Onfido Review 2026: Is It Still the Best Identity Verification Platform for UK Businesses?

# Onfido Review 2026: Is It Still the Best Identity Verification Platform for UK Businesses?

Published on Digital by Default | March 2026

Identity verification is one of those things that everyone agrees is necessary and nobody enjoys. Customers hate uploading selfies and passport photos. Businesses hate the drop-off rates. And compliance teams hate the false positive rates that require manual review of perfectly legitimate applicants. The ideal identity verification platform would be accurate enough to catch fraud, fast enough to not lose customers, and compliant enough to satisfy regulators. Onfido has spent years trying to be exactly that.

Founded in London in 2012, Onfido was one of the first companies to apply AI to identity verification at scale. It has verified over a billion identities, serves customers in 195 countries, and was acquired by Entrust in 2024. For UK businesses, its London heritage and deep understanding of UK regulatory requirements give it a natural advantage. But the market has become fiercely competitive, and Onfido's position is no longer unassailable.

What Onfido Actually Does

Onfido provides a platform for verifying that a person is who they claim to be. The core capabilities include:

• Document verification — AI-powered analysis of identity documents (passports, driving licences, national ID cards) from 2,500+ document types across 195 countries
• Biometric verification — facial matching between a selfie or video and the photo on an identity document
• Liveness detection — ensuring the person is physically present and not using a photo, video, or deepfake
• Data verification — cross-referencing personal data against authoritative databases
• Fraud detection signals — identifying tampered documents, synthetic identities, and known fraud patterns
• Workflow orchestration — configurable verification flows that adapt based on risk scoring

The platform is delivered via SDKs (iOS, Android, Web) that embed directly into your application, providing a branded verification experience. The AI models analyse documents in real-time, typically returning a result within seconds.

How Onfido Compares to Competitors

The Honest Pros and Cons

What Onfido gets right:

• UK regulatory expertise is deep. Onfido understands FCA requirements, UK GDPR, and the nuances of UK-specific identity documents better than most competitors.
• The SDK experience is polished. Drop-off rates during the verification flow are among the lowest in the industry.
• AI accuracy is strong — false rejection rates are low enough that most verifications complete without manual review.
• The Entrust acquisition has added enterprise credibility and resources, particularly for security and certificate management.
• Strong developer documentation and integration support make implementation relatively straightforward.

Where Onfido falls short:

• Document coverage (2,500 types) is significantly smaller than Sumsub (14,000+) or Veriff (11,000+). If you're verifying identities globally, you may hit coverage gaps.
• AML screening and ongoing monitoring capabilities are less mature than Sumsub's built-in offerings.
• The Entrust acquisition has created uncertainty. Some customers report slower product development and enterprise-focused pricing increases.
• Pricing is not transparent — you'll need to go through a sales process for a quote, which is frustrating for smaller businesses.

Who It's For

• UK fintechs and banks that need FCA-compliant identity verification with deep UK document expertise
• Online marketplaces and platforms requiring user verification at scale with low drop-off rates
• Regulated industries (gambling, cryptocurrency, property) subject to UK KYC and AML requirements
• Organisations prioritising SDK quality and user experience over raw document coverage

Who It's Not For

• Businesses operating primarily in emerging markets — Sumsub and Veriff offer broader document coverage in regions where Onfido has gaps
• Companies needing comprehensive AML/KYC in a single platform — Sumsub provides a more integrated compliance suite
• Very small businesses or startups with low verification volumes — the per-verification pricing and minimum commitments may be prohibitive
• Organisations requiring extensive ongoing monitoring — Onfido's strength is point-in-time verification, not continuous compliance monitoring

Pricing

Onfido does not publish pricing. Based on market intelligence:

Pricing varies significantly based on the verification flow — document only is cheaper than document + biometric + AML screening. Expect minimum annual commitments for enterprise agreements.

How to Get Started

1. Define your verification requirements — what documents do you need to support? What level of assurance is required? Does your regulator mandate specific checks?

2. Request a sandbox account — Onfido provides a test environment where you can evaluate the SDK, API, and verification accuracy without live data.

3. Test with real UK documents — ensure the platform handles UK passports, driving licences, and BRP cards accurately. Test edge cases (expired documents, damaged documents, low-quality photos).

4. Measure drop-off rates — integrate the SDK into a staging environment and measure what percentage of users complete the verification flow.

5. Compare against Sumsub and Veriff — run parallel evaluations. The best platform for your use case depends on your specific document coverage needs, regulatory requirements, and volume.

UK-Specific Considerations

Onfido's London heritage gives it genuine advantages for UK businesses. The platform's understanding of UK-specific identity documents — including the nuances of BRP cards, older-style driving licences, and the various iterations of UK passport designs — is demonstrably stronger than competitors primarily built for US or European markets.

For FCA-regulated firms, Onfido's verification flows can be configured to meet the specific requirements of the FCA's approach to customer due diligence. The platform supports the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) guidance that UK financial services firms must follow, and Onfido's compliance team actively tracks FCA regulatory updates.

The UK gambling industry is another strong use case. The Gambling Commission requires robust age and identity verification, and Onfido's real-time document verification meets these requirements while maintaining the low-friction user experience that gambling operators need to avoid customer drop-off.

UK GDPR considerations are well-handled — Onfido processes biometric data under explicit consent frameworks and provides data retention controls that align with UK GDPR requirements. Following the Entrust acquisition, data processing remains available through European infrastructure, which satisfies most UK data residency requirements.

For organisations navigating the UK's post-Brexit identity landscape — where EU identity documents are still widely presented but no longer subject to EU freedom of movement rules — Onfido's broad document coverage and multi-jurisdictional verification flows are particularly valuable.

The Bottom Line

Onfido remains one of the strongest identity verification platforms for UK businesses, with deep regulatory expertise, excellent SDK quality, and AI accuracy that minimises false rejections. The Entrust acquisition adds enterprise credibility but has introduced some uncertainty around product direction and pricing. For UK-focused fintechs and regulated businesses, Onfido deserves a place on your shortlist. For global operations requiring broad document coverage and integrated AML screening, Sumsub may offer better value.

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