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Head to head · Identity verification · October 2026 research run

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) vs Plaid Identity Verification

Plaid Identity Verification scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)'s 62.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) leads on payments & pricing. Both do identity verification.

Best identity and business verification APIs for AI agents · All 119 verification comparisons

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)Onfido Ltd (Entrust) · HTTP API B62.1/100#472 of 1076 Plaid Identity VerificationPlaid Inc. · HTTP API B67.1/100#278 of 1076

Which one, for what

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) B

Best for A company already contracted with Entrust that wants an agent to create applicants, start workflow runs and read reports through typed libraries and a public spec.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 20 against 15

Watch for

entrust.com answered 403 to every request, so the terms, privacy notice, pricing page and security.txt weren't read

Plaid Identity Verification B

Best for US, Canadian and UK companies that want KYC with data source checks, documents and selfies, especially those already on Plaid or wanting Monitor screening in the same flow.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 84
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 65
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 58
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 70

Watch for

No public prices. Rates appear only after a Production application

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runEntrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)Plaid Identity VerificationEdge
Reliability16%207068Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28491Plaid Identity Verification +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.26575Plaid Identity Verification +10
Security & auth14%17.55861Plaid Identity Verification +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52015Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85883Plaid Identity Verification +25
Transparency & trust7%8.87077Plaid Identity Verification +7
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 62.1/100B 67.1/100

Facts side by side

FactEntrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)Plaid Identity Verification
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorOnfido Ltd (Entrust)Plaid Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Entrust's terms. The OpenAPI spec and the server libraries (onfido-java, onfido-node, onfido-php, onfido-python, onfido-ruby) are MITProprietary service under Plaid's developer policy and end-user terms. The OpenAPI file and client libraries are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-312026-10-13
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2025-12-01
Privacy policy last updated2025-12-01
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readnot found in the text
Popularity59k npm/wk, 27k PyPI/wk1.2M npm/wk, 656k PyPI/wk

Verdicts

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)

The v3.6 API has a public MIT OpenAPI file, server libraries in five languages, OAuth client credentials with scopes and an 18-month deprecation notice. Entrust's own site answered 403, so terms, privacy notice, pricing and security.txt weren't read. There is no idempotency key, and live tokens need a Dashboard account with billing details.

Plaid Identity Verification

Plaid Identity Verification has four typed endpoints in Plaid's public OpenAPI file, an idempotent create, a backend-only flow for data source checks and frequent changelog entries. Prices appear only after applying for Production, the secret has no scopes, and the rate-limit and error pages are disallowed to crawlers.

Before you call either

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)

  1. Use the regional host for the account (api.eu, api.us or api.ca.onfido.com/v3.6). v3.6 has no default region
  2. Prefer an OAuth client with only the scopes the task needs over a live API token, and refresh the 60-minute access token
  3. Stay under 400 requests a minute live and 120 in sandbox, and back off on a 429 rate_limit error
  4. Check before retrying a POST. There is no idempotency key, so a retry can create a second applicant or check
  5. Treat webhook events as duplicates or out of order, and verify X-SHA2-Signature over the raw body

Plaid Identity Verification

  1. Pass is_idempotent: true to /identity_verification/create so a retry returns the existing session
  2. Use the backend-only flow (data source template, gave_consent: true) when you already hold the user's details. Documents and selfies need the person in Link
  3. Wait for the STATUS_UPDATED webhook or poll /identity_verification/get. Link's onSuccess doesn't mean the user passed
  4. Don't issue retries casually. Each retry is a new session billed again
  5. Enable Sandbox for Identity Verification on the Dashboard Products page before the first call

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) or Plaid Identity Verification?

Plaid Identity Verification scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido)'s 62.1 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) leads on payments & pricing.

Do Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) and Plaid Identity Verification need an API key?

Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Plaid Identity Verification needs an API key.

Can an agent call Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) and Plaid Identity Verification without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido). No hosted endpoint is listed for Plaid Identity Verification.

Other comparisons with Entrust Identity Verification (formerly Onfido) or Plaid Identity Verification

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