Verification is not optional and it is not a marketing tier. It is the onboarding you complete before the platform will let you quote on a job, and there is exactly one badge — verified or not.
This article is deliberately specific about what we check, because a badge that implies checks we do not run is worse than no badge at all.
What "verified" means on 3D Hub Plus
A verified maker has:
- A phone number confirmed by SMS. We send a code to your number and you enter it back. This is a real check against a live line — not a field you type and we trust.
- At least one printer on file. You record the make, model and status of each machine you will print on, either by typing it in or picking from our printer library.
- For professional makers: business details reviewed by our team. If you register as a business rather than a hobby maker, a human on our side looks at the business details you submit before you are cleared.
That is the whole list. Verification is required before quoting, so there is no "unverified maker quoting on price alone" — an unverified account cannot send a quote at all.
What we do not check
Being straight about this matters more than sounding impressive:
- No government ID and no selfie match. We do not run identity document checks.
- No equipment photos. Nobody photographs their printer with a handwritten note. Your machine list is taken on trust.
- No sample print. There is no test STL, nothing gets shipped to a QA team, and nothing is measured for dimensional accuracy.
- No quality tiers. There is no Standard / Pro / Expert grading anywhere in the platform. Do not describe yourself as holding one.
- No portfolio minimum. Portfolio items are optional and help you win work; no number of past projects is required to be verified.
- No address verification outside the United States. US addresses are validated against a carrier address service because we buy the shipping label. Other countries are not verified, and hobby makers give no street address at all.
- No annual re-review. Verification does not expire on a schedule.
If you see any of the above claimed as a platform check, it is out of date — tell us and we will fix it.
The three steps, in order
1. Phone
Enter your number, receive the SMS code, enter the code. Do this first: it gates everything else.
2. Printers and materials
Add every machine you intend to print on — make, model, build volume, and the materials you stock for it. This is what your quotes are matched against, so an accurate list gets you relevant jobs and a padded one gets you jobs you cannot deliver.
Print technology matters here. The live maker pool runs FDM and resin (SLA). If you run powder or metal, there is currently no demand routed to you, because we do not sell those processes.
3. Business details (professional makers only)
Registering as a business means submitting your business details for a human review. Hobby makers skip this step.
Before your first payout
Payouts are separate from verification, and you do not need them set up to send quotes or take jobs. Before money can reach you, you connect a Stripe payout account. Two things to know:
- You keep 100% of what you quote. Nothing is deducted from your price — no commission, and no payout fee tier that rewards some makers over others. The platform's fee is a separate charge paid by the customer.
- Stripe must support payouts in your country. A few countries the platform accepts for signup are not supported by Stripe for payouts; if yours is one, contact support before you take on work, because we cannot pay you until that is solved.
What actually wins you work
Since there is no grading to pass, the things that move your volume are the ordinary ones:
- An accurate machine and material list, so you appear on jobs you can genuinely do.
- Answering questions quickly — you have 24 hours to respond to a customer request.
- Clear quality photos at the quality-review step. On marketplace jobs your photos are approved by the customer before you ship, so good photos are what get you to shipping.
- Delivering what the brief said, which is what a customer's confirmation (and your payout) turns on.
After verification
Verification does not expire, but it is not untouchable either: repeated quality failures, unresponsiveness or disputes can put an account under review or suspend it. One bad order does not.