The best OFAC screening software for a small business is the one that checks the OFAC SDN and non-SDN lists with fuzzy matching, saves a record of every search, and costs less than an hour of your time each month. For most small U.S. companies that means a plan around $15 to $50 a month. Pick on three things: whether you get a saved record per check, whether existing customers are rescreened when OFAC updates a list, and how many people can log in.
We compared six options a small business is likely to shortlist, including our own product and the free Treasury search. Prices below are taken from each vendor's public pricing page. They change, so confirm before you buy.
OFAC screening software compared for small business
| Tool | Entry price | Searches included | Lists | Rescreening | Saved record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OfacScanner Starter | $49 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly | 1,000 a month, 1 user | OFAC SDN and consolidated non-SDN | On Growth ($499), up to 50,000 records | PDF certificate with every check, included |
| EasyOFAC | $14 a month (Basic), $49 (Grow), $129 (Pro) | 100, 500 or 1,500 a month | OFAC | 100 to 10,000 customers depending on plan | Monthly compliance report by email on Grow and Pro |
| OFACScreen | $49 a month billed yearly (Starter), $149, $349 | 1,000 to 10,000 a month, 3 to 25 users | OFAC, other lists by plan (confirm with the vendor) | 10 to 500 names rescreened daily | Audit trail included, PDF report $9.99 each |
| dilisense | EUR 0.10 per call after 100 free calls, or EUR 300 a month for 10,000 calls | Pay per call | Global sanctions, PEP and criminal watchlists | Available through the API | Through your own system |
| sanctions.io | Custom quote, 30 day trial | Priced by annual volume | Global sanctions and PEP | Priced by number of monitored entities | Through the API and dashboard |
| Treasury Sanctions List Search | Free government website | One name at a time | OFAC SDN and non-SDN | None | None, you screenshot it yourself |
Two honest takeaways from the table. If you only need to rescreen a few hundred vendors every month and price is the deciding factor, EasyOFAC is cheaper than our Starter plan. If you need three people logged in on day one, OFACScreen gives you more seats at the entry level. Where OfacScanner wins is the record: every check produces a PDF that shows the name, the rating, the matched entries, the list version and the time, at no extra cost, and the rating explains why a name scored the way it did.
How much does OFAC screening cost for a small business?
Most small businesses pay between $15 and $150 a month for OFAC screening. The price is driven by the number of searches, the number of users and whether existing customers are rescreened automatically. Enterprise tools for banks start in the thousands per year and are priced by quote, which is more than a dealership, small exporter or property manager needs.
A quick way to size it: count the new customers, vendors, hires and payees you add each month and multiply by the people per record (a car deal often has a buyer and a co-buyer, a business customer has the company and its owners). Most small businesses land well under 1,000 checks a month. Our pricing page lists every limit, and new checks simply pause at the cap, so there are no overage bills.
Do small businesses need OFAC compliance?
Yes. OFAC rules apply to every U.S. person and business, regardless of size, and civil liability is strict, so a business can be penalized even if it did not know the other party was listed. The maximum civil penalty under IEEPA is $377,700 per violation or twice the transaction value. OFAC does not dictate a screening tool, but it expects a risk-based program, and a saved record is how you show one exists.
Industries where small businesses get asked about OFAC most often include car dealers (lenders expect a check in the deal jacket, see our OFAC check for car dealers), exporters and freight forwarders, real estate and title work, money services, marketplaces paying out sellers, and employers paying remote contractors, which we cover in OFAC employee screening.
What to look for in OFAC screening software
Fuzzy matching that handles spelling variants
Names on the SDN list come with aliases and transliterations from Arabic, Cyrillic and other scripts. Exact matching misses real hits, and crude fuzzy matching buries you in false alarms. Look for a score per candidate and the option to add date of birth and country, which pushes namesakes down. Run a few names you know in a trial and see how many results you would have to clear by hand.
A record you can hand to someone else
If a lender, auditor, bank or buyer asks whether you screened a party, a screenshot of a government website is weak evidence. A good tool stores the input, the list version, the result and who ran it. Ask whether that record is included or sold per report, and how long it is kept.
Rescreening when OFAC changes a list
OFAC adds and removes names without a fixed schedule. A customer who was clear at onboarding can be listed next month. If you have a book of repeat customers or long term vendors, ongoing sanctions monitoring matters more than the price per search.
Users, uploads and an API
A one person office can live with one login. Once two or three people onboard customers, shared history and separate logins become important for the audit trail. A CSV upload saves a day when you first screen an existing customer list, and an API only matters if you have a developer and want checks to run inside your own system.
Which OFAC screening tool fits which small business
- Dealership or single store retailer: a per check PDF matters most. OfacScanner Starter covers about 1,000 parties a month.
- Small exporter or forwarder: screen consignees, end users and banks, and look for coverage beyond OFAC if you ship to the EU or UK. See sanctions screening for exporters.
- Bookkeeper or service firm screening a fixed vendor list: cheap rescreening of a few hundred names wins, which is where EasyOFAC is strong.
- Startup with an engineering team: an API-first provider such as dilisense or sanctions.io, or our own sanctions screening API on the Scale plan.
- Anyone doing a rare one-off lookup: the Treasury search is fine, as long as you accept that it keeps no record. Our comparison with the Treasury search covers the trade-off.
Sanctions screening is usually one of several obligations a growing company has to track. If yours also include policies, vendor reviews and audits, a compliance management platform can hold those controls and their evidence, while the screening tool handles names.
Is there a free OFAC search?
Yes. The U.S. Treasury runs a free Sanctions List Search on the OFAC website. It searches one name at a time, uses a basic fuzzy match and keeps no record of what you searched, so you have to save your own screenshot as evidence. It is fine for an occasional lookup, and a weak fit once you need history, rescreening or proof for a third party.
What is the best OFAC screening software for a small business?
The best OFAC screening software for a small business is the cheapest tool that gives you fuzzy matching on the SDN and non-SDN lists, a saved record for every check, and rescreening if you have repeat customers. For proof-heavy work like car deals and lender files, OfacScanner fits well. For cheap rescreening of a small vendor list, EasyOFAC is strong. For API-first teams, look at dilisense or sanctions.io.
A short buying checklist
- Run five real names from your files in a trial, including one common name.
- Count how many results you would have to clear by hand.
- Download the record for one check and ask whether an auditor would accept it.
- Check how many logins the plan includes.
- Ask what happens at the monthly limit: a pause or an overage bill.
- Confirm how quickly a new OFAC list version reaches the tool.
For a deeper look at evaluation criteria, read our sanctions screening software buyer guide. Or skip the reading and run an OFAC search in the console at the top of this page: your first OFAC check takes a few seconds and needs no signup.