Optery is the data removal service that shows its work: automated removals from 380 to 625+ brokers from $3.99/month, with before-and-after screenshot removal reports on Extended and Ultimate. The free tier alone is worth running.
Buy if: you want verified proof that brokers are actually removing your data, or if you’ve been doxxed and need aggressive ongoing coverage. Skip if: you want the lowest-cost option and don’t care about seeing screenshots of your removals.
How it scores
What we love (and don't)
// PROS
- Free tier with screenshot exposure report, no credit card required
- Before-and-after screenshot removal reports on Extended and Ultimate
- 380 to 625+ brokers covered by automated removals on paid tiers
- Monthly automated scans and removals on all paid plans
- Best four-month removal rate (68%) in Consumer Reports study, PCMag Editors' Choice 2022–2025
- SOC 2 Type II certified, Y Combinator-backed
- Home blurring on Google Maps and Apple Maps (Extended and Ultimate)
// CONS
- Core plan is fully automated — no human oversight for tricky brokers
- Screenshot removal reports require Extended ($14.99/mo); full 625+ broker coverage requires Ultimate ($24.99/mo)
- No phone support listed — email support only on every plan
- Yearly billing required for the advertised 17% savings; monthly pricing is higher
Consumer Reports tested seven personal data removal services between May and September 2023 (Source). Optery Ultimate removed 68% of tracked profiles within four months. The next-closest competitor, EasyOptOuts ($19.99/year), removed 65%. DeleteMe, which Optery calls a “marketing powerhouse,” removed 27%.
That gap is the story. Optery topped that study, and PCMag has given it its Editors’ Choice award every year from 2022 through 2025.
The other thing that sets Optery apart: it shows you the evidence. A free exposure report with screenshots to start, before-and-after screenshot removal reports on the Extended and Ultimate plans, and a dashboard with live thumbnails showing where each profile was found. You are not buying on faith that something is happening.
Here is what the service actually does, what each plan covers, and how it compares to the main alternatives.
What Optery Does
Optery submits opt-out requests to data brokers on your behalf, monitors those brokers for re-listings, and resubmits requests when your data reappears. In Optery’s words, data brokers “constantly refresh their databases and often conveniently ‘forget’ your opt out.” That’s why I think a one-time removal fixes little; the category runs on ongoing subscriptions.
The technical approach is more sophisticated than most people expect. Optery’s opt-out technology fills out and submits opt-out forms, solves captcha puzzles, clicks verification links, delivers legal demands, and writes and responds to emails automatically. The company holds two US patents for its search technology.
Optery is a Delaware C-corporation founded in 2020 by Lawrence Gentilello (CEO, formerly led Accenture’s Data Management Platforms practice in North America), Chen Atlas (CTO, previously tech lead for 50+ engineers at Runa HR and a Y Combinator W15 alumni), and Dekel Barzilay (CRDO, formerly Chief Architect at Lusha). The company is Y Combinator-backed, BBB Accredited, and SOC 2 Type II certified.
The Free Plan: What You Actually Get
The Free Basic plan is worth running before you spend a dollar.
It generates a personalized exposure report with screenshots of your data on people-search sites, plus a scan of your Google and Bing search results. No credit card required. The screenshots make the problem concrete: you see your own profiles on specific sites, by name.
The free tier also includes self-service removal tools (links and instructions for submitting manual opt-out requests yourself) and ongoing monitoring with visibility into hundreds of sites via Optery’s patented View Links. What it does not include is automated removal. That requires a paid plan.
The free-to-paid path is intentionally smooth. Optery wants you to see what’s exposed first, then decide if you want them to handle it. That transparency is the product philosophy in one sentence. Run your free Optery exposure report here.
Optery Pricing and Plans
Four tiers. Here’s what each one actually delivers.
Free Basic (free, no credit card): Exposure report with screenshots, self-service tools, monitoring. The right starting point for anyone who wants to see what’s out there before committing.
