People search engines are important and not just for finding people with whom we have connected in the past, they can come in handy in a myriad of other real-life scenarios that will save you a lot of headaches and regret.
Spokeo is one such tool that helps in finding people. It utilizes white page listings, social network information, and public records to help you safely find out more about a person. Spokeo is most suited for businesses and provides clear and fast information about a person.
The platform aims to help you find more about people and find them all over the world, and it also works on mobile devices to help you identify callers or prevent some, which gives it a unique edge among similar platforms.
There are many tools similar to Spokeo that help with people search, namely Truthfinder, US Search, PeopleFinder and others. Though the best Spokeo alternative is Pipl as it is highly accurate with its search results. What’s more, Pipl is easy to use and has a simple interface.
What’s the need to discover Spokeo alternatives?
Spokeo may not be the most ideal platform for everyone due to certain reasons. For one, its free search is very limited; it gives you access to only publicly available data and its premium plans are quite expensive starting at $13.95 per month.
Despite its high price, there’s no way to confirm that you will get the data you are looking for on the premium plan and Spokeo has no refund policy.
As mentioned above, there are other platforms with better features than Spokeo. In this article, we will explore them at length.
Best Spokeo Alternatives
Pipl
Pipl is one of the most popular Spokeo alternatives in the market, and rightly so considering the fact that, unlike Spokeo, it can be used from any country in the world and it still maintains the same accuracy in finding information about a person.
The platform is popular for finding professional, social, and contact information no matter how deeply buried on the internet it may seem. You can easily find who you are looking for by merely using their name, email, or phone number.
I used this platform a couple of times when it was still 100% free and the results were as accurate as they can be.
I ran searches for 20 different people on the website and got information on about 19 of them. What impressed me the most was how accurate the results were as I found 15 of the 19 I searched for among the top five search results.
Mind you, all of this happened even before I connected any of my social media accounts to the platform and I performed this search on Chrome incognito.
Unfortunately, Pipl is no longer free and it is not intended for personal and non-commercial use as displayed on their official website. It comes with many applications that can aid businesses in identifying and preventing instances of financial fraud.
It is very easy to use, accommodates millions of users from around the world, and has stored more than three billion profiles in its database. If you want to search for a person, all you need to do is enter the details that are available to you and the play form will pinpoint the actual person.
Businesses use Pipl to search for users and complete their personal profiles. By retrieving missing information about their users, they can put together more personalized marketing campaigns.
As easy as the platform is to use, they also provide complete guides and video tutorials to walk you through the core functionality of it.
Pricing
Pipl pricing starts at $298 per month for an annual subscription for a single user. There’s a 33% and 50% discount for five and ten users respectively that places the annual subscription at $198/month and $148/month. There’s also no cap on the number of searches that you can carry out. You can find out more about the plans from the Pipl website.
Pros
- Free trial for 5 days
- Pipl is available worldwide
- Does not require too much information
- Can link to social media
- Provides accurate information
Cons
- Pipl is expensive
- It is not intended for personal use
Truthfinder
Truthfinder is another popular people search engine that offers accurate results which are comparable to Spokeo, and like Spokeo, it is also a US-only website.
You can use Truthfinder to find information about a person such as police records, court records, contact information, social media photos, and many more.
It is the ideal tool that can not only be used for connecting with people, but also for running background checks. For example, if you want to purchase a house in a new location or are looking to hire some remote workers who will be privy to sensitive information about your company, then I will recommend that you use Truthfinder over Spokeo mostly because Truthfinder leverages information from state, federal, and county data sources.
The platform comes with some of the best tools such as address lookup, family tree, dark scan, and many more. Bottom line is that if you reside in the US, and you want to run background checks on a person or group of people, the Truthfinder maybe your best option to do so without going to various courthouses to track them.
With Truthfinder, you can see a person’s full name as well as their aliases, date of birth, education, jobs, photos, phone numbers, and other personal information. It lets you search for information on the dark web to see if any of the information that you find is compromised or not.
If you also want to find out about one’s education, property, and businesses, then this platform will also come in handy.
Like Spokeo, Truthfinder also supports mobile platforms alongside its web service and provides customer support every day of the week via email and phone, but only during business hours.
Pricing
Access to the platform is not 100% free, but users can see basic information like age and sometimes location at no cost when they first sign up. You will find the updated pricing on their website.
