Cheapest Anti-Money Laundering Check in the UK (2026 Cost Comparison)

The cheapest AML check software in the UK is FigsFlow at £2.10 plus VAT per check, on a platform fee that starts at £8 plus VAT a month. Most UK providers sit between £2.00 and £6.00 per check, with annual licences, monthly minimums, and separate charges for PEP screening and ongoing monitoring layered on top.

This guide breaks down what an AML check must include, the current price across seven UK providers, why prices vary so much, and how to pick a provider without overpaying for features you will never use.

What is the cheapest AML check software in the UK?

FigsFlow is the cheapest AML check software in the UK at £2.10 plus VAT per check. It pairs that rate with a platform fee starting at £8 plus VAT a month, and bundles PEP screening, sanctions screening, ongoing monitoring, CDD, EDD workflows, and a Firm-Wide Risk Assessment into the same price.

Here is the short version at the two volumes most practices run:

AML check cost comparison: UK providers in 2026

How to read this table. The column that decides the winner is not “per check”, it is “what costs extra”. A £2.50 headline that bills PEP and sanctions screening at £1.50 and then charges ongoing monitoring per client per month is a £6 check wearing a £2.50 label. Read across, not down.

Three traps the totals expose. Licences priced by client count rather than by check volume mean a practice with 100 clients and 30 checks still pays the 100-client rate — that is what puts IRIS Elements at £922 rather than £400. Upfront bundles turn unused checks into sunk cost, which is why Creditserve’s range is so wide at the same volume. And a plan with checks “included” has an allowance written into the agreement rather than on the pricing page, so the real number only surfaces once you exceed it.

Why FigsFlow lands at £2.10 with nothing in the “costs extra” column. AML sits as one module inside a client onboarding platform rather than as a standalone product. The screening data, the monitoring, the risk assessments and the audit trail are already carried by a platform fee that also covers proposals, engagement letters and e-signature, so none of it has to be recovered through the check. A standalone provider has no other line to put those costs on, which is why unbundling is the norm at the rest of the table.

All prices exclude VAT and are taken from each provider’s own published rate card, checked on 4 September 2026. Some providers publish ranges, tie their lowest rate to a volume commitment, or quote only on request — the table says which. Totals at 100 checks a year assume UK individual checks with no company reports or international documents. Verify directly with the provider before committing; where a provider does not publish a rate card, the all-in cost can only be established in writing.

Why does AML check pricing vary so much?

Wide pricing ranges are not arbitrary. They reflect four structural differences across providers.

• Volume tier discounts and minimum commitments. Some providers offer the lowest per-check rate only after the firm commits to a bundle of 100 or 250 checks. A practice running 30 checks a year still pays for the bundle.
• Bundled versus unbundled features. The headline per-check rate may exclude PEP screening, ongoing monitoring, or EDD workflows. Once these are added, total cost per client can double.
• International coverage premium. UK-only checks are cheaper than checks that cover non-UK identity documents, foreign PEP databases, or cross-border sanctions screening. A firm with mostly UK clients pays for capability it never uses.
• Per-user versus per-check pricing. Some platforms scale by user seat. Adding a junior accountant increases the AML cost even if check volume stays flat. Per-check pricing keeps cost tied to actual usage.

A useful test before signing: ask the provider for the all-in annual cost for the firm’s expected check volume, including every module needed to meet MLR 2017 obligations. If they cannot quote it, the headline rate is not the real rate.

Pay-as-you-go or subscription: which AML check pricing suits your firm?

The break-even point sits lower than most practices expect. Pay-as-you-go means buying credits and drawing them down with no monthly commitment, which suits a firm running fewer than about 30 AML checks a year, a practice with seasonal onboarding, or anyone testing a provider before committing. The trade-off is a higher headline rate per AML check and, at most providers, credits that expire after twelve months.

A subscription means a monthly or annual platform fee with a lower rate per AML check, and usually the inclusions that pay-as-you-go leaves out: risk assessments, EDD workflows, ongoing monitoring and the audit trail. At 30 AML checks a year an £8 monthly fee costs £96 and saves £27 on check fees, so the arithmetic alone favours pay-as-you-go. At 100 AML checks it breaks even. Above that, the subscription wins outright.

