Identity verification is a top priority of an increasing number of online companies. From cybersecurity to fraud prevention via compliance, it’s more important than ever to be able to know exactly who you’re dealing with.

Let’s examine what identity verification means for different businesses, why it’s important, and how to do it right.

List of Top Identity Verification Software Solutions

1. SEON – Identity Verification via Digital Footprint Analysis
2. Ondato – Live Document Verification
3. Trulioo – Verify 5 Billion Customers in 195 Countries
4. Token of Trust – Multiple ID Verification Types
5. Actico – Identity Verification for Compliance
6. Onfido – Combining AI and Identity Experts
7. Jumio – Pioneer in the ID and Selfie Approach
8. MemberCheck – Compliance and ID Verification

What is Identity Verification Software?

Identity verification software is designed to help companies understand who their users are in real life. As it’s easy to create fake identities online, it’s important to confirm that a person is who they say they are. It can be also be a legal requirement to meet compliance, privacy, and anti-fraud regulations.

The 8 Best Identity Verification Software

Disclaimer: Everything written about the companies mentioned in this article was gleaned from online research including user reviews. We did not have the chance to manually test all the tools. However, we ensured the information was correct as of Fall 2021. Feel free to contact us to request an update/correction.

SEON – Identity Verification via Digital Footprint Analysis

SEON is a Budapest-based company that delivers a complete suite of anti-fraud software. The focus is on digital footprint analysis, which comes courtesy of the following modular tools:

• IP analysis
• Email and phone analysis
• Device fingerprinting
• Reverse social media lookup

All the data points are fed through risk rules, which are completely customizable by risk managers. However, it is not only used in fraud prevention. Many companies rely on SEON as a way to credit check their users with alternative data or to filter out junk users before official KYC checks. 

The key is that SEON’s tools allow you to verify user identities via their digital footprints while also gaining a better understanding of who your users are – all via invisible checks that do not slow down a customer’s journey.

SEON Pros:

• Reverse social media lookup: SEON checks 35+ social networks for user information, the largest number out of all fraud prevention and user identification tools.
  
• Flag fake and synthetic IDs: you can run the risk rules on your historical data and existing user base to weed out fake and synthetic IDs with the help of machine learning finding patterns.
  
• Dynamic friction: invisible screening means a frictionless customer journey, which can lead to higher onboarding rates.
  
• Spot connections between accounts: while some ID verification tools only confirm an identity, you’ll need a fraud detection solution like SEON’s to spot patterns between similar accounts. This can help take out entire fraud rings as well as botnets, for instance.
  
• Transparent pricing: you pay per API call and can cancel your contract at any time. You can even try the solution for free for 30 days.

SEON Cons:

• No biometrics or document check: you’ll need to go through another vendor for these features. 

• No PEP or sanctions lists checks: if you need ID proofing in the context of AML, you won’t be able to check the recommended watchlists directly within SEON’s platform.

SEON Pricing:

• Starts at €99 per month.

Choose SEON if:

• You need a complete fraud prevention solution with excellent low-friction identity verification features.

Ondato – Live Document Verification

Ondato offers photo and live video identity verification, with easy integration via a SaaS business model. On top of that, you can choose their facial biometrics modules, as well as e-signature and compliance management tools. 

The company provides ID verification for companies in a variety of industries, including General Financing, Swedbank, and NFT Venture. Best of all, Ondato meets compliance requirements for financial institutions, so you can use it for KYC and AML in finance, for example.

Ondato Pros:

• Full suite of verification tools: biometrics, person or business video verification, e-signature…. It’s all there in Ondato.
• White label solution: there is the option to deploy Ondato under your own company name.

Ondato Cons:

• No data enrichment or risk scoring: Ondato’s key feature is to verify documents, not give you an idea of who you’re dealing with.
• Opaque pricing: Ondato offers a free trial, but you need to get in touch with sales to know how much it costs.
• Costly: live video verification doesn’t come cheap.
• Not bulletproof: deepfake technology, for instance, is used more and more to bypass live video checks.

Ondato Pricing:

• Available upon request.

Choose Ondato if:

• You want fast video verification and biometrics.

Trulioo – Verify 5 Billion Customers in 195 Countries

Vancouver-based Trulioo is a well-known solution for verifying identities as part of a KYC process. The company also supports business verification for all your due diligence needs. 

