HPI check vs carVertical: which is better, and our pick for a UK car

HPI and carVertical are the two names most buyers end up weighing against each other, and they're built for different cars. HPI is the UK one, with a published source list and a big guarantee. carVertical is the international one, built around history from abroad. Which is better comes down to where the car's been, and both of them stop at the paperwork.

HPI check vs carVertical: which is better?

For a car that's only ever been registered in the UK, HPI. It publishes where its records come from, shows its price before you pay and backs its Comprehensive check with a guarantee of up to £30,000. For an imported car, carVertical, because history from more than 45 countries is what it's built around.

Here's how the two line up, read off each company's own site:

Read on 17 September 2026 (carVertical's headline claims on 22 August 2026). We tried to re-check both on 17 October 2026 and couldn't read either site, so these are still the September figures. "Not described" means nothing on their own site describes it. carVertical's finance section is one of the report sections its help page says "may appear", and its pricing page goes straight into a checkout, which is why we couldn't read a price.

Do HPI and carVertical use the same data?

The UK records that cost buyers the most come from the same places whoever you pay: outstanding finance from the lenders, theft markers from the police, and write-offs from the insurance industry's register, MIAFTR. Nobody holds a private source for any of them. HPI names all three on its own site. carVertical doesn't name a UK register, so whether it reads the same ones is something its pages don't say. Finance is the one that costs private buyers the car, and we've covered how it works in outstanding finance on a used car.

HPI is unusually open about this: its site lists the registers it draws on, and two of the biggest names in British motoring resell its data. The RAC sells its check as "Powered by HPI", and the AA's page says "Our vehicle checks are provided by HPI Limited. HPI is a Solera Company." Both were read on 22 August 2026.

carVertical describes its sources in general terms, "insurance, police and registration data", on every page we read on 17 September 2026. So we can't tell you which UK registers it reads for a UK car, and we're not going to guess. Where it genuinely adds something is the part of a car's life that happened somewhere else.

When is carVertical the better choice?

When the car was imported. carVertical describes "1000+ data sources across 45+ countries", and a UK check, ours included, starts the car's story the day it was registered here. If it spent its first five years in Germany or Japan, anything that happened there, a write-off, a clocked odometer, a flood, isn't on the UK registers a UK check reads. carVertical is built to look across borders, and that's the job to buy it for.

The same goes for damage pictures. carVertical advertises damage history with recorded photographs. We show salvage auction photos where a written-off car went through a salvage auction, and that's narrower: it only exists if the car was written off and sold through a lot.

Our Provenance Check does flag a car that's recorded as imported. It holds the verdict at caution, and raises it to high risk if the advert doesn't mention the import, but flagging an import isn't the same as reading its history. If the V5C or the advert says the car came from abroad, that's carVertical's ground. Look at its live price before you buy, because we couldn't read one on its site.

When is HPI the better choice?

When the guarantee is what you're buying. HPI's Comprehensive check carries up to £30,000 for two years on mainland GB vehicles, dropping to £15,000 for written-off cars, and it isn't transferable if you sell the car on. Its Basic check carries no guarantee at all. We don't offer a data guarantee, and nothing on carVertical's site describes a cash one either, so if that's the point of the purchase, HPI's is the one to have.

It's also the name sellers and dealers use. "HPI clear" in an advert is the seller telling you a check came back clean, which is worth running yourself rather than taking on trust, and we've covered what that phrase does and doesn't promise in what used car advert phrases really mean.

How much do HPI and carVertical cost?

HPI's Comprehensive check was £19.99 when we read its checkout site on 17 September 2026, its Basic check £9.99, and its MultiCheck £29.99 for three. We couldn't read a carVertical price on 22 August or 17 September 2026, because its pricing page goes straight into a checkout, and the figures comparison blogs quote for it disagree with each other, so we won't repeat any of them. Our re-check on 17 October 2026 couldn't read either site, so look at both live prices before you choose.

The RAC and the AA rows are there because they're HPI's data under another name, at a lower single price when we checked. Each of the four has a dated page of its own against us: HPI vs Car Advert Check, carVertical vs Car Advert Check, the RAC's check and the AA's, and every UK car check compared covers the rest of the field.

What won't HPI or carVertical tell you?

Anything about the car that isn't on a register. Both are lookups: you give them a registration or a VIN, and they hand back what's been filed against it. Three things never get filed.

The advert. What the seller wrote isn't data anyone records, so no lookup has ever seen it. It's often where trouble shows first: a "full service history" that turns out to be two stamps, "just needs a sensor" on an engine with a well-known fault, a mileage that doesn't sit right with the car's own MOT readings.

What the MOT advisories add up to. The MOT history is public, but a lookup hands it over as a list. The useful bit is the pattern: the same corrosion note three tests running, or brake and tyre advisories every single year. We've written up how to read those in MOT advisories explained.

Damage that never became a claim, and how well repairs were done. Pay a bodyshop in cash and nothing enters any register, at home or abroad, which is why checking whether a car has been in an accident takes more than a lookup. Even a properly recorded write-off doesn't come with a note on the quality of the rebuild, which is the whole problem with Cat N and Cat S cars. No check closes either gap at any price, ours included. That takes your eyes and a ramp, and there's more on it in what an HPI check won't tell you.

How is our Provenance Check different from HPI and carVertical?

Start with what's the same. Our outstanding finance, theft and write-off lookups come from the same places as HPI's: the lenders, the police and the insurers' MIAFTR register. Nobody holds a private one, and we're not selling better records.

What's different is what happens next. HPI and carVertical stop at the registration. Ours carries on and reads three things no plate lookup takes in: the advert, the car's full MOT advisory history, and our known-faults database, which holds 871 documented faults across 41 makes with what each costs to put right. It then turns the lot into one verdict instead of a page of fields, and finance, a theft marker or a write-off sends that verdict straight to its highest risk rating, because none of those is something you negotiate around.

Where it earns its keep is a car that comes back clean. No finance, no theft marker, no write-off: a standard check stops there and the car looks fine. Ours keeps going. If the advert says "never missed a service", the MOT record shows the same suspension advisory three years running and the engine is one with a known fault at that age, the report says the description doesn't match the car's own record, what the fault would cost, and what to ask before you travel. It's the same faults data behind pages like Nissan Qashqai known faults and Volkswagen Golf known faults.

The Provenance Check also includes the whole Smart Check, so there's no second purchase: every finding explained, known faults with repair costs, seller questions with a viewing checklist, and a figure to negotiate with, plus salvage auction photos where the car went through one.

What it won't do is cover the years before an import arrived, or pay out on a guarantee. For those, carVertical and HPI are the honest answers.

So which should you actually run?

It depends where you are with the car.

You've got an advert open and you're deciding whether it's worth the drive. Run the free scan on that advert. It reads the wording against the car's DVSA MOT history and tells you the biggest thing to worry about, with no card and no password.

You're about to hand money over for a UK car. Upgrade that report to the Provenance Check. It adds outstanding finance, theft markers and write-offs, scores them in with everything else, and brings the seller questions and a figure to negotiate with.

The car's an import. Run carVertical as well. That's what it's for.

If you're still comparing more than these two, our ranking of the best HPI checks in the UK covers the rest of the field. And you lose nothing by starting free: the free report upgrades on the same link with no re-run, so you never paste the advert twice, and if the free scan already says walk away, you've saved yourself the rest.