Which is why the arithmetic is the wrong test. The reason to sit on a subscription at 30 AML checks a year is not the per-check saving; it is that the Firm-Wide Risk Assessment, the client risk assessments and the EDD workflow come with it, and buying those separately costs more than the subscription does. Three things to confirm in any quote: whether unused AML checks roll over, whether the fee is per user or per firm, and whether annual billing is genuinely cheaper than monthly. On more than one rate card in the comparison above, it is not.

What is an AML fee, and what does it actually cover?

An AML fee is the charge for running an AML check on a client. It travels under several names — AML search fee, AML verification fee, ID check fee, compliance fee — and the wording tells you nothing about what you are buying. What matters is which components of a compliant AML check sit inside the fee, and which are billed on top.

Three different things get called an AML fee, and they cost very different amounts. The first is the software cost per AML check: what a provider charges your firm to run one, which the table above puts between £2.10 and £6.00 per AML check among UK providers that publish rates. The second is the fee a firm charges its own client — some practices absorb the AML check as an overhead, others recharge it at cost or with a handling margin. That is a commercial decision rather than a regulatory one, and it belongs in the engagement letter rather than appearing as a surprise on the first invoice. The third is HMRC’s supervision fees, payable whether you run one AML check or a thousand.

If an estate agent, conveyancer or letting agent has charged you an AML fee on a property transaction, that is the second category, and the amount is set by that firm rather than by any regulation. This guide is written for the practices running the AML checks.

Is there a free AML check in the UK?

No — not one that discharges your customer due diligence obligations. Free tools exist and they are useful as far as they go. Companies House gives you registered details, officers and PSC data at no cost. The UK sanctions list is published by OFSI and searchable free. Several providers bundle a block of checks into a trial: 50 free AML checks over 14 days at one, 50 free sessions over 15 days at another, 30 days at FigsFlow.

What none of them produces is the thing a supervisor asks to see: a verified identity document checked against the issuing authority, screened against maintained PEP and sanctions data, monitored for change, and recorded with a timestamp and a risk decision you can still produce five years later. Free sources are inputs to an AML check. They are not the AML check.

There is a second reason free searching does not hold up. PEP and sanctions data has to be licensed and maintained, and designations change weekly. A free list is a snapshot, and a snapshot cannot support ongoing monitoring — if your process depends on someone remembering to re-search, it is not a process. The realistic floor for a compliant online AML check in the UK is around £2 plus a platform fee. Below that, something is missing.

How to reduce your AML compliance costs

Six changes that cut the bill without cutting the standard.

Stop paying for international coverage you never use. If your client base is domestic, a rate card built around non-UK documents and foreign PEP databases is charging you for capability you never draw on. UK-only AML checks are materially cheaper at most providers.

Consolidate the stack. A typical practice pays for an AML check tool, a proposal tool, an engagement letter tool and an e-signature tool. Four subscriptions, four renewal dates, and client data retyped between them. Where those sit in one platform, the saving is not only the licence fees — it is the rekeying, and the records that stop disagreeing with each other.

Re-tier on last year’s actual volume. Licences priced by client count are usually sized on a projection that never arrived. Count the AML checks you genuinely ran and renegotiate at renewal.

Check whether ongoing monitoring is billed per client per month. This is where an annual bill grows quietly: 100 monitored clients at £1 a month is £1,200 a year, often more than every initial AML check combined.

Apply EDD on a risk basis, not as standard. Enhanced due diligence is required for high-risk clients, not for all of them. Running it by default is not caution, it is spend.

Claim the small business refund. Firms with turnover below £5,000 can recover £500 once an application or annual declaration has been accepted, on submitting evidence of turnover. It is not automatic — you have to ask.

Why AML Checks in the UK Are Getting More Expensive

Three factors are pushing compliance costs higher in 2026:

HMRC Supervision Fee Increases

The Money Laundering Regulations allow HMRC to recover supervision costs through annual fees. In 2025, those fees jumped significantly:

• Premises Fee – £300 to £400 (33% increase). This affects 94% of supervised firms and represents HMRC’s first increase since 2019. If fees had tracked CPI inflation since then, they’d already be £387 to £390, so HMRC argues this is overdue.
• Fit & Proper Test Fee – £150 to £500 for money service businesses and trust/company service providers. HMRC cites an 80% surge in retesting between 2020-2021 and 2024-2025.
• Application Fee – £300 fee reintroduced for new registrations (though small businesses may reclaim it under the Small Business Fee scheme).

