Best Free Background Check Sites in 2026

TruthFinder is probably the best all-around background check service that is available today, due to the affordable pricing and wide spectrum from which they draw information. Let’s get into why they are such a great background check service.

What Is Included in Truthfinder’s Free Background Check?

If you are just looking for a simple verification that someone you met in either a personal or a business setting is who they say they are, this background check service may provide just what you’re looking for. With TruthFinder’s free search options, you can find someone’s:

• Name
• Current and/or previous cities of residence
• Age
• Possible relatives

That may not sound like much, but the fact that it provides instant access to this information can be enough to spot a lie or someone presenting themselves in a false light. Where TruthFinder truly shines is in their paid background check services, which we will cover now.

What Is Included in Truthfinder’s Paid Background Check?

TruthFinder performs its background check services from a wide swath of information sources, including public records, criminal records, court records, social media platforms, and even the dark web.

The fact that their background check services are extremely reputable, immediate, and available across most devices can be important if you need more than just a casual background check. With a paid background check, you will be provided with a detailed report of up-to-date information, including:

• Full name
• Potential images to help identify the person
• Education history
• Employment history
• Additional potential relatives (or divorce records)
• Contact information (including phone numbers and email addresses)
• Birth and death records
• Location history (property records and address history)
• Criminal records or criminal history, including traffic records
• Sex offender information
• Social media profiles
• Possible business affiliations (through which you can check with the Better Business Bureau or consumer reporting agencies)
• Professional licenses (to verify their professional background)
• Previous bankruptcies
• Any current bank liens on their assets

TruthFinder Pricing and Plans

The pricing for TruthFinder is pretty straightforward and can be broken down into two basic sections.

For people search options, the standard 1-month membership provides unlimited reports for just under $30, and the same standard membership for a 2-month subscription is just under $26 per month.

If you only want the reverse phone lookup plan to investigate phone numbers, you can have unlimited reports for less than $5.

TruthFinder Interface and Use

One of the reasons that TruthFinder may be considered the best background check service is due to its simple interface that is available on nearly any device. They provide you with the ability to download their background check app from both the Apple and Google Play stores, which means that you can gain access to detailed and accurate information quickly and from anywhere.

TruthFinder is also extremely straightforward and easy to navigate. Because it is available across all devices, the website is mobile-friendly which gives you the ability to access any detailed report no matter where you are. All of the website options are available on all devices as well.

Different background check websites will give different results on the same searches because they typically aggregate their information from different sources.

Instant Checkmate uses public records from a wide range of federal, state, and local databases to perform background checks, which gives them unique access to some specific information that others may miss.

This obviously means that their services are only applicable for a US search, but for that, they are excellent. Let’s get into what exactly that means when you are trying to decide which professional background check service to use.

What Is Included in the Instant Checkmate Free Background Check?

Even in their free online background checks, Instant Checkmate provides plenty of information such as:

• Name
• Address history
• Known relatives
• Social media information

You can already see that the information provided in this totally free background check is a little different than what we covered from TruthFinder.

To see how the paid services also differ between these background check companies, let’s have a look at what their monthly subscription gets you.

What Is Included in the Instant Checkmate Paid Background Check?

A paid, monthly subscription from Instant Checkmate will provide the following information in your searches:

• Known aliases
• Arrest records
• Driver’s or professional licenses
• Address history
• Marriage records and divorce records
• Phone numbers and reverse phone lookup
• Email addresses
• Known associates
• Criminal record and criminal background check service
• Sex offender information
• Civil judgments (through a court records search)
• Voter registration
• Tax liens
• Fishing and/or hunting permits
• Weapons permits
• Foreclosures and property records

Instant Checkmate Pricing and Plans

Most background check services charge for premium reports and if you plan on running multiple reports, a monthly subscription is probably a good idea.

Instant Checkmate discounts heavily for the longer you subscribe and provides several tiers of pricing:

• $19.99 for a single premium report
• $22.86 for a 1-month membership (with unlimited reports)
• $14.86 per month for a 3-month membership
• $9.86 per month for a 6-month membership

Instant Checkmate is one of the best background check services and if you want a more detailed report than their free background check will provide, the cost difference between a single premium report and a 1-month membership is negligible.

Instant Checkmate Interface and Use

Despite aggregating their data mainly from government offices – which are notoriously difficult to navigate – the Instant Checkmate background check site provides a lot of features that are simple to use. It even allows you to perform your searches in bulk.

If you do happen to have issues with the Instant Checkmate website, their customer service is available 24/7 to provide any support that you may need.

Intelius is another one of the best background check services out there, delivering fast and detailed results at a decent price. Owned by PeopleConnect, Inc., Intelius aggregates its data from a wide host of different sources – including federal and state government databases, court records, the dark web, and many more.

Although the company specializes in providing and managing information about people, they are not considered a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA, so Intelius cannot provide things like consumer reports or credit reports.

