Doing a simple search for someone online will show you if they have a website or a professional profile like a LinkedIn, but what if you want to know more? What if you want to know if they really are who they say they are? Or perhaps you want to trace a long-lost friend or relative you’ve never met. People search sites are the perfect tools for verifying information.
There are many people search sites and services to choose from, and not all are created equal. Luckily, we’ve done the research for you and chosen the best people search finder sites for 2021. Let’s get started!
1. TruthFinder
Pros
• You can see basic information for free
• Site is user-friendly
• You only need a name and no location
• Search results are pretty good
• You get unlimited reports with membership
Cons
• Prices aren’t the cheapest
• It takes about 20 minutes just to finish an entire search
• Mobile app is available for iOS and Android
• You need to pay to see detailed results
• There’s no trial period
• The cancellation process is lengthy
Launched in 2015, TruthFinder does a decent job of finding people. You can get a detailed background report if you only know someone’s first and last name. Only know their phone number? No problem. TruthFinder has an awesome feature called reverse phone lookup. If there’s an unknown phone number that keeps calling you, look it up on this site and you can find out who the caller is.
Searching public records with only a phone number is easy on TruthFinder. You can also search for someone by their email address and physical address as well. The site’s searches cover private and public databases. This means that it gets information from criminal records, state court records, and social media profiles. However, if you’re a landlord looking to screen a tenant or a hiring manager who wants to get a background check on an employee, TruthFinder is not for you. This is because users are prohibited from using the reports for any purposes governed by the FCRA.
So, what info can you find on someone using TruthFinder’s database and public records? You can find out a person’s marital status, check for warrants and criminal records, see their education, and get the names of their relatives. The person’s social media profiles are also visible, and you can usually see where they live.
The downside is that the only info you’ll have access to for free is their full name and sometimes the last 4 digits of their phone number. But if you want to see more, you need to pay.
2. InstantCheckMate
Pros
• Detailed background check reports
• It’s a good value for the money
• Awesome search tools
• Great criminal records search
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Cons
• You need a subscription – there’s no free searches
• Prices are pretty expensive
• Bonus features cost extra
• The pricing information is rather unclear
InstantCheckmate is a BBB-accredited search site, which means it’s one of the best. It boasts a great criminal records search as well as a people search, and these features are really the cream of the crop. You can even search your neighborhood to see if there are any sex offenders living near you.
Based in San Diego, California, Instant Checkmate began as a company in 2010. Its solid reputation alone is a good reason to try this people search site. One of the features the site is known for is reverse phone lookup. This feature lets you look up a phone call to find out who it is and file a complaint against the person if they are harassing you by phone.
You can find out a person’s marriage history, assets, criminal history, and more. As mentioned above, you can’t use this service for free. You need to pay for a subscription to search Instant Checkmate. And you’ll pay a lot.
You can get unlimited reports with two different price plans. One plan is monthly and costs a little under $35. Yes, this is rather expensive. However, you get a huge array of searches available to you. For instance, with this membership, you can find out someone’s phone number, address, bankruptcy information, and weapons permits. That’s pretty extensive, if you ask us! Also, these reports are unlimited with this plan
There's also a quarterly plan you can choose from that costs about $84. It offers the same features, but you will save over $20 over the three months vs. the regular monthly plan.
3. Intelius
Pros
• They offer an inexpensive trial
• Delivers accurate, detailed, up-to-date background reports
• Interface is easy to use and attractive
• Great user support team
Cons
• There’s no free background checks
• Trial offer is misleading
• It’s hard to find pricing information
Intelius is one of the background check companies that has been in business for quite a while – since 2003, to be exact. With a solid reputation, accurate reports, and affordable subscription prices, Intelius has been the go-to search site for many people who want solid information.
With Intelius, you can run background reports that include address history, phone numbers, and other personal information. While you can’t use Intelius to screen potential employees or tenants, you can use the service to track down long-lost relatives and friends. It’s also a great tool to look up people you’ve met online from dating apps.
Intelius returns info that is pretty accurate. Keep in mind that no service like this give you 100% accurate info. However, Intelius has a reputation of being one of the best in the industry. The company has fulfilled orders for over 50 million background checks.
You can get a Premier Plus Membership for $29.95 a month, which is undoubtedly the best deal on the site. Along with offering unlimited searches, The Premier Plus Membership also allows the user to conduct one background search per month, You can also get a trial period for $1.99, which is decent.
Intelius has been accredited by the BBB since 2014 and has an A rating. However, that doesn’t mean Intelius is perfect – most customer complaints center around not understanding the billing process. Other than that, it’s a solid choice to run background checks.
4. 411 Background Check
Pros
• It’s easy to search on the site
• Creating an account is quick and easy
• Best for reverse phone lookups
• You can do a one-time search or a get a membership
• Get alerts for new info
Cons
• Pricing info is very unclear
• Site is a little glitchy
• Free results are fairly limited
411 Background Check provides free, up-to-date background checks. You can do a one-time search or purchase a membership for multiple background checks. Your membership also includes alerts when the system gets updated information on people you searched for.
411 Background Check isn’t a very well-known people search site as of yet. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a reputable site to find out important info about someone. You can search according to name, email address, phone number, or home address.
