How To Choose a Vendor for KYC? 9 Key Factors to Keep in Mind

I was watching a Formula 1 race recently. In between laps, cars were stopping at pit stops. Changing tires. Fixing nuts and bolts. They left stops within seconds because their win depended on it.  

To summarize: Twenty people, three seconds, one car. Every movement is precise, and every check is important. 

One mistake? The entire race is lost.

You might wonder what this has to do with KYC verification. But think about it: every time a customer tries to sign up for your service, you’re essentially running a pit stop. 

Your systems need to verify their identity, check their documents, and assess their risk level – all while the clock is ticking. And just like how F1 teams carefully select their pit crew equipment, choosing your KYC vendor can make the difference between smooth, efficient verifications and costly delays.

So, what exactly should you look for? 

What factors separate a winning verification process from one that leaves you in the dust? 

That’s what I’ll cover today. Let’s break down the elements that actually matter.

What is KYC, and Why Does Picking The Right Vendor Matter?

Know Your Customer (KYC) is fundamentally about knowing who you’re doing business with. It’s the line between you and potential fraud, regulatory fines, and compliance headaches.

At present, manual processes are draining resources like never before. 

Every time your team has to manually review documents, cross-check information, or handle verification issues, you’re not just spending money; you’re losing time that could be spent growing your business.

And if you slip up? Well, the penalties aren’t just financial.

Every time you onboard a new customer, you’re basically walking a tightrope. 

• Side one is customer experience (nobody likes a clunky verification process).
• Side two is compliance (miss one check and regulators come knocking). 

Finding that balance? That’s where your vendor choice makes all the difference.

If you are in the same waters, here are the 9 factors to keep in mind when picking a vendor–will save you a lot of time and money down the line. 

9 Factors to Keep in Mind

I won’t drag here either; let’s get straight to the point. 

1. Verification Speed vs Accuracy Balance

Faster doesn’t automatically mean better for your business. 

Sure, some vendors might boast about their “instant verification” capabilities, but those lightning-fast checks often come with compromises on security measures. 

What really makes a difference? 

It’s the consistency in verification times. 

Because when you can tell customers exactly how long the process will take, you’re setting clear expectations and building trust from the start. But things shouldn’t go south in terms of accuracy right?

And when it comes to choosing between verification methods, things aren’t always black and white. Take video verification, for instance. While it might seem like the more advanced option, it’s not always the best choice for every situation. 

Instead, think about matching the method to the risk level. 

Do low-risk accounts? Quick document checks will do just fine. But when you’re dealing with high-value transfers? That’s precisely when investing time in video verification makes perfect sense.

So, what really determines accuracy in verification APIs? 

It all comes down to coverage – and yes, COVERAGE only. But a word of caution here: it is not just about having databases. 

It’s about having the right databases and using them effectively. The reliable vendors (like Signzy) don’t just check one source and call it a day. They’re cross-validating data across multiple reliable sources. Yes, this might add a few seconds to the process, but isn’t it worth it for the added security?

Silver lining: Aim for that sweet spot between frictionless onboarding and robust security. 

2. Customer Service Access Levels

Who’s actually handling your issues? 

There’s a world of difference between talking to a junior support rep and getting direct access to experienced engineers who understand the technical complexities of KYC verification.

Turnaround time (TAT) of the support team. That was the cream of crop for this factor. Consider a vendor where you can actually talk directly to the team working on your problem, instantly.

For instance, If a user is onboarding on your app and is stuck, you would want the issue to be fixed quickly. They’re not going to wait around while support tickets bounce between different teams right? 

And what happens when things get really tricky? You know, those cases where standard troubleshooting just doesn’t cut it. This is where a vendor’s problem-solving process really shows its worth. 

Ask yourself, after initial interactions, 

• Do they have a clear escalation path? 
• Will they keep you in the loop about what they’re trying and why? 

Or better yet, create a complex support scenario during your vendor trials. 

Maybe it’s a verification failure with a non-standard document format, or a timeout during a high-stakes verification. See how they handle it.

3. Scalability With Your Growth Plans

Speaking of planning ahead, let’s address scalability – not the theoretical kind vendors love to talk about, but real, practical scaling capabilities. 

When evaluating a KYC vendor’s ability to grow with your business, ask them about their largest client’s transaction volume and their biggest same-day verification spike. 

These numbers tell you much more than vague promises about “unlimited scalability.”

If you’re eyeing global markets, particularly in the US or the Middle East, scalability takes on another dimension. Your vendor needs to scale not just in terms of volume but also in terms of regional coverage. 

There’s one more bump: while global solutions are great, they need specialized local teams to be truly effective. Why? Because compliance rules change frequently, and without dedicated regional experts, staying current becomes nearly impossible.

Therefore, don’t forget to check if they have dedicated teams in your target expansion regions like Signzy has in the US and Middle East. It makes a world of difference in maintaining compliance and service quality as you scale.

4. Business Hours Coverage That Matches Your Markets

Do you know what the problem is with the whole “24/7 support” conversation? 

Everyone gets hung up on round-the-clock availability, but that’s not really what matters. What’s actually important is having solid support during YOUR peak verification hours.

When do most of your US-based customers try to verify their identity? 

Probably not at 3 AM on a Tuesday. Unless… well, if you’re serving European banks, that 3 AM might be prime time for your Asian customers. 

And that’s exactly the point! 

Different markets need different coverage windows. For this, look at your current verification patterns. 

• When do most failures happen? 
• When do your customers get frustrated? 

