OriginStamp or stampthisfile?
A platform, or $0.05 a hash.

The short answer

Both take a hash and commit it to a blockchain, and both can prove a file existed by a date. OriginStamp is a managed platform with an account: a contract or a quote, an API key, a dashboard, certificates, and extras aimed at compliance teams. stampthisfile is one HTTP call paid per hash, with no account, and it returns the .ots proof itself, which any OpenTimestamps tool can verify without us.

If a person will open a dashboard and your organisation needs an invoice, OriginStamp is a reasonable default. If software stamps on its own and you want the proof to outlive the vendor, that is what we built.

What each one is

OriginStamp (originstamp.com) is a timestamping service running since 2013 that batches customer hashes into a Merkle tree and anchors the root in a blockchain. Its API documentation describes the service as distributing timestamping costs across its users so high-frequency timestamps stay affordable. In 2026 its homepage leads with OriginVault, which extracts data from ERP and legacy systems and seals it, marketed as GoBD/GebuV-compliant and audit-proof. The timestamping API is still there; the company now sells to enterprises with compliance requirements.

stampthisfile is a small service on the same protocol as OpenTimestamps: it submits your hash, mixed with a random nonce, into a Merkle tree, sends the root to four independent public calendars, and hands back a standard .ots proof plus a signed receipt. It upgrades the proof when Bitcoin confirms, notifies a webhook, and verifies proofs for free. It does not have a dashboard, a sales team, or a certificate with your logo on it.

Side by side

Pricing in practice

OriginStamp quotes now. Its documentation says pricing depends on the number of timestamps and proofs and points to sales for an offer or a free test key; the last public price list, from 2020, started at $9.90/month for 100 timestamps and ran to $249/month for 100,000. If those tiers still hold, 100 stamps a month is about $9.90 there and $5.00 here, and 10,000 is about $79 there and $500.00 here — which is the one volume where the subscription is cheaper per stamp. Enterprise contracts change that arithmetic in both directions.

The real question is what the plan includes. If you will use the dashboard, the email certificates, the audit exports and the support line, the premium is small against the cost of building those. If you will not, you are paying for a seat nobody sits in.

Latency: what “instant” means

Neither service can make a Bitcoin block arrive sooner. A timestamp is pending until the anchoring transaction confirms, typically within hours. What differs is what you hold in the meantime, and what happens next. We return a valid pending .ots immediately and finish it later, either through the status URL, the webhook, or /v1/verify, which upgrades a pending proof on the spot if the calendars have committed it.

A vendor that advertises instant confirmation is usually describing the receipt, not the Bitcoin attestation. Ask which one you get, and whether the thing you get can be verified by someone who does not trust the vendor.

When OriginStamp is the better choice

• You need a contract, a purchase order and invoices, not a wallet.
• A compliance or audit team wants a dashboard, exports and certificates they can file, rather than proof files in a bucket.
• You are sealing records from ERP or legacy systems at organisational scale, which is what OriginVault is for.
• You want one vendor to hold the operational risk, with support and, at the top end, an SLA.
• You need anchoring on more than one blockchain, which their documentation describes. Ask which ones, and what you would do with the second proof.
• You are not stamping often enough to run an integration, and a person will upload documents by hand.

When stampthisfile is the better choice

• An agent or pipeline stamps its own outputs, with no human to create a key.
• Volume is spiky: 4 stamps one week, 400 the next, and you would rather not buy an allowance.
• You want the proof to be portable: an .ots file that verifies at opentimestamps.org or with ots verify, with or without us.
• You want one call for many hashes and a webhook when Bitcoin confirms, rather than polling a dashboard.
• You want to verify on read: POST /v1/verify is free, takes the hash and the proof, and completes a pending proof if it can.
• You are price-sensitive at low volume: a handful of files a month costs cents, not a subscription.

How to decide in a minute

1. Will a person pay, or will code pay? Code: stampthisfile, or an API key you provision — decide who holds the secret.
2. Do you need an invoice more than you need the lowest unit price? Invoice: OriginStamp or a comparable subscription.
3. Does the proof have to be verifiable by a third party who does not trust either of us? Then insist on .ots, whichever vendor you pick.
4. Do you need a legal presumption of the date? Neither service provides one. See Evidence and talk to a QTSP.

Questions