The short answer
Guap is a job platform for students and early-career people in Europe, started in Romania in 2026. It lists jobs posted by employers who verified their company email alongside roles from company careers sites, and it comes with Barista, a Chrome extension that fills application forms on those careers sites. It is free for students, and employers see fixed monthly prices in euros.
Handshake is the established early-career network: students, employers and university career centres in one place, with events and career fairs, in the US and, through its UK and German sites, in Europe. If your university uses it, you probably already have an account.
Side by side
What each one offers, as of 13 October 2026.
| What is compared | Guap | Handshake |
|---|---|---|
| For students | Free: the jobs feed, applying to jobs posted on Guap, tracking applications and Barista’s autofill. | Free for students; universities and employers pay for Handshake. Source |
| Size | New: started in 2026. | 15M+ students, 1,500+ universities and 900K+ employers, by its own count. Source |
| Where | Europe; started in Romania. The site is in English. | The US, plus UK and German sites and employer plans that reach students across Europe. Source |
| Who posts jobs | Employers who confirmed a code sent to their company email, on a paid plan. Guap also lists roles from company careers sites. | Employers posting to verified early-career talent across Europe, from a free Basic plan up. Source |
| For employers | Basic €49 a month or Pro €149 a month (€39 and €119 billed yearly). Posting needs a paid plan. | In the US: a free Basic plan, Pro at $450 a month or $4,500 a year, and Enterprise on request. Source |
| Universities | A university verifies with its email and partners with Guap; the partner tools are still being built. | Partnerships with universities worldwide, which help fund the service. Source |
| Events and messages | A verified employer can message someone who applied to one of its roles. No events. | Events and career fairs, and messages with recruiters, students and alumni. Source |
| Phone | No app; the site works in a phone browser. | Apps for iPhone and Android. Source |
Where Guap is better
- Roles from careers sites, not only posted ones. Guap lists roles from company careers sites next to the jobs employers post on Guap, and checks those roles again and closes them when the company takes them down.
- Help with the forms. Most of those roles are applied for on the company’s own site. Barista fills those application forms from your Guap profile and tracks what you send. See how it handles Greenhouse and Ashby.
- Verified posting. A business can post only after confirming a code sent to its company email.
- Plain prices for employers, in euros, on the pricing page and the employers page.
Where Handshake differs
- A larger network. Millions of students, more than a thousand universities and hundreds of thousands of employers use it, by its own count. Guap started in 2026.
- Universities. Career centres that partner with Handshake run jobs, events and fairs through it. Guap’s university tools are not built yet.
- Events. Career fairs and employer events, online and on campus. Guap has none.
- Free for employers to start. Handshake has a free Basic plan for employers; on Guap, posting a job needs a paid plan.
- Language. It runs a German site (joinhandshake.de). Guap is in English only.
Which one to use
For students, there is no reason to choose, and both are free for you. Guap adds roles from company careers sites and the tools to apply to them quickly. Handshake is where your university and its employers may already be.
For employers, Guap gives you verified company accounts and fixed monthly prices, with a smaller, newer audience in Europe. Handshake reaches more students today and lets you start free.
How we compared
Guap wrote this page, so read it knowing that. We read Handshake’s US and UK sites, its employer plan pages and its post on its business model on 13 October 2026, and every claim about Handshake links to the page that makes it. What this page says about Guap is what its code does on that date. If something has changed, write to friend@guap.work and we will correct it.
