Five providers are available in the Providers section of the User Verification screen. Four are third-party services needing an account and credentials; one is built in and needs neither.
The providers
- Internal (Email Domain Check) — built in and ready to use. Affiliation only. No account, no cost.
- Entrust / Onfido — document and biometric checking. Identity and age.
- Stripe Identity — document and biometric checking. Identity and age. Can reuse the Stripe account you already use for payments.
- SheerID — eligibility verification for student, military, teacher and similar programmes. Affiliation and age.
- GoCertify — eligibility verification, with configurable connection settings. Affiliation.
What each asks for
- Onfido — an API token, a region (EU, US or Canada) and a webhook token. The region must match the region your Onfido account was created in, or every request is rejected.
- Stripe Identity — a secret key, which can be left blank to reuse your existing payments key, and the webhook signing secret from the Stripe dashboard.
- SheerID — an access token, and optionally a webhook secret.
- GoCertify — an API key and a webhook secret, which is required.
Secrets are write-only
Secret fields never display what is stored. They appear blank with an indication that a value is set, and saving an empty secret leaves it unchanged rather than deleting it. Use the Clear button to remove one deliberately.
Always start in sandbox
Every provider has a sandbox setting, switched on when it arrives. Test against the provider's test environment first. A verification that misbehaves in production either blocks legitimate customers or waves through people it should not, and both are expensive to discover late.
Switching a provider off
Disabling a provider strands every type pointing at it. The screen tells you which types will stop working, by name, before you confirm.
Worked Examples
- Starting cheaply: use the internal provider for staff and student domains before paying for anything.
- Already using Stripe: Stripe Identity avoids a second commercial relationship and can reuse your existing key.
- Global student programme: SheerID, which verifies institutions you could never enumerate yourself.