Their core solutions include identity verification, ID document verification, business verification, and AML watchlist screening. The ID verification system can accept a whopping 4,200 types of official documents across 195 countries, and their GlobalGateway portal can verify 5 billion identities.

This is all available via low-code, custom, or API integration, and available via 2 monthly subscription plans.

Trulioo Pros:

• Huge global database: 5 Billion identities, 195 countries and 4,200 types of documents are not numbers to be sneered at.
• Flexible pricing and free trial: you can try Trulioo for free via portal access or a batch test, and paid plans are intuitively segmented based on the tools you might need.

Trulioo Cons:

• No data enrichment or risk scoring: as an ID verification solution, it’s great. To get an understanding of user behavior, you’ll need another tool.

Trulioo Pricing:

• There is a free trial available, and two price tiers: Growth (identity verification and AML watchlist only) and Enterprise (includes everything else). Actual dollar figures are available upon request.

Choose Trulioo if:

• You want a complete ID verification solution for KYC or AML.

Token of Trust – Multiple ID Verification Types

Token of Trust was founded in 2019 after its co-founder almost fell victim to an online scam. Compelled to create a better way to protect his identity from fraudsters, he set out on a mission to improve how sensitive consumer information is handled online.

Today, the company offers government ID verification, electronic ID verification, document scanning, biometrics, and even age address or social verification. 

Its tools are used to onboard, identity, and future-proof businesses, with a special focus on reducing ID fraud and improving compliance – all available via API, and even a WordPress plugin. 

Token of Trust Pros:

• Wide range of tools: Token of Trust lets you verify identities in multiple ways, so you can integrate the method that makes the most sense for your business.
• Age verification option: not all ID verification software offers age checking tools for SMBs, but Token of Trust does.

Token of Trust Cons:

• Not fully plug-and-play: while Token of Trust claims that it’s pretty much plug-and-play, you actually have to work to integrate its tools in your business. 

Token of Trust Pricing:

• Not available online.

Choose Token of Trust if:

• You want to select one or multiple ID verification methods including age verification. The WordPress integration is great for SMBs who use the CMS as their main website platform.

Actico – Identity Verification for Compliance

Actico offers identity verification tools with a focus on compliance, as well as underwriting risk and fraud prevention. It serves a number of renowned financial institutions such as Santander, ING, and Volkswagen Financial Services.

Its functions for KYC include risk classification, sanctions and PEP screening for AML, and KYC profiling, including information on the business relationship and beneficial owner. The company also offers full digital transformation services, as well as credit risk management. 

Actico Pros:

• End-to-end compliance suite: Actico offers all the checks you need for KYC and AML
• Credit risk management: if you’re looking to combine identity verification and credit scoring, Actico may be your best choice.
• Full digital transformation toolset: you can do a lot more than identity verification with Actico, so it’s worth looking at their business digital automation if you’re starting a new venture from scratch.

Actico Cons:

• Dated UI: Actico’s tools tend to look dated and they’re not the most user-friendly.
• Opaque pricing: you won’t know how much Actico costs until you jump on numerous sales calls.

Actico Pricing:

• Available upon request.

Choose Actico if:

• You are an established financial institution with heavy KYC and AML requirements

Onfido – Combining AI and Identity Experts

Trusted by companies such as Revolut, Remitly, and Bitstamp, Onfido offers ID verification for digitization, customer acquisition, fraud, and compliance. It uses a combination of biometrics and document verification that covers 2,500 kinds of forms of IDs from 195 countries.

The biometrics analysis combines Liveness verification (video selfie verification), and all the data points are processed via machine learning, with possible manual review by human agents. 

Onfido also offers customer authentication, so you can rely on their system to ensure the right users are logging into their accounts – which is why it’s a favorite of neobanks and challenger banks as well as crypto exchanges.

Onfido Pros:

• Check 2,5000 document types: from passports to driver’s licenses in 195 countries.
• Biometrics ID proofing and authentication: you can ensure users onboard safely, and that they maintain control of their accounts too.
• Suitable for fraud and compliance: Onfido is suitable for KYC and AML checks too.

