DeleteMe vs Optery

For most people, Optery is the better buy. Its Core plan costs $3.25/mo billed yearly — $39/yr, less than a third of DeleteMe’s $129/yr Solo plan — and it pairs that price with things DeleteMe does not offer at any tier: a genuinely free plan, monthly automated scans, and before-and-after screenshots that prove removals actually happened.

DeleteMe’s case rests on service depth and brand maturity. Every customer gets a personal privacy expert, quarterly reports starting within 7 days, custom removal requests, and email and phone masking tools. Its public removal list names 976 data brokers, the largest catalogue either company publishes. If you want a concierge handling your exposure end to end, DeleteMe remains a serious choice.

But the price-to-proof equation favours the challenger. Below we compare both services on pricing, coverage methodology, cadence, family plans, refunds and reporting — every figure verified against official pricing and help-center pages on 2026-06-12.

Is DeleteMe or Optery cheaper?

Optery wins at the entry level and stays competitive in the middle. Its tiers are published in full: Core at $3.25/mo billed yearly ($39/yr), Extended at $12.42/mo ($149/yr), and Ultimate at $20.70/mo ($249/yr), each also available monthly at $3.99, $14.99 and $24.99 respectively. The yearly toggle saves 17 percent, and a Free Basic tier sits underneath all of it.

DeleteMe publishes far less. Its help center confirms the Solo plan — one person, one year — at about $11/mo, billed annually at $129/yr, and says family plans are discounted per person with bigger savings on two-year terms. But the exact prices for its 2-person, 4-person, two-year and Premium plans render only inside the purchase flow. You cannot compare DeleteMe’s full catalogue against Optery’s from public pages alone, which is itself a data point about transparency.

One fair counterweight: Optery’s headline $39/yr buys its narrowest coverage tier. Matching DeleteMe’s breadth means Extended at $149/yr — slightly more than DeleteMe Solo — or Ultimate at $249/yr. Optery is the cheapest way in, not automatically the cheapest at every coverage level. Our Optery review and DeleteMe review break down which tier matches which need.

Who covers more brokers — and how each counts them

The raw numbers point in opposite directions depending on how you read them. DeleteMe’s sites-we-remove-from page lists 976 data brokers, the biggest single catalogue in this comparison. Optery’s pricing page advertises 375+ sites on Core, 560+ on Extended, and 635+ on Ultimate, with Ultimate’s unlimited custom removal requests extending reach to 950+ sites in total after 30 days of membership.

Neither figure means what it first appears to. DeleteMe’s 976 includes sites tagged Business-plan-only, VIP-only, International-plan and “Custom Requests” — the subset covered on the Standard US plan is smaller, and DeleteMe documents that subset on a separate help-center page. Optery’s counts have their own asterisk: the headline numbers assume its “Expanded Reach” setting is enabled. Without it, Core covers 145+, Extended 325+ and Ultimate 400+ sites.

So the honest comparison is tier-to-tier, not headline-to-headline. DeleteMe Solo against Optery Core is a contest of partially overlapping subsets; DeleteMe’s full catalogue is only matched by Optery Ultimate’s 950+ custom-removal ceiling. Every vendor in this market counts differently — some count people-search subsidiaries as separate brokers, some count site families once — which is why coverage is one of six criteria in our methodology rather than the whole verdict. For how these two sit against Incogni, Aura and others, see our best data removal services roundup.

How often does each service scan and remove?

Optery commits to the more concrete schedule: Monthly Automated Scans and Removals on every paid plan, automatic opt-outs from newly supported brokers as they are added, and — on Extended and Ultimate — Removals Reports with before-and-after screenshots roughly every 90 days. A monthly loop matters because data brokers routinely repopulate listings from fresh public records; the shorter the re-scan interval, the shorter the window in which a returned listing sits exposed.

