Both Removaly and Optery are pretty solid, but if you want something your friends and family can actually afford, then nothing beats EasyOptOuts.
$20 a year and they're pretty good at what they do. The only catch is that while services like Removaly do daily scans (no other player in this game does it at that high of a frequency) EOO only does a removal every 4 months or so. Regardless, the vast majority of sites don't re-add people so even if you only get scanned once it'll make a huge difference
Optery covers 200+ data brokers, whereas Removaly only covers 51 data brokers per their web site. Optery’s average scan results find 70+ profiles exposed and often top 100+ profiles exposed (scans are free by the way). Removaly is more comparable to Abine’s DeleteMe service whose “Sites We Remove From” page states they only cover 38 data brokers.
In world where Optery is finding 70 – 100 exposed profiles on a first scan, what use is a service like Removaly or DeleteMe that only officially cover 40 – 50?
Optery’s Ultimate plan also offers something called “Custom Removals”, which means if you find a profile the Ultimate plan does not cover, you can submit it and Optery will make a best effort to remove it: https://help.optery.com/en/article/ultimate-plan-offers-best...
Regarding easyoptouts, if you’re really price sensitive and looking for a super cheap option, just upgrade your Optery plan for 1 month. Let Optery’s opt out bot run for 30 days on 200+ data brokers and then cancel the plan before the next monthly payment is due. By cancelling the plan, you won’t benefit from the ongoing coverage and the new data brokers continually being added to the plans, but Optery’s Free Basic plan provides free quarterly scans and reports, so you could always turn it back on based on what your exposure reports are saying.
I saw this thread from the get go, but wanted to leave it alone out of courtesy to you guys. Though it seems that Removaly has been mentioned a few times (and now directly) so I'm jumping in here...
First, we at Removaly like what Optery is bringing to the table as far as data removal. We've written about this in our comparison article on our website (https://removaly.com/optery-vs-removaly/), but there are some distinct differences, and the number of sites isn't the only one so they're worth mentioning:
Optery does scan and remove from more sites, that's true. That said, at Removaly we are removing from (what we believe to be) the 50+ most popular data brokers that people find themselves on and the vast majority of them are ones that people will see when they Google for their name. We're also expanding the number of sites we cover on a regular basis so that number will continue to grow.
It's worth noting that there are sites that Optery covers that do not have records that are indexed by Google (i.e. try searching 'site:UnitedStatesPhonebook.com' on Google which shows 42 pages indexed, and that's a site Optery covers on their highest plan). So while someone might be on a site like this, this particular example isn't one that someone would easily find by Googling your name. The argument then would be "Yes, but it's still important in case someone searches that site." True, but to that I would say there are data brokers that Optery does not cover so even with an Optery plan you still run into the same issue.
Another difference, Removaly is also the only service right now with DAILY scans, which means we can find and remove things much quicker than any of the other services once it reappears (which it will) and we're 100% US-based if that's important to you.
On top of that, Removaly keeps things simple by only offering one plan. Meaning there isn't an option/upsell to 2 higher plans like you see on Optery. Some common sites like CheckPeople and others are all included in the Removaly ~$119/year plan while Optery you'd have to upgrade to the $24.99/month (~$300/year) plan in order to get that opted out. It's a good point though about how someone could upgrade momentarily and then downgrade, however, if someone has their information on 70-100 sites, does Optery guarantee removal of all of that information in the first 30 days? That may be an additional thing to consider.
Another benefit of Removaly would be that we offer a 2-person (~$179/year) and family plan (~$239/year) to cover all family members in the same household at a steep discount. Optery is now offering 20-25% off depending on how many people you add (as has been mentioned and is nice), but at $9.95-24.95/month PER PERSON that adds up quickly (I'll let you do the math on that).
Last thing I'll mention is that Removaly also offers the whole "Custom Removals" thing just like the other players do and it's included with our normal plan (Optery it appears to only be available on the highest plan).
For any company you decide to go with, there's going to be a give and take of features, functionality, support, pricing, etc. At Removaly we're trying to put out a solid product, with exceptional customer support, at a reasonable price that is going to fit the needs of "most" individuals.
Again, we at Removaly appreciate what Optery is doing and we're glad to see other providers wanting to offer transparency and a solid service in the industry that desperately needs it. Hopefully my thoughts clarify things / add some additional insight that might be helpful to people comparing our two companies.
To compare Removaly and Optery, the best thing to do is to sign up for each company’s free scan and compare the results. The quality of a data removal company’s free scan is a good indicator of the quality of its opt outs. A lot of the companies in the space have incredible marketing that creates high hopes, but their products are ineffective. The quality of the free scan is usually a tip off if the service is going to be a winner or a let-down before you turn over your credit card. Optery’s free scans produce an average of 70+ results per person (sometimes over 100+ results). I’m not aware of any other company coming anywhere close to that number.
Like Abine’s DeleteMe, it does not look like Removaly offers a monthly billing option. Optery offers monthly or yearly billing options. If you’re really price sensitive, you could run the Optery Ultimate plan for a few months and then cancel, and likely have much better coverage than had you purchased an annual plan from Removaly or DeleteMe.
https://removaly.com/category/comparisons/
Both Removaly and Optery are pretty solid, but if you want something your friends and family can actually afford, then nothing beats EasyOptOuts.
$20 a year and they're pretty good at what they do. The only catch is that while services like Removaly do daily scans (no other player in this game does it at that high of a frequency) EOO only does a removal every 4 months or so. Regardless, the vast majority of sites don't re-add people so even if you only get scanned once it'll make a huge difference