Core ($3.99/month, $39/year): Automated removals from 380+ sites (150+ without enabling Expanded Reach), limited to one name and one city and state per user. Monthly automated scans and removals. Auto-enrollment in newly supported brokers. Fully automated, no human Privacy Agent. This is the right plan for most people: broad coverage, low cost, hands-off maintenance. Start Optery Core.
Extended ($14.99/month, $149/year): Automated removals from 555+ sites (330+ without Expanded Reach). Everything in Core plus a “Humans + Machines” approach: automated removals backed by an assigned human Privacy Agent for edge cases and special circumstances. Removal reports with before-and-after screenshots every ~90 days. Unlimited name variations and past cities for removals. Home blurring on Google Maps and Apple Maps.
If you’ve experienced doxxing, work in journalism, law, medicine, or any profession where your home address in the wrong hands creates a real safety concern, Extended is the right tier.
Ultimate ($24.99/month, $249/year): Automated removals from 625+ sites (400+ without Expanded Reach), plus unlimited custom removal requests for 940+ sites total (available after 30 days). Outdated content removal tool submissions for Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo. Priority email support. Optery labels this its most popular plan, “intended for people who place a high premium on their privacy,” and lists customers including Fortune 500 C-level executives, high-ranking government officials, journalists, doctors, attorneys, and victims of stalking, violence and harassment.
Optery advertises 17% savings for yearly billing (closer to 18.5% on Core: $39 versus $47.88 a year paid monthly). A 30-day money-back guarantee applies to all plans.
Is Optery Legit?
Yes, with specifics worth knowing.
The company is a Delaware C-corporation founded in 2020, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, backed by Y Combinator, and accredited by the Better Business Bureau. It holds SOC 2 Type II certification, which means an independent auditor has verified that Optery’s data security controls meet the standard. It holds two US patents for its search technology.
Third-party validation is extensive and consistent. PCMag has named Optery its Editors’ Choice for personal data removal every year from 2022 through 2025. Neil J. Rubenking, Lead Analyst for Security at PCMag, wrote: “Optery’s handling of the core data removal task outshines the rest, and its free tier brings privacy protection to those who can’t afford expensive subscriptions.” Consumer Reports found that EasyOptOuts and Optery did the best in a 2024 study (Source). CNET named it best overall data removal service of 2026.
The only legitimate question about legitimacy in this category is whether the removals are actually happening. Optery answers that with screenshots. Extended and Ultimate include removal reports with before-and-after screenshots every ~90 days. Neither Incogni nor DeleteMe offers screenshot proof of removals, and I find that kind of evidence much harder to fake than a count.
Optery vs. Incogni
Incogni is a subsidiary of Surfshark, the VPN company. The Standard plan costs $7.99/month billed annually ($95.88/year), or $15.98 month to month, and covers 420+ data brokers. No free plan. No screenshot verification of removals.
The key differences:
Coverage: It depends on the tier. Optery’s Core plan at $3.99/month covers 380+ brokers, fewer than the 420+ that every Incogni plan covers. Optery pulls ahead from Extended ($14.99/mo, 555+ brokers), and Ultimate ($24.99/mo, 625+ brokers) covers about 50% more than Incogni.
Verification: Optery provides before-and-after screenshots of removals. Incogni gives you a dashboard summary showing requests sent and completed. Both are doing real work; Optery shows you the evidence.
Free tier: Optery has a free plan. Incogni offers a free exposure scanner but no free plan. Optery’s exposure report alone is worth the sign-up.
Price: Incogni is $7.99/month billed annually versus Optery Core at $3.25/month billed annually ($39/year). Optery is cheaper on the base paid plan; Incogni covers more brokers at that level.
Incogni makes sense if you want the most brokers for the least money and don’t need screenshots. For anyone who wants to see the work, Optery’s transparency and pricing are hard to match. Compare plans at Optery.
Optery vs. DeleteMe
DeleteMe is one of the oldest names in this category. The brand recognition is real. The specifics are worth understanding.