Onfido Cons:

• Added friction: most negative online reviews come from users whose identification failed – adding frustration to the onboarding process.

Onfido Pricing:

• Available upon request.

Choose Onfido if:

• You are a challenger bank that needs to onboard new users fast as well as protect user accounts.

Jumio – Pioneer in the ID and Selfie Approach

Leveraging 10 years of real-world production data and hundreds of domain-specific datapoints, Jumio prides itself on automating identity verification for companies such as Monzo, HSBC, and United, amongst others.

Their Jumio KYX platform is designed to offer the best customer experience when onboarding a new service. It can analyze 3,500 document types from more than 200 countries and offers bank-grade security and compliance features. 

You can use it to verify identities, but also to check addresses, calculate fraud risk, and even ping government watchlists for KYC and AML – making it an ideal tool for heavily regulated industries.

Jumio Pros:

• Check 3,500 document types: in more than 200 countries, beating other competitors for the number of markets you can target – especially in the APAC region.
• Good user experience: Jumio prides itself on its user experience, which could help you reduce churn.
• Check custom watchlists and databases: this means you can use Jumio for your KYC and AML needs.

Jumio Cons:

• Pricey: you’ll need to contact the sales team for a quote, but it’s agreed that Jumio isn’t the most affordable solution for SMBs.

Jumio Pricing:

• Available upon request.

Choose Jumio if:

• You are a financial institution with heavy regulatory needs and customers who demand a frictionless experience when onboarding.

MemberCheck – Compliance and ID Verification

MemberCheck, founded in 2008, has always strived to help organizations meet their compliance obligations. A key selling point of their solution is to offer online ID verification. 

The verification process includes biometric screening using facial recognition and liveness detection, as well as 2FA verification via SMS. The process is easy to integrate via RESTful APIs, and you can of course perform all the standard AML checks you might need such as PEP and sanction checks.

MemberCheck Pros:

• Large database: MemberCheck will scan identities against their proprietary database of 1.4 million profiles (for AML).
• Biometrics screening: the company relies on a technology called FaceMatch to verify customers.

MemberCheck Cons:

• User experience: the interface you see in MemberCheck’s marketing material is quite different from the actual, basic backend. 
• No data enrichment: like other verification tools on this list, you can check documents, but you won’t get user profiling.

MemberCheck Pricing:

• Available on request only.

Choose MemberCheck if:

• You want biometrics screening as part of your AML identity verification.

Why Use Identity Verification Software? 

While it is possible to manually verify user information against open source databases, the process is lengthy and resource-heavy. Building a solution on-site is also possible, but expensive and a drain on your development team.

By integrating identity verification from a third-party vendor, you can:

• Automate the process to scale your operations.
• Let the vendor take care of the updates.
• Instantly benefit from the vendor’s technology.

This is why an increasing number of companies simply purchase identity verification from SaaS companies (Software as a Service), and either pay monthly, annually, or per verification fees.

Use Cases for Identity Verification

Identity verification is now performed in one way or another by a growing number of companies. The reasons include:

• KYC, or Know Your Customer: the name of a legal requirements for financial institutions and other verticals such as iGaming. Not all companies need to perform KYC checks, but it’s your responsibility to check. According to LexisNexis, U.S. financial services alone pay $25.3B in compliance fines.
  
• Digital credit scoring: understanding if you’re dealing with the right person is a key part of credit scoring. You don’t want to lend money to a fraudster or someone who cannot repay it.
  
• Online transactions: linking someone’s identity to their credit card detail is the surest way to reduce transaction fraud and to stop accepting payments made with stolen cards. This helps lower chargeback rates. It can also be a compliance issue, for instance under the EU’s SCA, or Strong Customer Authentication, requirement.
  
• AML, or anti-money laundering: is heavily regulated and may be an important part of your identity verification process. It requires special kinds of checks, such as the ability to scan PEP lists (Politically Exposed Person) and SIP / SIEs lists (Special Interest Person or Special Interest Entities), amongst others.

You can read more about the best AML software.

Identity Verification Versus Authentication

Identity verification and identity authentication are often used interchangeably. However, the verification part usually happens at signup, when you encounter the user for the first time. Authentication tends to refer to a returning user, whose identity needs to be confirmed before they can log into their account.

