How does Very compare to passwords?
Passwords, even when supplemented by a single sign-on or one time code, are only as strong as where they are stored. Very ties account security to something that never leaves your side: your palm.
Very vs. Passwords
Passwords have been supplemented with secondary verification and one time codes. How do they stand up against Very’s palm biometric solution?
Read the litepaperWhere passwords fail
Credentials exposed
1,247,902
and still climbing
Based on 1.9 billion credentials in a single 2025 disclosure
The black market for passwords and emails is real
Stolen credentials are the single most common factor in major breaches. More than 1.9 billion emails were revealed to be compromised in a single 2025 disclosure alone.(1)
SIM swap
Your bank
sends a one time code
Hacked
Your phone
never gets the text
Attacker
code 482 913 received
One time codes over email and SMS can be intercepted
A simple SIM swap or compromised email account can make secondary verification via one-time passwords laughably easy to bypass.
Very and Password side by side
| Features | Very | Password |
|---|---|---|
| Scalability | HighCan be used with most modern smartphones | HighPasswords can be created by anyone |
| Security | HighPalm scans require a full print | LowStolen credentials are one of the most common attacks |
| Privacy | HighPalms are not easily accessible in a database | LowPasswords are often reused and leaked by hackers |
Frequently asked questions
Yes, Very’s palm biometrics are much more secure than traditional methods. Passwords, 2-factor authentication, and one time passwords can all be stolen or intercepted through compromised email accounts, hacks, and social engineering phishing attacks. Palm biometrics require a real user’s real palm.
Yes. Very can be used to replace single sign-on (SSO) or other secure methods like 2-factor authentication.
Very is highly accurate. Palm verification with Very has a False Acceptance Rate (also known as FAR, which tells how often it will return a false positive rating) of up to 1 in 10,000,000. For comparison, Apple’s Touch ID has a FAR of 1 in 50,000, and Face ID has a FAR of 1 in 1,000,000.
High-res palm images never leave the user’s smartphone. Palm images are converted into a mathematical Palm Model before being sent to Very’s servers for analysis. Data is encrypted at both rest and in transit. Low-res palm images are also currently stored for 90 days for auditing purposes, with the goal to remove the need to store images entirely. See here for more information on our trust and privacy policies.
Very works with outside researchers (like the Human-AI Collaboration Lab, located at Northwestern University) to stay ahead of the latest advances.
Very introduces a number of protections against spoofed or deepfake results, including: randomized motion checks, camera-frame analysis, checks for issues like palm positioning, lighting, blurriness, and more, server-issued protections like one-time nonces to protect against replay, and others.
Very does not require special hardware and can be completed with modern smartphones. It only requires a smartphone with a VGA camera and runs on at least Android 6 or iOS 13. This covers 85% of smartphones worldwide.
Integrating Very into your stack is simple with support from the Very team, and can take only a few lines of code, depending on your integration model. Once you receive your credentials, integration can take 10 minutes or less (integrating User Verification with OAuth using the separate Very app) up to a few weeks (a more integrated, customized solution specific to your platform’s needs using the Very SDK).
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