Free people search changed twice this year, and neither change is visible from a homepage. California’s centralized deletion platform went live on January 1, 2026, and from August 1, 2026 every registered data broker must pull deletion requests from it every 45 days (California Privacy Protection Agency, DROP timeline). At the same time, search engines have been dropping thin listing pages from their indexes, so the site that ranked first for a name in 2024 may not appear at all now.

That makes a 2026 ranking worth redoing from scratch. Below, nine free platforms scored on the same five criteria, with the score published rather than asserted.

Quick answers:

• Radaris scores highest at 22 of 25, on the strength of what appears on a free profile: 1,000+ data sources, 183 million unique names, 594 million records (radaris.com, August 2026).
• ThatsThem is the only platform scoring full marks on cost, with no paid tier anywhere and roughly 2.2 billion indexed names (thatsthem.com, August 2026).
• Californians can now clear more than 500 registered brokers with one request through DROP at privacy.ca.gov, instead of filing site by site (CalPrivacy, December 2025).
• Non-compliance with a DROP deletion request carries a $200 fine per request per day (California Delete Act, SB 362).
• None of these platforms is a consumer reporting agency. Hiring, tenant, credit, and insurance decisions require one under the FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681).

The scoring method

Five criteria, five points each, 25 maximum. Applied identically to every platform.

1. Free depth. How many distinct data types appear without payment.
2. Cost honesty. Whether the free tier is real or a route to a payment wall.
3. Coverage. Published database scale and geographic completeness across 50 states.
4. Input flexibility. How many starting points the site accepts: name, phone, address, email, IP.
5. Removal. Whether a working opt-out exists and how many steps it takes.

Record counts come from each platform’s own published figures, checked in August 2026. Where a platform publishes no figure, the coverage score reflects observed state completeness rather than a claim.

Scorecard

Radaris and ThatsThem tie at 22 and split on a real difference: Radaris returns more per profile, ThatsThem never asks for money. Which one leads depends on whether depth or cost matters more to you.

Radaris: 22/25

Free depth 5. A single profile can carry address history, phone numbers, emails, relatives, property data including year built and estimated value, occupation and employment history, business affiliations, and web mentions attached to that name. Most free platforms return contact records and stop; this returns a record-built biography.

Cost honesty 4. The profile itself is free. Full background reports, criminal checks, and bulk access are paid, and the upgrade prompt is visible but not obstructive.

Coverage 5. 183 million unique names, 594 million records, 224 million phone numbers, 1,000+ data sources, 300,000+ searches daily (radaris.com, August 2026).

Inputs 4. Name, phone, address, email. No IP search.

Removal 4. Request form plus email confirmation, generally permanent.

Limitation. United States only, adults 18 and over only. Radaris states in its help center that it is not a consumer reporting agency and cannot be used for employment screening.

ThatsThem: 22/25

Free depth 4. Contact and property data, including estimated home value and mortgage or refinance detail on address searches. Court and criminal records are absent, which is what keeps this from a 5.

Cost honesty 5. The only perfect score here. No account, no card, no upgrade path.

Coverage 5. Roughly 2.2 billion names, 1.7 billion emails, 1 billion phone numbers, 800 million addresses (thatsthem.com, August 2026).

Inputs 5. Name, phone, address, email, and IP. The widest input set in the category.

Removal 3. An opt-out exists but is less prominent than on the paid-tier platforms.

Limitation. Answers who a person is and how to reach them, not what they have done.

Nuwber: 20/25

Free depth 4. Name, age, date of birth, current and past addresses, phones, emails, relatives, marital status, neighbors, basic property data, all before payment. Age and date of birth free is unusual and genuinely useful.

Cost honesty 4. Real free tier, auto-renewing subscription for deeper reports.

Coverage 4. About 300 million people, 118 million addresses, 340 million phone records (nuwber.com, August 2026). Operating since 2015.

Inputs 4. Name, phone, address, email.

Removal 4. Standard form and email confirmation.

Limitation. Anything resembling a background report sits behind the subscription.

Veripages: 19/25

Free depth 4. Contact information, professional and business records, and civil filings including marriages, divorces, licenses, and judgments.

Cost honesty 4. No registration, no email capture before results.

Coverage 3. Over 100 million records, operated by Intelage Systems Corp. Smaller than the leaders, so rural addresses and uncommon names return less.

Inputs 4. Name, phone, email, address.

Removal 4. Documented opt-out with tracking ID.

Limitation. Veripages states plainly that it is not a consumer reporting agency and its output is not a consumer report.

The rest of the field, briefly

Cyber Background Checks, 18. Address history, aliases, relatives, associates, and business relationships plotted against a current-residence map. The relationship graph is the best free tool here for deciding which of two same-name people you actually found. Deeper checks route to paid partners, which costs it points on free depth.

Rehold, 18. Address-first since 2015: 50 states, 50,000+ cities, 5 million+ streets, 115 million+ properties (rehold.com, August 2026). Enter an address, get current and former residents plus property records. Scores 2 on inputs because name search is not what it does.

SearchPeopleFree, 17. Over 700 million people indexed (searchpeoplefree.com, August 2026), with current address, phones, relatives, and associated records free. Property detail is thin and richer categories push toward paid partners.

