According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than five million fraud reports were filed in 2022, causing $8.8 billion in fraud losses. This includes both identity theft and imposter scams.
Thankfully, you can take preventative measures to ensure you don’t become a fraud statistic. Online background checks will give you peace of mind that those you trust aren’t misrepresenting themselves. What’s more, these checks have versatile uses, from connecting with lost relatives to identifying repeat scam callers or vetting a potential date.
But how do you know which provider best suits your needs? We reviewed and compared 10 of the best online background check services to help you uncover whatever truth you’re looking for.
Our Top 10 Best Background Check Sites:
- BeenVerified – Best background check site overall
- Intelius – Best for quick access to detailed reports
- PeopleFinders – Best for accessing billions of public records
- US Search – Best for obtaining unlimited reports
- PeopleWhiz – Best for accurate reports
- TruthFinder – Best for people searches
- PeopleLooker – Best for unclaimed money searches
- CheckPeople – Best for criminal record searches
- Instant Checkmate – Best for reverse phone lookups
- ID True – Best for basic background checks
Our Review Methodology: Evaluating the Best Background Check Sites & Services
We used the same seven comparison factors to ensure fair ratings for each of the 10 background check services listed in this review. Still, some factors will be more important to you than others, depending on your needs and the type of search you’re conducting. Here’s how we compared these details to land on what we feel are the best background check sites:
- Pricing: We looked at how affordable the service is and how much you get for what you pay. We also considered available free trials and promo periods (if any).
- Legal standing: We checked if the site is FCRA-compliant and can be used for employment, housing, or other federally regulated purposes.
- Reports offered: We checked which services offer people searches (which include criminal history and public records, as well as unclaimed money searches); business searches; and reverse phone, email, and address lookups.
- Search parameters: We looked at how many search parameters the service offers. We also checked if it supports social media username searches, people searches, phone number and email reverse lookups, and property searches.
- Smartphone apps: We checked whether the service has a smartphone app, and if it does, how useful it is.
- Ease of use: We evaluated each service’s usability and the readability of its reports. We also checked whether it supports any extra functionality that sets it apart.
- Customer support: We assessed how many support channels are available, what their working hours are, and how helpful the customer service is.
The Best Background Check Sites & Services – Quick Reviews:
Millions of data points scoured instantly
BeenVerified’s web search is extensive and delivers results within minutes. It scours billions of records from public data sources and the deep web, turning up a wealth of information like address history, phone numbers, education and employment history, and criminal history.
While most background check services require consumers to enter search terms like a name, phone number, or address, BeenVerified includes an additional social media search option (which looks at more than 120 social media networks). This allows customers who only have a person’s username to run a background check.
This is especially helpful for anyone conducting business transactions via social media who wants to avoid falling victim to scams, which, according to the Federal Trade Commission, are rising. In 2021, more than 95,000 people reported losing nearly $770 million to social media fraud—up from $258 million in 2020.
Why we chose BeenVerified: BeenVerified offers affordable access to public record information with seven different search options for a single monthly subscription fee. It also has a satisfaction guarantee, which promises users one-on-one assistance or a refund if they’re unhappy with the results.
Our experience: We like that BeenVerified lets users monitor any changes on previously run reports. But while this service provides mostly accurate results, our report did contain a few addresses, emails, and academic institutions that weren’t associated with the subject of our search.
Intelligent background checking
Intelius has a variety of search term options and pricing plans, which makes it a perfect fit if you know exactly what kind of information you’re looking for. While many other background check providers require a flat monthly fee for all services, Intelius allows users to choose a monthly plan specific to the type of search they’re most interested in.
For example, someone using the service to look up details about homes in their neighborhood could choose Intelius’s unlimited reverse address lookup plan. With it, they can find property history, ownership information, property tax details, property value, and contact information.
In contrast, someone interested in conducting background checks could choose the site’s unlimited people search plan. For the price of the plan, they get criminal history, social media, address history, photos, relatives and associates, lawsuits and civil judgments, traffic violations, and financial history.
These search options, including the criminal records search, public records search, and people search, are all available directly from the site’s homepage. But because the pricing structure varies according to search type, knowing how much you’ll need to pay for a particular service can become confusing.
Why we chose Intelius: Intelius regularly updates its search engine to ensure it consistently delivers quick, confidential, and accurate results. It is one of the most thorough background check services available and has access to over 20 billion public records.
Our experience: We were impressed by the various types of unlimited searches and different pricing plan options offered by Intelius. But we encountered several “special offers” during the pre-billing process, which made it difficult to determine each service’s monthly cost. For example, the unlimited address search plan was initially advertised as $29 a month but was later reduced to a special price of $4.99 during checkout.
Finding people has never been easier
Launched in 1999, PeopleFinders is one of the most established online background check services on the market. It has access to over 120 billion public records from more than 6,000 data sources with search term options including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses.
It also offers tools to help users fine-tune their search results when looking for targets with common names.
PeopleFinders’s people search turns up contact information, criminal history, information relating to liens and judgments, property and owned assets, education history, work references, and marriage records. However, it doesn’t pull up any social media history.
Why we chose PeopleFinders: We’re impressed by the company’s long tenure in the background check industry and its unparalleled records access, which makes reconnecting with lost contacts effortless.
Our experience: We found PeopleFinders’ search engine easy to use—both on the website and the smartphone app. It allowed us to run an advanced search, narrowing our focus according to the subject’s age range and middle name. It also delivered results in under two minutes.
