# Identity verification for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "identity verification service" and as "KYC document and selfie verification tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/identity-verification/smb/

**Standing:** Veriff leads with 23% of first choices; verdict contested. 60 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veriff | 23% | 11% | 47 |
| 2 | iDenfy | 18% | 0% | 36 |
| 3 | Persona | 12% | 21% | 38 |
| 4 | Didit | 12% | 0% | 15 |
| 5 | Sumsub | 7% | 16% | 38 |
| 6 | Stripe Identity | 7% | 4% | 23 |
| 7 | Middesk | 5% | 0% | 12 |
| 8 | Trulioo | 3% | 18% | 17 |
| 9 | Onfido | 3% | 46% | 24 |
| 10 | Ondato | 0% | 17% | 12 |
| 11 | Jumio | 0% | 61% | 23 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Sumsub; alternatives Didit, Entrust, Onfido, Persona
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Persona; alternatives Middesk, Sumsub, iDenfy
- Perplexity Sonar: Trulioo; alternatives Veriff, iDenfy
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Veriff, iDenfy; alternatives Middesk
- Mistral Small: AU10TIX, Veriff; alternatives Socure
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Middesk; alternatives Ondato, Sumsub, The KYB, Trulioo
- Llama 4 Maverick: iDenfy; alternatives Middesk, Ondato, Trulioo
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Persona; alternatives Onfido, Stripe Identity, Sumsub, Veriff
- Kimi K2: Veriff; alternatives HyperVerge, Persona, Stripe Identity, Sumsub
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Veriff, iDenfy; alternatives Persona, Sumsub
- MiniMax M2.5: Stripe Identity; alternatives Middesk, Sumsub
- GPT-6 Luna: Middesk; alternatives Stripe Identity
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Middesk, Trulioo; alternatives Persona, Sumsub, iDenfy

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- veriff.com: 35 answers, 51 citations
- signzy.com: 31 answers, 37 citations
- idenfy.com: 27 answers, 33 citations
- didit.me: 25 answers, 48 citations
- middesk.com: 25 answers, 37 citations
- checkr.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- ondato.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- g2.com: 23 answers, 38 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://checkr.com/resources/articles/best-identity-verification-software (25 answers)
- https://ondato.com/blog/best-identity-verification-software (19 answers)
- https://bureau.id/resources/blog/identity-verification-solutions (18 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-identity-verification-software (18 answers)
- https://signzy.com/blogs/best-identity-verification-tools (17 answers)
- https://trustpair.com/blog/best-identity-verification-solutions-selection-guide-and-provider-comparison (17 answers)
- https://veriff.com/identity-verification/for-startups (17 answers)
- https://idenfy.com/blog/best-identity-verification-software (16 answers)
- https://middesk.com/blog/business-verification-services (15 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/identity-verification (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Jumio: 14 of 23 labels negative. "Large legacy compliance engines (like Jumio or Socure) are built for enterprise-scale banks... Why to avoid: These platforms typically require expensive setup costs" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Onfido: 11 of 24 labels negative. "What to Avoid - Onfido/Entrust IDV: ... likely too expensive for small B2B" (Kimi K2, direct prompt)
- Persona: 8 of 38 labels negative. "Be cautious of IDV tools that over-collect data or perform opaque surveillance... leading to Discord abruptly ending its partnership with Persona" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Sumsub: 6 of 38 labels negative. "The specific names to be most cautious about are Sumsub (support/rejection issues)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.