Best Background Check Services of 2021

Overview
We asked 500 people whether they’d ever run a background check on someone. Over half said they had. Which raises the question—what background check services should people use?

We researched and tested the most popular background check companies to find out which ones are best. There are lots of options, so keep reading to find the best background check service for your needs.

To get our top five background check services, we looked at services consistently ranked as top picks by other tech experts we trust. We then heavily researched each service and even ran some reports. That information helped us reach our own conclusions about the services and shape our recommendations.

All of the services we recommend include the following information:

• Age
• Phone numbers
• Email
• Addresses
• Work history
• Relatives or neighbors or associates
• Assets
• Criminal offenses

Where does background check information come from?

Background check services draw from public information, like court records and phone books. And public information isn’t always what you think it is. If you make your email address visible on a Facebook timeline that’s not private, that information is now in the public sphere and may turn up on a background check.

Not every background search site includes every type of information, so you’ll want to look carefully at what a service includes before enrolling.

You might notice that none of these services includes marriage or divorce records. More on that later.

BeenVerified is quick to use and easy to cancel. It has a court runner service, background checks, and better-than-average customer service.

At $26.89 a month, BeenVerified’s monthly price falls in the exact middle of our top options. You can also purchase a three-month plan for a lump sum of $52.45 ($17.48 a month). If you’re looking for an ongoing service, that’s a fantastic deal.

Want to try before you buy? BeenVerified has a $1, five-day trial. It’s not well-advertised, so be sure to look for it during checkout.

In our test, BeenVerified turned up the highest number of connected people, especially family members. There's a lot you can do.

You can investigate someone’s immediate family, extended family, and maybe even their neighbors, depending on who turns up in the initial report. If you want to reconnect with an old friend or reach a distant family member, this extra info can make you more confident that you’ve found the right person. And if there’s a report you’d like to keep an eye on, you can monitor it on an ongoing basis.

Another reason we like BeenVerified is its unique court runner service. Some public records can be accessed only at local courthouses. If you use the court runner service, BeenVerified will send someone to retrieve documents that you can’t get online. None of the other companies we researched offer this perk.

Finally, BeenVerified offers an Android app, an iOS app, and, most uniquely, an Apple Watch app. Sure, a watch screen isn’t ideal for scrolling through a detailed report. But it does make it easy to run a quick report if you meet someone new while you’re away from home.

BeenVerified responds to its online reviews graciously and without sounding too robotic. When you cancel, though, you have to call the brand. But you don’t have to speak with an erratic human. Instead, you input your account information in response to an automated branching message. Your cancellation is immediate, and you received a confirmation email shortly after.

>>See our BeenVerified review.

PeopleLooker’s cost is a steal for what’s included.

Of our top services, PeopleLooker has the best price. It provides the same information as BeenVerified while charging less. In fact, PeopleLooker and BeenVerified are what we call “sister sites.” They’re owned by the same people, are similarly run, and may pull their information from the same sources.¹

PeopleLooker was recently updated to be more like BeenVerified. Currently, though, we still recommend BeenVerified over PeopleLooker as BeenVerified’s services are more tried and true.

PeopleLooker is a fast service with unlimited searches. It also sends you notifications when there are changes on the reports that you’re interested in.

Also, like BeenVerified, PeopleLooker comes in an iOS, Android, and Apple Watch app, so your preferred device is probably covered.

PeopleLooker uses the same automated phone system for cancellation as BeenVerified.

TruthFinder is our favorite option for tracking down recent information.

TruthFinder reports tend to have the most accurate and up-to-date information. The brand also has more info than BeenVerified or PeopleLooker. For example, reports include previous and current property ownership information, as well as details about sex offenders near the person’s current address.

Like all background check services, TruthFinder has some missing and incorrect data. But overall, if you’re running a check on yourself to see what turns up (and what others see about you), TruthFinder is a sensible place to start.

TruthFinder costs $28.78 a month, a bit more than BeenVerified. Or, for a two-month subscription, $23.89.

Unlike BeenVerified, though, TruthFinder gives you a name search option and nothing else. If you want to look someone up by phone number, you have to pay for a separate, $4.99 subscription. On the flip side, that’s super affordable if you want to run phone searches only.

Like PeopleLooker, though, TruthFinder doesn’t offer a free trial.

