Age Verification for Small Businesses
Priced for Your Size
Check customers' ages with a real ID or selfie check, without an enterprise contract, a sales call or a developer. Cheaper than checking IDs by hand, and far more professional for your customers.
When a small business needs age verification
Age rules rarely care how big you are. A two-person vape shop and a national chain face the same age of sale, from the first order.
If any of these sounds like your business, you are already checking ages somehow — or you should be. A short summary, not legal advice:
Vape & tobacco shops
Selling e-liquids, devices, cigars or nicotine pouches online. In the US the federal minimum age is 21. US vape store rules.
Wine, beer & spirits
Liquor stores, wineries, craft breweries and gift-box sellers taking orders online or for local delivery. UK online alcohol rules.
CBD & hemp
Keep CBD, hemp and other adult-only products behind a real check at checkout, with the age threshold set per country.
Knives, blades & outdoor gear
Bushcraft, kitchen and hunting retailers where the age of sale applies to the blade, not to the shop.
Bars, restaurants & delivery
Alcohol on an online menu or a delivery order: check the age before the order is paid, not on the doorstep.
18+ events & experiences
Club nights, tastings, tattoo and piercing studios, and rentals with a minimum age: verify at booking instead of turning people away at the door.
Dating, communities & creators
Small dating apps, 18+ forums and creator sites keeping minors and fake profiles out. More for dating apps.
Marketplaces & services
When you need to know a seller, tenant or member is a real adult, the same document check works as Lite KYC at the same price.
Checking IDs by hand costs more than $0.30
Asking customers to email a photo of their ID, or checking it at the door, looks free. It isn't.
It takes your team's time
Opening the email, zooming into the photo, checking the date of birth, replying, releasing the order. If that takes five minutes of a team member paid $20 an hour, one check costs about $1.67 in time alone — more than five times the price of a ProofAge check, and it happens while that person could be packing orders or serving customers.
It slows down every order
A customer who has to send a photo and wait for a reply often doesn't come back. An automated check finishes in under 30 seconds, inside your checkout, at any hour — including the weekend orders nobody is around to approve.
It leaves ID photos in your inbox
Every emailed passport or driver's license is personal data you now have to protect, and a liability if that mailbox is ever breached. With ProofAge you keep a verification ID and the result, not a folder of documents.
It doesn't prove much afterwards
A glance at a photo can't spot a well-made fake, and it leaves no consistent record. ProofAge checks the document, matches it to the customer's face with a liveness check, then gives every check an ID you can attach to the order if a regulator or payment provider asks.
A smooth, branded check at checkout tells customers you take their privacy and the law seriously — the way bigger stores do it. A request to email a photo of their passport tells them the opposite.
Built for small businesses, not for banks
Most identity verification platforms are designed and priced for banks, fintechs and large platforms. Here is what that means for a small shop.
| Feature | ProofAge | Veriff (Essential) | Sumsub (Basic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per check | $0.30 | $0.80 | $1.35 |
| Monthly commitment | $30, including 100 checks | $49 minimum | $149 minimum |
| Free to start | 500 verifications, no time limit, no card | 15 days, up to 50 sessions, no card | 14 days, up to 50 checks |
| How to start | Sign up online | Sign up online | Sign up online |
| Built for | Age checks for shops, apps and services | Identity verification and KYC | Identity verification, KYC and AML |
Prices from each company's own website, checked on 2 October 2026. Veriff and Sumsub are full identity platforms with features like sanctions screening that an age check doesn't need, so this compares the cost of solving the age question, not the platforms as a whole. Larger volumes are quoted individually by every vendor, including us. Full pricing comparison.
What a small business gets with ProofAge
The same platform larger customers use. No cut-down tier for small accounts.
No developer needed
Install the Shopify app or the WordPress plugin with WooCommerce support, and the check runs at checkout. Custom sites get a REST API and official SDKs.
Your brand, not ours
The verification flow is white-label. Customers stay on your site, see your name and finish in under 30 seconds on their phone or computer. See what customers experience.
Pay only for finished checks
Abandoned or timed-out sessions are not charged. Returning customers can skip the full check on later orders, so you don't pay twice for the same person.
