Choosing between AffixIO and a hosted IDV bureau is not about which logo looks more enterprise. It is about where the record lives and what you are willing to copy every time someone asks a question.
A fintech that onboarded customers through a bureau three years ago faces a different problem today. Core banking holds verified identity. Product launches a secured card and needs a fresh eligibility check. Sending everyone through document scan again works, but it annoys customers and duplicates data you already trust. The architecture question is whether the new check needs a new vault or a new proof on the host that already holds the truth.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Hosted IDV bureau | AffixIO |
|---|---|---|
| Primary data flow | Send documents and PII to vendor | Prove on your host, export signed outcome |
| Best for | Greenfield KYC, liveness, watchlists | Repeat checks on existing records |
| Typical output | Vendor reference ID + risk score | Signed yes/no + ML-DSA attestation |
| Offline / outage | Depends on vendor SLA | Offline queues with signed provisional outcomes |
| DPIA impact | New processor and sub-processors | Stays inside your boundary |
| Pricing shape | Per check, tiered volumes | See Pricing |
Read this as a decision tree
If you do not hold verified identity yet, a bureau gets you moving. Capture, liveness, and watchlist screening in one integration is a sensible trade when you have no system of record.
If you do hold entitlement data and only need to re-validate it, copying everything outward is expensive in privacy and ops. You pay per check, add processors, and train support staff on vendor reference IDs that mean nothing in your CRM.
The bureau is excellent at first hello. AffixIO is built for the hundredth question you already know the answer to locally.
Hybrid estates are normal
Large organisations rarely pick one tool. Onboarding stays with a bureau. Annual reconfirmation, right-to-work refresh, and product eligibility run on the host beside the record. The integration burden shifts from "sync every document" to "verify this signature."
On the host
The prove step
Where AffixIO sits next to a hosted IDV bureau
You do not have to rip out a bureau to add prove-on-host. AffixIO is the repeat-check layer after first hello has already happened.
- First helloYour bureau
- ThenOn-host prove
- LeavesSigned re-check
The bureau still handles document capture, liveness and watchlists at onboarding. AffixIO handles the questions after that, when core banking, HR, CRM or housing already hold a record. Product gates, annual refresh and right-to-work reconfirmation call prove. Onboarding can still call the bureau.
What stays on the host
- The established record. Prove uses fields the bureau helped create at onboarding. It does not need those fields copied back out.
- Repeat questions. Feature gates and refresh cycles do not need a full IDV fee every time.
- Offline branches. The bureau API can be up while your uplink is not.
- Long retention attestations. ML-DSA-65 outlives classical signatures on files you must keep.
What the CRM receives
- A signed yes or no. Tools you already run can store that row.
- Fewer processors on repeat paths. The default is not another copy to the bureau.
- An outcome you own. Not only a vendor reference ID.
- A side-by-side trial. Run proofs next to the current bureau contract before you change routing.
Explore Product or Request Access when you want to test prove-on-host against your own records.