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ComplyAdvantage is one of the most recognized names in compliance technology. It offers a comprehensive AML intelligence platform covering sanctions, PEP screening, adverse media, transaction monitoring, and KYC workflows. For regulated financial institutions, it is a strong product.
But for the majority of companies that only need sanctions screening, ComplyAdvantage is expensive, complex, and significantly more than what the job requires.
Four reasons come up consistently when companies start evaluating alternatives:
1. Price. ComplyAdvantage does not publish pricing publicly. Based on reported figures, plans start around $3,000/month and scale to $10,000+/month for mid-market organizations. For a company that only screens against OFAC SDN and a handful of other sanctions lists, this is difficult to justify.
2. Feature bloat. ComplyAdvantage bundles sanctions screening with KYC, PEP databases, adverse media monitoring, and AML transaction monitoring. If your compliance obligation is sanctions-only — which is the case for most B2B SaaS companies, exporters, marketplaces, and professional services firms — you are paying for capabilities you will never use.
3. Annual contracts. ComplyAdvantage typically requires annual commitments. This creates vendor lock-in before you have had a chance to evaluate fit, and makes it expensive to switch if the product does not meet your needs.
4. Long onboarding. Implementation timelines of weeks to months are common, often involving professional services fees on top of the subscription. For a team that needs to be compliant next week, not next quarter, this is a problem.
If any of these apply to you, the alternatives below are worth evaluating.
SanctScan is a dedicated sanctions screening platform built for companies that need sanctions compliance without a full AML suite. It covers 7 major sanctions lists — OFAC SDN, US Consolidated Screening List, EU, UN, UK HMT, Australian DFAT, and Swiss SECO — with continuous monitoring, webhook alerts, and a clean API.
Where SanctScan stands apart is focus. There is no PEP database, no adverse media feed, no KYC module. This is intentional. By doing sanctions screening only, SanctScan delivers faster matching, simpler integration, and pricing that starts at zero.
Key features:
Pricing:
| Plan | Price | Screens/Month | Monitored Entities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 | 10 |
| Starter | $29/month | 1,000 | 100 |
| Growth | $149/month | Unlimited | 1,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | Unlimited |
No annual contract. No implementation fees. Self-serve signup — most teams are live in production the same day.
Best for: B2B SaaS companies, exporters, trade finance, marketplaces, professional services firms, and any organization that needs sanctions compliance without paying for a full AML platform.
Pros:
Cons:
Sanction Scanner is a Turkish-headquartered compliance platform that combines sanctions screening with PEP and adverse media databases. It positions itself as a mid-market alternative to enterprise AML platforms.
Key features:
Pricing: Custom pricing based on volume. Reported starting costs are lower than ComplyAdvantage but still involve annual commitments for most plans. Expect $500–$2,000/month depending on volume and feature set.
Best for: Companies that need both sanctions and PEP screening in a single tool at a lower price point than ComplyAdvantage.
Pros:
Cons:
sanctions.io is an API-first sanctions screening service. It is designed for developers who want to embed sanctions checks directly into their application without using a compliance dashboard.
Key features:
Pricing: Usage-based pricing starting at approximately $100/month for low volume. Higher tiers scale with API call volume. Pricing is more transparent than ComplyAdvantage but varies by contract.
Best for: Engineering teams building compliance checks directly into their product who want an API without a dashboard or UI layer.
Pros:
Cons:
NameScan offers sanctions and PEP screening on a pay-per-search model. This makes it accessible for companies with low or unpredictable screening volumes who do not want a monthly subscription.
Key features:
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go starting at approximately $0.15–$0.30 per search. Monthly plans available for higher volumes. No minimum commitment on the pay-per-search model.
Best for: Small businesses, solo practitioners, law firms, and accountants who screen fewer than 100 entities per month and want to pay only for what they use.
Pros:
Cons:
OpenSanctions is an open-source project that aggregates sanctions, PEP, and related data into a unified, freely available dataset. It is not a screening platform — it is the data layer that you build screening on top of.
