# Argyle vs Check

> Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Argyle's 63.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Argyle leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do payroll employees. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll.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: 2026-10-08

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Argyle's 63.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Argyle leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do payroll employees.

- Argyle: grade B, 63.7/100, rank #297 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/argyle.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/argyle.json
- Check: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #208 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/check-payroll.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json

## Which one, for what

### Argyle (B)

Good for: A lender, tenant screener, benefits agency or background checker whose applicant can sign in to a payroll or gig account, and who needs paystubs, employment records or an income report.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 78
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 62

Watch for: No price is published. The site has no pricing page, and fees are set in a Service Order agreed with sales

### Check (B)

Good for: A software platform that wants to sell US payroll inside its own product and can sign a partnership, with Check handling tax calculation, money movement and filings.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 58
- Security & auth, 74 against 48

Watch for: No public price and no self-serve signup. The documentation says to request an API key through Check's sales contact


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Argyle | Check | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 81 | 80 | Argyle +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 78 | Argyle +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 83 | Check +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 74 | Check +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 5 | Argyle +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 72 | Argyle +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 62 | Argyle +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **63.7 · B** | **67.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Argyle | Check |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Argyle Systems Inc. | Check Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.argyle.com/v2` | `https://api.checkhq.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Argyle's Open Payroll Customer Terms. The React Native Link SDK on npm is Apache 2.0 | Proprietary service under Check's terms of service and partner agreement. The MCP server and CLI on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2021-09-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2024-04-18 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 481 npm/wk | 18 stars |

## Verdicts

**Argyle.** Graded on the REST API. One OpenAPI file covers 91 operations, llms.txt indexes Markdown docs, and a Sandbox with sample users comes with a Console sign-up. Every payroll connection needs the worker to sign in through Link. No prices are published, no idempotency keys were found, and API keys carry no per-key scopes.

**Check.** Graded as embedded payroll through a partner API key, not access to an existing employer's payroll account. The API has idempotency keys on writes, a required preview before approval and queryable request logs. No price is public, a sandbox key comes through Check's sales team, and one API key carries the whole partner account.

## Before you call either

### Argyle

1. Send HTTP Basic auth with `api_key_id` as the username and `api_key_secret` as the password. Sandbox keys fail with 401 on Production and the reverse
2. Create the user with `POST /v2/users` and an `external_id`, then look it up by `external_id` before retrying. No idempotency key was found
3. Do not read data straight after an account connects. Wait for the account and data webhooks, or for the verification status, before fetching records
4. Follow the full URL in `next` when paging. Do not build cursor values or fetch pages in parallel. `limit` defaults to 10 and stops at 200
5. Stay under 50 requests a second. On 429, queue the request and retry later, not at once
6. Treat `DELETE /v2/users/{id}` as permanent. It removes every resource tied to that user, with no confirmation step

### Check

1. Use https://sandbox.checkhq.com with the sandbox key and https://api.checkhq.com with the production key. A key is not valid across environments
2. Preview a payroll before approving it, then pass `preview_started_at` to POST /payrolls/{id}/approve so a stale preview fails with 409
3. Send `X-Idempotency-Key` on every write. Keys expire after 24 hours, so list the resource before retrying later than that
4. On 429 wait for `Retry-After`. The limit is 10 requests a second in sandbox and for partners paying fewer than 1,000 payees a month, with 100 concurrent requests
5. Connect the MCP server with `?read_only=true` or `X-MCP-Readonly: true` unless writes are intended. In production, approving a payroll moves money

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Argyle or Check?

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Argyle's 63.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Argyle leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Argyle and Check need an API key?

Argyle needs an API key. Check takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Argyle and Check without installing anything?

Yes. Argyle has a hosted endpoint at https://api.argyle.com/v2 and Check at https://api.checkhq.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Argyle or Check

- [Argyle vs Employment Hero Payroll](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-employment-hero.md)
- [Argyle vs Everee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-everee.md)
- [Argyle vs Finch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-finch.md)
- [Argyle vs Gusto](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-gusto.md)
- [Argyle vs Paychex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-paychex.md)
- [Argyle vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-salsa.md)
- [Argyle vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-zeal.md)
- [Check vs Finch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-finch.md)
- [Check vs Paychex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-paychex.md)
- [Check vs Employment Hero Payroll](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-employment-hero.md)
- [Check vs Everee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.md)
- [Check vs Gusto](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto.md)
- [Check vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-salsa.md)
- [Check vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-zeal.md)