# Alloy vs Persona

> Persona scores 69.5 (B) 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-persona
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-persona.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-persona.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-persona.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

Persona scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Persona: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #192 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/persona.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/persona.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.

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

### Persona (B)

Good for: A company that already runs Persona and wants an agent to create inquiries from templates, read verification and report results, screen against watchlists and work review cases with a permission-limited key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 59
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 73
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 52
- Security & auth, 73 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 62

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

Watch for: Production access needs Persona's approval and a 12-month plan from $250 a month, and API-only integration is limited to Enterprise plans


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Alloy | Persona | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 59 | 70 | Persona +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 85 | Persona +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 74 | Persona +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 73 | Persona +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 35 | Persona +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 75 | Persona +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 68 | Persona +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.4 · D** | **69.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Alloy | Persona |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | First Mile Group, Inc. (Alloy) | Persona Identities, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.withpersona.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API 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 Persona's terms of service. The `persona` JavaScript client on npm is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 190 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-12 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 21k npm/wk | 570k npm/wk |

## 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.

**Persona.** The REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 file, llms.txt, API keys with per-resource permissions, idempotency keys on every POST and a 60-day sandbox trial with no card. Production needs a business review and a 12-month plan from $250 a month. The status page lists 11 incidents since 10 July 2026, including 70 minutes of timeouts across all products.

## 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

### Persona

1. Ask for a dedicated key limited to the permissions the task needs. A new key has every standard permission until it's limited
2. Send `Persona-Version` on every call and an `Idempotency-Key` on every POST. A replayed key returns the first result, including a 500
3. Treat redact calls as irreversible. They permanently delete personal data and cascade to downstream objects
4. Stay under 300 requests a minute in production, read `RateLimit-Remaining` and `Quota-Remaining`, and back off on 429 because rejected requests still count
5. Use `fields` and `include` to cut response size. Through MCP these parameters aren't exposed, and only 14 tools take `filter`

## Questions

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

Persona scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

Alloy takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Persona needs an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Alloy. Persona has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.withpersona.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Alloy or Persona

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