Top data removal services compared

About Top data removal services compared

Data removal services work on your behalf to find personal records held by brokers and data brokers, then keep watching for records that come back. This ranking compares 38 of them on what readers weigh first: the fee when a plan starts, the fee when it renews, what that money covers, and where the service operates. Monthly pricing in this category centres on €10.52, while annual plans sit around €104.36. Entry prices and ongoing prices differ on plenty of plans, so both are read separately here. Coverage is the other side of the decision: the middle service in this field writes to 913.5 brokers, and the widest reach here is 1,133. The trade-off runs through all of it. Budget services hold the fee down and often hand back a narrower broker list, while wide-coverage plans charge more and spread the price across tiers.

How we picked

Three weights set the order of this ranking. Cost carries 40%, the offer, meaning what a plan includes for the money, carries 40%, and trust carries 20%. Cost and offer decide most of the placement, so the annual fee, the breadth of the plan list and the size of the broker list carry the heaviest load. Trust settles close calls and leans on the standing of the company behind each plan: where it is based, the legal entity that operates it, how long it has been trading, the removal cadence it lists, and the routes it gives for support. Figures are taken from the providers' own pricing, plan, terms and about pages, plus independent reference sources where a company does not state a detail itself. Annual fees, broker counts, countries served, removal cadence and support channels are recorded as listed, and a plan sold in tiers is carried as a range rather than a single number. Where a ranking contains partners, they are listed first, then the remaining brands in score order. Nothing is added to a plan that it does not claim for itself.

Our top picks

1. 1. NordVPN

   NordVPN sits in this ranking on support reach and a free entry point. Support runs across email, chat and help centre, a wider set of routes than most members here, and the service is listed under a free model, so trying it costs little. The company has been trading since 2012 and is based in LT under Nord Security, giving it one of the longer histories among the names in this list. For a removal service, that combination means questions get answered quickly and the first step is cheap to test. Aura, the member next in this ranking, takes the paid route instead: a budget plan at $120 a year, coverage starting at from 425 brokers, and support across email, chat and phone.

   • Monthly price: €14.99
   • Long-term plan price: €3.49
   • Devices: 10

   Pros

   • Covers 150 server countries, the highest count in the ranking, with 10 devices per account
   • Features include kill switch, split tunnelling and multi hop alongside the stated no logs, streaming and travel use cases
   • Protocol choice covers OpenVPN, NordLynx and NordWhisper
   • The monthly plan costs €14.99, well above the €7.89 median, but the longest plan drops to €3.49 a month
   • Free storage with the Locker companion is 3

   Cons

   • Entry price is high: €14.99 a month on the monthly plan puts it near the bottom of the monthly price ranking
   • There is no free plan, so the free version comparison starts with nothing to test
   • Renewal is charged at €139.08, a jump from the €3.49 monthly rate on the introductory long plan
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, with no phone line listed

2. 2. Surfshark

   Surfshark sits just behind the top pick in this ranking because it pairs a mid-range annual fee with support that includes live chat. The yearly plan costs €121.23, the operator is registered in NL as Surfshark B.V., and it has been trading since 2018. Support runs on email, chat and help centre, putting a live chat between email and the help centre, which matters when a removal request needs chasing. Reach is stated as US, GB and CA, so readers with records in more than one market can see where the service operates, and the fee is a single annual figure rather than a tiered range. DeleteMe, the member next in this ranking, writes to 969 brokers and works across US, CA and AU.

   • Monthly price: €2.49
   • Long-term plan price: €2.49
   • Server countries: 100

   Pros

   • Servers in 100 countries, ranking 7 on coverage among 62 brands compared.
   • The no-logs policy is independently verified by Deloitte, with the current audit listed as Deloitte 2025.
   • A single subscription covers Windows, macOS and Linux.
   • Cover of $1,000,000 is listed with the plan, which matters for readers who buy privacy as risk cover.

   Cons

   • There is no free plan, so the 7-day free trial, 3 devices is the only way to try Surfshark before paying.
   • Support runs on email, chat and help centre only, with no phone line for urgent problems.
   • Price-first readers have cheaper options: MEGA lists $1.67 and Sinew Software Systems lists $1.99 for a long-term plan.

3. 3. DeleteMe

   DeleteMe is in this ranking for reach and reporting discipline. It writes to 969 brokers, near the 913.5 middle of this field, and works across US, CA and AU. Removal work runs all year rather than in bursts, with privacy reports at regular intervals, and support covers email, chat and phone, the broadest set of routes among the members listed here. The company is based in US, trading as Abine, Inc. since 2010, so it is one of the longer-running operations in the category. Privacy Bee, the member next in this ranking, reaches a larger broker list at 1,133 and monitors records continuously, with fees of $96 to $804 a year.

   • Data brokers covered: 969
   • Countries covered: United States, Canada, Australia, and 1 more
   • Removal frequency: Regularly all year long, with quarterly privacy reports

   Pros

   • Broad reach of 969 data broker sites, which ranks 2 of 8 brands here.
   • Removal work is continuous, running Regularly all year long, with quarterly privacy reports.
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone, with phone and chat alongside email.
   • Run by Abine, Inc. and trading since 2010, so the operation is established.

   Cons

   • There is no free plan, so the service starts as a paid subscription.
   • It is not open source, so you cannot read the removal tooling.
   • Removal coverage is limited to US, CA and AU, so readers elsewhere fall outside it.

