TL;DR: Quick Summary
- •You do not have to wait for renewal to start. 5 free checks, no card, and your client list imports by CSV, so you can run Certivus alongside SmartSearch until your notice period ends.
- •Ask SmartSearch three things before you give notice: the notice period, whether leaving carries setup, exit or data transfer charges, and the format your records come back in.
- •Export your AML evidence before the account closes. Under MLR 2017 Regulation 40 you must keep it for five years after the relationship ends, and that duty stays with your firm, not your supplier.
- •Certivus publishes every price: £2.49 for a full KYC and AML check, falling to £1.13 on a retainer, and £0.99 per client a year for ongoing monitoring.
- •Stay where you are if you need multi sector coverage or the deepest electronic verification for unusual identity documents. That is SmartSearch's strength and we will say so.
Answer-first summary
How do I switch from SmartSearch to Certivus?
Run a real check on Certivus first, ask SmartSearch for your notice period and any exit charges in writing, export your AML evidence while the account is still live, import your client list by CSV with its existing risk ratings, then run both systems for one cycle before giving notice. The setup takes a day. The elapsed time is your notice period.
- Export your records before the account closes: the five year duty is yours
- Ask for notice period and exit charges in writing
- Import by CSV with risk ratings preserved
- No contract on our side, so you can overlap the two safely
Four questions to ask SmartSearch before you give notice
SmartSearch does not publish its contract terms, so the answers depend on what your firm signed. Ask for them in writing.
- 1
What is my notice period, and when does it next start?
Annual terms with a notice window are common. Miss the window and the term can roll. Get the date in writing before you plan anything.
- 2
Does leaving cost anything? Setup, exit or data transfer charges?
Reviewers report charges on exit as well as at renewal. Ask for the figure in writing, not on a call.
- 3
In what format do I get my records, and how long do I have to download them?
You need the evidence itself, not a summary. A PDF per client plus a CSV of the check history is the minimum worth accepting.
- 4
What happens to ongoing monitoring on the day the account closes?
Monitoring stops when the contract does. Plan the switch so no client is unmonitored in between.
Keep your records first
Under MLR 2017 Regulation 40 your firm keeps customer due diligence records for five years after the business relationship ends. That duty belongs to the firm. It does not transfer to whichever software you happen to be using.
Before any account closes, download the identity evidence, the screening results and the check history for every client, and store it where your firm keeps its AML file. A supervisor asking about a client you onboarded three years ago will not accept that the records left with the old supplier.
The move, step by step
- 1
Open Certivus and run a real check
Sign up, use one of your 5 free checks on a live client, and see the evidence file it produces. No card, no sales call. If it does not fit how your firm works, you have lost 10 minutes.
- 2
Ask SmartSearch the four questions
Notice period, exit charges, export format, and what happens to monitoring. Get the answers in writing so the dates drive your plan rather than the renewal driving it.
- 3
Export everything while your account is live
Download the identity evidence, screening results and check history for every client. Store it where your firm keeps its AML records. This is your five year file under Regulation 40, and it belongs to you.
- 4
Import your client list
Send us the CSV. We map your existing risk ratings across rather than resetting every client to unrated, so your file does not look like it started from scratch on the day you switched.
- 5
Run both for one cycle, then give notice
New clients go through Certivus. Existing clients stay monitored on both until your notice period ends. Nothing lapses, and you are not choosing under time pressure.
What carries over
Your client list
Imported by CSV, with names, entity type and identifiers.
Your risk ratings
Mapped across, with the reason recorded against each client.
Your historical evidence
You export it from SmartSearch and keep it. We do not need to hold it for you to remain compliant.
Your monitoring
Re-established at £0.99 per client a year, once your list is in.
When to stay with SmartSearch
SmartSearch has been in this market far longer than we have, and in these cases it is the better buy.
- You operate across several regulated sectors and want one supplier covering property, insurance and financial services as well as accountancy.
- You need electronic verification for unusual identity documents, where multi bureau data does the heavy lifting.
- Your firm is large enough that a named account manager and a negotiated contract are worth more than published prices.
We wrote this page and we make Certivus, so weigh it accordingly. Every claim about SmartSearch here comes from what SmartSearch publishes or from public customer reviews, and is marked where it is an estimate. Verify your own figures with them before you decide.
Common questions
Answer-first summary
Can I leave SmartSearch mid contract?
That depends on the terms you signed. SmartSearch does not publish its contract terms, and customer reviews describe minimum terms with a notice window, so ask for your notice period and any exit charges in writing. You can run Certivus alongside your existing supplier in the meantime, because there is no contract and no minimum spend on our side.
Answer-first summary
Will I lose my audit trail if I switch?
Not if you export before the account closes. MLR 2017 Regulation 40 requires your firm to keep customer due diligence records for five years after the business relationship ends, and that duty sits with the firm, not the software. Download the evidence, screening results and check history for every client first, then close the account.
Answer-first summary
How long does moving to Certivus take?
You can run your first check the same day you sign up. Importing an existing client list is usually a single CSV, and how long it takes depends mostly on how clean the data is. Most of the elapsed time in a switch is your notice period, not the setup.
Answer-first summary
What does Certivus cost compared with SmartSearch?
Certivus publishes every price: 5 free checks to start, then £0.99 to £3.99 per check depending on what you run, falling to £1.13 for a full KYC and AML check on a retainer, plus £0.99 per client a year for monitoring. SmartSearch does not publish a rate card, so we cannot give a like for like figure. Figures quoted elsewhere online are third party estimates, not SmartSearch's rates. Ask them for yours in writing and compare it with our published prices.
Answer-first summary
Is Certivus a smaller supplier than SmartSearch?
Yes, considerably. SmartSearch is private equity backed, serves thousands of regulated firms and acquired Credas in January 2026. Certivus is founder led and built inside a working UK accountancy practice that runs its own AML on it every day. If scale is what you are buying, SmartSearch has it. If you want published prices, no contract and direct access to the people who build the product, that is us.