TruthFinder’s pretty up front about how its data can and can’t be used. Unfortunately, it takes a looooong time—at least 10 minutes—for your report to come together with TruthFinder. Since plenty of other services compile their reports almost instantaneously, we suspect the waiting is either for drama or to invoke the sunk cost fallacy.

TruthFinder’s recent reviews are mostly positive. The complaints mostly talk about the extreme number of promotional emails users received.

If you want to cancel, you’ll have to call, but it sounds like the brand’s reps are pretty helpful.

>>See our TruthFinder review.

When it comes to trying a service temporarily, Instant Checkmate is our favorite option.

We recommend Instant Checkmate for people who want to run a few background checks and then call it a day. For example, if you just need to track down one relative for one funeral, the Instant Checkmate trial is an excellent choice. It has just as much information as TruthFinder but costs about as little as the BeenVerified free trial. That’s the best of both worlds.

If you want the trial, it’s just $1 for five days.

Like BeenVerified, Instant Checkmate requires a membership after the trial is over. The membership runs more expensive than any of the others we recommend, at $34.78 a month. But if you want to use the service for at least three months, you can try paying $27.82 each month for a quarterly membership.

And like TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate charges a separate fee of $4.99 for reverse phone lookups.

Instant Checkmate is TruthFinder’s sister site.²^, ³ It has everything TruthFinder does, including the problems. Instant Checkmate is sluggish, and the horoscope feature’s alive and kickin’ on its reports. Happily, though, it has far fewer doom-and-gloom pop-ups than TruthFinder.

Instant Checkmate has a lot of positive recent reviews, and when it’s time to cancel, you have the option of using the phone, an email, or a contact form.

>>See our Instant Checkmate review.

PeopleFinders lets you run one-off background checks without enrolling in its membership plan.

You’re chatting with someone new online and want to double-check them before meeting up for drinks. With PeopleFinders, you can run a single background check report on this person and be done.

It depends on what you need. A trial membership is $0.95 for three days, but if you want criminal records included in that trial, you have to pay $3 extra for a premium. And if you cancel your trial to prevent it from automatically rolling over into a monthly membership, you have to pay an additional $2.95.

PeopleFinders’ reports are more like BeenVerified and PeopleLooker’s reports. They don’t have as much information as TruthFinder’s or Instant Checkmate’s. Notably, they don’t include social media accounts. Still, they have enough to go on, especially if you spring for a premium report.

The ability to run a single background or reverse phone lookup report is rare in the DIY background check industry, so that’s a huge plus.

The recent reviews of PeopleFinders aren’t great. That’s largely because users aren’t happy about getting slapped with an extra fee when they cancel their trials.

On the other hand, PeopleFinders is easy to cancel through a link on your dashboard. It’s also easy to opt out with this link.

>>See our PeopleFinders review.

Intelius costs a little bit less than our top companies, but its reports include much less information. Intelius is also less clear about how the information can and can’t be used. We’d recommend sticking to a company that’s more transparent.

>>See our Intelius review.

According to the Better Business Bureau, US Search is headquartered at the same address as Intelius, making us suspect that they’re sister sites.⁴^, ⁵ But US Search provides even less information than Intelius and has terrible, terrible recent customer reviews.

>>See our US Search review.

InfoTracer’s easy to use. It also costs $19.02 a month: not bad. But like Verispy, InfoTracer requires that you send a copy of your identification to opt out. The brand assures you that it’ll take good care of your information, but when you’re already trying to opt out of letting them use your info, that’s not exactly comforting.

As we touched on before, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission enforce laws that are in place to prevent employment discrimination. It’s illegal to use the information found in a normal background check to make employment decisions (hiring, firing, promotions, etc.), screen tenants, or make credit or insurance decisions.

Consumer reporting agencies, on the other hand, can be used for pre-employment screening and tenant screening. To qualify as a consumer reporting agency, a company must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

The idea of running a background check on a romantic interest can feel a bit cringey. And you employers and landlords might wonder why you’d ever go to the trouble of running an FCRA background check on a potential employee or tenant, especially if they’re a colleague of a colleague or friend of a friend. Well, we recently ran a background check survey, and some of the results were startling.

Our survey suggests that more people lie about their backgrounds than you’d think.

• 2% of survey respondents have done a background check on themselves.
• 4% of survey respondents have done a background check on a spouse or partner.
• 4% of survey respondents have done a background check on a date.
• 13% of survey respondents say their most recent employer definitely or probably ran a background check on them (this excludes respondents who haven’t applied for a job before).

