Comparison
Argyle vs The Work Number (Equifax)
Argyle
Real-time payroll data API, built for developers not HR teams
VERIFIED JUN 18, 2026
The Work Number (Equifax)
The incumbent income database of record, the one most lenders and screeners already hit
VERIFIED JUL 7, 2026
| Pricing model | usage-based | custom-quote |
| Starting point | Contact the vendor for current pricing — it's usage-based, quoted per deployment on expected verification volume and use case | Two sides, two prices |
| Best for | Companies building income/employment verification into their own product or internal workflow via API, with engineering resources to spare. | Employers who want to understand the incumbent database their payroll data likely already feeds, and larger verifiers that need the broadest US employment and income coverage. |
| Countries | United States, Canada | United States |
| Editorial score | 7.8/10 | 7.2/10 |
Argyle
Pros
- Direct-source data is essentially unforgeable compared to uploaded documents
- Real-time change notifications catch things a one-time check would miss
- Wide connectivity across mainstream and gig-economy payroll systems
Cons
- No self-serve dashboard, this is an API-first product for teams with engineering resources
- No published pricing, budget for a sales cycle
- Overkill if you just need occasional one-off verifications rather than an ongoing data feed
The Work Number (Equifax)
Pros
- The broadest single source of US employment and income data, the incumbent for a reason
- As an employer, contributing offloads the verification requests that would otherwise hit HR, at no cost
- Automated and always-on, no manual verification letters to chase
Cons
- Not self-serve for SMB verifiers, access is credentialed and usually reached through a partner
- Verifier pricing is quote and per-pull, not published
- US-only, and it's a database of record, not a fraud-detection tool
United StatesCanada