Best Data Removal Services: The Short Version
- Incogni: Best Overall
- Optery: Best for Proof of Removal
- DeleteMe: Best for Human-Assisted Removals
- Privacy Bee: Best for Broker Coverage
- Kanary: Best for Social Media and AI Exposure
This comparison explains how we ranked the best data removal services, one by one. First, what these products do: a data removal service contacts data brokers and people-search sites on your behalf and asks them to delete your records. It then goes back to the same companies, because many of them collect your details over and over again. Keep in mind that none of these data removal services can erase you from the internet: What they can do is make your address, phone number and email much harder to find and to sell.
How we built this ranking: we used Incogni for almost four months on its Unlimited plan, and the figures in its section come from that account. To compare the five services, we looked at their plans, prices and terms side by side. One point of context: Incogni and Optery now belong to the same group, after the popular VPN Surfshark bought a majority stake in Optery in September 2026.
The Top 5 Data Removal Services at a Glance
The table below compares the cheapest paid plan of each of the best data removal services. Site counts are the ones each company publishes for that plan, and they are not counted the same way from one company to the next.
| Service | Best For | Cheapest Paid Plan | Sites on That Plan | Custom Removals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incogni | Best Overall | Standard: $95.88 per year | 420+ | On Unlimited and Protect plans |
| Optery | Proof of Removal | Core: $39 per year | 150+ (380+ with Expanded Reach) | On the Ultimate plan |
| DeleteMe | Human-Assisted Removals | 1 Person: $129 per year | Check the plan page | Check the plan page |
| Privacy Bee | Broker Coverage | Essentials: about $8 per month, billed annually | 518 people-search sites | On Pro and Signature plans |
| Kanary | Social Media and AI Exposure | Core: $250 per year | Check the plan page | On the Advanced plan |
The 5 Best Data Removal Services in 2026
1. Incogni: Best Overall
Pros
- The full list of 420+ brokers on every plan, including the cheapest
- Automated, recurring requests with no manual work
- Detailed dashboard with resolution times and compliance scores per broker
- Coverage and recurring requests checked in a Deloitte assurance report
- Highest removal rate of four services in a peer-reviewed study
Cons
- Only one name per profile
- No before-and-after screenshots
- Custom removals can be slow
- No free trial, only a 30-day money-back guarantee
Incogni is the service we would pick for most people, for a simple reason: the cheapest plan does the whole job. Standard covers the same list of more than 420 data broker sites as the most expensive plan. You do not pay more to reach more brokers: You pay more mainly for custom removals, the exposure scanner, the privacy score and phone support. Once you sign its authorization form, it sends removal requests in your name and repeats them without being asked.
Our Results With Incogni
After almost four months, our dashboard showed 107 removal requests sent to 44 brokers, 102 of them completed and 5 still in progress. Seventeen brokers had added our profile to their suppression list, which means they should not rebuild it later, and Incogni put the time saved at 76 hours and 30 minutes, by its own estimate of what the manual work would take.
The Unlimited and Protect dashboards also have a new privacy score, from 0 to 100, with a list of the sites that still hold your details, and ours was 54. The score itself is Incogni grading its own work, so treat it as a progress bar. Our full Incogni review covers the test in detail.
Plans and Pricing
Incogni sells four plans: Standard costs $95.88 per year, or $15.98 if you pay month by month. Unlimited costs $179.88 per year and adds custom removals on sites outside the main list, the exposure scanner, the privacy score and live phone support, while 24/7 live chat comes with every plan. Family ($191.88 per year) and Family Unlimited ($275.88 per year) cover up to five people. US residents can also buy Protect, at $248.88 per year, which adds identity theft protection from Coveron to the Unlimited plan, or the new Incogni Concierge service. Every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Compare Incogni’s Annual and Monthly Prices
Independent Evidence
Incogni commissioned a limited assurance report from Deloitte: According to Incogni, the report confirmed its coverage of more than 420 brokers, its removal confirmations, its recurring requests and the fact that it had not sold customer data as of August 6, 2025. A peer-reviewed study presented at the 2025 Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium also put four services in the hands of 71 US participants for 30 days. Incogni had the highest removal rate, at 76.6% of records per participant, against an average of 48.2%.
Who Should Choose Incogni?
Choose Incogni if you want the broker side of your privacy handled with almost no effort, at a price below $100 a year. Skip it if you have used several names, because each profile accepts only one.