That’s when you need top-notch support, not just a chatbot saying, “We’ll get back to you.”

Summary: determine your peak hours. Then, match it with your vendor’s customer support availability.

5. Integration Time Requirements

When a vendor promises “48-hour integration,” they’re talking about basic API connectivity, not real-world implementation. 

And that’s just not how KYC integration actually works.

Sure, a developer can connect to the API endpoints in a couple of days. But that’s like saying you can build a house because you’ve got the keys to the hardware store. The real work comes after.

What actually takes time? It’s those pesky real-world scenarios that no one thinks about during sales calls:

• Testing with actual customer documents from different regions
• Handling edge cases like partially damaged IDs
• Setting up proper error handling for various network conditions
• Configuring compliance rules for different risk levels
• Running through various user scenarios to ensure nothing breaks

Proper integration takes 2-3 weeks minimum. Not because the technology is complicated, but because you need to thoroughly test how the system handles real customer scenarios. 

Would you rather spend an extra week testing now or explain to your board why customer onboarding is failing during your peak season?

When someone promises you 48-hour integration, they’re either oversimplifying or overselling. 

Real integration needs proper testing time. Because in KYC, a single missed edge case can mean a regulatory headache or a lost customer. And neither of those is worth saving a few days of implementation time.

6. Transparent Pricing Structure

You might see a vendor offering the lowest per-verification price and think you’ve struck gold. 

But hold on a second. Have you checked what happens when verifications fail? Or what do they charge for manual reviews?

Storage fees are another fun surprise that often pops up, especially with video verification. And don’t get me started on volume discounts that sound amazing until you realize you need to verify a million users before they kick in.

Usually vendors charge a price-per-API-hit model or charge per verified user. 

For example, a typical per-user verification might cost $1.75, combining both ID check ($1) and face matching ($0.75). So verifying 1,000 new users monthly would cost an organization $1,750.

But there’s usually more to the story. Check for the factors like:

• Are you being charged for failed verifications? Many vendors may still bill you for verification attempts even if the process fails due to user errors or system issues.
• What about retries? Are retries charged as additional verifications, or are they included in the original verification cost? Some vendors might count each retry attempt as a separate charge, which can quickly inflate costs. 
• And those “optional” features that suddenly become necessary for your use case – how do they affect the final price?

Ask for a detailed breakdown of all possible charges. It is better to have a slightly higher base price with everything included than to deal with surprise bills at the end of the month. 

Your finance team will thank you for this one.

7. Source of Database

“Where does your verification data actually come from?” 

It’s amazing how many businesses don’t ask this super-important question! The source of your KYC data directly impacts the reliability of your entire verification process.

Some vendors claim to have “proprietary databases,” but what does that really mean? 

To understand that, let’s go through all types of main setups. There are three: 

1. Vendors with their own databases (proprietary) 
2. Vendors with third-party sources 
3. Marketplace solutions like Signzy that combine multiple verified sources

Each has its place, depending on your needs.

Talking about the most effective one, the marketplace solution gives you the best of both worlds – direct access to multiple authoritative sources while maintaining a single point of integration and accountability. 

Plus, the consolidated volume often means better rates than going directly to individual providers.

8. User Experience Control Options

Most vendor pitches will drown you in endless customization features, but only a handful of these actually impact your bottom line.

Just look after a few and you are good to go. 

First up, control over error messages. 

When someone’s sitting there at 10 PM trying to verify their identity, “verification failed” tells them nothing. What they need is something like “Your ID photo is too dark – try taking it in better lighting” or “This proof of address is over 3 months old – please upload a more recent one.”

All in all, a good vendor lets you set specific messages for specific scenarios. 

If someone uploads a Malaysian ID that doesn’t match their validation pattern, you should be able to tell them exactly what’s wrong without sending them through a generic error loop.

That’s where APIs come in. White-labeling through vendors like Signzy means much, much more than slapping your logo on things. 

You make the entire verification flow feel like part of your app. 

You even control how verification screens look, what messages say, and even how the camera interface works. 

Why leave those extra 10 points for customer experience? This matters because every little friction point is another chance for users to drop off.

9. Documentation

Having a massive API reference guide means nothing if your developers can’t figure out how to solve real problems, right?

If your developer gets stuck at midnight dealing with a verification failure, can they fix it without having to wake up your support team? That’s the real test.

As a product manager, when checking past documentation of vendors, look for practical stuff like:

• Step-by-step guides for handling network timeouts during document uploads (because these will happen)
• Clear explanations for those weird edge cases where someone’s name format doesn’t match your validation rules
• Real examples showing how to handle partial verification successes
• Mobile SDK guides that actually tell you what permissions you need and why

Think about your typical verification issue: Let’s say you’re getting error code DOC_1001. 

Good documentation doesn’t just tell you “document quality insufficient.” 

It should lay out: “Here’s exactly why this happened (low image resolution), Here’s what to tell your user (please retake photo at minimum 300 DPI), Here’s how many retries you should allow (3 attempts), And here’s when to trigger your fallback verification method.”

Bottom line? 

If your team needs to hop on a call with vendor support to understand basic error codes or common integration scenarios, the documentation isn’t doing its job. 

And in KYC, where every failed verification could mean a lost customer, that’s not something you can afford to ignore.

Next Steps

After covering all these factors, you might be wondering where to start your KYC vendor search.

That’s where Signzy comes in! We provide a comprehensive suite of APIs including KYC and KYB API solutions through our all-in-one platform. Plus, our volume-based pricing often means better rates than going directly to individual providers.

To know more about how we can help you, book your demo call.