Veratad review: data-first age checks for US state laws

Veratad and the US state porn laws

Veratad publishes plain-language guides to Louisiana’s Act 440, Utah’s S.B. 287 and Mississippi’s S.B. 2346, which require sites with at least a third of adult or harmful content to use reasonable age verification. Louisiana’s law took effect on 1 January 2023 and forbids keeping identifying information once access has been granted. Utah’s took effect on 3 May 2023 and only covers users in Utah. Mississippi’s took effect on 1 July 2023.

The site can set the age threshold by visitor location, so one flow handles states with different rules.

How Veratad verifies age from identity data

The visitor enters their name, address and date of birth, optionally with the last four or all nine SSN digits, and Veratad checks them against data sources to return PASS or FAIL in seconds, with no camera or document. A free test key lets a developer try the API against a test database before going live.

What happens when the data check fails

The VX platform chains methods without code. If data fails, the visitor moves to an ID with a selfie, a selfie age estimate, knowledge-based questions or phone two-factor authentication. Veratad says this orchestration raises completion to 90% on average and cuts cost per verification by 20%. Unclear IDs can go to human review, which takes 90 seconds in most cases. Visitors can also present a reusable digital ID through IDMax, launched in 2024. Integration runs through a REST API, a web SDK in an iframe, or iOS and Android SDKs.

Veratad data coverage outside the US

Veratad documents data checks in about 60 countries, with the share of adults covered: 90% in the UK, 70% in France and Germany, 67% in Italy, 60% in Spain, 75% in Mexico. For a UK site, that means most visitors can pass without a camera. Veratad’s age pages do not cover the UK Online Safety Act or Ofcom’s guidance.

Is Veratad trustworthy?

Veratad is a privately held New Jersey company that was already filing comments on parental consent and age checks with the FTC in 2013. Its public ratings are good but thin: 4.7 out of 5 on G2, from seven reviews, with the price called “a bit steep” by one reviewer.

How much does Veratad cost?

Veratad publishes no prices. Its cost calculator only says its per-verification prices are “about the same as other vendors”, and argues for savings on drop-offs and staff time. Veratad holds ISO/IEC 27566-1:2025 certification since April 2026, ACCS certification since August 2025 with a 0% false acceptance rate on document checks, ISO 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2. It keeps data while the client account is active and as audits require, without a set period, and claims more than 100 million people verified.

Veratad strengths and limitations