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🧹 Optery vs DeleteMe (2026)
Both of these pay us commission — which is exactly why this page will tell you when neither is right, and when the free tier is all you need. Verified pricing, the US-only catch that decides it for a lot of people, and the honest split by who you actually are.
Quick answer: Not in the US? It's Optery — DeleteMe sells to US residents only, and that ends the debate for most of the world. Want to see your exposure before paying? Optery's Free Basic tier is genuinely free. Cheapest real coverage? Optery Core at $39/yr vs DeleteMe at $129/yr. Covering a family, or want a human on it? DeleteMe — $329/yr for four people is better value than four Optery seats, and every plan gets an assigned expert. Maximum broker coverage? Optery Ultimate, 635+ sites.
The honest split
| If this is you | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You're outside the US | Optery | DeleteMe is US residents only. Optery sells to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Decision over — nothing else matters. |
| You want to know how bad it is first | Optery Free Basic | Free quarterly exposure reports, no card. Run this before paying anyone anything, including us. |
| Budget matters most | Optery Core — $39/yr | A third of DeleteMe's price for 380+ sites. Fully automated, no human agent, one name + one city/state. |
| You want a human on the awkward cases | DeleteMe or Optery Extended | DeleteMe assigns a Privacy Advisor and takes custom removal requests. Optery's Extended/Ultimate are "humans + machines". Core is not. |
| You're covering a family | DeleteMe | $329/yr for four people, or $499 for four over two years. Optery prices per account, so multi-person gets expensive fast. |
| You want maximum broker coverage | Optery Ultimate | 635+ sites. DeleteMe doesn't publish a comparable headline count. |
| Your exposure is small | Neither | Do it yourself. Both publish free DIY guides. It costs 15–20 hours instead of money. This pays us nothing and it's still the right call for some people. |
Verified pricing — July 2026
Pulled from each company's own pricing page rather than repeated from an older roundup. These numbers move; check before you buy.
| Tier | Price | Sites | Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Basic | $0 — no card | — | Quarterly exposure reports + self-service removal tools. You do the removing. |
| Core | $39/yr ($3.25/mo) | 380+ (150+ without Expanded Reach) | Fully automated. No human privacy agent. One name + one city/state. |
| Extended | $149/yr ($12.42/mo) | 555+ (325+ without Expanded Reach) | Humans + machines. Unlimited names and cities. Re-scan ~90 days. Blurs your home on Google & Apple Maps. |
| Ultimate | $249/yr ($20.70/mo) | 635+ (405+ without Expanded Reach) | Humans + machines, priority support, first to get new brokers. |
30-day money-back guarantee on individual accounts. Note the Expanded Reach asterisk — the headline site counts drop by roughly 40% without it.
| Plan | 1 year | 2 years |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $129 ($10.75/mo) | $209 ($8.71/mo) |
| 2 people | $229 ($19.08/mo) | $349 ($14.54/mo) |
| 4 people | $329 ($27.42/mo) | $499 ($20.79/mo) |
Every plan includes quarterly privacy reports, a personal DeleteMe expert, unlimited aliases and previous names, email and phone masking on higher tiers, and new opt-outs added during your term at no extra cost. In business since 2011; A+ BBB rating; 4.7/5 across 400+ reviews.
What actually separates them
- Geography is the hard wall. DeleteMe: US only. Optery: five countries. If you are not American this page is one line long.
- Optery has a real free tier. Not a trial — ongoing quarterly exposure reports for nothing. DeleteMe offers free DIY guides but no free scan of your own exposure. This is Optery's strongest single feature and it costs you nothing to use.
- DeleteMe gives you a person. An assigned Privacy Advisor and custom removal requests. Optery only matches that on Extended and above.
- Optery publishes site counts; DeleteMe doesn't. Read that both ways — transparency from Optery, but also a marketing metric that invites inflation, which is why the Expanded Reach footnote matters.
- DeleteMe has the longest track record. Operating since 2011, 100M+ removals completed, PCMag rates it "Excellent". Optery is the newer, more automated challenger.
- Family pricing inverts the answer. DeleteMe's four-person plan at $329/yr undercuts four separate Optery accounts comfortably.
Three things neither company leads with
- Removal is maintenance, not a fix. Brokers re-acquire you from public records, new signups and each other. That is why both are subscriptions. Cancel and you drift back over the following months. Anyone promising permanence is selling.
- You can do all of it free. Every broker has an opt-out. Both companies publish DIY guides. It costs 15–20 hours for a thorough pass, then a few hours every quarter forever. You are buying time and persistence, not access. If your exposure is small, do it yourself.