What Is Included in the Intelius Free Background Check?

Intelius allows tentative customers or personal background check seekers to perform a free background report that falls under their “people search” category. We will get into what the various tiers of services provided by Intelius provide further down in this article, but here is what your free background check will provide:

• Full name
• Location history
• List of family members
• Education history

What Is Included in the Intelius Paid Background Check?

Like any of the totally free background check services that we’ve discussed, if you want to get deeper into your US search to find things like potential criminal records, a credit report, arrest records or more personal details, you will have to spring for the premium accounts.

Intelius has multiple options for its paid services, which we will go through now.

Intelius People Search Plan

For only $3.95, Intelius provides a single report under its People Search plan. This will provide you with:

• Full name
• Age & date of birth
• Phone number
• Known relatives
• Address history

Intelius People Search Plus

The People Search Plus plan is a little more expensive but will provide all of the above, as well as:

• Email addresses
• Social networks

Intelius Background Check

This plan is more expensive than the previous two, but provides all of the information that they do, plus:

• Marriage records
• Divorce records
• Records of lawsuits
• Criminal records
• Liens against their assets
• Any filed bankruptcies

Although many background check sites won’t provide credit reports or consumer reports, this type of information can give you significant insights into someone’s financial standing and background.

Intelius Reverse Phone Lookup

Do you find yourself inundated with phone calls from numbers that you don’t recognize, or have a need to track down phone numbers? This plan from Intelius provides:

• Owner’s name
• Phone type (carrier and model)
• Address to which the phone is registered (where the bills are sent)
• Can work for both listed and unlisted phone numbers

Intelius Premier

If you have a need to run multiple, detailed searches every month, this may be the best plan option for you. The Intelius Premier plan provides access to unlimited reports and background checks, with all of the information listed above via a monthly subscription.

Intelius Pricing and Plans

The pricing for the various Intelius background check service plans are:

• People Search: $3.95 for a single report
• People Search Plus: $9.95 per report
• Background Check: $49.95 per report
• Reverse Phone Lookup: $4.95 per report
• Premier: $19.95 per month

Intelius Interface and Use

An Intelius account is extremely easy to start and use. One of the great things about their interface is that you can save all of your prior searches on your dashboard, providing easy access for future use. They also have a fast pass section that allows you to get specific information faster than it would take to generate an entire report.

Although it began as a “social network aggregator” by a couple of graduates from Stanford University in 2006, Spokeo has quickly become one of the most trusted background check sites for US searches.

But, Spokeo may not be the best place to perform a free criminal record check. The company wants to focus on bringing people together rather than pushing them apart. Its focus is more on reconnecting old friends and family than digging up dirt on people.

What Is Included in the Spokeo Free Background Check?

While Spokeo does provide some great background information in their totally free background check, for only $0.95 you can start a 7-day trial with access to their entire suite of databases to find whatever public records or information that you need.

If $0.95 is too far out of your budget, here’s what you can get with their free background checks:

• Name
• City and state
• Age
• Known relatives
• Current locations of searched individual

What Is Included in the Spokeo Free Background Check?

Spokeo doesn’t collect any of its own information but has proprietary software that can provide deep web, dark web, and other searches across just about every public records database, as well as social media platforms.

The information that this allows Spokeo to provide can fall into several categories:

Name Search

A Spokeo Name search can provide you with:

• Phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Age and date of birth
• Addresses
• Relatives
• Marital status
• Education level

A Spokeo Reverse Email search can provide:

• Public profiles on social network platforms
• Public profiles on dating sites
• Public photos posted online
• Videos posted to sites like YouTube or Vimeo
• Reviews the person has posted
• Blog entries they have posted across the internet

A Spokeo Reverse Phone search can provide:

• First and last name of the phone’s owner
• Address that the phone is registered to
• Age of the owner
• Carrier

A Spokeo Reverse Address search can provide:

• Names of current and past residents
• Owner information
• Estimated value and building statistics
• Phone numbers, email addresses, social network profiles of all owners and/or tenants
• Neighborhood information

Court Record and Historical Record searches are also available as add-on products with a standard Spokeo membership package.

Spokeo Pricing and Plans

The pricing plans for Spokeo are not only straightforward, but they are also some of the lowest in the industry. Their paid subscription is $13.95 for a month, $7.95 per month for a 3-month membership, and $4.95 per month for a 6-month membership. Add-on searches like court or historical records are only $2.95 extra each.

Spokeo Interface and Use

Despite searching through over 300 billion records with every search, the Spokeo search algorithm can provide you with your detailed report in under five minutes.

You can tailor your membership and add on certain searches that you need, rather than having to buy an entirely new package. Spokeo even allows you to find some users’ information that is not included in standard US searches, which is pretty unheard of in the industry. With all of these great benefits, its interface is still simple and easy to use.