Why Compare?

AWS Rekognition is one of the most well-known face recognition services. But is it the best fit for every project? Let's compare it with ARSA Face Recognition API across the criteria that matter most to developers.

Feature Comparison

| Capability | ARSA Face API | AWS Rekognition |

|-----------|---------------|-----------------|

| Face detection | Yes | Yes |

| 1:N Recognition | Yes (up to 500K faces) | Yes |

| 1:1 Verification | Yes | Yes |

| Passive liveness | Yes (built-in) | Not available |

| Active liveness | Yes (head movements) | Not available |

| Age estimation | Yes | Yes (age range) |

| Gender detection | Yes | Yes |

| Self-hosted option | Yes | No (AWS only) |

Liveness Detection

This is the biggest differentiator. AWS Rekognition does not include liveness detection. You'd need to build your own or use a third-party service.

ARSA includes both passive and active liveness out of the box — critical for KYC verification and exam proctoring.

Pricing

| | ARSA | AWS Rekognition |

|-|------|-----------------|

| Free tier | 100 calls/month (30 days) | 5,000 images/month (12 months) |

| Starter | $29/month (5,000 calls) | ~$5-50/month (pay per call) |

| Scale | $149/month (50,000 calls) | ~$50-500/month |

| Enterprise | $1,290/month (500,000 calls) | Variable |

AWS uses per-API-call pricing that can be unpredictable. ARSA offers flat monthly plans with clear limits.

Deployment Flexibility

ARSA offers both cloud API and self-hosted deployment. If data sovereignty or latency is critical, you can run the entire system on your own infrastructure.

AWS Rekognition is cloud-only — all data must be processed through AWS servers.

Integration

Both offer REST APIs. ARSA's API is simpler with fewer endpoints and a consistent response format:

ARSA — one endpoint, all features
curl -X POST "https://faceapi.arsa.technology/api/v1/face_recognition/recognize_face" \
  -H "x-key-secret: YOUR_KEY" \
  -F "face_image=@photo.jpg"
Returns: recognition + liveness + age/gender in one call

Verdict

Choose AWS Rekognition if you're deeply integrated with AWS and don't need liveness detection.

Choose ARSA if you need liveness detection, self-hosted options, simpler pricing, or an all-in-one solution.

See how ARSA compares to other providers in our full comparison guide.