Shufti named leader in age verification & estimation

Shufti has been named a Leader in both the Age Verification and Age Estimation categories of Liminal's 2026 index report, placing it among a small group of vendors recognised in both assessments.

Liminal assessed 189 vendors in the Age Verification Index and 80 in the Age Estimation Index. In each category, 17 companies met the threshold for Leader status, and Shufti also received an "Exceptional" rating for Market Presence in both.

The research group scores identity verification suppliers across Product Execution, Strategy and Market Presence. In the Age Verification Index, Shufti scored 64% in Product Execution, above the 42% leadership threshold, and 92% in Strategy.

In Age Estimation, it again scored above the leadership cut-off in both Strategy and Product Execution. Liminal's assessment examined factors including scale, coverage, innovation, verification accuracy, fraud resistance and user experience.

Market pressure

The rankings come as the age assurance sector faces rising scrutiny from buyers and regulators. Liminal's findings suggest older approaches are under strain, with many suppliers still relying on static models that do not adapt to new fraud tactics.

According to the report, 62% of the market still uses static models, while only 4% applies a continuous learning approach. It also found that roughly six in ten practitioners using facial age estimation have triggered internal reviews of their methods.

Demand for stronger checks is expected to rise. Liminal projected a 27% increase over the next two years in the share of users required to complete full age verification, from 48% to 61%.

Buyers surveyed by the firm ranked scalability as the most important factor in choosing an age assurance provider, at 93%. Accuracy, compliance alignment, internal user experience and pricing followed at 91% each.

Shufti said its age assurance system combines four methods in a single decision layer: facial age estimation, database look-ups, government ID verification and liveness checks. Customers can set confidence thresholds, add safety margins around age cut-offs such as 16+ and 18+, and direct users to higher-assurance checks when an estimate falls close to a regulatory boundary.

Age estimation decisions are returned in less than a second, while full liveness and deepfake checks usually complete within seconds, according to the company. It added that end-user data is deleted immediately after each decision by default.

Liminal highlighted Shufti's in-house identity verification platform and full-stack ownership as operational strengths. The report also pointed to privacy-focused on-device age estimation, which can run in a browser or on a device without internet connectivity and without transmitting facial data.

The model can also issue reusable age tokens for repeat checks. Liminal said this approach may suit jurisdictions with tighter privacy expectations and use cases where businesses want to reduce data exposure.

Third-party testing

The report cited several external validations held by Shufti, including iBeta Level 1 and Level 2 certifications for liveness detection and recognition by KJM in Germany for serving regulated content. It also referred to the company's participation in the National Institute of Standards and Technology Face Analysis Technology Evaluation, where it placed within the top 15 across several Challenge 25 and Child Online Safety measures.

Separate from the index, Shufti said it also holds iBeta Level 3 certification for single-selfie passive liveness detection. It added that it was named a top performer in the Department of Homeland Security's 2025 Remote Identity Validation Rally and was one of five out of 16 vendors to record a false match rate below 0.01%.

Shufti said internal benchmarking on a 100,000-image dataset across a range of demographics showed strong accuracy in age estimation, with performance tracked by race and gender rather than by aggregate averages alone.

Global reach

Liminal also pointed to the company's scale, saying it serves more than 2,000 businesses and operates across more than 240 countries and territories. The report noted stated capacity of up to one million verification requests a day.

According to the report, its customer base spans eCommerce, marketplaces, gaming, dating, adult content, pharmaceuticals and regulated retail. Those sectors are facing a growing overlap between access control requirements and fraud and identity risks.

Shahid Hanif said the dual ranking reflected how clients were using the product. "Achieving Leader status in both Age Estimation and Age Verification reflects what our customers experience every day: risk-based age assurance that is accurate, scalable and privacy-preserving by design," said Shahid Hanif, Chief Executive Officer at Shufti. "We've built systems resilient to emerging fraud patterns like deepfakes and synthetic identities, while keeping verification fast and secure for legitimate users. Regulators are raising the bar, and our customers are scaling faster than ever. This recognition validates our commitment to delivering compliance without compromising user experience."

Tom Gadsden outlined how Shufti sees the market changing. "The market is moving from single-approach age gates to layered, evidence-backed decisions in milliseconds. We enable businesses to select from a range of robust assurance methods, and consumers to pick the option that works for them, including managing fallbacks, while preserving end-user privacy by default. That balance of accuracy, speed and privacy is what differentiates Shufti from other vendors," said Gadsden.