• 4% of survey respondents have never used a background check service.
• 8% of survey respondents have never done a background check on themselves.
• 89% survey respondents say their employer definitely did not run a background check on them; 4.05% say probably not (this excludes respondents who haven’t applied for a job before).

Of course, just because something turns up in a background check doesn’t mean it’s true. Even public records have errors, as our survey illustrates.

• 8% of survey respondents have experienced inaccurate results from a background check.
• Among the survey respondents who’ve run a background check on themselves, 92% say they received inaccurate information.
• 2% of survey respondents say an employer has received inaccurate information about them during a background check.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run background checks. It’s better to have too much information than too little. You can always ask the background check subject to explain anything that seems incongruous or extreme.

Using PollFish, a trusted and anonymous polling service for researchers, we surveyed 500 people. To avoid misleading results, our survey wasn’t open to those who are self-employed or unable to work. Participants included men and women over 18 who reside in the United States and described their employment status as “unemployed looking,” “employed for wages,” or “retired.”

A background check pulls from public records to create a picture of the subject’s past. Some subjects have nothing worse than a parking violation in their background, while others have serious criminal records.

Background reports vary dramatically from one company to the next, and all of them rely on public records and social media. Even the best services won’t be 100% accurate. Some of the services we tested included up-to-date contact information, property ownership details, and criminal background info, while others didn’t even have a correct phone number.

Super-sensitive information, like your Social Security number or driver’s license, isn’t available publicly and won’t turn up on a background check. That helps prevent data mishaps like a stolen identity. But if you’re worried about identity theft, we suggest signing up for credit report monitoring.

It’s entirely likely that you won’t. Most online background check services don’t include birth, marriage, divorce, or death records. We came across two possible explanations for this:

1. In some places, these records aren’t yet digitized.
2. Some of these records are protected by local privacy laws.

None of our top five sites use marriage or divorce records.

• Instant Checkmate is the only top site that states it includes birth records.
• Similarly, PeopleLooker and Instant Checkmate are the only top sites who say they search death records for their reports.
• We noticed that TruthFinder, at least, included more information in reports than the brand advertises. So you might stumble across a birth or death record on TruthFinder or other sites anyway since they’re less likely to be kept private than marriage or divorce records.

If you’re specifically looking for divorce or marriage records, try Verispy or InfoTracer. Just know that both services require ID to cancel.

As mentioned earlier, some background check uses are illegal unless you go through a consumer reporting agency.

If you need to complete a pre-employment screening or tenant screening, you should use a consumer reporting agency.

You can go to any of the services we’ve recommended to get a personal background check. We’ve also recommended services for checking potential employees and tenants.

If you’re running a primarily criminal background check and you don’t see criminal records for someone you know has them, there are a couple of possible reasons. The records showing the criminal background might not be digitized yet. Or, if the person wasn’t convicted of a crime, the charges could be expunged or sealed. In that case, they technically don’t have a criminal history, at least from a legal standpoint.

Background search companies get their information from public databases and records, so in theory, you could track down a lot of the same info by yourself. So why pay someone else? To save time and get more information.

A background check company can quickly get hard-to-find information and condense it all into one convenient report. You might easily find someone’s LinkedIn profile, but it would take a lot more work to find things like proof of property ownership or a criminal background.

Instead of spending weeks tracking down details, you can spend a few minutes typing in a name and a city and let the pros do the work for you. That way, you can make sure you feel comfortable before you send your kid to a friend’s house or pick up furniture from a Craigslist stranger.

• BeenVerified is our top background check service pick for most people because it’s easy to use and has superior service.
• PeopleLooker is similar to BeenVerified but at a lower price.
• TruthFinder has some of the most accurate information we’ve seen.
• Instant Checkmate offers an inexpensive trial with a wealth of information.
• PeopleFinders doesn’t require membership for one-off background checks.

Contributing author: Brianna Jensen

Sources:

1. Better Business Bureau, “Been Verified, Inc.”
2. Better Business Bureau, “Instant Checkmate, Inc.”
3. Better Business Bureau, “TruthFinder”
4. Better Business Bureau, “Intelius”
5. Better Business Bureau, “USSearch.Com”
6. Wolters Kluwer, “SHRM Poll Reveals Half of Employers Conduct Drug Tests on Final Job Candidates"
7. Eharmony, “10 Online Dating Statistics You Should Know”