Is SmartSearch worth £500-1,200 a month for a 5-person letting agency, or is PAYG better?

Question

Accepted Answer

For most small UK letting agencies (2-10 staff, 5-30 new tenancies a month), Certaby PAYG at £4.95 per suite check is the more cost-effective option. SmartSearch published pricing is typically in the £500-1,200 per month range on annual contract for a small firm, depending on seat count and check volume bundled in. Breakeven where SmartSearch becomes the cheaper option sits around 150 suite checks per month on Certaby's single PAYG price; lower with Certaby's volume bands (£3.95 at 100-pack, £2.95 at 1,000-pack), which push the breakeven well above any small-firm volume.

The breakeven math, conservatively:

1. Single PAYG: £4.95 per suite check. SmartSearch midpoint £700 a month divided by £4.95 = 141 checks a month before SmartSearch is cheaper at gross level.

2. 100-pack: £3.95 per check. Same SmartSearch midpoint divided by £3.95 = 177 checks a month breakeven.

3. 1,000-pack: £2.95 per check. SmartSearch midpoint divided by £2.95 = 237 checks a month breakeven.

Most letting agencies running 2-10 staff do 5-30 new tenancies a month, with one suite check per tenant onboard plus an optional landlord check on first instruction. That sits comfortably below 60 checks a month even for a busy 10-person firm, well under any of the breakevens above. Monthly cost on Certaby PAYG: £25-£300 a month. Monthly saving versus SmartSearch midpoint: £400-£675.

When SmartSearch is the right tool for the firm:

1. Multi-sector use case. The firm handles AML for banking or accountancy or legal-services clients alongside lettings; SmartSearch covers all sectors on one contract. Certaby focuses on UK property compliance specifically.

2. Biometric identity verification is essential. A firm with high-fraud-risk customers (large rental deposits, corporate tenant entities with complex structures) may want a passport-plus-selfie liveness check as part of every onboard. SmartSearch ships this; Certaby does not in v1, though it is on our published roadmap.

3. Open Banking Source-of-Funds. For MLR-2017 reg 33 enhanced due diligence on high-value or unusual transactions, a consent-based bank-statement pull strengthens the audit trail. SmartSearch + Credas + ThirdFort + TM Group ship this; Certaby does not in v1, though it is on our published roadmap.

When Certaby is the right tool for the firm:

1. PAYG with no annual commitment. The firm runs different volumes month-to-month and does not want to pay £700+ in a quiet month.

2. Property-risk overlay matters. NTSELAT Part B/C material-information disclosure (flood, mining, contaminated land) sits alongside the AML check on one cert; this is unique to Certaby across the 22 main UK compliance vendors.

3. Audit-cert format that survives subscription cancellation. The /verify/<hash> URL stays live for 7 years independent of any subscription status, which is structurally different from competitor portals that gate cert retrieval on active subscription.

4. Transparent sourcing. Certaby cites OpenSanctions explicitly on the cert; SmartSearch and several other vendors use proprietary feeds (often Dow Jones or WorldCompliance) which appear underneath their results without specific source citation.

When to switch from Certaby PAYG to an annual licence model. If the firm runs more than 150 checks a month for two consecutive months and does not need property-risk overlay specifically, an annual contract starts to make economic sense. Stratum (Certaby's developer API sister-brand) offers volume-tiered subscriptions for firms in that band; per-call cost drops below all the comparable competitor unit pricing at that volume. The switching path stays internal to the same family of products with the same cert format.

The practical pitch: a 5-person firm doing 15 tenancies a month spends £75 on Certaby PAYG vs ~£700 on a SmartSearch contract. That difference, repeating monthly, funds Cyber Essentials certification, ARLA membership, and a quarterly compliance review with money left over.

Is SmartSearch worth £500-1,200 a month for a 5-person letting agency, or is PAYG better?

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