VATSense alternative: Veriport and VATSense compared on price, evidence and VIES outages
VATSense is the broadest validation endpoint (EU, UK, EORI) at subscription prices; this page is for the developer who needs the same VIES validation at a lower or irregular volume, wants prepaid calls instead of a subscription, or wants the degraded path (dated cached answers when a member state is down) explicit in the response. VATSense’s entry paid plan is Starter $6.99/mo, 500 requests; Veriport starts at 100 free calls a month, then $9 for 2,000 prepaid calls. Prices as published on 2026-10-28; check the vendor’s page before deciding.
- VATSense: Starter $6.99/mo, 500 requests; $13.98 (Starter) → $7.00 (Basic $13.99, 2,000) → $4.00 (Standard $39.99, 10,000) → $2.60 (Premium $129.99, 50,000) per 1,000; free tier: 100 requests a month, no card.
- VATSense when VIES is down: « Two fallback services »; a 412 when VIES is unavailable, not counted. Data residency: Not stated.
- Veriport: 100 calls a month with a key, 20 a day without, no card, no expiry; $4.50 (2,000 pack) → $3.00 (plan) → $2.90 (10,000 pack); tax included; Yes:
requester→consultationNumberon the paid tiers, live answers only. - Veriport when VIES is down: The answer of the last 30 days, dated and marked
stale; else a 503 that is not counted; a public per-member-state record. Functions and database in Paris, France (EU); publisher in the US.
Price per 1,000 validations
Prices are what each vendor’s public page said on 2026-10-28 (linked in the sources); they exclude VAT where the vendor says so, and Veriport’s include it. Per-1,000 figures assume full use of the included volume. Nothing here is benchmarked: uptime, latency and support are not measured by us.
| Offer | Price | Included | Per 1,000 | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VATSense Free | $0 | 100 requests | — | No card |
| VATSense Starter | $6.99 / month | 500 requests | $13.98 | Subscription |
| VATSense Basic | $13.99 / month | 2,000 requests | $7.00 | Subscription |
| VATSense Standard | $39.99 / month | 10,000 requests | $4.00 | Subscription |
| VATSense Premium | $129.99 / month | 50,000 requests | $2.60 | Subscription |
| Veriport free tier | $0 | 100 calls a month, 20 a day without a key | — | No card |
| Veriport 2,000 pack | $9 once | 2,000 calls, 12 months | $4.50 | Prepaid, no renewal |
| Veriport 10,000 pack | $29 once | 10,000 calls, 12 months | $2.90 | Prepaid, no renewal |
| Veriport monthly plan | $15 / month | 5,000 calls + bulk | $3.00 | Subscription, cancel any time |
What is different, honestly
VATSense has more: UK (HMRC) and EORI validation on the same endpoint, VAT rates and a price calculator, two private fallback services behind VIES, and a Premium tier that beats every prepaid price above 50,000 checks a month. Veriport has less, on purpose: deterministic endpoints, an OpenAPI document, prepaid calls that do not renew, and a response that states its own provenance (live, cache with stale, structure_only) so your code decides. The VAT rates table, the IBAN check and the French company registry come in the same call budget, which matters to a billing system that needs all of them. What neither can do: make VIES available. When a member state is down, VATSense’s page says: « Two fallback services »; a 412 when VIES is unavailable, not counted. Veriport serves the answer it obtained for the same number in the last 30 days, dated and marked stale, never attaches a consultation number it did not obtain live, and publishes the per-member-state record.
Consultation numbers and evidence
VATSense: yes: requester_vat_number → consultation_number (OpenAPI). Veriport: pass your own VAT number as requester on a prepaid pack or the plan and the live answer carries consultationNumber, the reference tax administrations ask for; every answer carries requestDate, source.kind and source.checkedAt, so a stored row says what was checked, when, and against what.
When to pick which
Pick VATSense when you need UK and EORI numbers validated by the same call today, or you run more than 25,000 checks a month on a subscription. Pick Veriport when you want to pay for what you use (a few hundred validations a quarter is the common case for a small SaaS), need rates, IBAN and French company data in the same call budget, or want the degraded path explicit and documented. The roundup puts Vatstack, vatlayer (apilayer), Abstract API, vatcheckapi, VIES API (viesapi.eu), Stripe Tax in the same table.
Questions
- Is migrating from VATSense hard?
- The response shapes differ; the fields you use (valid, name, address, the consultation number where the vendor returns one) exist in both. Budget an hour for a small integration. Keep your history: consultation numbers are evidence regardless of who obtained them.
- Where do these prices come from?
- VATSense’s public page on 2026-10-28, linked in the sources below, and our own price table. We do not resell or benchmark their uptime; the VIES availability we publish is the Commission’s own status, measured by us.
- Which is cheaper?
- Below 100 checks a month, both are free. Between a few hundred and 2,000 a month, a prepaid pack is cheaper than any subscription that renews whether you use it or not. Above 10,000 a month every month, compare VATSense’s larger tiers with the monthly plan; the roundup has the figures.
Free tier now; packs and plan when checkout opens.
See the pricingSources
- VATSense pricing: Free 100 requests/month, Starter $6.99 (500), Basic $13.99 (2,000), Standard $39.99 (10,000), Plus $79.99 (25,000), Premium $129.99 (50,000); « VIES fallbacks: two fallback services »; validations that fail because VIES is unavailable are not counted — VATSense, consulted 2026-10-28. The page’s FAQ markup quotes GBP figures (£4.99 → £99.99) while the visible table is in USD; plans are payable in GBP, USD or EUR.
- VATSense OpenAPI — /validate: requester_vat_number → consultation_number; company_name and company_address; 412 when VIES is temporarily unavailable, not counted against the quota — VATSense, consulted 2026-10-28
- VIES REST API — check-vat-number, check-status (technical information) — European Commission, DG TAXUD, consulted 2026-10-24
- VIES — help page: what the consultation number proves, member-state availability — European Commission, DG TAXUD, consulted 2026-10-24