Pros
- Performs accurate background checks
- Supports mobile
- Access to Federal, State, and County database
- Easy signup
Cons
- It is a US-only site
- Billing is difficult to cancel
US Search
US search is another Spokeo alternative that is available to find people in the United States. It is easy to use and requires that you only enter the first and last names of the person that you are looking for information about, and you will get results in seconds.
That is not to say that the platform only has fields for first and last names. If you want to get your results even faster and without having to check all the similar ones before you find the right person, you can be more specific in your search by providing as much information about the person as you like.
Frankly, aside from some platforms that offer free services, US search is one of the most affordable services for background checks in the market and a great alternative to Spokeo with all the core features and new tools and services that it possesses.
If you want to find and investigate people who live in the US, then this tool was specifically designed for you. You will have access to their complete background history, including their criminal records.
Companies will find this platform very useful to find information about their employees and potential hires without needing to part ways with a fortune to hire a professional to run background checks.
Pricing
Like the previous tool, US Search only shows basic information for free users. If you want access to more information, you will have to spend a bit of money.
A basic report costs around $1.99 and a full background check would even cost more. To get the latest pricing, check the official website.
Pros
- It is one of the oldest people search engines around
- It has automatic filters
- Fast search
- Very affordable
Cons
- For only US-based search
- The free plan has limited features
Intelius
Intelius is a people search engine system that only caters to US users just like Spokeo. However, it has you covered on more fronts than Spokeo with its many features.
You can use Intelius to carry out the typical people search, find emails, search through social networks, criminal records, properties, reverse lookup, background check, and more.
Thanks to its powerful and robust database, you can also use Intelius to identify unknown callers from around the world. Its database consists of billions of aggregated public records that make finding people and information about them as seamless as it can be.
While Intelius can only be used in the US, you can use it to quickly get accurate information about anybody anywhere in the world. You can get their contact number, social media handles, email, age, criminal records, and a lot more. The platform is well placed as an ideal alternative to Spokeo because it offers all the core features that Spokeo has and more.
With Intelius, you only need to enter a name or contact number and the system will furnish you with a lot of information about the person.
One of the best features about Intelius is its rich security features, especially its anonymous search system that ensures that no one finds out that you ran a search on them. Other of its most prominent features include its Caller ID to identify true callers and its reverse phone lookup.
Pricing
Intelius is a commercial tool, and thereby not free. It offers different subscription plans at different price points that start at $29.95 per month. To see its latest pricing, check the product page.
Pros
- Large database
- Connects to social tools
- Perfect for finding old friends
Cons
- Available in the US
- Relatively expensive
Instant Checkmate
As the name would imply, Instant Checkmate is a background checking tool that uses public record search services to find out more important information about a person.
Just like Spokeo, it is a US-only people search engine that grants you access to personal details about an individual such as age, phone number, address, criminal records, and court-related documents.
This platform taps into online profile federal, state, and county data sources to provide important information about a person or a group of people. The system utilizes its advanced algorithm to compile the search results in a neat report which is quite helpful.
Although Instant Checkmate a very powerful platform, it is also a simple one that can be used by anyone who can perform simple computer tasks.
To test the platform’s accuracy, you can run checks on real people that you know and the platform will provide real and verifiable details about that person such as their phone numbers and arrest records.
It is specifically designed for companies that want to run background checks on potential hires, so businesses can easily obtain a person’s background record, public address, contact information, and many more without the applicant even knowing about it.
Instant Checkmate boasts of having a database of more than three billion people from all over the world and they regularly update their database to reflect new changes in order to deliver the best and most comprehensive experience.
Once you have your search result, you can copy and share directly with other people which gives it a unique edge over others, especially among hiring managers that want to share what they know about an applicant among their colleagues.
Also, like Spokeo, Instant Checkmate is available on mobile platforms to make it easy for you to find people on the go.
Pricing
Instant Checkmate is not free. You can only access its report after you have bought one of its plans which start at $19.99. You can see the product page for other plans.
Pros
- Available on mobile
- It had advanced search filters
- Easy to use
Cons
- It is not free
PeopleFinder
PeopleFinder is exactly what it sounds like – it is a people search engine that is used to find people with whom you have lost contact.
If you want to find that old colleague of yours faster and easier, then this tool is a must-try. It utilizes data from millions of publicly available records which makes it find whoever you are looking for a lot faster than its alternatives.
To make things even better, this platform uses Intelius backend service to generate a very detailed and neat report that can be used for official purposes.
