Comparison: obqo vs Handshake
obqo vs Handshake
Handshake connects students to employers. obqo connects coaches to students. Different tools for different needs — and they can coexist.
Handshake is a student-employer matching platform with a massive employer network and a strong consumer-grade job board. obqo is a coaching and career-services platform: it sits inside the institution's career office and supports the human work of guiding students through their journey. The two products solve adjacent — not overlapping — problems.
Side-by-side
| Feature | obqo | Handshake |
|---|---|---|
| Coaching session management | ✅ First-class — sessions, trajectories, notes, AI | ❌ Out of scope |
| Student–employer job matching | ⚠️ Tracks applications, no marketplace | ✅ Massive employer network |
| AI session notes | ✅ Whisper + Claude | ❌ N/A (different domain) |
| Career Signals (alumni updates) | ✅ Self-report + coach + AI outreach | ⚠️ Career outcome surveys only |
| Flow engine (assessments, reflections) | ✅ Visual builder, 8 step types | ⚠️ Limited form features |
| EU data residency | ✅ Frankfurt (Supabase EU) | ❌ US-hosted (data crosses borders) |
| Multi-tenant per faculty/school | ✅ Subdomain per institution | ⚠️ University-wide instance |
| Mobile app | ⚠️ Responsive web | ✅ Native iOS + Android |
| Audience | Coaches, career staff, programme directors | Students + employers |
Where obqo excels
- Coaching is the product — sessions, trajectories, AI notes, action items, follow-ups all live in one place.
- Career Signals are an active feature, not a dormant survey: coaches see alumni job changes and act on them.
- EU-hosted with full GDPR alignment — important for European institutions where data-crossing-the-Atlantic is a procurement blocker.
- Multi-tenant by faculty, so a business school and a humanities school can run their own obqo instance with isolated data.
- Lighter weight: 5-minute new-tenant setup, no employer-side onboarding to manage.
Where Handshake excels
- Massive employer network with hundreds of thousands of postings — students can find jobs without recruiter intros.
- Strong consumer mobile experience for students.
- Established US market presence; many universities already have it deployed.
- On-platform messaging between students and recruiters at scale.
Best for
Use obqo for the coach-side of career services: scheduling, notes, trajectories, alumni signals, programme analytics. Use Handshake (or keep using it) for the marketplace side: getting students in front of employers. They are not substitutes — many institutions run both.
Pricing: obqo Core from €6,000/year. Handshake pricing depends on institution size and is typically negotiated; partial-feature tiers are free for accredited universities.