Handshake Talent Engagement Suite vs. Lever vs. SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Handshake Talent Engagement Suite
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Handshake Talent Engagement Suite (TES) helps employers source, engage, manage, and build their brand with early talent at scale. Tell an impactful story and build a strong employer brand using rich media, candidate reviews, employee testimonials, and more.N/A
Lever
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Lever is a Talent Acquisition Suite designed to help talent teams to reach their hiring goals and to connect companies with top talent. Lever provides ATS and applicant CRM capabilities, in LeverTRM. The Lever Hire and Lever Nurture features allow leaders to grow their people pipeline, build long-lasting relationships, and source the right people. Lever Analytics provides customized reports with data visualization, see offers completed and interview feedback, and it informs strategic decisions…N/A
SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
SmartRecruiters was acquired by SAP in late 2025, and its functionality will be integrated into SAP SuccessFactors HCM. Check out the Sap SuccessFactors HCM listing for the latest updates.N/A
Pricing
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Free Trial
NoNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe software subscription is determined by the number of a company's full time employees. There is a one time cost to set up software, including customizations, integrations, data migration and training.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Considered Multiple Products
Handshake Talent Engagement Suite
Chose Handshake Talent Engagement Suite
Lever is more of an ATS, while Handshake is a candidate database. It is also essential to be using good ATS when you have Handshake. You can organize your candidates and not forget about any of them. I do wish that Lever and Handshake worked together so that I can automatically …
Lever

