# Alloy vs Middesk

> Middesk scores 59 (C) to Alloy's 52.4 (D) for identity verification. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Middesk scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Alloy leads on maintenance & community. Both do identity verification.

- Alloy: grade D, 52.4/100, rank #782 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alloy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alloy.json
- Middesk: grade C, 59/100, rank #596 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/middesk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/middesk.json
- Best identity and business verification APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/identity-verification/index.md
- All 119 verification comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/identity-verification/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Alloy (D)

Good for: Banks and fintechs that already run onboarding through Alloy and want an agent to submit journey applications, read decisions and work investigations.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 64

Watch for: No public prices, trial or self-serve sign-up. Access starts with a demo request

### Middesk (C)

Good for: An agent onboarding or re-checking US businesses for a bank, lender or marketplace that already holds a Middesk contract, with registry, TIN, sanctions and lien data in one object.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 73 against 59
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 73
- Security & auth, 56 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 0

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No public price. Fees are set in an order form, and every docs page ends with a prompt to contact sales


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Alloy | Middesk | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 59 | 73 | Middesk +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 82 | Middesk +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 56 | Middesk +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 56 | Middesk +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 10 | Middesk +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 64 | Alloy +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 61 | Alloy +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.4 · D** | **59 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Alloy | Middesk |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | First Mile Group, Inc. (Alloy) | Middesk, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.middesk.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Alloy's terms of service. The @alloyidentity/web-sdk capture package is MIT | Proprietary service under Middesk's Business Verification Terms and Conditions. The Claude Code and Codex plugins on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 11 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-12 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 21k npm/wk | 2 stars |

## Verdicts

**Alloy.** Alloy's public docs cover journeys, evaluations, entities, documents, cases and investigations, with llms.txt, Markdown pages, OpenAPI fragments and rate-limit headers with retry-after. Access is sales-led with no public price or trial, credentials have no scopes, there is no idempotency key or server SDK, and inputs vary by each customer's workflow.

**Middesk.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 contract for 87 operations, llms.txt, Markdown docs and a dated weekly changelog make the REST API readable to an agent, and OAuth has a read-only scope. Access is sales-led. No price, self-serve signup or official SDK was found, and the hosted MCP server rejects sandbox keys.

## Before you call either

### Alloy

1. Get the account's base URL from the customer. Defaults are api.alloy.co and sandbox.alloy.co, and some accounts have their own hosts
2. Use unique, prefixed external IDs in sandbox. Sandbox and Production share one data store
3. Read `alloy-ratelimit-remaining`, and on 429 or 5xx wait for `retry-after` with exponential backoff and jitter
4. Expect `running` after about 25 seconds on journey applications and wait for the webhook instead of resubmitting
5. Send the workflow header with account-level keys, since inputs depend on the workflow configured

### Middesk

1. Match the key to the host. `mk_test` keys work only at https://api-sandbox.middesk.com/v1 and `mk_live` keys only at https://api.middesk.com/v1
2. Name the `orders` on `POST /v1/businesses`. Omitting them places a verification order plus every package the account runs automatically, all billed
3. Send `address_line1` and `address_line2`. The API ignores `address_line_1` without an error
4. A 201 means the business was created, not verified. Wait for the `business.updated` webhook or poll until `status` leaves `pending`
5. Stay under 20 requests a second per account, and in sandbox wait the seconds in `Retry-After` after a 429 on business creation

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Alloy or Middesk?

Middesk scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Alloy leads on maintenance & community.

### Do Alloy and Middesk need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Alloy and Middesk without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Alloy. Middesk has a hosted endpoint at https://api.middesk.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-middesk.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "alloy", "b": "middesk"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare alloy middesk`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alloy.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/middesk.json

## Other comparisons with Alloy or Middesk

- [Alloy vs ComplyCube](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-complycube.md)
- [Alloy vs Didit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-didit.md)
- [Alloy vs Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-entrust-identity-verification.md)
- [Alloy vs Jumio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-jumio.md)
- [Alloy vs Persona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-persona.md)
- [Alloy vs Plaid Identity Verification](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-plaid-identity-verification.md)
- [Alloy vs Shufti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-shufti.md)
- [Alloy vs Socure RiskOS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-socure-riskos.md)
- [Alloy vs Stripe Identity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-stripe-identity.md)
- [Alloy vs Sumsub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-sumsub.md)
- [Alloy vs Trulioo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-trulioo.md)
- [Alloy vs Veriff](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-veriff.md)
- [Alloy vs Vouched](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-vouched.md)
- [ComplyCube vs Middesk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/complycube-vs-middesk.md)
- [Didit vs Middesk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/didit-vs-middesk.md)
- [Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) vs Middesk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/entrust-identity-verification-vs-middesk.md)
- [Jumio vs Middesk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jumio-vs-middesk.md)
- [Middesk vs Plaid Identity Verification](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-plaid-identity-verification.md)
- [Middesk vs Stripe Identity](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-stripe-identity.md)
- [Middesk vs Veriff](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-veriff.md)
- [Middesk vs Vouched](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-vouched.md)
- [Alloy vs ComplyAdvantage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-complyadvantage.md)
- [ComplyAdvantage vs Middesk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/complyadvantage-vs-middesk.md)
- [Middesk vs Persona](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-persona.md)
- [Middesk vs Shufti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-shufti.md)
- [Middesk vs Socure RiskOS](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-socure-riskos.md)
- [Middesk vs Sumsub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-sumsub.md)
- [Middesk vs Trulioo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-trulioo.md)