# Middesk vs Shufti

> Middesk scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Shufti's 57.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Shufti leads on security & auth, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do kyc business. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-shufti
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-shufti.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-shufti.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/middesk-vs-shufti.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: 2026-10-09

Middesk scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Shufti's 57.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Shufti leads on security & auth, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do kyc business.

- Middesk: grade C, 59/100, rank #509 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/middesk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/middesk.json
- Shufti: grade C, 57.8/100, rank #538 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shufti.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shufti.json

## Which one, for what

### Middesk (C)

Good 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 65
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 47

Watch for: No public price. Fees are set in an order form, and every docs page ends with a prompt to contact sales

### Shufti (C)

Good for: A team that wants document, face, address, AML and KYB checks behind one endpoint, a free plan for low volume, and an MCP server that hands the person a hosted verification link.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 62 against 56
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 64
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No OpenAPI file or other machine-readable contract was found. The reference is prose tables plus Postman collections


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Middesk | Shufti | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 65 | Middesk +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 58 | Middesk +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 47 | Middesk +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 62 | Shufti +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 35 | Shufti +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 72 | Shufti +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 71 | Shufti +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59 · C** | **57.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Middesk | Shufti |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Middesk, Inc. | Shufti Pro Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.middesk.com/v1` | `https://api.shuftipro.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Middesk's Business Verification Terms and Conditions. The Claude Code and Codex plugins on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Shufti's Terms and Conditions. The licences of the mobile capture SDKs were not checked |
| Tools exposed | 11 | 25 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no date given |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 2 stars | 673 npm/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.

**Shufti.** One endpoint covers document, face, address, AML and KYB checks, with a free plan of 10 verifications a month, and a hosted MCP server adds OAuth with three scopes. No OpenAPI file, server SDK or idempotency key was found, and the status page history could not be read.

## 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

### Shufti

1. POST every verification to `https://api.shuftipro.com/` with a unique `reference` of 6 to 250 characters and one object per service. Read results from `/status` with that reference
2. Register the callback domain in the back office first. An unregistered `callback_url` is rejected
3. Stay under 60 requests a minute per IP on a production account and 20 on a trial account
4. Check the `Signature` response header. Accounts created after 15 March 2023 hash the Secret Key with SHA-256 before appending it to the raw response
5. Through MCP, identity checks return a `verification_url` for the person to open. No tool accepts an image, so use the REST API for offsite proofs

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Middesk or Shufti?

Middesk scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Shufti's 57.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Shufti leads on security & auth, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do Middesk and Shufti need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Middesk and Shufti without installing anything?

Yes. Middesk has a hosted endpoint at https://api.middesk.com/v1 and Shufti at https://api.shuftipro.com.


## For agents

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

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