Best data removal services in 2026
Every service on this list does the same core job: it finds the people-search sites publishing your name, address, phone number and relatives, then submits removal requests on your behalf. The differences are in how many sites they cover, whether people or scripts file the requests, how often they re-check, and what they charge for the tier that actually includes what you want.
Before you buy anything, two facts worth internalising. First, every one of these opt-outs is free to do yourself — we publish step-by-step instructions for 45+ brokers. What you're paying for is persistence, not access. Second, removal isn't permanent: brokers rebuild from public records and from each other, so listings reappear within months. A service that stops re-checking is worth roughly nothing, which is also what happens when you cancel.
Disclosure up front: Footprint Finder is our product. We've given it one category on this list — the one where it does something the others structurally can't — and the overall pick goes to a competitor. You should still read this with the scepticism any vendor-published comparison deserves, and the capability tables on each comparison page are built from one shared data file so the same standard applies to us as to everyone else.
Every service compared
| Service | Price | Brokers | Inbox scan for forgotten accounts | Data-broker removal | Data-breach monitoring | GDPR / CCPA data requests | Account & subscription deletion help | Ongoing re-scans & alerts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incogni | $95.88/yr Standard · $179.88/yr Unlimited | 420+ broker sites | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| EasyOptOuts | $19.99/yr | 145+ broker sites | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Optery | $39–$249/yr | 90–615 brokers (by tier) | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| DeleteMe | $129/yr | ~100 sites + custom requests | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| OneRep | $99.96/yr | 200+ broker sites | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Footprint Finder (ours) | $79/yr / $129/yr | 25+ broker sites | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Privacy Bee | $197/yr | 150+ broker sites | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Kanary | $179.88/yr | 300+ broker sites | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Aura | $144/yr | Limited broker removal (add-on) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Mine | $59.88/yr Pro | No direct broker removal | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
The picks, by category
1. Incogni — Best overall for most people
$95.88/yr Standard · $179.88/yr Unlimited · 420+ broker sites
Broad automated coverage, legally-framed requests rather than voluntary opt-out forms, sensible pricing, and an established parent company in Surfshark. For the job most people are actually here for — get me off people-search sites and keep me off — it's the strongest all-round execution.
The catch: Broker removal only. No inbox scanning, no breach monitoring, thin reporting, and no free tier to check your exposure before you commit.
2. EasyOptOuts — Best value
$19.99/yr · 145+ broker sites
Covers a broker list in the same broad territory as services charging many times more, and does the core job — find, submit, re-check — without ceremony. For anyone who has looked at this category's prices and thought they seemed steep, this is the honest answer to that instinct.
The catch: Almost no product around the removals: an email summary rather than a dashboard, and less frequent re-scans than the premium options. That gap matters if someone is actively looking for you.
3. Optery — Best free tier
$39–$249/yr · 90–615 brokers (by tier)
The free exposure report is the single most useful free thing in this category. It shows you your real listings — profile, address, relatives, screenshots — before asking for money, and the paid product documents removals with before-and-after evidence rather than a counter.
The catch: The tier structure is genuinely confusing, and the coverage most people picture when they sign up sits well above the entry plan. Price your comparison against the tier that covers you, not the cheapest one.
4. DeleteMe — Best for human-filed removals
$129/yr · ~100 sites + custom requests
Staff file the requests rather than scripts, which matters more than it sounds: opt-out forms break, add CAPTCHAs and get redesigned, and an automated request that fails often still reports as sent. Fifteen years in the category and the most legible reporting of the manual services.
The catch: Among the narrowest automated coverage here, at the top of the price range, and no free tier. You're paying for filing quality rather than breadth — make sure that's the trade you want.
5. OneRep — Best removal dashboard
$99.96/yr · 200+ broker sites
Wide automated coverage paired with the clearest progress tracking in the category. You can see which sites listed you, what's in flight and what came back confirmed without digging through a report.
The catch: 2024 reporting raised questions about the founder's prior involvement with people-search businesses, and the company responded publicly. Read the primary sources before handing over your address history.
6. Footprint Finder (ours) — Best for finding forgotten accounts
$79/yr / $129/yr · 25+ broker sites
Every other service on this list looks outward at public databases. This one also reads your inbox — with read-only metadata access, sender and subject only, never message bodies — to find the accounts you've actually created: the retailer with your card on file, the app from an abandoned hobby, the service you used once in 2019. Those accounts are where breaches start, and breaches are what refill the broker databases everyone else is busy cleaning. Broker removal is on the Complete plan; breach monitoring and a genuinely usable free tier come with all of them.
The catch: This is our product, so weigh it accordingly. Broker coverage is smaller than Incogni's or OneRep's, and broker removal sits on the Complete tier rather than the entry one. If people-search listings are your only concern, a dedicated broker service covers more sites.
7. Privacy Bee — Widest scope
$197/yr · 150+ broker sites
The only service here that goes meaningfully beyond people-search sites, contacting ordinary companies — retailers, marketers, processors — to suppress or delete your records, and doing so proactively rather than only in response to listings it finds.
The catch: The most expensive option by a wide margin, and a share of the outreach is speculative: requests sent to companies that may hold nothing of yours, while the companies that definitely do sit unread in your inbox.
8. Kanary — Best for search results and court records
$179.88/yr · 300+ broker sites
Frames the problem as reputation rather than databases, watching what actually surfaces when someone searches your name. Court-record removal at higher tiers is a real differentiator that most competitors don't attempt at all.
The catch: Near the top of the category on price for a mid-sized broker list, and some of the monitoring duplicates what a free Google Alert and Google's own 'Results about you' tool already do.