Try Incogni With a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
2. Optery: Best for Proof of Removal
Pros
- Removal reports with before-and-after screenshots
- Free tier with an exposure report and self-service removal tools
- Cheapest paid plan of the five, at $39 per year
- Unlimited name variations from the Extended plan
Cons
- Coverage grows with the price of the plan
- Core plan limited to one name, one city and one state
- Screenshot reports start at the Extended plan
- Custom removals only on Ultimate, and only after 30 days
Optery answers the question most removal services leave open: was my record really deleted? Its removal reports include a screenshot of your listing before the request and another after it, about every 90 days. Among the best data removal services, none shows its work that clearly.
It is also the only one of the five with a real free tier: Free Basic gives you an exposure report with screenshots, a scan of your Google and Bing results, and tools to send the opt-out requests yourself. If you have more time than money, that is a strong starting point.
Plans and Pricing
Optery has three paid plans, and the number of sites grows with each one: Core costs $39 per year, or $3.99 per month, and covers 150+ sites. Extended costs $149 per year, or $14.99 per month, for 330+ sites. Ultimate costs $249 per year, or $24.99 per month, for 405+ sites. Each paid plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The plans differ in more than site counts: Core is fully automated and limited to one name, one city and one state. Extended adds unlimited name variations and past cities, a human privacy agent, the screenshot reports and a tool to blur your home on Google Maps and Apple Maps. Ultimate adds unlimited custom removal requests, for 950+ sites in total, available after the first 30 days.
Who Should Choose Optery?
Choose Optery if you want visual proof of each removal, or if you want to start for free and do part of the work yourself. It also suits people who have changed names or moved often, from the Extended plan up. The trade-off is price: To match what Incogni’s $95.88 plan covers, you need Extended at $149 or Ultimate at $249. In the academic study cited above, Optery was the fastest of the four services to complete its removals.
3. DeleteMe: Best for Human-Assisted Removals
Pros
- A personal DeleteMe expert on every plan
- Plans for one person, two people or a family of four
- New opt-outs added during the year at no extra cost
- One of the longest track records in the category
Cons
- Starts at $129 per year, above Incogni and Optery
- Privacy reports are quarterly
- No monthly plan on the pricing page
- Coverage per plan is hard to read
DeleteMe is the veteran of the category and it still leans on people more than its younger rivals do. Every plan includes a personal DeleteMe expert, and the company says it removes an average of 15 public, searchable listings within days of sign-up. If you like the idea of a named person handling your file, this is the service built around that idea.
Plans and Pricing
DeleteMe prices by the number of people: The 1 Person plan costs $129 per year, the 2 People plan costs $229 per year, and the Family plan covers four people for $329 per year. A two-year term is also sold at a lower yearly rate, and businesses get custom pricing. All plans come with what DeleteMe calls a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so read its terms on the plan page before you pay.
Reporting is slower than elsewhere: DeleteMe sends a privacy report every quarter, where Incogni and Optery update a dashboard continuously. DeleteMe also sells privacy tools next to its removal service, such as masked email addresses. The number of sites covered depends on the plan, and the published list takes some effort to decode.
Who Should Choose DeleteMe?
Choose DeleteMe if you want a long-established service with human support, and you are covering two people. At $229 for a couple, it is simpler than buying two separate subscriptions elsewhere. For a single person, Incogni costs less and reports more often.
4. Privacy Bee: Best for Broker Coverage
Pros
- 1,149 sites covered on the Pro plan, the largest count of the five
- Unlimited name aliases, addresses, phone numbers and emails on every plan
- Unlimited custom sites on Pro and Signature
- Extras on Pro: search result monitoring, breach monitoring and home blurring on map services
Cons
- Essentials covers people-search sites only
- Prices are billed annually
- Signature is expensive and has no money-back guarantee
- No free tier on the pricing page
Privacy Bee publishes the biggest numbers on this list: Its Pro plan covers 1,149 sites, and the company breaks that figure down by type: people-search sites, list brokers, advertising and marketing firms, data enrichment companies and several smaller groups. It also says its removal playbook supports more than 185,000 other sites for custom requests.
It is also the most flexible about who you are. Every plan accepts unlimited name aliases, home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. For anyone who has changed names or moved many times, that removes the main limit of Incogni.
Plans and Pricing
Privacy Bee has three plans, all priced per month and billed annually: Essentials costs about $8 per month and covers 518 people-search sites, with no data brokers beyond that group and no custom sites. Pro costs about $16 per month and raises coverage to 1,149 sites, with unlimited custom sites and human analysts. Signature costs about $67 per month and is aimed at executives and people in a crisis, with expedited handling in 24 hours or less.
Essentials and Pro have a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Signature does not.
Who Should Choose Privacy Bee?