No answer on this topic

SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
I didn't select SmartRecruiters. Lever has better search, communication, and candidate management interfaces. Sonic has great customability. Jobscore workflow is intuitive and very easy to use. Jobvite's candidate experience is top notch. Taleo's metrics and reporting are very …
Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Price, configurability, automation capability. At the top with Teamtailor and Workable IMO.
Chose SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
We were down to SR and Lever. SR lacked a couple of features Lever had (that they've since rolled out) but SR provided a smooth, transparent and collaborative sales process that ultimately tipped the scales in their favor.
Features
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Recruitment Marketing
Comparison of Recruitment Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Handshake Talent Engagement Suite
8.0
11 Ratings
18% above category average
Lever
-
Ratings
SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
-
Ratings
Passive Recruitment Advertising8.07 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Recruitment Advertising8.39 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Employer Branding Tools7.610 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Handshake Talent Engagement Suite
-
Ratings
Lever
9.4
34 Ratings
17% above category average
SmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
8.6
127 Ratings
8% above category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings9.531 Ratings9.8109 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings9.531 Ratings9.9114 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings9.521 Ratings7.5112 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings9.523 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
Customized Application Form00 Ratings9.529 Ratings9.7104 Ratings
Resume Management00 Ratings9.532 Ratings5.6119 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings9.530 Ratings9.6114 Ratings
Candidate Search00 Ratings9.533 Ratings8.1122 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings9.532 Ratings9.9126 Ratings
Collaboration00 Ratings9.532 Ratings9.6117 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation00 Ratings9.522 Ratings9.997 Ratings
Email Templates00 Ratings8.828 Ratings9.7114 Ratings
User Permissions00 Ratings8.831 Ratings9.7109 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings9.532 Ratings9.9119 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings9.530 Ratings1.7105 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Small Businesses
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Breezy HR
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Score 9.2 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.2 out of 10
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Snagajob
Score 6.8 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(37 ratings)
9.5
(35 ratings)
7.9
(129 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(15 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.1
(12 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(25 ratings)
1.1
(5 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(12 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Handshake Talent Engagement SuiteLeverSmartRecruiters, now part of SAP SuccessFactors
Likelihood to Recommend
Handshake
Compared to bulk messaging students who are listed as 'matches' on the job listing page, the segments & campaigns I created were so helpful in identifying leads & helping to convert those leads to applicants without me having to continually follow-up with students (thank you- follow-up email feature!) For roles that require a lot of applicant flow, or for positions that require a large cohort of hires at one time, these features are perfect.
Read full review
Employ Inc.
I think Lever is great for any sized company, but especially strong for smaller, growing teams. It's a very simple system, but clean, sleek, and very useful in any scenario. They have great support whenever you need it so those with smaller HR or People teams could easily benefit from their help. Can't think of too many scenarios where Lever wouldn't be well-suited, but maybe once you grow to International growth and hiring, it may be better to have a more Enterprise style business, set up for larger scaling.
Read full review
SAP
SmartRecruiters has allowed us to enable our hiring managers to self-service their requirements for recruitment, simplifying our internal processes. We have visibility of recruitment requirements and significantly improved our approvals process using the software. We have been able to configure our hiring processes relevant to different areas of the business. Collaboration for our hiring teams (managers and business partners) is simple and effective. Candidate experience is enhanced and engaging. The platform has brought many benefits to our Resourcing business partners and hiring managers. We have visibility and insightful data which has integrity, allowing us to make informed business decisions. Our offer process has seen significant improvements and provides an engaging candidate experience, previously this was a labour-intensive process that is now streamlined and automated. The recently launched Community for collaboration amongst customers is very helpful and insigtful for how other people are using the software and exploring ideas with each other
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Pros
Handshake
  • Connects us with our target audience (current college students and recent graduates).
  • Connects us with a variety of career services offices, building trust in our organization.
  • It provides capacity to our recruiters while also allowing us to balance volume and personalization in recruitment.
Read full review
Employ Inc.
  • Great integration: Keeps a list of Outlook email communication along with LinkedIn and other data sources
  • Is fairly lively, not too much lag between screens even though it is looking through a lot of data.
  • Has excellent reporting on how well each email message is working.
Read full review
SAP
  • Job Referrals - can easily refer others to a job posting and view the status
  • Job Postings - can easily search for job openings and read job description and criteria
  • Application online - Can easily apply for the job directly and see who the hiring manager and hiring recruiter is
Read full review
Cons
Handshake
  • Ability to directly source and reach out to specific candidates (rather than just a whole pool with campaigns)
  • More flexibility over the way postings look to allow for creativity
  • More details about students on their profiles to make it easier to source the right candidates
Read full review
Employ Inc.
  • [In my experience,] terrible customer support - pay more to get less...
  • Integrations are spotty and can break without reason
  • Lever has so much potential, but their Roadmap is lacking in ways that will really help customers succeed
  • Focuses on the number of candidates and not the company's need to build talent in a cost effective, data driven and collaborative way
  • Overpromised and underdelivered in [the] capability of the tool. [I believe that you should] not trust your sales team.
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SAP
  • Settings page can be difficult to navigate & find what you're looking for
  • Job approval chains would be better with additional qualifying fields so that we can segregate different areas of the business better
  • The ability to edit an existing offer template in-system would improve the experience, rather than having to edit offline and upload a whole new version.
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Likelihood to Renew
Handshake
It works and has been a valuable tool for recruitment and talent engagement
Read full review
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
I thoroughly enjoy using SmartRecruiters and have shared this feedback with those responsible, however I am not a decision maker in the process. I understand that at the moment there are lots of factors affecting the economy and business outcomes, so I cannot comment with certainty on the renewal of SmartRecruiters at this time, not involved in the confirmation of renewal.
Read full review
Usability
Handshake
It is intuitive
Read full review
Employ Inc.
It isn't difficult to use for the applicant processing, but [I feel] if you want to pull reports or use their tools, good luck!
Read full review
SAP
I would give this rating as overall it a great combo of all your problems. With just one click you can get away with all your problems such as recruitment, candidate update, Interview scheduling, updating candidates, reports of a job perspective, and recruiters perspective. Usability is worth of SmartRecruiters. The dashboard is also very attractive and once you open you will love working on this platform again and again. I would say it is the best platform to use once for smooth work in your organization.
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Reliability and Availability
Handshake
No answers on this topic
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
Read full review
Performance
Handshake
No answers on this topic
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
Read full review
Support Rating
Handshake
Becca always responds very quickly to my questions. We had an issue where I couldn't register for a fair because another division of my company had already registered and this problem was fixed the next day. I feel like the team at Handshake Talent Engagement Suite actually cares about my experience. Not all companies do once the contract is signed! They definitely treat their customers well. I literally feel like I am their only customer.
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Employ Inc.
What support? - Add a ticket and get links to [I believe] their unhelpful user guide. Add a charge if you want better support - afterward just got those links faster...
Read full review
SAP
Response is normally very fast. There are times, however, when the response is not useful. It is difficult to work with the reporting and the offer letter templates, and the front line support agents usually are not very knowledgeable. Second, if there are any issues with integrations, the regular support agents will not be able to help you. You'll have to create that ticket and ask them to escalate it to an integration specialist.
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In-Person Training
Handshake
No answers on this topic
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
Quick and easy to learn.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Handshake
It is a great product and valuable tool for recruitment and sourcing of talent
Read full review
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Handshake
I think Handshake is similar to Linkedin Recruiter in a lot of ways. The main differentiator for me/our company is who we are trying to reach or target. LinkedIn is not an easy platform to find early careers talent on, so Handshake has been the best way for us to connect with schools, register for events easily, advertise to college students and reach them where they are!
Read full review
Employ Inc.
Lever is comparable to Greenhouse in its basic recruiting functions. I have found it to be WAY better than Bullhorn (clunky and overly-complicated with a very dated and non-intuitive interface) and Jazz HR (slick and pretty, but limited in its functions). The best ATS I've used is the proprietary tool at Meta, but alas, that tool is for internal use only
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SAP
I've really enjoyed using SmartRecruiters, but these other ATSs that we've checked out offer better reporting features and price points. Over time, we may be transitioning off of SmartRecruiters to one of these ATSs because the price is a set price where SmartRecruiters has employee-based pricing model. Also, these other software products offer better reporting features that would eliminate some of our manual tracking process that we're currently doing.
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Scalability
Handshake
No answers on this topic
Employ Inc.
No answers on this topic
SAP
No explanation really, just a great product.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Handshake
  • Summer internship recruiting for hard to fill roles has grown to be much easier. Without Handshake Talent Engagement Suite, we would be left scrambling to specific school job boards.
  • Hosting a simple one-hour informative event and reaching a large audience has helped with brand awareness. We don't necessarily see immediate obvious results but have been content with our ability to connect with underclassmen, getting them excited to apply for internships in a year or two.
  • Creating a talent segment and sending campaign messages is much more efficient and effective than reaching out to individual candidates with cold calls/emails.
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Employ Inc.
  • Lever provides an enormous ROI by getting us in front of the right candidates that are going to make us more money and more successful as an org.
  • I think that both the quality and quantity of new hires has gone up ever since we started using lever and involving the entire org in the process.
  • It also saves us a lot of time because we don't need to send referrals via email, while saving/attaching resumes and such.
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SAP
  • In terms of ROI, SR helped our business greatly in returning precious time to my productivity in business management, as well as my team's, so that we could get back to the main work we were hired for. The SR process did most of the heavy lifting.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Lever Screenshots

Screenshot of where to identify the top origin and sources of candidates in all stages, the Offer stage, and the Hired stage.