DeleteMe vs Optery vs PrivacyDuck on Coverage, Price and Proof

DeleteMe vs Optery is the comparison most people are actually making

These two get compared constantly because they sit at opposite ends of the same idea. DeleteMe is the incumbent, running since 2011, with a team of people who file removals and a written report every quarter. Optery arrived in 2020 with an automation-first product and one distinctive habit: it photographs the broker page before and after, so you can see the listing disappear.

On price it is not close at the entry point. Optery Core is $39 a year against DeleteMe's $129. But that comparison flatters Optery, because Core covers 375+ sites and the tier most people actually end up on, Extended at $149 a year, covers 555+. Ultimate is $249 a year for 630+ sites. So the honest read is that Optery is cheaper if a scan shows your exposure is mainstream, and roughly the same money or more if it is not.

On evidence, Optery wins outright and it is not a close call. A quarterly report is a claim. A screenshot of the broker page before and after is a verifiable artifact. If you are the kind of buyer who wants to audit what you paid for, that difference is the whole decision.

On coverage, DeleteMe wins outright, in one specific way. Optery serves the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. DeleteMe additionally operates in the UK and several EU countries. No Optery tier fixes that gap, so if anyone you are covering lives in the UK or EU, the shortlist is already down to one. DeleteMe's plans, family seats, and what each quarterly report actually contains are laid out in our DeleteMe review. We cover the rest of Optery's plans, its Expanded Reach setting, and its screenshot proof in full in our Optery review.

Where PrivacyDuck fits

PrivacyDuck sells a different shape of product. Its published feature list covers 400+ data brokers with unlimited removal requests, unlimited aliases and previous names, custom removals alongside the automated work, email and phone masking, and support by email, chat, and phone. It is the only one of the three where you can call someone.

PrivacyDuck used to hide its price behind Single, Couple, and Family tiers that loaded their figures on request. It now sells one plan, Standard Protection, at $299 a year billed annually (about $24.92 a month), and that plan covers one household rather than one person. Rescans run every 90 days, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee if you ask for it inside the first month.

That changes the math. For a single adult, $299 is the most expensive seat of the three, more than double DeleteMe's $129 and $50 more than Optery Ultimate. For a couple it lands close to DeleteMe's $229 two-person plan. For a family of four it undercuts DeleteMe's $329, and you get a team you can phone and unlimited custom requests on top. So PrivacyDuck is the household buy, and rarely the solo one.

What about Cloaked, Incogni, and the rest?

Cloaked comes up in this comparison often, but it is solving an adjacent problem. Its core product is masked emails, phone numbers, and cards, so new data never reaches a broker in the first place. That is prevention rather than removal, and the two are complements rather than substitutes: masking stops the next listing, removal deals with the fifteen that already exist.

Incogni is the genuine fourth option on price, at $7.99 a month billed annually across 420+ brokers, and it reaches EU and UK marketing aggregators that the other three largely leave alone. It shows request status rather than proof. The wider field, including Aura, Kanary, and Onerep, is covered in our roundup of the best data removal services.

How to decide in five minutes

Start with geography, because it is binary. Anyone in the UK or EU means DeleteMe. Then ask whether you want to see proof. If yes, Optery. If you would rather have a phone number to call and unlimited custom work for the whole household, PrivacyDuck at $299 is the pick. If none of that decides it, run a free scan and buy on what the results actually show rather than on roster counts, which are marketing numbers with no shared definition behind them.

One thing all three share: the job never finishes. Brokers re-ingest public records continuously, so a record removed in March can be back in June after a property filing or a change of address re-links your name. Removal is only half the work, and the other half is knowing when something resurfaces, which is the same discipline as keeping watch on where your name shows up across the web. That is why re-check cadence deserves more weight than any of the three give it in their own marketing.

Doing it yourself instead

All three services file requests you are entitled to file yourself, for free. Every mainstream US people-search site runs a voluntary opt-out, and in 20 states a comprehensive privacy law makes deletion an enforceable right rather than a favor. Budget 10 to 15 minutes per site and two or three passes a year. Our data broker opt-out list walks through the process site by site, and the individual guides for Spokeo, Whitepages, and BeenVerified cover the three that matter most.

What you are really paying these services for is the repetition. The first pass is tedious but finite. The third pass, eight months later, is the one nobody does.