4. 4. Optery

   Optery is in this ranking as the mid-priced option with a wide broker list. Fees run $39 to $249 a year, free and budget models sit alongside the paid tiers, and the service writes to 950 brokers. Removals run Monthly automated scanning and removals, and coverage spans US, CA and AU, a wider country spread than most of the members in this list. The operator is based in US, incorporated as OPTERY, INC. and founded in 2020. Support runs on email and help centre, so live chat and a phone line are missing from the routes it publishes, which matters for anyone whose removals need chasing. Malwarebytes, the member next in this ranking, keeps Ongoing continuous monitoring and removal going and adds community forums to email, help centre and community.

   • Yearly price: $39 to $249
   • Data brokers covered: 950
   • Countries covered: United States, Canada, Australia, and 2 more

   Pros

   • Paid plans come with Monthly automated scanning and removals, which is the whole reason to pay rather than filing opt-out forms by hand.
   • Coverage spans 950 data brokers across US, CA and AU, a list close to DeleteMe's 969.
   • Annual billing runs $39 to $249, starting below the data removal yearly median of €104.36.
   • The free plan covers quarterly exposure reporting and self-service opt-out tools, so sizing your exposure costs nothing.
   • Access covers web, ios and android, so monitoring can run from a browser extension, the mobile apps or the web dashboard.

   Cons

   • Monthly billing of $39.99 runs well above the data removal median of €10.52, so the short commitment is the expensive way in.
   • Free plan limits stop at quarterly exposure reporting and self-service opt-out tools, so the scanning and removals arrive with the paid plans (Monthly automated scanning and removals).
   • Support runs on email and help centre only, so there is no live chat or phone line for a removal that gets stuck.
   • Open source is not offered, so the broker scanning logic stays closed.

5. 6. Aura

   Aura sits near the foot of this ranking with a support roster that answers every common route. The plan costs $120 a year, coverage starts at from 425 brokers, and help runs across email, chat and phone, covering email, live chat, a phone line and a help centre. The operator is based in US, trading as Aura Sub, LLC and founded in 2014, so there is an established record behind the name. The annual figure is the part to check against your own budget, since it sits above the €84.14 lower quartile for this category. The second Aura entry in this ranking sells the same brand on a tiered plan, with fees of $120 to $384 and support on email, phone and help centre, which drops the live chat.

   • Monthly price: $12
   • Credit bureaus monitored: 3
   • Insurance amount: $1,000,000 to $5,000,000

   Pros

   • A single subscription covers identity monitoring, a VPN, a password manager and parental controls, with parental tools for screen time and web filtering.
   • Monitoring runs across 3 credit bureaus, which matches the 3 site median and the 30 brands ranked on it.
   • The family plan covers 5 adults, unlimited kids and unlimited devices at $32 per month.
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone, with phone included, and phone support reaches 41.1% of brands across the site.
   • A 60 day money back window sits alongside a 14 day trial, and the VPN reaches 100 server countries with streaming access to Netflix and YouTube.

   Cons

   • There is no free plan, so you start on a paid subscription with a trial of 14 days.
   • The monthly plan price of $12 sits above the site median of €7.89, and the first-year price of $120 is higher still.
   • Identity insurance of $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 looks generous, but Aura ranks at 10 of 45 on that measure.
   • The legal terms name business as the audience, so the plan reads as a business offering rather than a household one.

6. 10. Malwarebytes

   Malwarebytes is in this ranking because it pairs the longest trading history among the members here with a straightforward annual fee. The personal data remover charges $99.99 a year, keeps Ongoing continuous monitoring and removal running, and works across US. Support runs on email, help centre and community, and the company behind it has traded since 2004 as Malwarebytes Inc. in US. The limits are scope and reach: broker coverage starts at from 100, the narrowest of the members in this ranking, and a single market is the whole footprint, so anyone with records abroad gets less from the plan. NordVPN, the member next in this ranking, offers the opposite mix, with support on email, chat and help centre and a free model.

   • Devices: 3 to 20
   • Server countries: 62
   • No-logs audit: X41 D-Sec, 2026

   Pros

   • A free version is offered and free is listed as a pricing model, so you can size the service up before paying.
   • The VPN ships with Premium as vpn, so it costs less to add on than to buy a separate tunnel.
   • Server reach of 62 countries sits above the site median of 46.5.
   • 3 to 20 covered devices run above the site median of 7.
   • The no-logs claim was checked by X41 D-Sec, 2026.

   Cons

   • WireGuard is the only protocol listed, which leaves you with WireGuard if your network blocks it.
   • Support runs on email, help centre and community only, with email and a help centre rather than live chat.
   • A kill switch is the only extra feature listed, so kill switch covers the basics.

What to look for

Entry price

What a plan charges at the start decides whether it is worth a try. Monthly pricing across this category spans €2.49 to €35.07, and the middle of the field sits at €10.52.

Renewal price

The opening deal is rarely the whole cost. Annual plans in this category run €17.53 to €262.21, with a middle figure of €104.36 and €105.24 at the upper end. Read both the entry and the ongoing fee.

Broker coverage

The number of brokers a service writes to is the clearest measure of how much work it takes off you. Coverage here runs 413 to 1,133, with 913.5 in the middle and 420 at the lower quartile.

Free option

A free tier shows what a service can find before any money changes hands. In this category 62.1% of services offer one, so trying before subscribing is a normal step.

Ways to get help

Removal work stalls sometimes, and support decides how fast it moves. A help centre is the most common route, offered by 80.6% of services here, while phone lines appear at 44.4% and live chat at 30.6%.

Frequently asked questions

Top data removal services compared by country

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• South Korea
• Spain
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States

Providers compared head to head

• NordVPN vs Surfshark
• NordVPN vs Optery
• Surfshark vs Optery

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV