Evaluating leading ecommerce fraud prevention and detection platforms
Navigating the landscape of ecommerce fraud solutions requires focusing on three core pillars: Technology, financial liability, and scalability. As digital commerce evolves, the choice between solutions like Riskified, Signifyd, Forter, Kount, Sift, and Accertify often dictates a merchant’s profitability and customer experience. Here is an evaluation of these industry leaders, using a modified framework that focuses on features, liability, and cost structure.
Leading ecommerce fraud detection platforms
The landscape of ecommerce fraud is dominated by sophisticated AI/ML platforms. The leading platforms are generally categorized by their core offering: risk-scoring or decision-as-a-service.
- Fully accountable, liable vendors: Riskified, Signifyd, and Forter lead this segment, taking on the full financial liability for approved fraudulent orders.
- Risk optimization vendors: With a focus on AI risk scoring, vendors such as Sift and Kount are leaders in providing merchants with granular risk scores and tools for in-house decision management, where the merchant maintains control and retains the financial liability for fraud loss.
- Other notable leaders: SEON (for digital footprinting and modularity), NoFraud (for real-time order screening), and Ravelin.
Comparison of core capabilities
| Platform | Pricing model/Costs | Core technology/Model | Chargeback guarantee/Liability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riskified | Performance-based (charged only on approved transactions), custom/tiered. | AI/ML, elastic linking (global transaction network), behavioral analysis. | Full guarantee: Covers fraudulent chargebacks on approved orders; known for hassle-free reimbursement. |
| Signifyd | Performance-based/custom pricing, often tiered by volume. | AI/ML, leverages a massive commerce network for data insights. | Full guarantee: offers a financial guarantee on approved orders due to fraud. |
| Sift | Subscription/Transaction-based for various modules. | Identity-based Risk Scoring platform focused on user trust. | No guarantee: Merchants retain fraud liability; Sift provides a score to inform the merchant’s decision. |
| Forter | Transaction-based, custom pricing structured to show clear ROI. | Advanced ML focuses on identity intelligence across the entire customer journey. | Offers a guarantee on approval and chargeback rates without offering reimbursement for chargebacks. |
| Kount | Subscription or custom pricing. | Adaptive AI (supervised & unsupervised ML) generating the Omniscore risk rating. | Optional/Service-based: does not inherently include a guarantee, but offers guaranteed services as an add-on. |
| Accertify | Custom pricing often based on transaction volume, degree of management, and industry complexity. | Highly flexible rules engine that deploys ML via additional weighted rules. | Partners with third parties to offer an optional guarantee on a subset of transactions. |
Platform specialization and key strengths
| Platform | Target vertical | Key strengths and features |
|---|---|---|
| Riskified | Large-scale, Enterprise and high-value ecommerce (e.g., luxury, travel, digital goods). | High approval rates, Policy Protect (stops abuse like promo, return and refund fraud), Account Secure (ATO prevention), and leverage of network size for accuracy and identifying fraud trends. |
| Signifyd | Mid-market to Enterprise, high-growth ecommerce, and marketplaces. | Focus on automating the entire customer experience and easy integration. |
| Sift | Companies that need identity intelligence across multiple channels (ecommerce, content, financial services). | AI risk scoring based on rules, abuse prevention (return fraud and promo abuse), ATO, and data granularity. |
| Forter | Enterprise retail, high-volume merchants, and financial institutions requiring real-time identity analysis. | Instant “Yes/No” decisions, account protection (ATO/fake account creation), and easy integration/onboarding. |
| Kount | Any merchant needing highly customizable risk policies, payment service providers, and global enterprises. | Bot mitigation, device tracking, and flexibility to manage fraud decisions in-house or outsource. |
| Accertify | High-volume digital-first merchants such as travel, sports betting, financial services. | A combination of machine learning, custom rules, and AI for chargeback management, abuse prevention, and account protection. |
| ClearSale | Global ecommerce, especially merchants dealing with high-risk geographical regions or high rates of friendly fraud. | Hybrid human review layer ensures low false declines, deep risk assessment, and compatibility with numerous global ecommerce platforms. |
Compare fraud prevention vendor strengths and limitations
Riskified
Riskified is the industry’s premier revenue optimization platform, leveraging proprietary AI and elastic linking (a vast transaction network) to deliver guaranteed Approve/Decline decisions that shift 100% of fraud liability away from the merchant.
Riskified strengths
- Complete financial guarantee & zero liability: A chargeback guarantee protects merchants from the unpredictable costs of chargebacks by transferring liability to a fraud prevention provider like Riskified. The provider agrees to cover any chargeback costs resulting from fraud that they don’t catch.
- Unmatched operational efficiency: Reimbursement is automatic and hassle-free, streamlining financial reconciliation, unlike competitors with complex billing and dispute processes.
- Maximum revenue uplift: Models are fine-tuned to maximize the approval rate of legitimate transactions, leading to higher bank authorization rates and revenue than non-guarantee and competitive guarantee models.
- Superior client service: Provides dedicated account management and fraud expertise that outperforms competitors, ensuring timely support and tailored risk
