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Head to head · Identity verification · October 2026 research run

Middesk vs Plaid Identity Verification

Plaid Identity Verification scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Middesk's 59 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Middesk leads on reliability. Both do identity verification.

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

MiddeskMiddesk, Inc. · HTTP API C59/100#596 of 1076 Plaid Identity VerificationPlaid Inc. · HTTP API B67.1/100#278 of 1076

Which one, for what

Middesk C

Best 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 68

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

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 82
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 56
  • Security & auth, 61 against 56
  • Payments & pricing, 15 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 64
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 61

Watch for

No public prices. Rates appear only after a Production application

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runMiddeskPlaid Identity VerificationEdge
Reliability16%207368Middesk +5
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28291Plaid Identity Verification +9
Agent ergonomics13%16.25675Plaid Identity Verification +19
Security & auth14%17.55661Plaid Identity Verification +5
Payments & pricing10%12.51015Plaid Identity Verification +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86483Plaid Identity Verification +19
Transparency & trust7%8.86177Plaid Identity Verification +16
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 59/100B 67.1/100

Facts side by side

FactMiddeskPlaid Identity Verification
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorMiddesk, Inc.Plaid Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.middesk.com/v1no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Middesk's Business Verification Terms and Conditions. The Claude Code and Codex plugins on GitHub are MITProprietary service under Plaid's developer policy and end-user terms. The OpenAPI file and client libraries are MIT
Tools exposed11none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-052026-10-13
Terms last updatedno date given2025-12-01
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2025-12-01
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity2 stars1.2M npm/wk, 656k PyPI/wk

Verdicts

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.

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

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

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, Middesk or Plaid Identity Verification?

Plaid Identity Verification scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Middesk's 59 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Middesk leads on reliability.

Do Middesk and Plaid Identity Verification need an API key?

Middesk takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Plaid Identity Verification needs an API key.

Can an agent call Middesk and Plaid Identity Verification without installing anything?

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

Other comparisons with Middesk or Plaid Identity Verification

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