. Nothing about adding an engagement layer forces you to give up the partnerships your team spent years building.
Grow it with talent links
Talent links let you add employers without asking any of them to sign up for a new system. Your network grows on your terms instead of stalling at the edge of one marketplace.
Widen supply beyond one network
Students get your own job board, a job engine finding roles across the internet, and a Chrome extension to track any job they find anywhere, so their search is not capped by which employers joined which platform.
DeVry runs Prentus at scale
“The most interconnected, well-integrated tools that do the hard work but keep our advising team at the center.”
Richard Korczyk, Chief Experience Officer, DeVry University, 30,000 students, 50,000 alumni, one platform.
A 30-minute working session, not a sales pitch.
Illustrative product view with sample data.
Outcomes deep dive
Where the two platforms separate most
Handshake outcomes are limited and it is not built for automated employment verification, so the reporting work still comes back to your staff. This is the gap that turns into late nights every reporting cycle.
Prentus runs an automatic monthly LinkedIn scan, supplemented by dozens of third-party sources that verify employment, with AI reviewing the sources and surfacing legitimate outcomes for your staff to review. Customizable first-destination surveys sent by email and SMS collect the follow-up data automatically, without the staff hours that manual chasing costs you.
- Automatic monthly LinkedIn scan as the starting signal
- Dozens of third-party sources that verify employment
- AI reviews the sources and surfaces legitimate outcomes for staff review
- Customizable first-destination surveys sent by email and SMS
- Data your team can use for NACE and OBBBA workflows
More detail on how the collection runs is on the alumni outcome tracking page.
Coaching and engagement
What happens after the job is posted
A posting is the start of the work, not the end of it. This is the layer Handshake leaves to your team.
AI Career Advisor
Advising capacity without new headcount
Handshake has no dedicated AI advising layer, so the advising load still lands on your team. Prentus gives every student a 24/7 AI advisor that builds weekly career plans, sends proactive nudges, and drafts follow-up emails, and it hands students to your human coaches for scheduled meetings when a person is the right answer.
- 24/7 personalized guidance for every student
- Scheduled meetings with your human coaches built into the same flow
- Career exploration and LinkedIn prep from day one
AI Mock Interviews
Voice-based practice pulled from real job descriptions
Handshake has no voice-based AI mock interviews. Prentus gives students voice-based practice with role-specific questions drawn from actual job descriptions, plus instant feedback on how they communicate, so the reps happen before the interview that counts.
- Voice-based realistic practice
- Questions pulled from real job descriptions
- Instant feedback on communication
Coach Tooling
What your coaches get on the staff side
A centralized grading queue puts resume, portfolio, and assignment reviews in one place instead of scattered inboxes. Full activity logs stay open during advising, so a coach walks into an appointment already knowing what the student has done, applied to, and practiced.
- Centralized grading queue for staff reviews
- Full activity logs open during advising appointments
- Built-in community so students help each other between meetings
Prentus vs Handshake questions we get asked
What is the difference between Prentus and Handshake?
Handshake is built for employer recruiting, with the largest student-employer network in higher ed and a portal and job-board centric model. Prentus is the platform students use for everything career-related from day one through the day they are hired, with a 24/7 AI advisor, voice-based AI mock interviews, its own job board plus a job engine finding roles across the internet, and AI-assisted outcomes collection across dozens of sources.
Do we have to replace Handshake to use Prentus?
No. Prentus integrates with Handshake, so you can keep the job flow from employers in the Handshake network and add the advising, interview practice, and outcomes layer on top. Some schools consolidate later, but nothing about starting with Prentus requires you to turn Handshake off first.
Do we lose our employer network if we move to Prentus?
No. Schools move their employer network to Prentus and manage it there, then keep growing it with talent links, which add employers without requiring any of them to sign up for a new system. If you would rather keep Handshake running alongside, the integration pulls that job flow through as well.
How does outcomes tracking compare between Prentus and Handshake?
Handshake is limited here and is not built for automated employment verification. Prentus runs an automatic monthly LinkedIn scan, supplemented by dozens of third-party sources that verify employment, with AI reviewing the sources and surfacing legitimate outcomes for your staff to review, plus customizable first-destination surveys sent by email and SMS that collect the follow-up data automatically. That combination gives your team usable data for NACE and OBBBA workflows.
Which platform is better for student engagement and advising capacity?
Prentus. Handshake engagement is portal and job-board centric, which means students show up when they remember to search. Prentus is proactive and always-on, giving every student an AI advisor, mock interview practice, career exploration, LinkedIn prep, and a built-in community, then routing them to your human coaches for scheduled meetings when they need one.
What does switching from Handshake actually cost us?
The real switching risk people worry about is the employer network, and that risk is smaller than it looks, because you can move your network to Prentus, grow it with talent links, and keep Handshake job flow through the integration while you transition. Most institutions run both for a period and decide later, which turns a rip-and-replace decision into a phased one.
How much does Prentus cost compared to Handshake?
Prentus is one flat institutional fee rather than per-student pricing, and the right number depends on your enrollment, your alumni volume, and how much of the student journey you want covered. Book an outcomes diagnosis and we will scope it against your actual numbers.
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Keep Handshake if you want, and still fix the outcomes gap
Bring your Handshake setup to the table and we will map what stays, what the integration carries over, and where AI advising and AI-assisted outcomes collection change your numbers.
Start with a free 30-minute outcomes diagnosis. You leave with your gap map whether or not Prentus fits.