DeleteMe is also continuous, describing its service as “scans and deletions all year.” Its anchors are a first detailed report within 7 days of signup and Quarterly Privacy Reports on all plans, with new opt-out targets added throughout the year at no extra cost. DeleteMe says the average new customer has about 15 publicly Google-able listings removed within days of starting.

Both models work; the difference is rhythm and evidence. Optery’s monthly scans beat a quarterly reporting cycle on paper, and its screenshot verification means you are not taking the service’s word for what was removed. DeleteMe’s quarterly reports are well-produced summaries, but a summary is a weaker form of proof than a picture of the listing before and after.

Which has the better family plan?

Optery’s structure is more flexible. “Optery for Family” lets you invite unlimited family members and friends under one account, with a tiered discount that grows with headcount up to 30 percent off all plans, and each member’s plan managed individually. There is no cap at four or five people, and members can sit on different tiers.

DeleteMe sells fixed bundles: 2-person plans aimed at couples and 4-person Family Protection plans, each on 1-year or 2-year terms, with per-person discounts baked in. The structure is sensible, but the prices are unpublished outside checkout, and a household of five or more does not fit the largest bundle.

For a couple, DeleteMe’s 2-person plan may quote competitively once you reach its checkout. For larger or irregular households — three adults, grandparents, an adult child at university — Optery’s unlimited-member model with published per-tier pricing is the easier recommendation.

What are the refund policies?

Optery’s is the clearer of the two: a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee on all paid plans, phrased on its own pricing page as refunding 100 percent of your money within 30 days, no questions asked. Combined with the free tier, you can effectively trial Optery twice — once at $0, and once with a 30-day exit on a paid plan.

DeleteMe advertises a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” on every plan but publishes no window, conditions or process on its pricing page; the operative terms live in its terms of service. That does not mean refunds are hard to get, only that you cannot verify the promise before buying. DeleteMe plans also auto-renew, so set a reminder ahead of your renewal date.

A guarantee you can quote — amount, window, process — beats a slogan. Optery takes this category.

Which gives you better reporting and proof?

This is Optery’s signature strength. Its Free Basic tier opens with a Personalized Exposure Report containing screenshots of where your data appears, and paid Extended and Ultimate tiers follow up with Removals Reports — before-and-after screenshots, roughly every 90 days. Optery calls its model “Humans + Machines”: automation does the volume, and Extended and Ultimate customers get an assigned human Privacy Agent. The company holds two US patents on its search technology and is SOC 2 Type II audited. Ultimate adds outdated-content removal submissions for Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo, and Extended and above include home blurring on Google and Apple Maps.

DeleteMe’s reporting is solid but less evidentiary: Quarterly Privacy Reports on all plans, the first within 7 days, plus a personal privacy expert for every customer rather than only on upper tiers. Where DeleteMe pulls ahead is adjacent tooling — email and phone masking, and unlimited aliases, previous names and email addresses on one account — features Optery does not offer.

If proof of work is what you want from a privacy subscription, screenshots settle arguments in a way prose reports cannot. If masking and a bundled expert at every tier matter more, DeleteMe’s package is the richer one.

Which should you choose?

Both services run continuously and both are credible; the split is price-and-proof versus concierge-and-catalogue. Each has an honest weakness: Optery’s headline coverage requires Ultimate at $249/yr and the service is currently US-only, while DeleteMe keeps most of its prices and its refund terms out of public view.

Best for most people: Optery Core. $39/yr for continuous monthly removals, with a free tier underneath to verify your exposure first.

Best on a zero budget: Optery Free Basic. A $0 exposure report with screenshots plus self-service opt-out tools — pair it with our free vs paid data removal guide if you want to do the work yourself.

Best for concierge service and masking: DeleteMe. $129/yr buys a personal privacy expert on every plan, custom removals, and email and phone masking Optery lacks.

Best for maximum verified coverage: Optery Ultimate. $249/yr for 635+ automated sites, unlimited custom removals reaching 950+ sites, and screenshot-verified reporting.

Best for complicated name histories: DeleteMe. Unlimited aliases, previous names and email addresses on a single account.