Sift is a fraud prevention platform that scores account, payment and content risk in real time using a global signal network — pitched at marketplaces, fintechs and digital platforms with enough volume to feed the model.
Sift runs a global fraud-signal network with data on roughly 1 billion users and uses that pool to score risk on payments, account creation, login, content posting and promo abuse in real time. It is the dominant pick for marketplace and fintech operators with enough transaction volume to make the platform worth the floor price. For low-volume SaaS or single-channel ecommerce, Sift is generally over-specified — the better-fit alternative is Stripe Radar or Sardine.
You instrument Sift via a JavaScript SDK on your front end and a server-side API for events. Every account creation, login, transaction, listing, message, refund and chargeback is sent as an event with metadata. Sift maps the event against its global graph — device fingerprints, email domain history, IP reputation, behavioural signals — and returns a risk score from 0–100 plus a recommended decision (allow, hold, block).
You then feed those decisions into your own logic. Most teams configure auto-block thresholds at score 90+, manual-review queues at 60–90, and pass-through under 60. The platform also offers a Workflows engine for building rule chains alongside ML scores, plus a case-management UI for fraud analysts to review held transactions.
Sift does not publish pricing. Reported quotes start around $30,000–$40,000 per year for a small platform under $10M GMV and scale to $200,000+ for marketplaces processing nine-figure annual volume. Pricing is typically a base platform fee plus per-event or per-decision fees that step down as volume grows. Multi-product bundles (Payment Protection + Account Defense + Content Integrity) are negotiated, not menu-priced.
This is the single biggest reason Sift is not a fit for early-stage teams. If your monthly fraud loss is under $5k, paying $40k+/year for prevention rarely pencils. The threshold for ROI is roughly when fraud losses plus chargeback fees plus manual review labour exceed $80k–$100k/year.
| Dimension | Sift | Stripe Radar | Forter | Riskified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network size | ~1B users | Stripe ecosystem | 1B+ identities | Network-effect on top retailers |
| Pricing model | Custom annual | $0.05/screened txn | Performance/CB-guarantee | CB-guarantee |
| Use case fit | Marketplaces, fintech | Stripe-native ecommerce | Enterprise ecommerce | Enterprise retail |
| Setup time | 4–8 weeks | 1 day | 4–6 weeks | 4–8 weeks |
| Best for | Multi-product abuse risk | Card-not-present fraud only | Promised-CB economics | High-AOV retail |
Stripe Radar is the obvious starting point for any platform on Stripe — it is cheap, instant and good enough for most card-not-present fraud. Sift wins when you need to score non-payment risk (account creation, content abuse, promo abuse, marketplace seller fraud) alongside payments, and when the volume justifies the floor. Forter and Riskified compete on chargeback-guarantee economics rather than pure ML scores.
| Situation | Sift fit |
|---|---|
| Two-sided marketplace with seller and buyer risk | Strong fit |
| Fintech with account-takeover and ATO risk | Strong fit |
| Stripe-native SaaS, fraud loss under $5k/mo | Skip — Stripe Radar is enough |
| Direct-to-consumer ecommerce, $10–50M GMV | Mixed — Forter or Riskified often cheaper |
| Need chargeback-guarantee economics | Skip — Forter/Riskified specialise here |
| Promo and referral abuse on a freemium SaaS | Good fit if abuse losses cross $80k/yr |
Marketplaces like resale platforms and creator networks face coordinated fraud rings and payment chargebacks. Sift detects fake seller accounts, stolen payment methods, and buyer collusion before they drain trust and revenue. Real-time scoring lets legitimate transactions flow while blocking organized abuse.
Payment processors and embedded finance platforms need sub-second fraud decisions to stay competitive. Sift integrates into payment authorization flows and flags high-risk transactions for additional verification or decline. Teams report 30–50% reduction in fraud losses within six months.
SaaS platforms hosting sensitive data face account takeover attacks and credential reuse. Sift monitors login patterns, device fingerprints, and identity shifts to catch compromised accounts. Reduces support tickets from hacked accounts and protects customer data without friction.
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| Feature | Sift |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Cheapest paid plan | $0/mo |
| Annual discount | Up to 25% |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Setup time | < 1 hour |
| Best for | Founders |
“Best ML fraud platform at scale — not for early-stage”
“Chargeback win rate improved with Sift evidence packages”
“Reduced payment fraud by 78% on our marketplace”
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