ShieldLabs vs Sift
Updated September 2026
Looking for a Sift alternative? ShieldLabs gives enterprise-level functionality without enterprise pricing: network and device intelligence in one layer, 99.9% identification and risk signal detection accuracy, and ready-made detection of multi-accounting, account sharing, account takeover and impossible travel, from 99 USD a month for 25,000 identifications. Sift gives your team a machine-learning score for each user, and you spend time configuring the rules yourself, with no risk level for visitors, devices or IPs, and pricing on an enterprise contract only.
How ShieldLabs compares to Sift
| Capability |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | ||
| Overall score | 9.7 out of 10 | 8.5 out of 10 (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Getting started | ||
| Integration time | About 5 minutes | Hours to days (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Public pricing and self-serve | Public prices, start without a sales call | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Ease of use | Nothing, the verdicts arrive from the first visit | Rules you configure yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Fit from startup to enterprise | Enterprise-level functionality on every plan, for businesses of all sizes | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Documentation and SDKs | Public docs, client and server SDKs | Public docs, client and server SDKs (comparable) |
| API and webhooks | On every plan, including Free | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Platform coverage | Web and mobile web | Web, native mobile apps and React Native (comparable) |
| Platform flexibility | Ready-made detection, nothing to configure | Rules you configure yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Detection | ||
| Identification accuracy | 99.9%, network and device intelligence | Device intelligence, with partial network coverage (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Risk signal detection accuracy | 99.9%, network and device intelligence | Device intelligence, with partial network coverage (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Bot and automation detection | Bots, automation and AI agents | Bots and automation, no AI agents (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Breadth of the signal set | 300+ risk signals, with the ones that fire named in every result | 16,000 raw risk signals claimed (comparable) |
| Local IP detection | Ready-made, with its country | Not offered (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Geolocation accuracy | Location checked against the local IP and network characteristics, not the public IP alone | From the public IP (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Account clustering | Multi-accounting and account sharing, with a graph | Device, cookie and IP links in a network view (comparable) |
| Multi-accounting detection | Ready-made, no rules to configure | Rules you configure yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Account sharing detection | Ready-made, no rules to configure | No ready detection, you build it yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Account takeover detection | Ready-made, no rules to configure | Rules you configure yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Impossible travel detection | Ready-made, no rules to configure | Rules you configure yourself (ShieldLabs leads) |
| How the accuracy figure is checked | Published method: what is collected, how the score is built, 1,511 automated tests, audited on more than a million requests | Not published (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Decision and analytics | ||
| Fit to the job | A finished verdict for each detection | A score per abuse type, you define the decision (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Risk signal scoring | Ready-made weights for every signal | A machine-learning black box, weights not published (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Why a visit was flagged | Every signal that fired, with its weight | Top reasons for each score (comparable) |
| Cost of a false positive | A ready verdict with every reason shown | A ready verdict with every reason shown (comparable) |
| Analytics a non-engineer can read | Traffic, risk and events readable without building anything | Insights reports, dashboards and industry benchmarks (comparable) |
| Latency and real-time decisioning | About 300 milliseconds | About 400 milliseconds (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Decision Risk | Trusted, Suspicious or Dangerous for visitors, users, devices and IPs | A score per user, no risk level for visitors, devices or IPs (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Traffic-quality scoring | Ready-made | Not offered (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Traffic source | Channel and full UTM | Referrer only, no UTM or channel (ShieldLabs leads) |
| History API | On every plan, for every identification | Lookup by user ID (comparable) |
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | 5,000 identifications, one time | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Entry price | From 99 USD a month, 25,000 identifications | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Price at 25,000 identifications a month | 99 USD a month | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Price at 150,000 identifications a month | 399 USD a month | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Price at 500,000 identifications a month | 999 USD a month | An enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Price per identification | From 0.00396 USD down to 0.00200 USD | Not public (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Yearly discount | 20%, public | None published (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Plans and support | ||
| Features on every plan | Every feature on every plan, including Free | Each product sold separately, on an enterprise contract only (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Data retention | 90 days on every plan | No period published (ShieldLabs leads) |
| API requests per second | From 5 to 15 RPS | 500 RPS for events, 9 RPS for scores (comparable) |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% on Scale, self-serve | None published (ShieldLabs leads) |
| Support | Chat and email on every plan, including Free | Tickets through a customer community, paid services (ShieldLabs leads) |
Every competitor cell was checked on their public website and docs, and in our own testing, in September 2026. How ShieldLabs measures 99.9% accuracy
Why choose ShieldLabs
Ready-made detection, no rules to configure
Multi-accounting, account sharing, account takeover and impossible travel come ready, with Medium or High confidence and no rules to configure. With Sift you configure the rules on its scores yourself, and it offers no account sharing detection at all.
Enterprise-level functionality without enterprise pricing
The full feature set on every plan, Free included, from 99 USD a month for 25,000 identifications, with 5,000 free to start. Sift sells only on an enterprise contract, with no public price, no free plan and possible minimum fees.
Transparent scoring
Every risk signal carries a published weight, and each result names the signals that fired with their weights. Sift scores with a machine-learning ensemble that publishes no weights and documents a single signal name, a black box where a false positive cannot be traced to how much each signal counted.
Risk analytics and investigation
Investigate visitors, devices and IPs, each rated Trusted, Suspicious or Dangerous, and see the overall risk across all your traffic and by source, channel and UTM. Sift returns no risk assessment until you send it a user ID, and records only the referrer, with no channel or UTM breakdown.
Switch to a Sift alternative without a migration
Both install side by side without conflicting. Add ShieldLabs on the free tier alongside your current Sift setup, compare the data for a week, see the quality for yourself, and switch to ShieldLabs when you are ready.
- 01
Install the ShieldLabs snippet next to Sift in about five minutes.
- 02
Collect 5,000 free identifications on the same traffic.
- 03
Detect risky visitors and users, and compare them with what Sift flags.
- 04
Move to ShieldLabs and prevent abuse of your product.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best Sift alternative?
- ShieldLabs gives enterprise-level functionality without enterprise pricing: network and device intelligence in one layer, 99.9% identification and risk signal detection accuracy, and ready-made detection of multi-accounting, account sharing, account takeover and impossible travel, from 99 USD a month for 25,000 identifications. Sift gives your team a machine-learning score for each user, and you spend time configuring the rules yourself, with no risk level for visitors, devices or IPs, and pricing on an enterprise contract only.
- How is ShieldLabs different from Sift?
- Multi-accounting, account sharing, account takeover and impossible travel come ready, with Medium or High confidence and no rules to configure. With Sift you configure the rules on its scores yourself, and it offers no account sharing detection at all.
- How much does ShieldLabs cost compared to Sift?
- ShieldLabs costs 99 USD a month for 25,000 identifications, 399 USD a month for 150,000 identifications, 999 USD a month for 500,000 identifications, with 5,000 identifications free to start. Sift: An enterprise contract only at 25,000; An enterprise contract only at 150,000; An enterprise contract only at 500,000.
- Can ShieldLabs run alongside Sift?
- Both install side by side without conflicting. Add ShieldLabs on the free tier alongside your current Sift setup, compare the data for a week, see the quality for yourself, and switch to ShieldLabs when you are ready.
Ready to get started?
Start free with 5,000 identifications. Add the snippet once, and the analytics dashboard fills in from your first visitor.