Summary

• Which data removal service you want to use will depend greatly on how in-depth you want to get with the process.
• Incogni is less expensive and easier to use, but there is a limit to the amount of data you can provide.
• DeleteMe costs more and requires more effort to fill out your data, but it allows for more in-depth reviews as a result.

It doesn’t matter how careful you are about your personal information online—eventually, that information will be found and sold to data brokers. Of course, no one wants this, and you can contact these brokers yourself to have your data removed; however, that can take a lot of time, especially if you don’t know which brokers have the information in the first place.

That’s where data removal services come in. They’ll do that heavy lifting for you, directly contacting brokers and working to get your personal information off their lists (sometimes permanently). Signing up for one is a fantastic idea if you’re looking to make your general online presence more private and secure.

But which data removal services do you want to use? The two big names in the industry are Incogni and DeleteMe, and they offer very different experiences. Let’s dive in.

Subscription plans and prices

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For many (myself included), the subscription plans available and how much they are may be one of the most important factors in deciding which service to use. Here are the subscription prices as of November 2025:

Incogni Plan	Price for 1 Year	DeleteMe Plan	Price for 1 Year
Standard	$95.88	1 Person	$129
Unlimited	$179.88	2 People	$229
Family (5 People)	$191.88	Family (4 People)	$329
Family Unlimited (5 People)	$275.88

Something important to note, however, is that Incogni also offers monthly billing plans. If you only want to run your information through once and aren’t concerned about recurring checks, this can be a more cost-effective option. One month of Incogni for the Standard plan is $15.98. Incogni also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to receive a refund if you’re unhappy with the service.

For DeleteMe, there is no monthly plan; however, you can sign up for a two-year term instead of just one year. You can save more by committing to the longer duration, but you do need to pay for the full amount upfront ($209 for the 1 Person plan). This might be a harder sell, because I didn’t see a money-back guarantee for DeleteMe. If it’s available, the company isn’t prominently advertising it like Incogni does.

Setting up for removal

Of course, data removal services need your data if you want them to find anything and remove you from data broker lists. This is where Incogni and DeleteMe differ the most, and it’s an interesting contrast.

Starting with DeleteMe, you can give them a lot ofpersonal information. Like, a lot. You can provide a plethora of names—not only given names or nicknames, but even common misspellings. You can enter all the emails and addresses you can think of, including relatives and any other bit of personal information needed to search the databases. You don’t need to provide DeleteMe with such an exhaustive list of information, but the more you provide, the more they can find and work to get removed for you.

Not only that, but when DeleteMe is running its search and removal, they’ll ask if some similar listings are yours or a relative’s, and they’ll add anything you say is yours to your data sheet. This is how I discovered a number of emails I’d long forgotten about, and some names being used that omitted the last one or two letters of my legal name. I wouldn’t have thought to search with these sorts of parameters, so it’s great that DeleteMe caught these and brought them to my attention.

Incogni, however, is much simpler and more restricted. You can only provide one name, for starters—a little disappointing, but since all these data brokers only have my legal name anyway, it’s not a dealbreaker. Then, you can provide up to three emails, three addresses, and three phone numbers. There are no extensive data sheets with your ID card, relatives, and every address you’ve lived at for the past 15 years.

Ease of use and turnaround

The limits on data you can give Incogni feel like a disadvantage compared to DeleteMe, and yes, it sort of is. However, the best part about Incogni is its simplicity. I was able to fill out my information in just a few minutes, and they were able to get to work. DeleteMe took a lot longer to set up, and there’s a point of diminishing returns when you add more and more data.

Additionally, Incogni works efficiently, keeping you informed of every step of the process. I was able to see the removal requests they had made on my behalf and how many were improved within less than a day. All the information is presented in a clear and easy-to-read graph and list.

Credit: Incogni

DeleteMe takes a little longer. They’ll be working just as fast, but you won’t know much about the requests or removals until you get your first report. This report will be extensive—I received a 20-page PDF detailing exactly which data brokers had what information, and which ones didn’t. Honestly, it’s an impressive amount of information. But all the information you could and should put in makes DeleteMe less user-friendly than Incogni, and the simple-to-read live updates from Incogni are just easier to understand.

Recurring and custom removals

Both Incogni and DeleteMe offer custom removals. If you find some of your personal data online, you can request that the service contact the platform or data broker on your behalf to have it taken down. Incogni offers a helpful explanation of what can and cannot be removed:

Credit: Incogni

Credit: Incogni

Submitting a custom request to both services is a straightforward process, although DeleteMe requires you to wait 21 days after receiving a report before submitting a request. With Incogni, you can request custom removal at any time. If you know a particular site or data broker is holding your info and aren’t sure if either service reaches out to them by default, a custom request is extremely helpful.

What may be more essential, however, are recurring removals. Many data brokers may simply collect your personal information again even after removal, unless you’re added to a suppression list (which means they can’t pull it again). So, you want services like Incogni and DeleteMe to perform recurring removals, allowing them to catch and remove the information.

Incogni will regularly and automatically follow up with people-search sites every 60 days and private databases every 90 days. DeleteMe will automatically run another full search and generate a new report for you every three or so months. Basically, as long as you have an active subscription, both services will continue to remove your personal information from data broker databases.

Which service should you choose?

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Between Incogni and DeleteMe, there is no clear-cut winner, and several factors will make one more appealing than the other. DeleteMe is simply more—more money, more effort to set up, and more information that can be searched. However, more does not always mean better, and there can be diminishing returns depending on how specific your information becomes.

Incogni, on the other hand, is far easier to use, and the appeal of only paying for a month occasionally, rather than committing to a full year nearly sight unseen, is a great advantage for those with a more budget-constrained approach. But you’re limited to only putting in one name and three addresses, phone numbers, and emails, which may not be enough for some users.

So, which data removal service you want to invest in will depend on how much different personal data you think is out in the wild. If you think it’s a lot, with a bunch of email addresses and phone numbers, DeleteMe is the right option; for someone who doesn’t have a big public-facing presence, Incogni will likely be more than enough.

Personally, I preferred using DeleteMe, but I’m not someone in particularly normal circumstances. I wanted the ability to add multiple names—not only do I have a legal and given name, but sometimes my legal name is cut off due to character limits. People have also spelled my last name enough times that I wanted to be able to search beyond just my full legal name. If this weren’t the case, I would prefer Incogni because it’s easier to use and a lot less overwhelming.

Incogni

Individual pricing Starting at $7.99/month

Group pricing Starting at $15.99/month

Free trial 30 days

Incogni is a service that helps you remove your personal information from online data brokers. It automatically sends removal requests to these companies, protecting your privacy and reducing unwanted spam, telemarketing, and potential identity theft.

DeleteMe

Individual pricing Starting at $10.75/month

Group pricing Starting at $43/month

DeleteMe is a subscription service that scours the internet for your data and scrubs it away, giving you back your online privacy and peace of mind.