What does a people search site actually sell?
United States public records, assembled into one report.
The product aggregates county and state records, telephone and marketing data and whatever is publicly visible on social platforms: address history, ages, relatives, phone numbers, property and court records. The FTC's consumer page describes that assembly directly.
It answers who somebody is and where they have lived. It does not answer which accounts exist for an email address, which is a different question with a different mechanism under it.
The distinction matters most outside the United States, where the records these companies are built on do not exist in the same form. A report on a British or Brazilian subject is thin for structural reasons rather than because the search failed.
DetectiveCheck is ours. It is on the list because readers arrive here comparing it, and it is fifth because it does not do what the other five do. Nothing on this page is an affiliate link.
Why can nobody quote you a price?
Because none of them publish one.
Every vendor here keeps pricing behind the search funnel: you enter a name, wait through a progress bar, and see a figure at checkout. Checked on 31 July 2026, PeopleLooker's pricing URL returned 404 and none of the other five served a readable price page.
Which is why the pricing-and-features comparisons ranking for this query quote numbers that trace back to another comparison page rather than to a vendor's own dated one. No monthly figure appears in the cards below for that reason.
It is also the most useful thing to know before signing up. A price you cannot read until you have searched is a price set after the vendor knows you want the answer.
The six, ranked
SpokeoBest for US address history
The most recognisable name in the category, built on aggregating county records, telephone data and public social profiles into a single page about a person. Address history and relatives are the fields it is known for, and it is registered on California's data broker registry. It publishes no price anywhere public: the figure appears at checkout, after the search.
- Records
- Addresses, relatives, phones, property
- Price
- Not published publicly
- Coverage
- United States
- On record
- FTC, $800,000, 2012
Good at
- Broadest US address and relative aggregation here
- Registered on the California data broker registry
- Publishes an opt-out route
Weak at
- No price readable before you search
- Records outside the United States are thin
- Settled FTC charges for $800,000 in 2012 over marketing profiles to recruiters
BeenVerifiedBest range of record types
Sold alongside PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly and Bumper by one publisher, which is worth knowing before treating them as separate entries in a comparison. The reports carry names, addresses, phones, emails, relatives, criminal and court records. PeopleLooker publishes a permitted-use page naming six prohibited uses outright, which is more than most of this category manages.
- Records
- Addresses, phones, emails, court records
- Price
- Not published; PeopleLooker has no page
- Owner
- The Lifetime Value Company
- Sister brands
- PeopleLooker, Ownerly, Bumper
Good at
- States its non-CRA position and prohibited uses plainly
- Widest set of record types in this list
- Takes several identifier types
Weak at
- No public price on either brand
- Seven brands from one publisher inflate any comparison
- United States records only
WhitepagesBest known on phone numbers
The oldest brand here and still the one most people reach for on a number. Its reports centre on names, phones and addresses rather than on criminal history. It settled right-of-publicity claims in Illinois and Ohio for more than $4 million over using real people's details in the free previews that advertise its subscriptions, which was private litigation rather than a regulator.
- Records
- Names, phones, addresses
- Price
- Not published publicly
- Coverage
- United States
Good at
- The strongest starting point when you hold a number
- Longest-running brand in the category
- Free tier answers the simplest questions
Weak at
- No price readable before you search
- Thinner on criminal and court records than the rest
- Its free previews were the subject of a $4m settlement
TruthFinderThe largest order against it
Marketed on criminal and arrest records, sold as an unlimited monthly subscription, and part of the PeopleConnect group along with Instant Checkmate. In 2023 the two settled FTC charges for $5.8 million, over accuracy claims their own suppliers disclaim, notifications implying a criminal record where the record was a traffic ticket, and Remove controls that did not work as advertised.
- Records
- Criminal, contact, social
- Price
- Not published publicly
- Owner
- PeopleConnect, H.I.G. Capital
- On record
- FTC, $5.8m, 2023
Good at
- Publishes a dos-and-don'ts page naming prohibited uses
- One subscription rather than a per-report meter
- The deepest marketing focus on criminal records
Weak at
- A $5.8m FTC settlement in 2023, the largest figure here
- Its own comparison of these sites omits that settlement
- No public price, and no free tier
DetectiveCheckBest for the other question
Ours, and it is not a public-records people search site. It holds no addresses, no relatives, no property and no criminal records, and it never will, because it answers a different question: which accounts exist for an email address, a handle, a name or a number. Every source appears in the report including the ones that errored, which is the part of this category that usually goes missing.
- Identifiers
- Email, phone, username, name, photo, password
- Sources
- 71 email, 71 username, 13 name, 8 phone
- Price
- From $15 a month, published
- Free tier
- Sample report, no account
Good at
- The price is on the page before you search
- Every source shown, failures included
- Works the same way outside the United States
Weak at
- No addresses, relatives, property or criminal records
- Phone coverage is thin — 8 sources against 71 for email
- Not usable for employment or tenancy decisions under the FCRA
InteliusThe oldest regulatory history
Part of the same PeopleConnect group as TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, and the entry here with the longest record of complaints behind it. Washington's attorney general settled with it in 2010 for $1.3 million over post-transaction marketing that enrolled people in a $19.95 monthly service after a free trial, alleging hundreds of thousands were signed up that way.
