Client Vetting for Freelancers Who Get Paid After Delivery

You are one person doing the design, the code, the copy and the collections. A lead lands in your inbox from a cold email or a marketplace message, the budget sounds right, and the only question left is whether the company behind it will pay. ClientVetter answers that question in about a minute: type the client's domain and you see whether the business is registered and active, how long its domain has existed, whether its website and mail setup look like a working company, and whether other vendors have documented unpaid invoices. You get a scored report with the reason behind every flag, so you can say yes with confidence, ask for a deposit, or walk away before you have spent a week on a proposal.

Freelance illustrator at a kitchen table reading a client brief next to a sketchbook and a mug

The lead looks fine until the invoice is due

Most freelancers learn about a bad client the expensive way. The kickoff call goes well, the scope is signed, you deliver the first milestone, and then the replies slow down. By the time you realize the company was dissolved last spring or that two other designers are chasing the same founder, you have already worked for free.

Checking properly by hand means opening the state business registry, a domain lookup tool, a few review platforms, a court news search and the OFAC sanctions list, then trying to make sense of it all. That is close to an hour per prospect, and when you are juggling three projects, nobody has that hour. So the check gets skipped, and the risk stays on your side.

ClientVetter does that same research from public sources in one pass and writes it up in plain language. You keep the judgment call. We just put the facts in front of you before you commit your time.

What a freelancer gets from one check

Every full report is built for the decision you actually face: should I take this project, and on what terms.

Registry match, with status (active, dissolved, forfeited), formation date, state and registered agent.
Domain registration age from public registration records (RDAP), so a three-week-old domain stands out.
Website reachability, HTTPS, and mail records (MX, SPF, DMARC) as signs of a business that operates every day.
A summary of public review ratings with links to the source pages.
Public news and court-record mentions tied to unpaid vendors, liens or lawsuits, in the company's business capacity only.
Verified reports from other members in the non paying clients database, with the company's reply when it gave one.
Sanctions screening of the company and its listed principals against the OFAC SDN list and other public government lists.
A risk score from 0 to 100 with a band (Low, Watch, High) and a written reason plus source link for every point.
Suggested payment terms for the band and your project value, such as a deposit or milestone billing. This is guidance, not legal advice.

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A simple routine before every proposal

You do not need a new process. Add one step between "interesting lead" and "send the quote".

1
Copy the domain from the client's email signature or website and paste it into ClientVetter.
2
Pick the client type. If you are dealing with a named contact, choose "Contact person at a company" and we check that person only in their role at that company.
3
Choose the state of registration if you know it and the project value band.
4
Read the score band and the red flags list. Low usually means standard terms. Watch means ask for a deposit or shorter payment terms. High means slow down and look closely at each reason.

If you want to know exactly how the score is built, our guide on how to vet a client walks through every source and weight.

When the client is a brand new LLC

Plenty of good clients are young. A founder who formed an LLC two months ago may be a perfect fit and may pay on time. ClientVetter does not punish youth on its own. A thin footprint is shown as a signal with an explanation, so you see the difference between "new company with a real website, working mail and an active registry record" and "new domain, no registry match, no mail records".

For young clients the suggested terms usually lean toward a deposit and smaller milestones. That protects you without insulting the client, and most legitimate businesses accept it without a second thought.

If you want to look at the registry side yourself, our llc lookup guide explains what each status value means.

Close detail of a desk with a stack of stapled company filings, a stamp and reading glasses in daylight

Your client never knows you checked

A check is private to your account. The company you look up is not notified, and nothing about your search is shown to anyone else. The only time a business hears from us is when a member submits an evidence-backed non-payment report about it, so it can reply or dispute.

ClientVetter covers businesses and people only in their business role. It is not a consumer reporting agency, and reports may not be used for credit, insurance, employment or housing decisions about an individual. Our fcra compliant background check page explains what that means in practice.

The plan most freelancers start with

Starter is built for a solo freelancer: 25 full client checks a month, 10 monitored clients, one seat, search in the non-payment reports, PDF export and email alerts. It costs $49 a month, or $24 a month on the yearly plan, billed $288 a year. Checks reset each billing period. One avoided unpaid project usually covers years of the subscription.

Monitoring matters for freelancers too. When an existing retainer client's registry status changes or a new verified report appears, you get an email, so you can pause work before the next invoice. Read more about business credit monitoring for clients.

See pricing

Can I check a client who only gave me a Gmail address?

Yes. Ask for the company's website domain or legal name. If there is no domain at all, that itself is worth noting, and the report explains which signals could not be found and why that matters.

Will a small client show up at all?

Usually yes, because registry records, domain records and mail records exist for nearly every operating business. When little is found, the report says so plainly and treats the thin footprint as one signal, not as a verdict.

Can I report a client who never paid me?

On Starter you can search the shared database. Submitting a report starts on Team, and every report needs evidence: a signed contract or accepted proposal, the unpaid invoice, and proof of delivery or correspondence.

Is a ClientVetter report legal advice?

No. The suggested terms are practical guidance based on the score band. For a contract dispute or collection, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state.

Electrical contractor in work clothes at a counter in his workshop office at dusk, sliding a new client's printed proposal into a kraft folder next to a clipboard and a mug

Check your next lead before you write the proposal

Type the client's domain and see the first signals in about a minute. No card needed for the preview.

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