Homemetry, 17. Launched 2016, more than 117 million properties, resident and tenant data covering roughly ten years, and property history reaching back two decades where records exist (homemetry.com, August 2026). Deep on the property side, narrow on inputs.

USPhoneBook, 14. Phone-first, built on a database described as billions of records. Results skew to landlines and older mobile registrations, so ported and prepaid numbers frequently return nothing.

What changed in 2026

Centralized deletion arrived. California’s DROP platform opened to consumers on January 1, 2026, letting a resident send one authenticated deletion request to more than 500 registered data brokers at once (CalPrivacy, December 2025). From August 1, 2026, brokers must check the platform at least every 45 days, process verified deletions within 45 days, and report status back. The penalty for missing one is $200 per request per day (SB 362).

The practical effect for a Californian: the site-by-site opt-out routine is now optional rather than necessary. For everyone else, it is still manual.

Deletion scope widened. The Delete Act requires deleting all personal information relating to a consumer, not only what the business collected directly, which is broader than the CCPA’s deletion right. Expect free profiles to thin out over 2026 and 2027, particularly for California residents.

Thin listing pages lost visibility. Search engines have been removing low-content directory pages from indexes across this category. A site that used to rank for a name may still hold the record while no longer surfacing in results. This is why searching a name on Google is no longer a substitute for searching it on the platforms directly.

Which score should you actually care about?

The total is a summary, not an instruction. Match the criterion to your situation instead.

1. You want the fullest picture from a name. Weight free depth and coverage. Radaris.
2. You refuse to hit any payment wall. Weight cost honesty. ThatsThem.
3. You are separating two people with the same name. Weight free depth for age data. Nuwber, or Cyber Background Checks for the relatives graph.
4. You have an email or an IP and nothing else. Weight inputs. ThatsThem is effectively the only option.
5. You have an address. Rehold for residents, Homemetry for the property itself.
6. You are checking your own exposure. Weight removal, and if you live in California, skip the individual opt-outs and use DROP.

How to verify any result before you use it

1. Search your own name first on any new platform. You know the right answer, so you can measure its accuracy directly.
2. Cross-check the finding on a second platform. Different aggregators buy from different feeds and refresh on different schedules.
3. Treat phone data as the least reliable field, then email, then addresses. Property and voter records age best.
4. Check whether relatives are correct. Wrong relatives usually mean two records were merged into one person.
5. Treat any criminal indicator as a lead to verify at the county court, not as a finding.

FAQ

What is the best free people search website in 2026? Radaris and ThatsThem tie at 22 out of 25 on this scoring. Radaris returns more data on a free profile; ThatsThem has no paid tier at all. Choose by whichever of those two things matters more to you.

Is free people search still accurate in 2026? Reasonably, with the same caveats as before. Property and voter records are current, phone data ages fast, email data ages fastest. Two changes are thinning results: California’s centralized deletion platform and search engines dropping thin directory pages.

Can I delete myself from all of these at once? If you are a California resident, yes. DROP at privacy.ca.gov sends one request to over 500 registered data brokers, and brokers must process it starting August 1, 2026. Outside California, removal is still site by site.

How long does removal take? Individual opt-outs typically take a few days, though a cached page can persist in search results longer. DROP requests run on a 45-day processing cycle.

Are free people search sites legal? Yes in the United States. They republish records that were already public. The restriction is on use: the FCRA prohibits using them for employment, housing, credit, or insurance decisions.

Why does one site find someone and another does not? Different data suppliers and different refresh schedules. One aggregator may be running a 2024 property feed while another is still on 2022. This is the single strongest argument for checking two platforms.

Does any free site show verified criminal records? Not at the free tier, as a rule. County-level record retrieval costs money per search, so free layers show indicators or advertisements rather than verified court data.

Will the person know I looked them up? No. None of these platforms notifies the subject of a search.

Bottom line

Radaris and ThatsThem finish level on this scoring for opposite reasons: one for what it shows, the other for what it never charges. Radaris is the better first search when you have a name; ThatsThem is the better cross-check and the only real option for an email or IP starting point.

Whatever the result, verify it on a second platform before acting on it, and remember that none of these sites can lawfully support a hiring, housing, or lending decision.

Sources

1. Radaris, homepage and state directory pages (radaris.com), accessed August 2026.
2. Radaris Help Center, FCRA and coverage policy (radaris.com/help), accessed August 2026.
3. ThatsThem, homepage and reverse lookup pages (thatsthem.com), accessed August 2026.
4. Nuwber, homepage and reverse phone lookup page (nuwber.com), accessed August 2026.
5. Veripages, About and Data Sources pages (veripages.com), accessed August 2026.
6. SearchPeopleFree, homepage (searchpeoplefree.com), accessed August 2026.
7. Cyber Background Checks, homepage (cyberbackgroundchecks.com), accessed August 2026.
8. Rehold, homepage and state directories (rehold.com), accessed August 2026.
9. Homemetry, homepage and property directory (homemetry.com), accessed August 2026.
10. California Privacy Protection Agency, “January 2026: DROP Is Coming” (privacy.ca.gov), December 2025.
11. California Delete Act, SB 362, and DROP regulations effective January 1, 2026.
12. Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681.