Optery vs DeleteMe (2026): Which Removes More?

Optery removes more for most individuals: it posted the highest removal rate in the only large independent test of these services, it costs less at the entry tier, and it shows you screenshots of every listing it targets. DeleteMe is the better buy for a couple, a family of four, or a company protecting its executives, where its household pricing, generous custom requests and human-reviewed reports earn their higher price.

That is the short version of Optery vs DeleteMe. The rest explains why, then gives you a scoring model you can run in ten minutes. If you are still deciding whether DeleteMe belongs on your shortlist at all, our roundup of DeleteMe alternatives compares seven services side by side, and our DeleteMe vs Incogni breakdown covers the other common matchup.

A note on sources before we start. Every price and site count below comes from the vendor’s own pages or from a named review, with the date we saw it. This category changes its numbers every few months and runs promotions constantly, so treat each figure as a snapshot and confirm it on the day you pay.

Broker coverage: whose number is real?

Coverage is the first number every buyer looks at, and the least reliable one in the whole category. Both companies publish large figures. Both figures need reading closely.

Optery’s pricing page in October 2026 listed Core at 380+ sites, Extended at 555+ and Ultimate at 625+. Those counts assume you switch on a setting Optery calls Expanded Reach. Leave it off and the same tiers drop to 150+, 330+ and 400+. That is a big gap for a single toggle, so if you sign up, turn it on in your first session. Optery’s help center adds another layer: as of May 2025 it said its Ultimate plan supported custom removals for 580 brokers beyond its automated list, for a combined total of 1,225.

DeleteMe’s “Sites We Remove From” page headlines 969 data brokers, while the meta description on that same page says “over 750.” The list is tagged by plan, and many entries are reachable only on business tiers or through custom requests that you submit. Third-party reviewers quote different numbers again, from roughly 100 automated sites plus custom requests (Security.org) to 400+ brokers and 560+ sources (CNET’s 2026 roundup). They are counting different things.

Here is the practical takeaway. A headline count tells you how big a vendor’s list is. It does not tell you whether that list contains the five sites where your home address actually shows up. Before you compare plans, search your own name on Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, Intelius, Radaris and FastPeopleSearch. Write down every hit. Then open each vendor’s published broker list and check those names against it. Optery makes this easier, because its free scan does the search for you and shows where you appear before you spend a dollar.

In Optery vs DeleteMe on raw automated reach, Optery Ultimate’s 625+ sites beats what DeleteMe’s individual plan automates. On the question of “does it cover the sites that matter for me,” both services cover the big people-search names, and the difference shows up in the long tail.

Custom removal requests decide the long tail

The long tail is where most buyers get surprised. You find yourself on a small people-search site, a background-check clone, or a regional directory that neither vendor automates. A custom request is how you ask the service to handle that one URL by hand.

DeleteMe is more generous here at the entry level. TechRadar’s review, last updated February 24, 2026, says each DeleteMe subscription includes up to 40 custom removal requests a year, submitted through the member portal. That allowance applies on the standard individual, couple and family plans, which means a single $129 subscriber gets the same custom request budget as someone paying more. DeleteMe has also described a Premium tier that raises the allowance to 60 and adds broker sites, though tier names and limits shift, so check the current plan page.

Optery puts custom requests behind its most expensive plan. Its help center, updated in June 2026, says Custom Removals belong to Ultimate only and begin processing 30 days after you buy. You must submit the full URL of the specific profile page plus a screenshot as proof. Optery says roughly 75% of custom requests succeed and 25% do not, that some have taken up to eight months, and that a failed request can be resubmitted once every 12 months. It also says success is more likely for residents of states with privacy laws, naming California, Texas, Virginia, Oregon and Colorado.

That candor is useful. A 75% success rate on hand-filed requests is a real number you can plan around, and the state-law caveat tells you something true about the whole industry: brokers comply faster when a statute forces them to. DeleteMe does not publish a comparable success rate for its custom requests, so you are trusting its process without a benchmark.

So the split is clear. If you expect a long list of obscure sites and want to pay under $150, DeleteMe’s 40 included requests are better value. If you are already buying Optery Ultimate for its automated reach, custom requests come with it, and its published success rate lets you set expectations.

Demand screenshots, not promises

Removal is invisible by default. A broker deletes a row in a database, and the only sign is the absence of a page. That makes reporting the most important feature you are buying, and it is where these two services differ most in philosophy.

Optery’s reports are visual. Its scans capture screenshots of your listings and what the company calls patented view links into each profile, before and after removal. You can click through and see the page as it looked, then see it gone. That is the closest thing to a receipt this industry offers. Free users get the exposure scan with screenshots too, which is why Optery’s free tier works as a diagnostic even if you never upgrade.

DeleteMe’s reports are written by its privacy team and arrive quarterly. TechRadar describes them as listing broker names, where your data was found, verification timestamps and which entries were removed or may need resubmission. Reviewers describe them as readable. Executive protection teams like that paper trail. What it lacks is the visual proof of the page itself, and the quarterly rhythm means you wait months between snapshots.

Our rule for clients is simple. If you cannot verify a removal, assume it has not happened. Brokers re-list people constantly as they buy fresh data, and a service that reports “removed” in March may be looking at a profile that came back in May. Screenshots make that drift visible. Text reports make you take it on trust. On this lever, Optery wins outright.

What do the plans actually cost in 2026?

Prices below come from each vendor’s pricing page as checked in October 2026, matching the figures in our DeleteMe alternatives roundup. Both companies discount heavily and often, so the number at checkout may be lower.

Read the table by person, not by plan. For one adult, Optery Core at $39 undercuts DeleteMe’s $129 by $90 a year and, by the independent evidence covered below, removes at least as much from the sites tested. Optery Extended at $149 sits close to DeleteMe’s single price while adding human privacy agents and unlimited name variations, according to TechRadar.