A cheaper check when an ID isn't needed
Selfie age estimation costs $0.05 and asks for no document. Customers close to the age threshold are sent to a document check automatically.
A record for every check
Each check returns a verification ID you can keep with the order, and you set the age threshold per country — 18, 19 or 21 where the law requires it.
Privacy handled for you
Data is processed in the EU and encrypted in transit and at rest. We act as your data processor under a Data Processing Agreement and never sell data.
Live in an afternoon
No procurement, no onboarding call, no annual contract.
Sign up for free
Create an account and get your API keys. The first 500 live verifications are free and need no card, and test mode is always free.
Connect your store
Install the Shopify app or WordPress plugin and paste your keys, or call the API from your own site or app.
Verify real customers
Choose where the check runs — the whole site, selected pages, add-to-cart or checkout — and switch to live mode.
Standard plan doesn't fit? Let's talk
Small businesses don't all look alike. If your sales are seasonal, you run several shops, you only need a handful of checks a month, or something else makes the standard plan awkward, tell us. We are open to individual terms.
- ✓Write in the chat in your ProofAge dashboard — it goes straight to the team.
- ✓Message us on LinkedIn.
- ✓Email sales@proofage.xyz or use the contact form.
Not launched yet? The Startup Program verifies your beta users for free until launch. Registered charities get free age verification for non-profits.
Age verification for small businesses: FAQ
How much does age verification cost for a small business?+
$0.30 per completed document check and $0.05 per selfie age estimation. The first 500 verifications are free, with no time limit. After that there is a $30 monthly minimum, which already includes up to 100 verifications. Abandoned or timed-out sessions are not charged, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Is there a small-business exemption from age verification rules?+
Usually not. Age-of-sale rules for alcohol, tobacco, vapes and knives apply to the first order, whatever the size of the shop. Some platform rules, like the EU Digital Services Act duty to protect minors, exempt micro and small enterprises, but product rules generally don't. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Do I need a developer to add age verification?+
Not on Shopify or WordPress. Install the ProofAge app from the Shopify App Store or the ProofAge Age Verification plugin from WordPress.org, paste your API keys and choose where the check runs. Custom sites and apps use the REST API and the official PHP, Laravel, Node.js and Python packages.
Is it really cheaper than checking IDs by hand?+
In most cases, yes. If a manual check takes five minutes of a team member paid $20 an hour, it costs about $1.67 in time alone, more than five times the $0.30 ProofAge charges. Manual checks also mean storing photos of customers' IDs in an inbox, and they leave no consistent record to show an inspector.
Why not use Veriff, Sumsub or another identity verification platform?+
You can, but they are built for banks and regulated onboarding, and priced for it. On 2 October 2026, Veriff's cheapest self-serve plan cost $0.80 per verification with a $49 monthly minimum, and Sumsub's cost $1.35 with a $149 monthly minimum. If you only need to know that a customer is old enough, a full KYC platform is a more expensive answer to a smaller question.
Will my customers have to verify on every order?+
No. ProofAge supports one-time verification for returning customers, so a verified customer can skip the full check on later orders, depending on your policy and integration.
What do my customers see during the check?+
Your brand, not ours. The flow is white-label: the customer photographs an ID document or takes a selfie on their phone or computer and gets an answer in under 30 seconds, without leaving your site to email anyone a photo.
Can we get individual terms?+
Yes. If your volume is seasonal, you run several shops, or the standard plan doesn't fit, tell us. Write in the chat in your ProofAge dashboard, message us on LinkedIn or email sales@proofage.xyz, and we will look at it together.
What happens to my customers' data?+
ProofAge processes data in the EU, encrypts it in transit and at rest, and keeps it only as long as needed. We act as your data processor under a GDPR Data Processing Agreement and never sell data. You get a verification ID for each check instead of a folder of ID photos to look after.
Stop checking IDs by hand
Give your customers a fast, professional age check and give your team their time back. $0.30 per check, the first 500 free, no card needed.
Start free: 500 verificationsQuestions first? Write to sales@proofage.xyz or contact our team.