- Records
- US public records
- Price
- Not published publicly
- Owner
- PeopleConnect, H.I.G. Capital
- On record
- Washington AG, $1.3m, 2010
Good at
- Shares the group's data with its larger sister brands
- Long-established United States record coverage
- Takes names, numbers and addresses alike
Weak at
- A $1.3m state settlement over auto-enrolment billing
- No public price, and a funnel built around upsells
- Little to distinguish it from its sister brands
The category is United States public records with a search box on top, which is why the reports thin out the moment you leave the country.
Who owns the sites you are comparing?
Fewer companies than the lists suggest.
The Lifetime Value Company publishes BeenVerified, PeopleLooker, PeopleSmart, NeighborWho, Ownerly, Bumper and ReversePhone. PeopleConnect, backed by H.I.G. Capital, holds Intelius, US Search, Classmates and, after a 2020 merger, TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate.
So a ten-item comparison is often three companies wearing ten names, and a head-to-head between TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate compares two brands with one owner. Neither the data behind them nor the billing is meaningfully separate.
Two of the top results for this query are published by vendors ranking themselves. Checking who owns the page is quicker than checking who owns the data, and it usually settles the question of how independent a comparison really is. The California data broker registry lists every registrant for free.
What have regulators and courts found?
Enough that it belongs in any honest ranking.
In September 2023 the FTC obtained a $5.8 million stipulated order against TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, alleging they had operated as consumer reporting agencies while marketing reports for screening, and that the Remove and Flag-as-Inaccurate controls did not work as advertised.
Spokeo paid $800,000 in 2012 to settle charges over marketing profiles to recruiters, and US Search settled in 2010 over a paid record-locking service the FTC called deceptive. Washington's attorney general settled with Intelius the same year for $1.3 million over auto-enrolment billing.
Two of those are FTC matters, one is a state attorney general and the Whitepages settlement above is private litigation. All are settlements rather than judicial findings, all are dated, and every company has had years to change since. They are here because the rankings for this query do not carry them.
So which one should you actually use?
Whichever matches the question you arrived with.
If you need somebody's address history, their relatives or a United States court record, the products above are the category built for it. None of them, ours included, may inform a hiring, tenancy, credit or insurance decision — the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs those.
If the question is which accounts exist for an email address, a handle or a number, that runs on a different mechanism entirely, and sign-up and password-reset forms are what answer it rather than county records.
The two are complements far more often than competitors. This page exists because every other ranking for this query mixes them together without ever saying so, and a reader who buys the wrong one ends up blaming the search rather than the category they bought into.
Common questions
What is the best people search site?
It depends on the record you want. Spokeo holds the broadest United States address and relative data, BeenVerified the widest range of record types, and Whitepages is still the strongest starting point from a phone number. None of the three publish a price you can read before running a search.
Are people search sites legal?
Operating them is lawful in the United States, and the records they aggregate are public. The limits are on use: the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs reports used for employment, tenancy, credit and insurance decisions, and the FTC has taken action against vendors that marketed themselves into that territory.
Are people search sites accurate?
Inconsistently, and structurally so. The FTC's 2023 case noted that the third-party suppliers behind these reports expressly disclaim accuracy, which means errors are inherited rather than introduced. Anybody who has opted out also disappears from the results, so an empty report is not evidence that a person does not exist.
Why do people search sites not show their prices?
Because the price is set after you have searched. Every vendor in this category keeps the figure behind the funnel: you enter a name, wait through a progress bar, and see a subscription offer at checkout. PeopleLooker does not publish a pricing page at all, and the others publish nothing a search engine can index.
Are Spokeo, BeenVerified and TruthFinder the same company?
Not all of them, but there are fewer companies than brands. The Lifetime Value Company publishes BeenVerified, PeopleLooker, Ownerly, NeighborWho and others; PeopleConnect holds TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search. Spokeo is separate. A ten-item comparison is frequently three owners.
Can I use a people search report to screen a tenant or an employee?
No. That use is what the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs, and it requires a consumer reporting agency with permissible-purpose checks, accuracy procedures and a dispute process. The FTC's 2023 order against TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate turned on exactly that boundary, disclaimers notwithstanding.
Do people search sites work outside the United States?
Barely, and for a structural reason. The category is built on United States county and state records, telephone data and marketing files, none of which have an equivalent in most other countries. A report on a subject in the UK, the EU or Brazil comes back thin because the underlying records were never there.
What is the difference between a people search and an account search?
A people search returns records about a person: addresses, relatives, court and property records. An account search returns which platforms hold an account for one identifier, and it works by asking sign-up and password-reset flows rather than by reading public records, which is also why one works outside the United States and the other does not.
How do I remove myself from people search sites?
Each publisher runs its own opt-out, and California residents also have a registry-backed route through the state's data broker rules. Expect it to be slow and to need repeating, since removal from one brand does not remove you from its sister brands, and new records reappear as fresh public filings are ingested.
