Softwr

Cybersecurity · head to head

Sumsub vs Syft

Sumsub logo

Sumsub

Cybersecurity

Identity verification and AML screening priced per verification

From
$1.35/verification
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Syft logo

Syft

Cybersecurity

Generates a software bill of materials from images, filesystems and archives

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Syft has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Sumsub the published per-verification rate is undercut by a monthly minimum of 149 or 299 dollars, so low volume businesses pay a much higher effective rate than the headline suggests.; Syft lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • They diverge on capability: Sumsub covers Document verification, Syft covers Multi-format output.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Sumsub and Syft actually diverge.

Attributes where Sumsub and Syft differ
AttributeSumsubSyft
Starting price$1.35/verificationFree
Pricing modelPer verificationOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidmacOS, Linux, Windows, Docker

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Sumsub

  • Document verification
  • AML screening
  • KYB verification
  • No-code flow builder
  • Transaction monitoring
  • Travel Rule
  • Fraud and duplicate detection

Only in Syft

  • Multi-format output
  • Broad ecosystem coverage
  • Binary classifiers
  • In-toto attestations
  • Library and CLI
  • Pairs with Grype

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Sumsub

  • A crypto exchange needing KYC plus Travel Rule handling under one contractnot Syft
  • A gambling operator entering several European markets and needing document coverage without a separate vendor per countrynot Syft
  • A fintech that wants a published price it can model in a business case before speaking to a salespersonnot Syft
  • A marketplace verifying both individual sellers and the companies behind them without buying two productsnot Syft

Syft

  • Producing a bill of materials for a customer or regulator that requires onenot Sumsub
  • Feeding an inventory into a vulnerability scanner rather than scanning images directlynot Sumsub
  • Recording what shipped in a build so a future disclosure can be answered quicklynot Sumsub
  • Public sector work where an SBOM is a contractual deliverablenot Sumsub

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Sumsub

  • The published per-verification rate is undercut by a monthly minimum of 149 or 299 dollars, so low volume businesses pay a much higher effective rate than the headline suggests.
  • You are billed per verification attempt in most configurations, meaning applicant drop-off and resubmissions cost money without producing a customer.
  • Pass rates and document support vary noticeably by country, and a market that works well in Europe can produce materially worse rejection rates in parts of Africa and South East Asia.
  • The AML screening tier bundles list coverage that large institutions would normally buy separately and tune, giving less control over match thresholds than a dedicated screening vendor.
  • The company originated in Russia before restructuring to a UK entity, and some financial institutions still raise that history in vendor risk review, which can slow or block procurement at conservative banks.

Syft

  • Lockfile parsing can drop packages silently. An open issue filed in August 2026 reports the yarn v1 cataloguer returning 118 of 745 packages with no error raised, which means a complete bill of materials and an 84 percent incomplete one look identical to the caller.
  • Fidelity varies sharply by ecosystem. Conan for C and C++, Haskell and Terraform get cataloguer support with no licence data, no dependency relationships and no file ownership, so a C and C++ shop gets the least from it.
  • Binary classification yields no licence or dependency metadata, and vendored or statically linked code is exactly where supply chain risk hides, so the blind spot and the risk overlap.
  • Incorrect CPE values and CPE collisions are recorded as open issues, and since Grype matches on CPE and PURL, an inventory error becomes a false negative in the security report downstream.
  • An inventory is not a risk assessment. Even a perfect bill of materials says a vulnerable version is present, never that the vulnerable function is called, and the triage burden lands entirely on the reader.

Pricing, plan by plan

Sumsub

$1.35/verification
  • Basic$1.35/verification
    • 149 USD minimum monthly spend
    • Document verification and liveness
    • No-code flow builder
  • Compliance$1.85/verification
    • 299 USD minimum monthly spend
    • Everything in Basic
    • AML sanctions and PEP screening
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated volume rate
    • Custom jurisdictions and languages
    • Dedicated support

Syft

Free
  • SyftFree
    • Apache-2.0
    • No usage limits
    • Community support
  • Anchore Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Policy enforcement and reporting
    • Federal and commercial tiers
    • Pricing not published, quoted on request

Which should you pick?

Choose Sumsub if

  • You need document verification.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want aml screening.
Sumsub review

Choose Syft if

  • You need multi-format output.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
  • You also want broad ecosystem coverage.
Syft review

Questions people ask

Is Sumsub or Syft better?
Neither clearly leads. Sumsub starts at $1.35/verification and Syft at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Sumsub or Syft?
Syft has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1.35/verification for Sumsub and Free for Syft.
Does Sumsub or Syft run on more platforms?
Sumsub runs on Web, iOS, Android. Syft runs on macOS, Linux, Windows, Docker.
Can I use Syft for free?
Yes. Syft has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Sumsub starts at $1.35/verification.
What is Sumsub best used for?
Sumsub is most often used for a crypto exchange needing kyc plus travel rule handling under one contract, a gambling operator entering several european markets and needing document coverage without a separate vendor per country, a fintech that wants a published price it can model in a business case before speaking to a salesperson, a marketplace verifying both individual sellers and the companies behind them without buying two products. Of those, a crypto exchange needing kyc plus travel rule handling under one contract and a gambling operator entering several european markets and needing document coverage without a separate vendor per country are not what Syft is typically brought in for.
What can Sumsub do that Syft cannot?
Sumsub covers Document verification, AML screening, KYB verification, No-code flow builder. Syft covers Multi-format output, Broad ecosystem coverage, Binary classifiers, In-toto attestations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Sumsub: What does a verification actually cost?

1.35 USD on Basic and 1.85 USD on Compliance, but with 149 and 299 USD monthly minimums respectively. Below roughly 110 or 160 checks a month you are paying the minimum, not the rate.

Syft: Does Syft find vulnerabilities?

No. It produces an inventory. Grype, from the same company, matches that inventory against vulnerability feeds. They are separate tools and the distinction is frequently lost.

Sumsub: Do failed verifications get charged?

Attempts are generally billable, so a poor onboarding funnel raises your bill. Confirm the exact resubmission policy in your contract.

Syft: Does anything in the Anchore stack do reachability analysis?

No. Neither Syft, Grype nor the commercial Anchore platform performs call graph or reachability analysis, so none of them tells you whether a vulnerable code path is actually invoked.

Sumsub: Does it cover business verification?

Yes, KYB with company registry lookups and beneficial owner resolution is part of the platform rather than a separate product.

Syft: Is it a CNCF or OpenSSF project?

No. It is single-vendor open source owned by Anchore, with no foundation governance. That is a different licence risk profile from Sigstore.

Syft: What does Anchore Enterprise cost?

Not published. The pricing page is contact-sales only, with named but unpriced commercial and federal tiers.

Syft: How do I know my SBOM is complete?

You largely cannot, which is the honest answer. Silent partial parsing is a known open defect, so a bill of materials used for compliance should be spot-checked against a known dependency list.

Share

Related pages

More on Sumsub

More on Syft

Keep looking

Other head to heads