The site is easy to navigate, although it can be quite glitchy at times. The main page on 411 Background Check says to search for people, property, emails, phone numbers, and even yourself. There aren’t too many other search sites that suggest searching yourself, and this is actually a good concept. Why not search yourself, at the very least? That way, you can see what others see if they search for you.
Creating an account is quick and easy, and then you begin searching. The most common things people search on this site are sex offender records and social media pages. 411 Background Check is known for reverse phone lookups, which can be a great tool to find out if your partner is cheating on you. Honestly, this feature is what really makes 411 Background Check an awesome people search site.
TruePeopleSearch
Pros
• User experience on the website is great
• Responsive web pages
• Provides accurate data, at least 98 percent of the time
• Good for reverse phone lookups
• Totally free
Cons
• Site design looks cheap
• Difficult to narrow down search results
• Search results limited to North America
TruePeopleSearch is a search site where you can find lost relatives, check out a new partner, or see who is calling you. The site offers comprehensive data on nearly every US adult, and TruePeopleSearch searches are current and accurate as any of the paid people search engines.
The site boasts a “Possible Associates” section where you can locate the person’s past college roommates, work colleagues, and other crucial information.
While TruePeopleSearch is ideal for searches in the entire US, the results seem to favor the northern US, which is a bit odd. Other than that, you can get a free reverse phone lookup, free people search, or free address lookup, and get a free background check instantly.
CocoFinder
Pros
• High accuracy due to being linked to public records
• Regularly updated databases
• Easy-to-use interface
• You can search for people multiple ways
Cons
• The search time is very long
• Site could be linked to more databases for even more results
CocoFinder is a people search site that lets you find people by searching by their name, address, phone number, and more. If you know the phone number, not only can you do a reverse lookup on CocoFinder, but you can also find social media accounts linked to the phone number or email.
The search engine is linked to public records, so the information you find on CocoFinder is legit. The background check service will provide the arrest background, criminal records, employment history, and court records of the target person if they exist.
CocoFinder is safe and secure to use. Since no email or credit is used to perform the investigations, your anonymity is not compromised.
ZabaSearch
Pros
• Simple searches are free
• You don’t need to register to do a search
• The site boasts 3 times more residential listings than the White Pages
Cons
• There’s no option in ZabaSearch to do a reverse search on an address
• It’s difficult to find out how much background checks are before buying
ZabaSearch is a people search finder service that is free – there’s no credit card required. You also do not need to register to search. All you do is enter a person’s first and last name. You can also enter their city and state. Then, ZabaSearch indexes and analyzes all of the publicly available information,
This service uses info that includes property records, white pages, yellow pages, sweepstake entries, marketing forms, voter registration records, court records, personal websites, social media profiles, and others. While all of these won’t come up in one single search, ZabaSearch provides a ton of info for free.
When you upgrade to a paid background check, you can find much more information about your search subject. The prices vary for this. Criminal and arrest records, marriage and divorce records, court records, social media profiles, and possible relatives may be included in a background check report.
Check out ZabaSearch to find lost friends and relatives
FamilySearch
Pros
• The search site is totally free to use
• One of the best, most used genealogy sites
• Billions of records spanning hundreds of years
• International and non-profit site
• They have physical locations
Cons
• You can only search one tree per account
• Fewer search results than some
FamilySearch is a genealogy site that lets users search and find long-lost family members. Moreover, you can build a family tree here. This site is legit, and is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping all people discover their family story. If you're new to family tree building and want to try it for free, FamilySearch is a great site for you to start. FamilySearch is dedicated to helping all people discover their family story, no matter what their religion or background.
FamilySearch is provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and no, you don’t have to belong to their Church to use this genealogy search. They strive to provide this service free of charge to everyone, regardless of tradition, culture, or religious affiliation. FamilySearch resources help millions of people around the world discover their heritage and connect with family members.
This people search site is extremely popular, and for good reasons: in 2019, FamilySearch added 123.6 million indexed records and over 850 million new images of historical records. They also work with over 200 archives around the globe. FamilySearch offers lots of useful features such as Map My Ancestors. You can literally build a family tree anywhere on FamilySearch. There is also an app you can use to make your searches even more convenient.
Whitepages
Pros
• Reliable site that’s been around for a long time
• Robust user interface
• Lots of memberships options
• You can get free searches
• The site offers ingle background reports
Cons
• Basic search gives limited information
• Trial membership only gives you 5 searches
Since 1997, Whitepages has been a reliable people finder site. The founder actually began the site as a hobby, and it took off from there. One of the best things about Whitepages is that it’s completely reliable since it’s been around so long.
However, upon first glance, Whitepages may seem questionable if you’ve never heard of the site before. But the cool site design and robust user interface makes Whitepages one of the best background check services around.
In addition to solid basic people search functions, the site offers a business search function so you can find contact info for a business. If you do a reverse phone search you can find a phone number's carrier and city, which is good if you’re trying to find out if your partner is cheating.
Whitepages offers multiple memberships to choose from. Finding basic info about someone like their current address, relatives, and previous residences are free. You can get a premium membership for $4.99/month for 20 reports a month or $19.99/month for 200 reports a month.
For 10 bucks, you can get a full background check report about people that contain impartial and accurate information about the people they search for. White Pages also offers a $1, 5-day trial membership that allows users to perform 5 person, address, or phone number lookups.
