DeleteMe vs Incogni vs Doing It Yourself: Which Is Worth It in 2026?

What do DeleteMe and Incogni actually do?

Both services do the same core job: they submit opt-out requests to data broker and people-search sites on your behalf, then keep re-submitting as your listings reappear. That is genuinely useful, because broker opt-outs are tedious, the listings recur as brokers re-scrape public records, and doing it by hand is maintenance work that most people abandon.

The differences are in method and scope. DeleteMe leans on people: its plans include custom removal requests handled with human review, a personal privacy expert, and quarterly privacy reports showing what was found and removed. Incogni leans on automation: it fires opt-out requests at brokers likely to hold your data and repeats them on a cycle, with human-handled custom removals reserved for its Unlimited tier.

How much does DeleteMe cost in 2026?

DeleteMe costs $129 per year for one person, $229 per year for two people, and $329 per year for a family of four. A two-year single plan is $209. There is no monthly billing option, so the minimum commitment is a year upfront.

All plans include automated opt-outs plus custom removal requests, quarterly privacy reports, and support from a named privacy expert. DeleteMe publishes the list of sites it removes from ↗, currently 976 data brokers, which is worth skimming before you buy so you can see whether the sites that list you are on it.

How much does Incogni cost in 2026?

Incogni Standard costs $7.99 per month billed annually, $95.88 per year, or roughly double that, $15.98 per month, if you pay month to month. The Unlimited tier is $14.99 per month billed annually, $179.88 per year. Family plans covering up to five people run $191.88 per year, or $275.88 for Family Unlimited.

Standard covers automated, recurring opt-outs across what Incogni's pricing page ↗ lists as 420+ data broker sites. Unlimited adds custom removal requests handled by its privacy team across 2,000+ additional sites, which is the tier to compare against DeleteMe, since custom removals are standard there. All Incogni plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the monthly option makes it the cheaper way to trial a service before committing.

DeleteMe vs Incogni: which should you pick?

On list price for like-for-like coverage, they land close: DeleteMe at $129 per year versus Incogni Unlimited at $179.88, with Incogni Standard cheaper at $95.88 if automated broker opt-outs are all you want. The real difference is style, not size.

• -Pick DeleteMe if you want human eyes on it: custom removals, quarterly reports, and a published site list are standard, and the annual-only billing suits people committing to ongoing coverage
• -Pick Incogni Standard if you want the cheapest automated baseline and are happy to handle odd cases yourself
• -Pick Incogni Unlimited if you want custom removals with monthly billing flexibility and the 30-day guarantee
• -Coverage counts are marketing numbers on both sides: what matters is whether the specific sites listing YOU are covered, which no count tells you

What does neither service do?

Data removal services work one front: data brokers. Most of what exposes people sits on other fronts, and no subscription touches them.

• -Breached passwords: if your credentials are in a breach dump, no broker opt-out helps. You change the passwords yourself, per how to respond to a data breach
• -Google source pages: removal services do not delete the pages Google indexes, and Google removal tools are free anyway
• -Your own accounts: old profiles, forgotten signups, and oversharing social accounts are yours to close and lock down
• -Public records: property, court, and voter records stay, whoever you pay
• -Permanence: opt-outs are suppression, not deletion. Listings recur, which is why both services re-run and why cancelling means the work unwinds

When is doing it yourself enough?

DIY is enough when a scan shows you are listed on a handful of major brokers, and it is free. The big people-search sites, Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, Radaris, Intelius, all have opt-out forms that take a few minutes each, and the opt-out pattern is the same on most of them. Budget an afternoon for the first pass and a recheck every 60 to 90 days.

Californians get the strongest DIY tool in the country: from August 1, 2026, registered data brokers must process deletion requests made through California DROP ↗, one verified request covering every registered broker, with deletion required within 90 days. Paid services earn their fee when your listings are spread across dozens of obscure brokers, when the listings keep returning, or when your time is simply worth more than the maintenance. That is a real trade, but it is only a good one if you know your exposure first.

Why you should scan yourself before paying either

Both services charge you before you know whether you were listed. A scan flips that: see which brokers actually hold your data, which breaches expose your passwords, and which forgotten accounts leak the rest, then decide with the real list in front of you. If it is three sites, DIY wins. If it is thirty, a subscription starts making sense, and you will know which service covers your actual listings.

That first look is exactly what Clearfront is for. It scans your digital footprint in one sweep on your own machine, brokers, breaches, accounts, and public traces, without handing your details to yet another company, and its AI security analyst tells you what to fix first. Install Clearfront free and run it on yourself before you spend $129, or get the free removal guide if the scan shows a list short enough to clear by hand.