These baseline costs hit before you verify a single client.

Multiple Subscriptions & Add-On Costs

Finding the cheapest AML checks in the UK becomes harder when providers split costs across multiple charges:

• Per Check Pricing – Veriphy’s AML and anti-fraud check starts at £6.00. IRIS Elements charges £4.00 for an ID check with PEPs and sanctions monitoring, £5.00 for a biometric check, and £8.50 for a UK company report.
• Monthly Minimums – Veriff requires $49/month (about £39) minimum on its essential plan, plus $0.80 per verification. Higher tiers cost $99/month or more.
• Enterprise Tiers – ComplyAdvantage publishes $119 to $383 per month for 100 to 2,000 monitored entities, SEON starts at $699 per month, and Sanction Scanner starts at €990 per month. LSEG World-Check publishes no rate card at all — pricing is points-based and visible only after registering.
• Extra Modules – Ongoing monitoring, risk assessment templates, and integrations with practice management software often carry separate fees.

The result? A patchwork of tools costing £50 to £500+ per month, plus you still need proposal software (£30 to £70/month) and engagement letter tools.

Pay-Per-Check Inflation

Anti-money laundering checks in the UK keep getting more expensive. IRIS Elements charges £4.00 for a UK ID check with PEPs and sanctions monitoring, and £5.00 for a biometric check. Veriphy’s standalone biometric check starts at £3.50 on a single document, rising to £5.00 on two. Many providers charge separately for PEP/sanctions screening or ongoing monitoring, pushing the total cost per client verification to £6 to £10.

Multiply across dozens of clients, and your annual compliance bill rivals other major overheads like rent or software subscriptions.

Rising fees are exactly why many firms now reassess providers to secure the cheapest anti-money laundering check possible.

Why FigsFlow is the cheapest AML check software in the UK

FigsFlow prices AML as one module inside a complete client onboarding platform, not as a standalone product. The result is full MLR 2017 coverage at a per-check rate most providers charge for identity verification alone. There are three structural reasons that price holds, and none of them is a discount.

1. The check is not carrying the whole platform. A standalone AML provider has exactly one line on which to recover its screening data, its risk-assessment templates, its monitoring infrastructure and its audit trail: the check. So the check gets loaded, and the loading is disguised as “modules” — PEP screening at £1.50, monitoring per client per month, an EDD template in the premium tier. At FigsFlow the same costs sit against a platform fee that is already earning its keep on proposals, engagement letters, e-signature and payment collection. The AML check only has to cover the AML check.

2. The identity and screening data is rented, not married. Every identity check, biometric match, PEP and sanctions feed and registry lookup in FigsFlow sits behind a provider-neutral interface. Nothing downstream reads a supplier’s own field names or status codes — they map into one canonical result: verified, referred or not verified, at a stated level of confidence, screened against named sources on a named date. That sounds like an engineering detail. It is the reason the price is defensible. FigsFlow can route the same capability across more than one supplier by cost, quality or coverage, run a candidate in shadow mode against live traffic before switching, and fall back automatically on an outage. A supplier price rise becomes a routing change rather than a re-integration — and a firm negotiating with a second integration already warm gets a better number than a firm with one supplier welded into its product. Own the decision; rent the sensing; keep the sensing swappable.

3. One capture, two regimes. This is the part no other provider in the table does. Companies House identity verification under ECCTA 2023 is a separate legal regime from MLR customer due diligence — fixed for everyone, where CDD is risk-based — but it uses the same identity capture. Because FigsFlow already operates Companies House filing software and is used by AML-supervised firms that meet the ACSP prerequisite, a single verification of a director or PSC can satisfy the Companies House requirement and the CDD identity limb at once, with the two kept as distinct statuses so neither is ever passed off as the other. Verify once, use twice. Elsewhere that is two checks, two suppliers and, at one provider in the table above, £8.50 a company report on top.