9. Aura — Best bundle
$144/yr · Limited broker removal (add-on)
Identity-theft insurance, restoration support and three-bureau credit monitoring alongside antivirus, a VPN and a password manager. Removal reduces the odds of something going wrong; this is the only option here that helps with the aftermath when it does.
The catch: Removal is one feature inside a large suite and thinner than any dedicated service's. Check whether you're seeing an introductory rate — the renewal is typically higher.
10. Mine — Best free inbox cleanup
$59.88/yr Pro · No direct broker removal
Got to the right idea early: your inbox is the definitive record of which companies hold your data. Clean interface, a free tier that genuinely works, and a GDPR framing that suits European users well.
The catch: It doesn't do data-broker removal at all, which is what most people come to this category for. Requests go to generic addresses rather than the privacy contacts obliged to act on them, which shows up in response rates.
How to choose, in four questions
- Is anyone actually looking for you? If you're dealing with harassment, stalking, a public-facing role or a live safety concern, buy on re-scan cadence and evidence — you need to know removals landed and to close the window when listings reappear. If it's general hygiene, you're mostly buying peace of mind and should buy on price.
- Do you know where you're exposed? If not, run Optery's free exposure report before spending anything. It's the fastest way to see which brokers list you, and that inventory tells you which service's coverage actually matters rather than which has the biggest number.
- Is it public findability or corporate data-holding that worries you? They're different problems. Public findability is people-search sites — any broker remover handles it. Corporate data-holding is the hundred-odd companies with your details on file, and only inbox-based tools can see which ones those are.
- Will you keep it up yourself? Every opt-out here is free. If you'll genuinely work through the list twice a year, do that and spend nothing. Services are worth paying for precisely when you know you won't.
How data-removal services actually work
Every service in this category does roughly the same thing under the hood. You give them your name, address history and date of birth. They search people-search sites for records matching you, then submit each site's opt-out form or send a legally-backed deletion request on your behalf. Some automate the whole loop; some have staff file requests by hand.
Two things follow from that. First, you have to hand over personal data to get personal data removed — there is no way around it, so how a vendor stores and retains that data matters more than its marketing. Second, removal is not permanent. Brokers rebuild their databases from public records, marketing lists and each other, so a profile you deleted often reappears within a few months. Any service worth paying for re-checks continuously; a one-time sweep is close to worthless.
It is also worth knowing that opt-outs are free. Every broker on these lists has a removal process you can complete yourself for nothing — we publish step-by-step instructions for 45+ of them. What you are buying from any of these services is labour and persistence, not access. If you have a few hours and a spreadsheet, doing it manually is a legitimate option.
One regulatory note worth tracking: California's Delete Act directs the state to run a single deletion portal that forwards a request to every registered data broker at once. If you are a California resident, check the current status before committing to a multi-year plan — the economics of this category change if a one-click statewide deletion works as intended.
How we compare these services
Broker counts are the headline number every vendor advertises and the least useful one. Counts are self-reported, defined differently by each company, and padded with obscure sites nobody searches. A service covering the 30 brokers that actually surface in Google results beats one covering 300 that don't.
So we weigh four things instead: what the service can see (broker listings only, or your accounts and breaches too), whether it keeps working after the first sweep, what it costs at the tier that actually includes the feature you want, and whether you can see your exposure before paying.
Footprint Finder is our product, so treat our placement with the scepticism it deserves — we've tried to be specific about the cases where a competitor is the better buy, and every page here names at least one. The capability tables are built from the same data file, so the same standard is applied to us as to everyone else.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best data removal service?
For most people, Incogni — broad automated coverage, legally-framed requests, reasonable pricing and established corporate backing. EasyOptOuts is the better buy if price is the deciding factor, DeleteMe if you want humans filing requests rather than scripts, and Optery if you want to see your exposure before paying. There's no single winner, because the services optimise for genuinely different things.
Are data removal services worth it?
They're worth it if you won't do the opt-outs yourself. Every broker on these lists has a free removal process, and we publish instructions for 45+ of them — roughly ten minutes per site, repeated a few times a year as brokers re-list you. A subscription buys the repetition, not access. If you're organised and have the time, doing it manually gets you most of the benefit for nothing.
Can I remove myself from data brokers for free?
Yes, entirely. Opt-outs are free by law, and no broker can charge you to be removed. The work is finding your listings, completing each form, confirming by email, and repeating the whole process every few months when the records come back. That's the labour these services are selling.
How long does data removal take?
Most brokers process a verified opt-out within 7 to 30 days, and that timeline is set by the broker rather than by the service you use. Complete coverage across a large list usually takes a couple of months for the first pass. The number that matters afterwards is re-scan frequency, because listings start reappearing almost immediately.
Do data brokers put your information back after removal?
Routinely. Brokers rebuild their databases from public records, marketing data and each other, so a removed profile commonly reappears within a few months from a different source. This is the single most important thing to understand about the category: it's ongoing maintenance, not a one-time fix, and cancelling any service eventually returns you to where you started.
Which data removal service covers the most sites?
Incogni, OneRep and Privacy Bee advertise the largest lists, but treat every count sceptically — they're self-reported, defined differently by each vendor, and padded with obscure sites that never surface in a search for your name. Covering the 30 brokers that appear on page one for your name beats covering 300 that don't.
Do these services remove you from Google?
Only indirectly. Removing the underlying broker listing usually causes the search result to disappear once Google re-crawls the page, which can take weeks. Google also runs a free 'Results about you' tool for requesting removal of results that expose your phone number, home address or email — worth running alongside any removal service, since it addresses visibility while the service addresses the record itself.
What can't data removal services do?
None of the broker-focused services can see the accounts you've created over the years, because they never look at your inbox. That's a meaningful gap: dormant accounts get breached, your details circulate, brokers ingest the new data, and the listings you paid to remove come back from a fresh source. Cleaning the output without touching the input is a treadmill.