For households the math flips. DeleteMe’s family plan works out to about $82 per person per year for four people. Optery’s family pricing works by adding members at a discount, and TechRadar’s February 2026 review notes that its higher tiers cost more for families than some rivals. If you want Extended or Ultimate coverage for four people, Optery gets expensive fast.

Monthly billing is the other quiet difference. Optery offers it; DeleteMe does not, so DeleteMe asks you to commit for at least a year. If you want to run one quarter of removals, watch the screenshots, and decide, Optery lets you do that without a long commitment.

Families and businesses change the answer

Most comparisons stop at the individual buyer. Two situations change the recommendation entirely.

The first is a household. Data brokers link relatives, so your listing often names your spouse, your parents and your adult children, and theirs names you. Cleaning up one person while the other three stay public leaves a map back to your door. DeleteMe’s plans for two and four people are priced for exactly this problem, and the 40 custom requests per subscription give a family room to chase the odd listing. For a family that wants reliable coverage on the major sites and a single readable report, DeleteMe is the simpler purchase.

The second is a company. DeleteMe has sold to employers for years. TechRadar says its enterprise quotes start near $180 per person a year and names Google and ProPublica among its customers, with features aimed at doxxing and impersonation risk for executives and journalists. Optery also sells to organizations, with per-seat plans its reviewers describe as Core Pro and Ultimate Pro, plus single sign-on and SCIM provisioning for rolling it out to hundreds of staff. Optery does not publish business prices in the material we reviewed, so you will need a quote.

For a security team buying for 50 executives, the Optery vs DeleteMe question becomes who handles a listing that reappears before a shareholder meeting, and whether the evidence can go straight to legal. DeleteMe’s longer enterprise track record and human team count for a lot here. Optery’s screenshots count for a lot too, because a security lead needs proof more than reassurance. Ask both for a pilot on ten names and compare the evidence.

What the Consumer Reports test found

Vendor claims are cheap. Independent tests of removal services are rare, and the best one remains the study Consumer Reports published on August 8, 2024.

Consumer Reports recruited 32 volunteers and ran seven removal services against 13 people-search sites, checking results at one week, one month and four months, with a manual opt-out group for comparison. Across all services, The Record reported, only 117 of 332 data instances (35%) were gone after four months. Optery removed 68% of listings, the best result in the test. EasyOptOuts came second at 65%. DeleteMe, along with IDX and Kanary, landed in what The Record called the mid-level group. ReputationDefender managed 6% and Confidently 4%.

Two findings matter as much as the ranking. Manual opt-outs beat every service in the first week, with about 70% of listings gone within seven days. And every participant still had data showing on some sites at every checkpoint. No service, Optery included, came close to removing everything. Consumer Reports also flagged that some removal services had financial partnerships with people-search sites, a conflict buyers should ask about directly.

The study has limits. It is two years old, it covered 13 sites rather than hundreds, and both companies have changed their products since. DeleteMe’s coverage and team are larger now than in 2024. Still, it remains the clearest public evidence that a big coverage number and a high removal rate are different things, and in the one head-to-head that exists, Optery removed more.

If you only want listings gone fast and you have a free weekend, do the big sites yourself first. Our guide to removing your name from Google walks through the manual process, and a paid service then earns its fee by rechecking and catching re-listings over the following year.

Score both services with the PROOF model

We use a five-lever scoring model with clients to choose a removal service. We call it the PROOF Score, and each lever earns 0, 1 or 2 points for a maximum of 10. It works on any vendor and forces you to score against your own situation.

P is Placement match: does the service’s published list cover the specific sites where you appear today? Score 2 if it covers every site you found, 1 if it misses one or two, 0 if it misses more. R is Removal evidence: does independent testing show the service actually removes listings? Score 2 for a top result in a published test, 1 for a middle result, 0 for a poor or missing one. The first O is Outlier handling: can it take custom requests for sites off its list, at your price tier? Score 2 for included requests with a stated limit, 1 if they cost more or come with long delays, 0 for none. The second O is Observable receipts: can you see proof of each removal yourself? Score 2 for screenshots or live links, 1 for text reports, 0 for a dashboard number only. F is Fit for your household: does the plan structure price the people you need to protect sensibly? Score 2 if it fits your household or company size at a fair per-person cost, 1 if it fits awkwardly, 0 if it does not fit.

Here is how we score the two for a typical single adult in October 2026. Optery Core with Expanded Reach scores 2 on Placement for most people, since it covers the major people-search sites. It scores 2 on Removal evidence for its 68% result, 0 on Outlier handling because custom requests require Ultimate, 2 on Observable receipts and 2 on Fit. That is 8 out of 10. DeleteMe’s single plan scores 2 on Placement, 1 on Removal evidence for its mid-level test result, 2 on Outlier handling for its 40 included requests, 1 on Observable receipts for quarterly text reports and 1 on Fit, since $129 is a lot for one person. That is 7.

Now rescore for a family of four. Optery’s Fit drops to 1, because adding members at higher tiers gets costly, and its total falls to 7. DeleteMe’s Fit rises to 2 at $329 for four people, and its total climbs to 8. The model flips exactly where our recommendation flips, which is the point: the right answer depends on who you are protecting.

Your scores will differ, especially on Placement, so run the free Optery scan and your manual searches before you buy.

One last boundary worth knowing. Both services work on data brokers and people-search sites only. Neither removes news articles, negative reviews, court records hosted on government sites, or social posts. If the result that worries you is a story written about you rather than a listing of your address, you need a different playbook, and our guide on removing content from Google is the place to start.

So, when you search your own name tonight, which do you find first: your address on a people-search site, or a headline you wish were gone?