Key features:
Pricing: The dataset is free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires a data license starting at approximately EUR 500/month. Self-hosting costs (infrastructure, maintenance, engineering time) are additional.
Best for: Engineering teams with the resources to build and maintain their own screening infrastructure, or organizations that need sanctions data for research and analysis.
Pros:
Cons:
Ondato is a Lithuanian compliance platform offering KYC, sanctions screening, and AML monitoring. It targets mid-market companies in Europe and positions itself as a more affordable alternative to ComplyAdvantage and Refinitiv.
Key features:
Pricing: Custom pricing, but reported costs start around $500–$1,500/month depending on features and volume — significantly below ComplyAdvantage for comparable capabilities.
Best for: European companies that need a full compliance suite (KYC + sanctions + AML) but cannot justify ComplyAdvantage pricing.
Pros:
Cons:
Alessa (formerly CaseWare RCM) provides AML compliance, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring for mid-market financial institutions. It offers on-premise and cloud deployment options.
Key features:
Pricing: Custom pricing based on institution size and deployment model. Reported costs range from $2,000–$5,000/month for mid-market deployments — lower than ComplyAdvantage for comparable AML capabilities.
Best for: Mid-market banks, credit unions, and financial institutions that need full AML capabilities but find ComplyAdvantage too expensive or too focused on fintech use cases.
Pros:
Cons:
| Starting Price | Sanctions | PEP | Adverse Media | KYC | API | Monitoring | Contract | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SanctScan | Free | Yes (7 lists) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Monthly |
| Sanction Scanner | ~$500/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Annual typical |
| sanctions.io | ~$100/mo | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Monthly |
| NameScan | ~$0.15/search | Yes | Yes | No | No | Limited | Limited | Pay-as-you-go |
| OpenSanctions | Free (non-commercial) | Yes | Yes | No | No | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | License |
| Ondato | ~$500/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Annual typical |
| Alessa | ~$2,000/mo | Yes | No | No | No | Limited | Yes | Annual |
| ComplyAdvantage | ~$3,000/mo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Annual |
The right alternative depends on what you actually need — not what a vendor wants to sell you.
If you only need sanctions screening: SanctScan is the clearest choice. It covers the major global lists, includes monitoring and webhooks, and costs a fraction of any full AML platform. You can be live today with a free account.
If you need sanctions + PEP screening: Sanction Scanner offers both in a single platform at a lower price point than ComplyAdvantage.
If you are an engineering team building compliance into your product: sanctions.io or SanctScan give you a clean API without unnecessary UI overhead. SanctScan has the advantage of also providing a dashboard for your compliance team.
If you have very low volume: NameScan's pay-per-search model means you only pay when you screen. For firms screening fewer than 50 entities per month, this can be the most economical option.
If you want full control over the data: OpenSanctions gives you the raw dataset to build on. This only makes sense if you have the engineering resources to maintain a screening pipeline.
If you need a full compliance suite but cheaper: Ondato delivers KYC, sanctions, PEP, and AML monitoring at roughly one-third the cost of ComplyAdvantage, with strong European coverage.
If you are a mid-market financial institution: Alessa provides purpose-built banking compliance tools at a lower price point than ComplyAdvantage, with on-premise deployment options.
ComplyAdvantage is a good product for organizations that need a comprehensive AML platform. But most companies searching for ComplyAdvantage alternatives have realized they are paying enterprise AML prices for what is fundamentally a sanctions screening need.
If sanctions compliance is your primary requirement, you do not need a $3,000–$10,000/month platform. You need accurate screening against the right lists, continuous monitoring, audit documentation, and an API that integrates cleanly into your workflow.
SanctScan does exactly that — starting at $0/month with a free tier that includes 100 screens and 10 monitored entities, scaling to $29/month for 1,000 screens and $149/month for unlimited screening. No annual contract. No onboarding call. No features you will never use.
Start screening for free today — or read how SanctScan compares to ComplyAdvantage in detail.