What that means at the invoice. The cheapest AML check is not the lowest number on a rate card. It is the number you actually pay once screening, monitoring, risk assessment, company data and the audit trail are all in the price — and once you stop paying twice for the same identity.

The credentials behind the platform:

• Proposal Software of the Year 2026, SME 500 UK Awards
• AML/KYC Solution of the Year 2026, SME 500 UK Awards
• G2 rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
• Trustindex rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 (35 reviews)

What's Included in FigsFlow's £2.10 AML Check (Full Coverage)

Biometric ID Verification
Matches a client's photo against their passport or driving license to confirm the person presenting the ID is the real owner.

PEP & Sanctions Screening
Real-time searches across UK and global watchlists to flag politically exposed persons, sanctioned individuals, or high-risk entities. This is the check that many providers charge separately for, often £1.50 to £2+ per search.

Ongoing Monitoring
Automated alerts notify you if a client's status changes (new sanctions designation, PEP status update, adverse media). You stay compliant without manually rerunning checks. Most providers charge this as an extra module.

CDD & EDD Workflows
Guided customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence processes help you document evidence, assess risk levels, and maintain a complete audit trail. These templates are frequently sold separately or offered only in premium tiers.

Audit Ready Records
All checks generate exportable reports with timestamps and risk scores. When HMRC comes knocking, you hand over documentation in minutes instead of scrambling through scattered files.

FigsFlow vs the industry average: 100 AML checks per year

Annual saving with FigsFlow: £377 to £401 on an AML check budget of 100 checks a year.

The average is the mean annual total of the six other providers in the comparison table, excluding SmartSearch, whose enterprise pricing would pull the figure well past £4,000 and tell you nothing useful about a small practice. Individually those six run from £250 to £996 a year for the same 100 checks — a spread of almost four times for what is, on paper, the same AML check.

The gap widens once the firm stops paying separately for proposal and engagement letter software, which is already inside the FigsFlow platform fee. And it widens again at low volume: because the FigsFlow fee is £8 a month rather than an annual licence sized to your client list, a practice running 20 or 30 AML checks a year pays roughly £140 to £160 all-in, where a client-count licence charges the same whether you run one check or a hundred.

Beyond AML checks: what else FigsFlow does

FigsFlow is a complete client onboarding platform handling every stage of the client journey from initial proposal through ongoing compliance.

Proposals & Engagement Letters in 9 Clicks
Generate professional proposals and engagement letters with customisable templates, consistent pricing structures, and built-in e-signature workflows. Your signature automatically populates letters before they are sent to clients.

Automated Payment Collection

• GoCardless integration: Configure direct debit so clients can add bank details when signing engagement letters. Payments are deducted automatically from then on unless the client disengages.
• AdFin integration: Streamlined payment collection across all client services.

Disengagement Management
Generate disengagement letters automatically for services clients want to end. Edit before sending and maintain complete audit trails of service changes.

Company Data Import
Companies House and Irish CRO integration: Import organisation contact details and associated contacts directly into FigsFlow without manual data entry.

Team Collaboration & Integrations
Role-based access and permissions, HubSpot, Xero, QuickBooks, and Stripe integrations.

Honestly, it’s too much to list here. Try FigsFlow free for 30 days and see for yourself.

How to choose AML check software: 6 questions to ask

Before committing to any AML provider, get a written answer to each of these:

• Is PEP and sanctions screening included in the per-check fee, or charged separately? If separately, what is the all-in cost.
• Is ongoing monitoring included, or is it priced as a monthly add-on per client? This is where annual cost balloons quietly.
• Is there a monthly minimum, a volume commitment, or a bundle that has to be purchased upfront? Pay-as-you-go protects low-volume practices.
• Are CDD and EDD workflows built into the platform, or do these have to be built manually? EDD under Regulation 33 is not optional for high-risk clients.
• Does the platform produce an audit-ready record for every check, retained for the required period and exportable on demand? Supervisors expect this.
• Does the AML module integrate with the proposal and engagement letter workflow, or does it sit in a separate platform? Integration removes manual data entry and prevents records falling out of sync.

A provider that cannot answer all six in writing is not the right provider.

