Have you ever come across a situation where you suddenly thought of a long-lost friend who used to sit beside you regularly in school but now you both have lost contact with each other?
Or maybe you met a stranger while you were out on a morning stroll and he seemed interesting, so you want to know more about him?
In all these cases, you need a smart people search engine that can dig through the vast information that is available on the internet to give you the exact details that you need in order to pinpoint on the identity of the person.
While searching for a person that you may have known before or someone you wish to know better, you must realise that there is a thin line between legal and illegal search engines.
The websites that you need to use must have proper permits to access information on the internet from several archives of the investigation agencies around the world.
Another important detail is that the search engines must be available in your own country. Many of the search engines are country-specific, so you need to choose the ones that work in the place where you live so that you can get your desired information.
Now, you might wonder that looking for people on the internet is a tedious task as you need to ascertain only the legal people finding search engines that are available in your country–but to help you with the process, we have made a comprehensive list of all the major websites which allow this feature.
So, without further ado, let’s get right into the list of the top 16 people search engines that you can use to find a long-lost friend, or to run a background check on someone you know!
Best People Search Engines
1. Truthfinder
The first people search engine that we have decided to include in our list is the Truthfinder–an accurate web-based search engine that can glean information off the internet for you in a few seconds.
While many users compare Truthfinder with another vastly popular search website called Pipl, we have decided to put this in the first place because of the sheer size of its database.
But you must know that this is a website available exclusively in the US. We would recommend Truthfinder for all of you who wish to run a background check on somebody. Truthfinder gets its information from Federal, State, and County data sources.
2. US Search
Another famous website that many people living in the US make use of for pinpointing on the identity of someone they used to know–is the US Search.
It has a very easily navigable UI that you can use even if you are not too well-versed with the computer and the internet. It saves you a lot of time as it compiles all the information available on a person on the internet and gives you a pretty conclusive report.
It has a subscription model. But for free users, it does show a bit of the information such as age, places where one has lived, and possible relatives.
If you want complete details like recent location, phone number, etc, you would need to subscribe at a monthly pay of $1.99.
3. BeenVerified – Background Checks, Public Records & People Search
The third name on our list is BeenVerified–it is a popular choice amongst many because of the sheer simplicity of the features that it offers as well as the accuracy of the information that it provides to the users.
You can use BeenVerified for looking up email addresses, social media accounts, names, locations, and even phone numbers.
4. Pipl – People Search and Identity Verification
As we had already mentioned before, Pipl and Truthfinder are two similar apps with a few differences that would hardly matter for you in the long run.
It is arguably the most famous people search engine and in our opinion, it deserves all the publicity that it gets because it is available in almost all the countries and provides some pretty accurate information too. You can look up personal, professional as well as social details on a person using Pipl.
5. Spokeo – Search and Reunite People
You might have already heard about Spokeo as it is regarded as one of the topmost people search engines that gets you all the details from white pages listings, public records, and social networks.
This website has a vast database and you will easily find the name, email address, phone details or location of the person you are looking for if you can put in a few details about them.
We are claiming that Spokeo has a huge database because it curated its information from over 60 social networks, photos and online profiles, dating site profiles etc. You can get it’s paid subscription as well if you need to look for people on a regular basis.
6. PeekYou – Find Family, Old Friends, Classmates, & More
Suppose you want to search for a person you want to know more about but you don’t have enough money or you are not interested in getting a subscription of all the paid people search engines websites.
In that case, fret not, because we have found a free people search engine for you–PeekYou. This program uses its patented technology to bring you results from over 60 websites, news sources, homepages, blog platforms, and several other sources.
You can look up any kind of details on people using names, location, web username, or phone reverse search. This will only work for people residing in the US.
7. Intelius – People Search, Lookup Phone Numbers, & Background Checks
Coming to the seventh name on our comprehensive list of the top 16 people search engines that you need to check out for more information on someone that you used to know or someone you need to run a background check on, Intelius is our pick.
It is a go-to option for those of you who reside in the US and want to retrieve some data from the internet on a certain person.
Be it the usual people search details, email lookup, social network search, property records, background check, criminal records, or reverse lookup.
The results are quite accurate as well, due to Intelius’ robust database. But if you want to go for Intelius, do keep in mind that its services are not free and come with a subscription model.
8. Instant Checkmate – Background Check
Another website which provides you a near-accurate background check on a person using its vast database in the matter of a few seconds is Instant Checkmate.
Imagine, with only a click on your desktop, you will unveil all the information on a person that is available on the internet in the form of a clear and comprehensive report! Sounds interesting, right?
Well, Instant Checkmate is a US-only service and it has a few subscription models, with the lowest one starting at $35.12 a month.
9. PeopleFinder
Coming to the ninth name on our list, PeopleFinder is our choice as it is one of the most-used people search engines in the world. It offers a free service and if you like it, you cannopt for a subscription as well, according to your requirements.
It has indexed millions of pages of publicly available information which helps in accurately pinpointing on the identity of an individual.
10. Whitepages – Find People, Phone Numbers, Addresses, & More
All of us have heard of Whitepages as it is one of the earliest search engines that took the world by storm in the 2000s.
Even now, Whitepages is very much in vogue as it has been updated rigorously to keep up with its competitors that are available in the market.
The website provides you with an elaborate background research on any person that you want to know more about. The report that you will get, will include details like contact number, addresses, properties, court & criminal records, judgements, and more.
Here are some more websites you can use to look up the details on a person:
11. Facebook – People Search via Social Profiles
12. LinkedIn – Professional Profiles and Work History
13. Quora
14. Truecaller – Find People Using Phone Numbers
15. Google Search and Reverse Image Search
16. Twitter
With this, we come to the end of our list of the top 16 people finding websites on the internet.
If this list helped you in any way, make sure to check out the other blogs on our site that we have carefully designed to address all your queries about softwares and other web products.
Also, please mention in the comments all the other people search engines that you might use or the improvements you would like for us to make to our articles.
Lastly, please share this article with your tech-savvy friends and family members as knowledge should always be shared! Thank you for reading this and have a great day.
