If you are a notary, a mobile services provider, or an entrepreneur building a fingerprinting income stream, Certifix is where we start the conversation every time. With over 1,200 participating locations nationwide — including UPS stores, shipping centers, and independently operated businesses — Certifix has built one of the most accessible and entrepreneur-forward platforms in the live scan industry.

What makes Certifix genuinely stand out for business builders is the combination of walk-in availability, online enrollment that feeds directly to your location, and their certification structure for Florida (FDLE-approved) and California (DOJ-compliant) — the two highest-volume live scan states in the country. Clients enroll online, receive a QR code, and show up to your location. The workflow is clean, the submission system is reliable, and the training and onboarding process for new partner locations is straightforward compared to alternatives.

For Florida specifically, Certifix is one of the few platforms that allows independent operators to submit directly to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) — covering the lion’s share of healthcare workers, school employees, and state license applicants you’ll encounter as a mobile service provider.

Nearly two decades of operation, millions of fingerprints processed, and a flat-fee consumer model that lets you build predictable per-appointment margins. This is the platform we consistently point new fingerprinting entrepreneurs toward first.

IdentoGO is the 800-pound gorilla of the live scan industry — and understanding how they operate is non-negotiable for anyone working in this space. Operated by IDEMIA (formerly MorphoTrust USA), IdentoGO holds exclusive state contracts in more than 40 states for specific agency submissions. Florida insurance license applicants, for example, are required to submit fingerprints through IdentoGO and pay the $49.50 fee directly to them. Texas has a similar exclusive arrangement for its FAST program. New York State routes fingerprints for dozens of licensing boards exclusively through IdentoGO centers.

This is the key distinction entrepreneurs need to internalize: for certain state-mandated submissions, you don’t get to choose your vendor — and neither does your client. The agency dictates it, and IdentoGO is the gatekeeper for a significant slice of that market.

The good news: IdentoGO does offer a partner program for existing businesses who want to become IdentoGO Centers. Partners receive training, marketing support, branded equipment, and are paid on a per-applicant basis. The model is designed to layer onto an already-established business rather than stand alone — and for a notary office or legal document prep service with existing foot traffic, it can be a strong fit.

Where IdentoGO falls short for the entrepreneur is flexibility. You’re operating inside their system, their branding, and their fee structure. You’re not building your own live scan platform — you’re a node in theirs. That’s fine for supplemental income, but understand what you’re signing up for before you commit.

Fieldprint is a serious, well-established player in the government and institutional fingerprinting space — and one of the few private companies authorized by the FBI as a direct channeler. That authorization means Fieldprint can submit fingerprints to the FBI and receive results directly, bypassing the typical state intermediary layer. For federal agency work, that’s significant.

Fieldprint holds state program contracts in Florida, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin — and serves major federal entities including FINRA, the FDIC, the CDC, NMLS, and multiple defense and security clearance programs. Florida notaries and document preparers should note that Fieldprint handles many Florida school district submissions as well, making their footprint relevant in the Sunshine State.

For the typical independent entrepreneur, Fieldprint is more relevant as background knowledge than as a primary platform. Their business model is oriented toward government contract programs and large institutional relationships rather than individual partner locations. You’re unlikely to onboard with Fieldprint the same way you’d partner with Certifix — they’re not building a retail partner network in the same sense.

That said, understanding Fieldprint’s scope helps you navigate client questions accurately. If a client’s employer or state agency routes them through Fieldprint, you need to know that and send them to the right place rather than try to capture that appointment on your own system.

FastFingerprints operates an authorized network of Level 2 Livescan fingerprinting locations throughout Florida, with coverage in major markets including Orlando, Miami, and other urban centers. For Florida-based entrepreneurs who need a secondary or backup option for Level 2 submissions — particularly for clients in healthcare, education, and childcare industries — FastFingerprints is worth knowing about.

The platform is more consumer-facing than entrepreneur-oriented, and their partnership model is less developed than Certifix’s. For Florida operators, their value lies primarily in their authorization status for Level 2 FDLE submissions and their geographic spread within the state. They won’t replace your primary vendor platform, but in a service area where Certifix coverage is thinner, they’re a useful supplemental reference.

As a business-building platform, FastFingerprints ranks below Certifix and IdentoGO simply because their infrastructure and partner support system is less robust. They serve a real need in the Florida market, but we’d consider them a secondary option rather than a primary partner for anyone building a fingerprinting business from scratch.

FieldprintFBI is a distinct consumer-facing service under the Fieldprint umbrella, specifically designed for individuals who need their own FBI National Criminal Records History Report — typically for international travel visas, immigration applications, adoption processes, or personal records requests.

Under 28 CFR 16, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can request their own FBI history report directly, and FieldprintFBI is one of the authorized channels for this process. Clients schedule online at fieldprintfbi.com, pay the designated fee, and get fingerprinted at one of 1,900+ collection sites. Results are delivered electronically — often within 24 hours of submission.

For the fingerprinting entrepreneur, this is a niche but real service type you’ll encounter. International applicants, people applying for foreign work visas, and individuals in adoption proceedings often specifically need FBI Identity History Summary Checks — and knowing that FieldprintFBI handles this helps you direct clients correctly or position your location as a collection site for this submission type.

Its ranking at #5 reflects its narrow use case — it’s not a broad business-building platform, but a specific, high-quality service for a defined client need.

PrintScan — now a First Advantage company — is one of the most aggressively marketed fingerprinting platforms to entrepreneurs and notaries looking to enter the live scan space. They operate a 700+ location consumer network, use UPS Store locations for appointments, and have FBI-certified live scan systems. On paper, they check boxes. In practice, there are enough concerns that we recommend significant due diligence before committing.

The cost structure is the first issue. PrintScan’s hardware and software packages start around $4,000–$6,000, which is not unusual in the industry — but their business pitch bundles pricing and training in a way that can feel like you’re paying premium rates for what amounts to standard industry knowledge. The upsell tendency toward their own training programs is a pattern we’ve heard about consistently from entrepreneurs who’ve been through their funnel. That training is not proprietary knowledge you can only get from them.

The consumer service reviews are a significant concern. PrintScan carries a poor Trustpilot score driven by consistent complaints across multiple issues: appointments made at locations that turned out to be closed, fingerprints not submitted after capture, print cards delivered on non-standard colored paper that got rejected by accepting agencies, and customer service that reviewers describe as dismissive and unresponsive. For a business built on accuracy and trust, that track record matters.

The Florida factor: Multiple consumer reviews specifically note that Florida state agencies did not accept PrintScan submissions, with clients being redirected to law enforcement or FDLE-approved providers. If you’re building a Florida-based fingerprinting business, this is a material concern that deserves verification before you invest in their hardware.

PrintScan has built a genuine nationwide consumer network and their FBI certifications are legitimate. But the combination of premium pricing, aggressive upselling of training, inconsistent consumer reviews, and documented service quality issues puts them at the bottom of our list for entrepreneurs evaluating entry into this space.