That is the pricing settled. The rest of this guide is the compliance ground underneath it — what an AML check actually is, what a compliant check has to contain, who carries the obligation, and when it has to be done. If you are registering for the first time, or sense-checking a process you inherited, start here.

What is an AML check?

An AML (anti-money laundering) check is the process a regulated firm uses to verify a client’s identity and screen them for financial crime risk before providing services. For UK accountants, tax advisers, and bookkeepers, this forms the core of Customer Due Diligence under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.

Every AML check answers the same question: can you lawfully act for this person, and what risk does taking them on create for the firm.

What does an AML check include?

A compliant AML check covers three components. Some providers bundle all three. Others charge separately for each.

Identity verification

The client’s identity document, typically a passport or driving licence, is validated against the issuing authority’s records. Biometric checks add a liveness step that matches a live selfie to the document photo to confirm the person presenting the ID is the genuine holder.

PEP and sanctions screening

The client is screened against politically exposed persons databases and UK and global sanctions lists. A match does not automatically disqualify the client, but it triggers Enhanced Due Diligence under Regulation 35 of the MLR 2017 and senior management sign-off before the engagement can proceed.

Ongoing monitoring

A check at onboarding is not enough on its own. Client circumstances change, new sanctions designations appear, and PEP status can shift. Ongoing monitoring runs automated rechecks and flags any change so the firm acts on it without rerunning checks manually. Several providers price this as a separate module.

Is an AML check mandatory for UK accountants?

Yes. Any firm providing accountancy, tax, audit, or bookkeeping services in the UK falls under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and must conduct Customer Due Diligence on every client before regulated work begins. This applies equally to sole practitioners and large firms. Size and turnover are not relevant. The obligation is the same.

Supervisory bodies (HMRC, ICAEW, ACCA, AAT, CIOT, IFA) expect documented AML procedures and evidence that checks have been carried out and reviewed.

What happens if you do not carry out AML checks?

The consequences fall into two categories: regulatory and reputational.

HMRC and the FCA have issued substantial fines to firms that failed AML obligations. Penalties run into the tens of thousands. In serious cases firms have lost their AML registration entirely, which removes their right to provide regulated services. A failed inspection or supervisory review also creates a reportable event that follows the firm.

The reputational hit is harder to measure but often costs more in the long run. If a client onboarded without proper diligence is later linked to financial crime, the firm’s name attaches to the case.

Who is responsible for AML checks in a practice?

In a sole trader practice, the principal is personally responsible. In any firm with staff, responsibility sits with the nominated officer, commonly the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO). The MLRO oversees compliance across the practice, reviews flagged cases, and reports suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency where required.

Software handles execution. The named officer holds oversight, sign-off, and escalation decisions.

When should an AML check be carried out?

Before any regulated work begins. Not after the first meeting. Not once the engagement letter is signed. Before.

Re-verification is required when:

• The scope or nature of services changes materially
• There is a change in beneficial ownership or control
• A transaction appears unusual given what the firm knows about the client
• The client has not been reviewed for a defined period under the firm’s own policy (typically annually)

Additional Resources

The six AML tools accountants shortlist most often, and what separates them: Best 6 AML Software Every Accountant Needs

The five features that matter most when comparing AML software: 5 Must-Have AML Software Features for Accountants

A wider round-up of AML software for UK firms, by budget: Best AML Software: Leading AML Solutions for UK Firms

Why accountancy practices pick FigsFlow for AML compliance: Best Anti-Money Laundering Software for Accountants

HMRC’s current supervision fees, in force from 1 December 2025: Fees you’ll pay for money laundering supervision

Conclusion

AML compliance is not the cost centre most practices think it is. The right software puts every check, every PEP screen, every monitoring alert, and every EDD review into one auditable trail at a per-check cost lower than a coffee. The wrong software stacks subscriptions, hides screening behind add-ons, and leaves the firm scrambling at inspection.

At £2.10 plus VAT per check, FigsFlow is the cheapest AML check software in the UK, and the included Firm-Wide Risk Assessment, EDD workflow, and audit trail mean the cheapest is also the most complete.

Start a 30-day free trial at figsflow.com. No card required.

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