# Alloy vs Sumsub

> Sumsub scores 68.5 (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-sumsub
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-sumsub.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-sumsub.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alloy-vs-sumsub.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

Sumsub scores 68.5 (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
- Sumsub: grade B, 68.5/100, rank #220 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sumsub.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sumsub.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

### Sumsub (B)

Good for: An agent that starts verifications, sends links, reads results and AML cases, and works case queues for a regulated business, with one token limited to those permissions.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 59
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 73
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 52
- Security & auth, 80 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 0
- Transparency & trust, 74 against 62

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

Watch for: No idempotency keys and no Retry-After or backoff guidance found in the reviewed documentation


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Alloy | Sumsub | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 59 | 80 | Sumsub +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 78 | Sumsub +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 60 | Sumsub +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 80 | Sumsub +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 25 | Sumsub +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 74 | Sumsub +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 74 | Sumsub +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.4 · D** | **68.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Alloy | Sumsub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | First Mile Group, Inc. (Alloy) | Sum and Substance Ltd |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.sumsub.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Alloy's terms of service. The @alloyidentity/web-sdk capture package is MIT | Proprietary service under Sumsub's terms and conditions. The agent skills repository and the @sumsub/websdk npm package are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-03 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-12 | 2026-05-21 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-03-19 |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 21k npm/wk | 172k 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.

**Sumsub.** Per-token permissions, an IP allowlist, HMAC-signed requests and a public OpenAPI spec with Markdown docs suit an agent working on verification cases. No idempotency keys or Retry-After guidance were found, there is no server SDK, and production access needs a browser signup, a bank card and Sumsub's review of the integration.

## 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

### Sumsub

1. Sign every request. X-App-Access-Sig is the lowercase hex HMAC-SHA256 of timestamp, uppercase method, path with query and raw body, and the timestamp must be within one minute of server time
2. Use a sandbox token (prefix sbx) for agent work. Sandbox and production tokens are separate, and Sumsub's own skills refuse any other prefix
3. Stay under 300 GET and 50 POST requests per 5 seconds, and under 500 new applicants per 24 hours in Sandbox
4. Token permissions can't be edited after creation. Generate a new token with the narrower set and delete the old one
5. Subscribe to the applicantReviewed webhook for results and verify x-payload-digest against the raw body before trusting it

## Questions

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

Sumsub scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

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

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

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Alloy. Sumsub has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sumsub.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Alloy or Sumsub

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