Identity Verification and KYC (Know Your Customer)

Identity verification is an important part of the KYC or Know Your Customer process. It’s the methods of establishing that the user is indeed who they say they are. It overlaps with multi-factor authentication, as it boils down to something they have (possession), something they are (biometrics), or something only the user “is” (inherence).

Understanding Identity and Credential Verification Methods

While many vendors offer identity verification software, not all of them rely on the same tools to do it. Here are some common features to consider when choosing your identity verification provider:

Document and Video Verification

Some vendors will allow customers to submit photos of official documents, such as passports, ID cards, residency permits, or driving licenses. They also require a selfie ID, usually, with a piece of paper showing the application date, this technology is also referred to as liveness detection.

The files are then authenticated through a network of third-party verification services. The process is often referred to as eKYC or electronic Know Your Customer checks.

There are a few issues with this method: it is high-friction, which means it may frustrate users if the process doesn’t work perfectly. Moreover, some customers may be reticent to submit their personal documents to a company. 

Finally, fraudsters can easily pass the process using stolen ID documents and photoshopped files. It’s also worth noting that deepfakes are increasingly affordable and easy to create, and are often used to fool liveness verification checks.

Biometrics

Biometrics are physical measurements that should be unique to each individual. This may include a fingerprint, face ID, or voice recognition, amongst others. 

It is an increasingly popular method, which is seen as less intrusive than document verification. According to Statista, the biometric technologies market will reach $55.42B by 2027. 

Unfortunately, biometrics identification can add friction to the user journey, and lead to high rates of false positives.

Behavioural Biometrics

Behavioral biometrics are metrics related to user behavior patterns such as browsing habits, cursor movement, scrolling speed, and even copy and pasting of values. 

A good example would be a system that detects whether a credit card’s CVV or CVC has been pasted into the field rather than typed. This is considered a red flag. 

In 2020, for instance, a data leak exposed one of the biggest poker botnets rings ever identified after it played 60,000 sessions on 50 sites and earned up to $3M.

2FA (2-Factor Authentication) and OTP (One Time Password)

2FA, or 2 Factor Authentication and OTP (One Time Password) create short-term passwords that a user receives on a device previously linked to their profile. It is most commonly a smartphone, but may also work with personal computers, smartwatches, or tablets. They are sometimes referred to as soft tokens.

The advantage of 2FA and OTP is that it’s inexpensive, easy to use, and relatively low-friction for users.

However, a rise in fraudsters taking control of people’s phones means that if the device falls in the wrong hands, the security of 2FA and OTP is compromised.

Digital Footprint Analysis

Digital footprint analysis is an invisible identity verification method that attempts to confirm user identities behind the scenes. 

It works by gathering bits of information, such as a phone number or email address, and gathering more knowledge in open-source databases, a process known as data enrichment. Some examples of digital footprint analysis tools and the kinds of questions they can help you answer include:

• Reverse social media lookup: does the person have a social media profile? If so, what information can we glean from it? 

• Phone number analysis: did they submit a legitimate phone number or one from a virtual SIM. Does it point to a country far from their IP address?
  
• IP analysis: speaking of IPs, is it from a personal connection? A proxy or VPN? Or maybe a TOR connection?
  
• Device fingerprinting: is the user connecting with a mobile phone or PC? Are they using emulator software? Have their browser settings been seen before?

While answering only one of these questions may not fully help with identification, it is entirely possible to create a risk profile of each individual. This is called verification with alternative data, and it is fast, low-friction, and increasingly effective for:

• Filtering out fraudsters.
• Identifying non-existent people.
• Blocking bots.
• Giving additional data for a manual verification.

Conclusion: Finding the Best Identity Verification Tool

Identity verification can be complex and overwhelming, especially if you need to meet regulatory requirements. The good news is that there’s a growing number of fantastic SaaS fintech companies that let you integrate ID verification easily and seamlessly.

Of course, not all ID verification software vendors will work for your business needs, which is why it’s important to understand exactly what kind of tools are adapted to you. Hopefully, this guide is a great introduction to the topic. 

FAQ About Identity Verification Software

Resources in this post

• LexisNexis Risk Solutions: U.S. financial services firms pay $25.3 billion per year in AML compliance costs

• Statista: Global biometric system market revenue in 2020 and 2025