Bulwark vs OpenSanctions
First, credit where due: OpenSanctions is excellent. It consolidates the world’s sanctions, politically-exposed-person, and criminal-watchlist data into one clean, open database, and the compliance ecosystem is better for it. Recon, our research agent, can even consume OpenSanctions-class PEP data as a bring-your-own-key integration — we’re a consumer of this kind of data, not just an alternative to it.
The honest distinction is breadth vs. depth-plus-workflow. OpenSanctions goes wide across jurisdictions as a data source. Bulwark goes deep on U.S. OFAC — including the legal context around a designation that list data alone doesn’t carry — and then does the operational work: screening your payments, monitoring your book, and drafting your filings.
| Bulwark | OpenSanctions | |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | A compliance workflow platform: free OFAC reference plus paid screening, monitoring, research, and regulatory filings | A data project: one consolidated, well-structured database of sanctions, PEP, and crime data from many sources |
| List coverage | OFAC-first depth (SDN + Consolidated + General Licenses), updated within minutes of Treasury; EU (CFSP), UK (OFSI), and UN consolidated lists live in research and free search, available per tenant in screening | Broad — aggregates sanctions and watchlists from many jurisdictions, plus PEP datasets |
| U.S. legal context | Structured General Licenses (status, expiry, supersession), statutory exemptions, program taxonomy, and Treasury's FAQs — the "what am I allowed to do about it" layer | List and entity data; the legal-authorization layer around a U.S. designation isn't the product's focus |
| Workflow | Payment screening with four-eyes review, continuous monitoring, RFI workflows, examiner-ready audit trails, and OFAC report drafting | Data-first — screening and case workflow come from your own tooling built on top of the data |
| Pricing model | Published self-serve prices from $99–$3,000; enterprise deals invoiced | Open data with free non-commercial use; commercial licensing and API plans |
| Free tier | Full OFAC reference free — search, GLs, exemptions, programs, FAQs, change feed. Informational only, not a compliance determination | The database itself is openly available, which is genuinely great for the ecosystem |
Choose OpenSanctions when…
- You need broad multi-jurisdiction entity data as an input to your own systems.
- You have engineering capacity and want to build screening on open data.
- Your exposure is primarily outside the U.S. sanctions regime.
Choose Bulwark when…
- OFAC is your binding obligation and you need the legal layer — does a General License authorize this? — not just a name match.
- You want the workflow done for you: screening with review queues and four-eyes controls, continuous monitoring, reproducible audit trails, and blocked-property/reject filings.
- You’re a bank, credit union, or fintech that needs published pricing, ACH invoicing, and a vendor-review pack — not a data engineering project.
Or use both: plenty of teams pair broad open data with an OFAC-deep workflow platform. Start with the free search, browse the free OFAC reference, or see what the paid tiers do.