DeleteMe’s Standard plan covers 85 data brokers automatically, for $129/year. By Optery’s count, the 969 brokers DeleteMe advertises (Source) include 147 international-only sites, 13 reserved for business tiers, and 566 sites only reachable through custom requests, where you find your own profile and submit it. The automated coverage on Standard is 85 sites.
Optery’s Core plan covers 380+ brokers with full automation (150+ without enabling Expanded Reach), for $39/year. With Expanded Reach on, that’s more than four times the automated coverage (380 ÷ 85 = 4.5) at less than a third of the price ($39 ÷ $129 = 0.30).
The Consumer Reports numbers: Optery Ultimate removed 68% of tracked profiles in four months. DeleteMe removed 27% in the same window.
Where DeleteMe makes a legitimate case: the human element. On the Standard plan, a human Privacy Advisor reviews DeleteMe’s 85 brokers, submits removals, and compiles a summary every three months. Optery uses a “Humans + Machines” approach on Extended and Ultimate plans, with assigned human Privacy Agents for edge cases, but the emphasis leans more automated.
DeleteMe sends quarterly PDF reports with listing counts and no screenshots. Optery scans monthly, updates removal status in the app continuously, and adds before-and-after screenshot reports on Extended and Ultimate.
The practical gap: DeleteMe’s $129/year makes sense if you specifically need human-reviewed opt-outs across 85 key brokers and don’t need broad automated coverage. For most people, Optery’s coverage is wider, the evidence of work is clearer, and the price is lower.
Is Optery Worth It?
The free tier answers the question for you. Run the exposure report, see what’s on those sites, and decide if you want it gone.
For most people, Core at $3.99/month ($39/year) is a reasonable ongoing expense for 380+ brokers monitored and cleared monthly. That’s under a dollar per week ($39 ÷ 52 = $0.75). The alternative is submitting manual opt-outs yourself, keeping track of them, and redoing the work as brokers re-list your data.
Extended ($14.99/month, $149/year) is worth it if any of the following apply: you’ve been doxxed, your work involves public exposure, your profession makes your home address a target, or you want the peace of mind of screenshot-verified proof and an assigned human contact for escalations. The map blurring feature on Extended (Google Maps and Apple Maps) is a meaningful addition for anyone genuinely concerned about their home address.
Ultimate ($24.99/month, $249/year) is for people who place a genuinely high premium on digital privacy: executives, journalists, government officials, doctors, attorneys, and victims of stalking or harassment. Unlimited custom removal requests across 940+ sites and priority email support are what that profile needs.
For the casual user who just found out their home address is on Whitepages: Core is enough. Start with the free report and go from there.
What Optery Does Not Cover
No data removal service removes your data permanently. Brokers re-list information regularly; ongoing subscriptions are the maintenance model the whole category runs on. Cancel, and I’d expect your data to come back.
Search engines are the other limit. The free plan scans your Google and Bing results, and the Ultimate plan submits outdated-content removal requests to Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo, but that is a submission tool, not a guarantee.
The Bottom Line
Optery is the right choice for most people evaluating data removal services. The free exposure report is genuinely useful before you spend anything. Core at $3.99/month costs less than Incogni’s and DeleteMe’s entry plans. Extended adds the evidence layer, the human backup, and the map blurring that justify the higher price for anyone with real privacy concerns.
Consumer Reports tested the category and Optery won. PCMag has named it Editors’ Choice every year from 2022 through 2025. That track record is not a coincidence.
The one thing that might push you to a competitor: if you want the simplest fire-and-forget experience, Incogni’s summary dashboard is simpler, and its Standard plan covers more brokers (420+) than Optery Core (380+). But simpler is not the same as better, and above Core the coverage gap runs in Optery’s favor.
Start with the Optery free exposure report. If what you see makes you want it cleaned up, Core is $3.99/month. I like being able to see the problem, with screenshots, before paying to fix it.
See also: Best Personal Data Removal Services in 2026 for a full category comparison including DeleteMe, Incogni, Privacy Bee, and others.