Our reviewers evaluate products and services based on unbiased research. Top Consumer Reviews may earn money when you click on a link. Learn more about our process.
Tuesday, March 19th
PeopleWhiz relies on tantalizing warnings and promises of "real criminal records" to hook your attention from the first moment you land on their website. It's a little limited compared to some of its rivals: you can only search by name, city, state and age, with no options for reverse phone, email, or address searches.
Faster search than most - at first
On the other hand, PeopleWhiz's initial search ran much faster than most other platforms': with just a name and a state, we got a preliminary list of matches in under a minute, and the person we researched was the seventh one on that list. The info shown there was more accurate too: it had all of the known relatives correctly entered and all previous addresses, where some sites were missing family members and had incorrect former residences.
More time required to get to the report
When you click to select the report you'd like to view, PeopleWhiz will take a few more minutes to scan through possible matches on social media platforms, criminal records and other public data sources. You'll have to create an account to save your progress - and then it takes another couple of minutes to scan through the remaining databases.
Monthly plans only, no trial
To see the report, you'll have to choose a payment option - and this is where things start to go a little sideways. You'll be offered three choices: a one-month plan for $27.99, a three-month plan for $68.85, or a six-month plan for $89.70. So far, so good, and pretty comparable to other services. But, in the fine print on the checkout page, it says that your membership comes with "the ability to run premium comprehensive in-depth background screenings" - for an additional, undisclosed fee. PeopleWhiz doesn't come right out and tell you the amount, but user reviews lead us to believe it's about $20.
Costs
Subscribers unhappy with "premium" upcharge
Is it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. If this is the first time you're ever using a people search service, your reports might include just enough information to be interesting. But, if you've already got some details sleuthed out and you're going for deeper info, you may be disappointed here. We didn't see as many reports of incorrect details listed with PeopleWhiz results as we found with a few other services, but plenty of people were unhappy to be paying extra for a "premium" report. That part definitely comes off as bait-and-switch, to be honest.
You'll love it or hate it
Reputation-wise, PeopleWhiz is good enough. They've got an "A+" and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau and over 9,000 five-star reviews (though many of those were from users who had just barely signed up for the service and maybe hadn't had time to be disappointed yet). Feedback is mixed, though: there were almost 5,000 users who gave this people search platform just one or two stars out of five after not getting the level of detail they were expecting. PeopleWhiz invites you to give them a call if you're not happy with the service, saying that your satisfaction is guaranteed but stopping short of spelling out what they'll do to make it right.
Better options are available
In short, PeopleWhiz is probably going to cost you more than most services, if you want the highest level of detail in your people search results. Their BBB grade and their satisfaction guarantee should reassure you that you've got options if it doesn't work out the way you expect, but we'd still invite you to look at the higher-ranked providers in our review first.
There are hundreds of sites out there that promise to connect you with long-lost relatives, childhood friends, former classmates and coworkers - or to help you look into the background of someone on your radar. Most of these services utilize the same public records databases to deliver results.
So, what makes one people search platform different from the next? None of them guarantee the accuracy of their results - after all, databases can have incorrect information. But, the best services give you enough of a preview before you pay for a report that you can determine for yourself if you've found the right individual. They also may include a trial period of a few days to a week, letting you conduct multiple searches to see if you'll get what you need from their results.
Those trials typically convert to a monthly membership unless you cancel first. As you might guess, some people search providers make that cancellation more difficult than others - or they make it less likely you'll realize that you're opting into a monthly plan with your trial. Be sure to read the fine print.
Another thing to watch out for is the difference between a basic people search and a comprehensive one. What you'll get with almost every platform's initial search is just the basics of phone, address, known relatives and email addresses. More detailed information like criminal records and property ownership will almost always require an upgraded plan, either as a one-off fee for each report you want to run in-depth or as an extra monthly fee.
If you're concerned about having your own personal information available to other people conducting searches, you've got one good reason to visit every people search site, even the lowest-ranked ones: removing your own data from their records. You'll usually find that function at the bottom of the site, worded as "Opt-Out" or "Do Not Sell My Information" . Typically, you'll either enter your information and perform a basic search (no paid membership required), then click on your matching profile to request that it be removed. Finally, expect to get a confirmation email; after you've clicked on the link in it, your info should be removed within 48 hours (though, in our experience, some sites had our results gone almost immediately).
When you're trying to choose among people search providers, they all start to look the same. Confused? Don't worry! You can use these criteria to decide which one to use:
To help you find out more about virtually anyone, TopConsumerReviews.com has evaluated and ranked the most popular people search providers available today. We're confident that this information will make it possible to track down a long-lost relative, learn more about your prospective love interest, or see what your high school classmates are up to!
Select any 2 People Search Providers to compare them head to head