Choose Privacy Bee Pro if you want the widest published coverage and you are ready to pay about $192 a year for it. Choose it too if you need many aliases on one profile. If your budget stops near $100, Incogni’s Standard plan reaches more types of brokers than Privacy Bee’s Essentials plan at a similar price.
5. Kanary: Best for Social Media and AI Exposure
Pros
- Advanced plan covers social media and AI chatbots in addition to brokers
- Weekly and daily scans available on Advanced
- Escalation to state attorneys general on Advanced
- 50% off for each added family member
Cons
- Most expensive entry price of the five, at $250 per year
- Core plan limited to monthly scans and monthly requests
- Custom removals reserved for the Advanced plan
- Some Advanced options may cost extra
Kanary looks at exposure differently: Its plans are built around what it calls your threat model, and the top plan reaches places the other four leave alone: social media and the answers of AI language models. For people with a public profile, such as streamers, creators or anyone who has been harassed online, that is the part of the problem that matters most.
Plans and Pricing
Kanary has two plans for individuals: Core costs $250 per year, or $25 per month. It covers search engines and data brokers, with monthly scans, managed removals and monthly removal requests. Advanced costs $500 per year, or $50 per month and it adds social media, AI models, weekly and daily scans, weekly removal requests, unlimited custom removals and priority support.
Who Should Choose Kanary?
Choose Kanary Advanced if your exposure goes beyond data brokers, and you want one service to watch social platforms and AI tools as well. In a price comparison for standard broker removal, it is hard to justify. Core costs more than twice as much as Incogni’s Standard plan for a narrower job.
Best Data Removal Services: Comparison Table
This comparison table puts the five services side by side, from the cheapest annual price to the family options.
| Service | Cheapest Annual Plan | Monthly Billing | Top Individual Plan | Money-Back Guarantee | Family Option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incogni | $95.88 per year | From $15.98 per month | Unlimited: $179.88 per year | 30 days | Up to 5 people, from $191.88 per year |
| Optery | $39 per year (free tier available) | From $3.99 per month | Ultimate: $249 per year | 30 days | Check the plan page |
| DeleteMe | $129 per year | Check the plan page | 1 Person: $129 per year | Satisfaction guarantee, see terms | 2 people for $229, 4 people for $329 per year |
| Privacy Bee | About $8 per month, billed annually | Check the plan page | Signature: about $67 per month, billed annually | 30 days on Essentials and Pro | Multi-person discount |
| Kanary | $250 per year | From $25 per month | Advanced: $500 per year | Check the plan page | 50% off each added member |
Prices were taken from each company’s pricing page on October 2, 2026, before tax.
Which Data Removal Service Should You Choose?
For most people, the best data removal service is Incogni: It covers its full broker list on a plan under $100 a year, it runs without your input, and its claims have been checked from the outside. Our own account confirmed the essentials: requests sent, followed up and logged in detail.
The other four belong on any list of the best data removal services, each for a specific need. Pick Optery if you want screenshots of each removal or a free start. Pick DeleteMe for human support and a plan for two. Pick Privacy Bee Pro if you want the largest published coverage and unlimited aliases. Pick Kanary Advanced if social media and AI tools worry you more than brokers do.
Whatever you choose, keep expectations realistic: These services lower your exposure but they do not make you invisible, and the work never fully ends.
FAQ
What Is the Best Data Removal Service?
Incogni is the best data removal service in our comparison. Every plan covers its full list of more than 420 data brokers, requests are repeated automatically, and the Standard plan costs $95.88 per year. Optery is the best alternative if you want before-and-after screenshots of each removal.
How Much Does a Data Removal Service Cost?
Among our five picks, the cheapest paid plans range from $39 per year at Optery to $250 per year at Kanary. Incogni costs $95.88 per year and DeleteMe costs $129 per year. Privacy Bee starts at about $8 per month, billed annually.
Is There a Free Data Removal Service?
Optery has a free tier with an exposure report and self-service tools, so you send the opt-out requests yourself. Incogni runs a free exposure scan but charges for removals. Doing the work by hand is free and takes many hours.
Do Data Removal Services Really Work?
They reduce your exposure without removing everything. In a peer-reviewed study of four services, the average removal rate after 30 days was 48.2%, and Incogni reached 76.6%. Brokers also list people again, which is why the requests have to be repeated.
How Long Does Data Removal Take?
Automated requests are usually answered within days or weeks. In our Incogni account, average resolution times ranged from 2 to 15 days depending on the broker. Custom removals take longer, and ours took 91 days.
Can I Remove My Data From Data Brokers Myself?
Yes. Most brokers have an opt-out form, and privacy laws in many states give you the right to ask for deletion. The difficulty is volume: there are hundreds of brokers, and many collect your data again after a few months.