- Removal alone is a treadmill. It deletes what brokers hold; it does nothing about the next signup refilling them. The address you reuse everywhere is the join key that lets brokers correlate records back to you. Removal plus aliasing is what actually holds — see email OSINT for why the reuse is the whole mechanism.
The ones we don't earn from
Incogni, Aura, Privacy Bee and Cloaked are all real options and we have no relationship with any of them, which is precisely why you should not take this page as the whole market. Incogni is typically cheapest; Aura bundles removal into wider identity protection; Privacy Bee claims broad coverage. Assume every roundup you read — including this one — reflects who pays the author. Ours pays us from both sides, which is the best we can offer you short of not being paid at all.
Frequently asked questions
Optery or DeleteMe — which is better?
Neither, universally. The honest split: if you are outside the United States, Optery is your only option of the two, because DeleteMe sells to US residents only. If you want to see your exposure before paying anything, Optery's Free Basic tier gives you quarterly exposure reports for nothing. If you want the cheapest real coverage, Optery Core is $39/year against DeleteMe's $129/year. If you want a human handling awkward removals and you are covering more than one person, DeleteMe's family pricing and its assigned Privacy Advisor are the stronger offer. Both work; they are aimed at different buyers.
Is DeleteMe available outside the US?
No. DeleteMe's pricing page states US residents only. This single fact decides the comparison for a large share of people — if you are in the UK, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, DeleteMe is not an option and Optery is (it sells to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). Check current terms before buying, since coverage changes.
How much does Optery cost?
Four tiers as of July 2026. Free Basic is genuinely free — quarterly exposure reports and self-service removal tools, no card required. Core is $39/year ($3.25/mo) covering 380+ sites, fully automated with no human agent, and supports one name plus one city/state. Extended is $149/year ($12.42/mo) covering 555+ sites with a humans-plus-machines approach and unlimited names and cities. Ultimate is $249/year ($20.70/mo) covering 635+ sites. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee on individual accounts.
How much does DeleteMe cost?
As of July 2026: one person is $129/year ($10.75/mo), two people $229/year, four people $329/year. Two-year terms drop the effective rate — $209 for one person over two years ($8.71/mo), $349 for two, $499 for four. Every plan includes quarterly privacy reports, a personal DeleteMe expert, unlimited aliases and previous names, and new opt-outs added during your term at no extra cost.
Which one removes from more data brokers?
On raw numbers, Optery's top tier — 635+ sites on Ultimate, 555+ on Extended, 380+ on Core. DeleteMe does not publish a comparable headline site count, which makes a direct number-to-number comparison impossible rather than merely unflattering. Be careful with these figures generally: broker counts are marketing metrics, and coverage of the brokers that actually list *you* matters far more than the total. Optery also notes that its counts drop substantially without Expanded Reach enabled — 380+ becomes 150+ on Core.
Does Optery have a free version?
Yes, and it is the most useful free thing in this category. Free Basic gives you quarterly exposure reports showing where your data appears, plus self-service removal tools and shortcuts, with no credit card required. It does not do the removals for you — that is the paid product — but it tells you the size of your problem before you spend anything. Run it first regardless of which service you eventually pick.
Can I just do this myself for free?
Yes, and you should know that before paying either company. Every broker has an opt-out process and both services publish free DIY guides. The catch is time and persistence: DeleteMe estimates it has saved users over 20,000 hours collectively, and a thorough manual pass across hundreds of brokers realistically costs 15–20 hours — then brokers re-list you and you do it again every few months. You are buying back time and the discipline to keep re-filing, not access to a secret. If your exposure is small, DIY is genuinely viable.
Do removals actually stick?
Not permanently, and any service implying otherwise is overselling. Brokers re-acquire your data from public records, new signups and each other, so you get re-listed. This is why both services are subscriptions rather than one-off purchases, and why Optery re-scans roughly every 90 days on its higher tiers and DeleteMe issues quarterly reports. Removal is maintenance, not a fix. The corollary: cancelling means drifting back to where you started over the following months.
What about Incogni, Aura or Privacy Bee?
They are real competitors and we do not have any relationship with them, so this page does not cover them in depth — which is itself worth stating, because you should assume any roundup ranks whoever pays it. Incogni is typically the cheapest, Aura bundles removal into a broader identity-protection suite, and Privacy Bee claims wide coverage. If neither Optery nor DeleteMe fits, look at them; we would rather say that than pretend our two options are the only two.
Should I use a private email alias as well?
It addresses the root cause rather than the symptom, so yes if you can. Removal deletes what brokers already hold; it does nothing to stop new data flowing in from your next signup, because the address you reuse everywhere is the join key that lets brokers correlate records back to you. Aliases give each service its own address, which breaks that correlation going forward. Removal plus aliasing is the durable combination — removal alone is a treadmill.