Head to head · Kyc identity · October 2026 research run
Middesk vs Veriff
Veriff scores 61.1 (C) on agent readiness against Middesk's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Middesk leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do kyc identity.
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 62
- Agent ergonomics, 56 against 43
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
Veriff C
Good for A team that needs document and selfie verification with public per-verification prices and a trial, and that can run a webhook receiver and HMAC signing.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 63 against 56
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 64
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 61
Watch for
No server-side SDK and no MCP server. Official packages cover only browser and mobile capture
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Middesk | Veriff | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 73 | 62 | Middesk +11 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 82 | 82 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 56 | 43 | Middesk +13 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 56 | 63 | Veriff +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 10 | 40 | Veriff +30 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 64 | 74 | Veriff +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 61 | 67 | Veriff +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 59 · C | 61.1 · C |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Middesk | Veriff |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Middesk, Inc. | Veriff OÜ |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.middesk.com/v1 | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| 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. The npm capture SDKs are ISC (@veriff/js-sdk, @veriff/incontext-sdk) and MIT (@veriff/react-native-sdk) |
| Tools exposed | 11 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-04-16 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 2 stars | 32 stars, 110k 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.
Veriff
Per-verification prices are public from $0.80, with a 15-day trial of 50 sessions and no card. Each endpoint page is Markdown with an OpenAPI 3.0 fragment. There is no server SDK, MCP server or idempotency key, most calls need an HMAC signature, and the status page shows nine incidents between 20 July and 7 October 2026.
Before you call either
Middesk
- Match the key to the host.
mk_testkeys work only at https://api-sandbox.middesk.com/v1 andmk_livekeys only at https://api.middesk.com/v1 - Name the
ordersonPOST /v1/businesses. Omitting them places a verification order plus every package the account runs automatically, all billed - Send
address_line1andaddress_line2. The API ignoresaddress_line_1without an error - A 201 means the business was created, not verified. Wait for the
business.updatedwebhook or poll untilstatusleavespending - Stay under 20 requests a second per account, and in sandbox wait the seconds in
Retry-Afterafter a 429 on business creation
Veriff
- Take the base URL from the integration's API keys page. Send X-AUTH-CLIENT on every call and store verification.id from POST /v1/sessions
- Sign POST and PATCH bodies, and the session ID on GET and DELETE, with HMAC-SHA256 in X-HMAC-SIGNATURE. POST /v1/sessions needs no signature
- Stay under 30 session creations a minute on Self-Serve, 600 on Enterprise. A 429 carries code 1004
- Don't blindly retry POST /v1/sessions. Each call makes a new session, which is billed on a live integration
- Poll GET /v1/sessions/{id}/decision until
verificationis not null, or accept webhooks within 5 seconds and treat duplicates as normal
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Middesk or Veriff?
Veriff scores 61.1 (C) on agent readiness against Middesk's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Middesk leads on reliability and agent ergonomics.
Do Middesk and Veriff need an API key?
Middesk takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Veriff needs an API key.
Can an agent call Middesk and Veriff without installing anything?
Middesk has a hosted endpoint at https://api.middesk.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Veriff.
Other comparisons with Middesk or Veriff
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/middesk-vs-veriff.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/middesk.json·/api/v1/tools/veriff.json - From a terminal
anchor compare middesk veriff(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "middesk", "b": "veriff"}at/mcp, no key