Optery alternatives: 9 options compared
Data-broker removal with a free exposure report. Here's how it stacks up against every major alternative on price, broker coverage and what each one can actually see — including the cases where Optery is still the right buy.
Disclosure: Footprint Finder is our own product and appears in this comparison. The capability table is generated from one shared data file, so we are scored on the same criteria as everyone else. Pricing last verified 2026-07-29.
The short answer
| Service | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| DeleteMe | People who want humans, not scripts, filing removals | $129/yr |
| Incogni | Hands-off broker removal at scale | $95.88/yr Standard · $179.88/yr Unlimited |
| Kanary | Search-result and reputation cleanup | $179.88/yr |
| OneRep | Wide automated coverage with clear progress tracking | $99.96/yr |
| Privacy Bee | Proactive opt-outs beyond people-search sites | $197/yr |
| EasyOptOuts | The cheapest credible automated removal | $19.99/yr |
| Aura | One bill for identity, credit and security | $144/yr |
| Mine | Free, one-off GDPR-style inbox cleanup | $59.88/yr Pro |
| Footprint Finder (ours) | Finding forgotten accounts in your inbox | $79/yr+ |
Why people look for Optery alternatives
- The tier structure is confusing, and the cheapest paid plan covers a fraction of what the top one does.
- Getting genuinely broad coverage means paying near the top of the range.
- No inbox scanning, so forgotten accounts stay invisible.
- No built-in breach monitoring.
What Optery genuinely does better
Optery's free exposure report is the single most useful free thing in this category. It shows you your actual listings — name, address, phone, relatives, the screenshots — before asking for money. Most people have never seen what a people-search profile of them looks like, and seeing it is what converts vague concern into action.
That transparency continues into the paid product. Optery shows before-and-after evidence of removals rather than asking you to trust a counter, which is a meaningfully higher standard of proof than most competitors offer.
The tiering, confusing as it is, does mean you can start cheap and scale up rather than paying top rate on day one.
Where Optery leaves you exposed
The tiers are the recurring complaint. The entry plan is priced attractively but covers a small slice of the broker list; the coverage people picture when they sign up sits several tiers up. Work out which tier includes the coverage you actually want before comparing Optery's headline price to anything else — the honest comparison is usually against the middle or upper tier, not the entry one.
Beyond that, Optery has the same structural blind spot as every broker-only service. It looks outward at public databases and never inward at your own accounts. The forgotten logins holding your address and card details are invisible to it, and those are what leak into breaches and refill the broker databases Optery just cleaned.
There's no breach monitoring either, so you'll want a separate way to find out when your email turns up in a dump.
How to use Optery's free tier well
Even if you buy something else, run Optery's free report first. It costs nothing and gives you a concrete inventory of which brokers currently list you — which is exactly the baseline you need to judge whether whatever you buy is working.
A reasonable low-cost strategy is to use the free report for visibility, then work through the highest-impact listings manually using free opt-out guides, and spend your budget on the coverage a free report can't give you. That's not the outcome Optery is hoping for, but it's an honest read of what their free tier is worth.
Footprint Finder vs Optery
Footprint Finder removes you from 25+ broker sites on the Complete ($129/yr) plan; Optery covers 90–615 brokers (by tier).
| Capability | Footprint Finder | Optery |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox scan for forgotten accounts | Yes | No |
| Data-broker removal | Yes | Yes |
| Data-breach monitoring | Yes | No |
| GDPR / CCPA data requests | Yes | No |
| Account & subscription deletion help | Yes | No |
| Ongoing re-scans & alerts | Yes | Yes |
- Two clear tiers instead of overlapping plans: $79/yr Pro, $129/yr Complete
- Inbox-driven discovery finds what Optery can't see
- Unified view of accounts + brokers + breaches in one dashboard
- Per-scan email alerts the moment something new shows up
The best Optery alternatives
DeleteMe
$129/yr · ~100 sites + custom requests. The category's original, with human reviewers filing removals by hand. Premium price, narrow scope.
Incogni
$95.88/yr Standard · $179.88/yr Unlimited · 420+ broker sites. Surfshark-backed, heavily automated, one of the widest broker lists in the category.
Kanary
$179.88/yr · 300+ broker sites. Reputation-focused, covering search results and court records alongside broker listings.
OneRep
$99.96/yr · 200+ broker sites. Broad automated coverage with a clean progress dashboard. Past ownership questions are worth reading up on.
Privacy Bee
$197/yr · 150+ broker sites. The broadest scope of the broker-only services — it contacts ordinary companies too, not just people-search sites.
EasyOptOuts
$19.99/yr · 145+ broker sites. The budget pick, and genuinely good value. No dashboard, no frills, just automated removals.
Aura
$144/yr · Limited broker removal (add-on). An identity-theft suite with removal bundled in. Great bundle, secondary removal product.
Mine
$59.88/yr Pro · No direct broker removal. Inbox-based discovery with a free tier and a clean interface. Sends requests; doesn't remove broker listings.
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.
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.
What to check before you switch from Optery
- Check which Optery tier you're actually on before comparing prices — the entry and top plans are very different products.
- Download your exposure report and removal evidence before cancelling; it's the best baseline document in the category.
- Ask Optery to delete the personal data they hold once you close the account.
- Expect re-listing within a few months of cancelling unless something else takes over the re-checks.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Optery alternative?
Incogni and OneRep are the closest comparisons if you want broad automated coverage on a single flat plan rather than tiers. EasyOptOuts is cheaper than any Optery paid tier. DeleteMe is the alternative if you want human-filed removals. Footprint Finder (our product) is the option if you want broker removal plus discovery of the accounts in your inbox.
Is Optery's free tier actually free?
Yes — the exposure report costs nothing and shows you real listings. What it doesn't include is automated removal; on the free tier you work through the opt-out forms yourself. That's a fair trade and the report is worth running regardless of which service you eventually pay for.
Which Optery plan do I actually need?
That depends on which brokers list you, which is exactly what the free report tells you. Run it first, see where you actually appear, then buy the tier that covers those specific sites rather than the tier with the best-looking headline number.
Optery vs Incogni — which is better?
Optery gives you a free look at your exposure and shows removal evidence; Incogni gives you broad coverage on one flat plan without the tier maths. If transparency matters most, Optery. If you want to pay once and never think about it, Incogni.
Does Optery remove you permanently?
No service does. Brokers rebuild from public records and from each other, so listings reappear over months. That's why continuous re-checking matters more than first-pass removal counts — and why cancelling any of these services eventually returns you to where you started.
The verdict
Optery earns its place on the strength of the free report and its evidence-based removals. Run the free tier no matter what you buy. Just price the comparison against the tier that actually covers you, not the entry one.