Buyer's guide
The best age verification software gives your system one answer, that this person is old enough, plus proof that the check happened.
At a glance
There is no single winner. There is a right fit for your volume, region and data posture.
Stile wrote this comparison and is one of the five tools. Details are as each company publishes them, not independently tested, and were checked on November 1, 2026.
This guide is for product owners, compliance leads and developers who have to put an age gate in front of something.
"Age assurance" covers several methods that work in different ways. Marten Risius and Johannes Sedlmeir, writing in The Conversation, describe it as the umbrella term. Age verification, meaning proof of age usually from an official ID, is one branch of it. The methods you will see across vendors:
The user photographs a government ID. The software checks that the document is authentic and reads the date of birth.
Estimation is not proof. The Conversation authors point out that facial age estimation can make mistakes, and that it often means handing biometric data to a private company. They also describe a stronger alternative: cryptographic attestations, such as the German eID and the EU digital identity and Google wallet work, which prove a single fact like "over 18" without revealing name, address or date of birth. When you evaluate vendors, ask two questions. Which methods can fall back to a credential-backed check? And what does the vendor hand back once the check is done?
Including whether there is a step-up from estimation to document or credential.
A decision, an age, or the raw document and selfie.
How long the vendor says it keeps session data, and whether you can delete it.
Hosted page, link, QR code, SDK or app.
Whether you can set age rules by country or state.
Per-check price, monthly minimum, and free trial.
Taken from each company's own pages on November 1, 2026. A method left off a card means those pages do not describe it, not that the product cannot do it. The fine print is in each tool's section.
| If you need | Pick |
|---|---|
| Global coverage with AML in one contract | Sumsub or Veriff |
| The widest choice of methods for adults to prove age | Yoti |
| DMV-backed matching and mobile ID at enterprise scale in the US | Incode |
| US regulated commerce where the check runs at checkout or pickup, returns a signed result, and deletes raw ID data on completion by default | Stile |
Vendors rarely state comparable numbers, so these are not a ranking. They show what each one chooses to measure.
Retention
24 hours
The most ID, selfie and session data stay after the session
Incode's Age Center
Deletion
30 days
To meet a deletion request
Sumsub's service privacy notice
Wait time
1 second
Check time for facial age estimation
Yoti's age verification page
Retention
3 to 6 months
How long session data is kept, by plan
Veriff's pricing page
Wait time
~2 seconds
What a check is designed to take, with nothing to install
Stile's site
Stile wrote this comparison and is one of the five tools. Details are as each company publishes them, not independently tested, and were checked on November 1, 2026. To report a correction, email hello@stile.id.
Best fit: teams that want estimation through document checks under one Enterprise contract, across many countries.
Best fit: regulated businesses that need age and AML checks under one plan, and operators in the German market, where KJM approval matters.
Best fit: US platforms that want DMV-backed biometric matching and mobile ID acceptance in one enterprise platform.
Best fit: high-volume consumer platforms, such as social media and adult content, that want many ways for adults to pass and a result with no identity attached.
Best fit: US regulated eCommerce and pickup, where the check has to run at a specific moment, follow state rules, and return a result rather than an ID file.
Published prices run from $0.21 to $1.89 per check, and Stile, Veriff and Sumsub all publish theirs. Veriff and Sumsub add a monthly minimum, so the last column shows how many checks it would pay for. Stile has no minimum, and its first 1,000 completed checks each month are free. A Stile full check is the closest match to the Veriff and Sumsub plans here. The prices are each vendor's list prices. The division is ours.
| Plan | Price per verification | Minimum monthly commitment | Checks the minimum covers at list price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veriff Essential | $0.80 | $49 | about 61 |
| Veriff Plus | $1.39 | $99 | about 71 |
| Veriff Premium | $1.89 | $209 | about 110 |
| Sumsub Basic | $1.35 | $149 | about 110 |
| Sumsub Compliance | $1.85 | $299 | about 161 |
| Stile ID and age check | $0.21 | None | Not applicable |
| Stile full check | $0.25 | None | Not applicable |
If your age gate fires a few dozen times a month, at a pickup counter or on one restricted product line, the minimum is your real price. If it fires thousands of times, the per-check rate and volume discounts matter more.
Sumsub says checks beyond the commitment are prorated. Veriff's page does not say how usage counts toward the minimum.
Not by default. The Conversation authors note that estimation often requires handing biometric data to a private company, and that a face cannot be changed if that data is stolen. The vendors' own answers differ. Veriff says its estimation stores no biometric templates. Yoti says data is deleted for most methods. Incode offers estimation on the device. Ask each vendor what happens to the selfie, and get the answer in writing.
Usually not. Veriff offers a hosted verification page and mobile web. Sumsub's Unilink runs from a link or QR code. Stile opens in the browser. Wallet-based methods, such as Yoti's digital ID wallet, rely on a credential the user already holds on their phone.
Yes, with less certainty. Database checks, credit card checks, mobile and email age estimation, and facial estimation all avoid a document. Veriff describes database checks and estimation as first steps before an ID is requested, and Yoti describes estimation that way. Our guide to age verification without ID covers where those methods hold up.
It varies by vendor and plan. On Veriff's pricing page, session data is kept for 3 months on Essential and 6 months on Plus and Premium, with 2 years as a paid extra; deletion via API is a Premium feature. Sumsub's clients set retention within the contract. Incode says session data is deleted no more than 24 hours after the session. Yoti says most methods delete data once the check completes, and results are stored for the client for 6 months. Stile deletes raw ID data on completion by default, and evidence under review stays until the review resolves. Whatever you choose, your own systems should store the result and the audit record, not the document.
Published self-serve prices run from $0.21 to $1.89 per check. Stile lists $0.21 for an ID and age check and $0.25 for a full check, with no minimum. Veriff runs $0.80 to $1.89 with $49 to $209 minimums. Sumsub runs $1.35 to $1.85 with $149 and $299 minimums. Veriff and Sumsub offer 50 free checks on trial, and Stile's first 1,000 completed checks each month are free. All three move to custom pricing at higher volume.
No. Incode's Age Center puts it plainly: an age check answers whether someone is old enough, and it is not an identity check. Gambling and financial products often need both. An alcohol or adult content gate usually needs only the age answer.
The quickest way to judge any of these tools is to run a check where your users would meet it, then look at what lands in your system afterward. With Stile, you can create a free account, and trigger an age check by link or QR code. Then check the signed webhook and confirm what your own systems store.