PeopleFinders comes with a full suite of applications such as background checks, criminal records, phone lookup, and a host of others that makes it one of the most comprehensive people-finding platforms in the market.
It is a good alternative to Spokeo as it comes with a lot of similar features, plus some new tools and functionalities that give it a different angle.
Pricing
Unlike Spokeo, PeopleFinders offers a completely free plan and can be used to find anyone from anywhere in the world which is not common for a platform this good.
Its free plan gives you access to the subject’s complete address. If you can see more information about the person, you can pay $2.95 to access the complete report including financial records, court records, and so on. For more information about the pricing, check out the PeopleFinders website.
Pros
- Great free plan
- Comprehensive report
- Very affordable
Cons
- Search results may take some time
Whitepages
Whitepages is a standout tool that is used for more than just finding out about a person. It is a perfect tool that can be used to extract social and professional information about anyone.
On the website, you can find important background detail about a person such as addresses, contact info, criminal and court records, previous judgments, property information, etc.
That is not to say that Whitepages isn’t a great service to find a person. On the contrary, the platform uses details of close associates and family members to locate a person anywhere they may be.
Like Spokeo, Whitepages is available on mobile and you can get it on Android and iOS apps so that you can carry out searches on the go.
Whitepages is easy to install and maintain, provides comprehensive documentation on how to use it, plus other resources that may come in handy someday.
Pricing
You can use the website to carry out limited searches such as phone number, address, location, and family members for free. If you want access to its full features, you will have to buy the premium subscription for at least $19.95 per month.
However, the premium plan is only available to users in the US. You can find more about this on the website.
Pros
- Free search is available
- The free plan can be used globally
- Provides accurate contact results
Cons
- The premium plan is only available to US users
BeenVerified
BeenVerified is one of the best people search engine tools I have used in terms of its simplicity and features, which makes it stand out from the crowd.
You can use this service to find people using their names, location, phone numbers, or emails.
One thing I like about the platform is that it hooks you up with all the information that you’d expect such as pictures, social media accounts, friends, secondary connections, and more.
Like Spokeo, BeenVerified is available on mobile apps for Android and iOS, although some of its features may be reserved for only those based in the United States.
The platform is also available on the web and you can use it to dig through millions of data points and sources to find information about a person.
Pricing
BeenVerified allows users to signup for a free account and checks basic details, but if you want access to its full report and other premium features such as asset details, loan records, social media feed, etc, then you will have to get a premium membership for $39.99 per month. You will find more information about its pricing on the website.
Pros
- Accurate information
- Available on mobile
- Gets data from public records and social graphs
- Affordable services
Cons
- Some premium features are only available in the US
Now I bet you were not expecting to see Facebook among this list, but here it is because if we are being frank, there’re only very few people that are not on the platform and chances are that the person you are looking for has a Facebook account.
In fact, more often than not, people only resort to using a dedicated people search platform only when they have searched for a person on Facebook with no luck.
Interestingly, Facebook has a lot more to its search feature than a lot of people know. For example, you can carry out an advanced search on Facebook by finding people based on their work, interests, places they have been to, location, etc.
This can be done thanks to the graph search feature that offers results to natural language queries, so you can even find people through the ‘find friends’ option and filter your search based on your preferences.
Bottom line is that Facebook is not just a place to connect with new friends, but also a tool to reconnect with long-lost ones and also to find out about people whom you have never met before, and unlike Spokeo, it is free to use.
Pricing
Facebook is 100% free.
Pros
- It is free to use
- Can be used globally
- Advanced social graph
Cons
- Not ideal for background checks
LinkedIn may not have as many active users as Facebook, but when it comes to finding people through their professional details, you will not find a better tool than this.
The Microsoft-owned tool also has a great search capability that allows you to search for anyone with specific keywords.
On the sidebar, you can refine your search to find anyone you have met at a professional event and lost contact with.
Pricing
You can use LinkedIn for free forever and still enjoy it, however, to get the best out of it, you need to be subscribed to their premium plan. You can learn more about the LinkedIn premium on the website.
Pros
- Perfect for getting professional details
- Ideal to connect with employees
Cons
- Requires LinkedIn premium for the best results
Final Words
These are the 10 best Spokeo alternatives that I know of and while some work globally, others work best only in the US, so you can choose the one available to you that meets your needs.
The best Spokeo alternative for me is Pipl because it has all the core features of Spokeo and more and is available worldwide.
