BeenVerified vs Spokeo: Owners, Pricing, FTC History and Opt-Outs

BeenVerified and Spokeo are both US people-search companies, registered as data brokers in California, that compile public records and other data into profiles. BeenVerified says it isn’t a consumer reporting agency, and Spokeo told California’s registry it isn’t regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so neither can be used to screen tenants, employees or borrowers. The differences you can actually check are ownership, published pricing, regulatory history and how you opt out. BeenVerified’s pricing page describes a 7-day trial that renews into a paid membership, and its “Is BeenVerified Free?” page mentions “$1 trials.” Spokeo paid $800,000 in 2012 to settle FTC charges that it violated the FCRA, which the FTC alleged and Spokeo didn’t admit. And each company runs its own opt-out, so being listed on one tells you nothing about the other.

A note on sources. BeenVerified’s pricing page, FAQ, About page and privacy policy loaded for us in September 2026, so its column below is well sourced. Spokeo’s website returned a “403 Forbidden” error to our checks, so everything we say about Spokeo comes from ftc.gov, the California data broker registry and Apple’s App Store. We couldn’t confirm Spokeo’s current prices, trial terms or report contents, and we haven’t guessed at them. We haven’t tested either service, and we don’t rate them or say which has better data.

BeenVerified vs Spokeo at a glance

Every row below comes from a public source we could read in September 2026. Where we couldn’t confirm something, the table says so.

	BeenVerified	Spokeo
Who runs it	The Lifetime Value Co. LLC, acting through BeenVerified, LLC (its privacy policy). Founded 2007, based in New York City (its About page).	Spokeo, Inc., Pasadena, California (California data broker registry).
Other sites under the same registry entry	PeopleLooker, PeopleSmart, NumberGuru, Ownerly, NeighborWho, Bumper and others.	ThatsThem, AnyWho, FreePeopleDirectory, PeopleWin and Family.me, listed as trade names.
Trial and price	Pricing page: 7-day trial capped at 100 reports, then $36.89 a month or $71.94 every 3 months, plus sales tax, renewing until canceled. “Is BeenVerified Free?” page: “$1 trials for new customers.”	Not confirmed. Its site blocked our checks.
FCRA status	Says it “is not a consumer reporting agency” and forbids FCRA uses.	Answered “No” to being FCRA-regulated in the California registry.
GLBA-regulated service	Answered “No” in the California registry.	Answered “Yes”: a business service called Spokeo for Business, Right Party Contact, for qualified businesses and government agencies.
FTC enforcement	None found in a limited ftc.gov search in September 2026. Not a clean bill of health.	2012 settlement: $800,000 civil penalty over alleged FCRA violations and employee-written endorsements. The FTC notes its complaint is not a finding.
iPhone app	BeenVerified: People Search, sold by BeenVerified, Inc., with in-app purchases.	Spokeo AI, sold by Spokeo, Inc., free, no in-app purchases listed, requires a Spokeo account.
Opt-out	Its own opt-out process, linked from its FAQ.	spokeo.com/optout covers its public sites except ThatsThem, which has its own opt-out (per Spokeo’s registry filing).

These are facts as of September 2026. Prices, terms and ownership can change, so check each company’s current pages before you pay or opt out.

Who runs each site

BeenVerified’s privacy policy, last updated September 9, 2026, says the website “is provided by The Lifetime Value Co. LLC. acting through BeenVerified, LLC.” In short: The Lifetime Value Co. LLC and BeenVerified, LLC run BeenVerified, PeopleLooker and other sites, according to each site’s privacy policy and California’s data broker registry. Spokeo is Spokeo, Inc., of Pasadena. Spokeo, Inc.’s trade names include ThatsThem, AnyWho and FreePeopleDirectory, according to California’s data broker registry. Its entry also lists PeopleWin and Family.me. Each company runs several brands, so a search for your name on one site is only a partial picture, and a site with a different name may belong to the same company.

Pricing and trials

BeenVerified publishes its prices. Its “Is BeenVerified Free?” page says that “BeenVerified doesn’t offer a free trial” but has “$1 trials for new customers,” and describes trials “from as little as $1 for your first 7 days.” The pricing page doesn’t state a price for the trial itself. Its pricing page, as of September 2026, says the 7-day trial is limited to 100 reports and then bills:

• 1-month membership: $36.89 plus applicable sales tax per month, renewing monthly “until cancelled.”
• 3-month membership: $71.94 plus applicable sales tax every 3 months, renewing every 3 months “until cancelled.”

Both plans are limited to 100 reports a month. The pricing page lists ways to cancel on the web, by email to support@beenverified.com, or by phone on 1-844-823-2869. App purchases are priced separately in the App Store.

Spokeo‘s pricing is where we have to stop. Its website returned a 403 error to our checks, so we couldn’t confirm what a free search shows, whether there’s a trial, what it costs or how renewal works. What we can confirm is historical: the FTC said that from 2008 until 2010, Spokeo “marketed the profiles on a subscription basis.” Read the price, billing period and renewal wording on Spokeo’s checkout screen yourself, and screenshot it before you pay.

If you’ve already signed up to either, our guides on canceling BeenVerified and canceling Spokeo cover every route, including app store subscriptions.

What neither site can be used for

This is the part that matters most if you were thinking of screening someone. Neither site is an FCRA background screening company.

• BeenVerified says on its pricing page that it “is not a consumer reporting agency and does not provide consumer reports pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA),” and that users are “expressly prohibited” from using it for FCRA purposes, including decisions about a person’s eligibility for employment and tenancy. Its App Store listing carries the same disclaimer.
• Spokeo answered “No” when the California registry asked whether it or its subsidiaries are regulated by the FCRA. We couldn’t read its current terms of use, so we can’t quote its own wording.

If you’re deciding on someone’s employment, housing, credit or insurance, use an FCRA-compliant background screening company, with the person’s permission where the law requires it. That gives them the right to see and dispute what’s in the report. If you want to know what a screening check might show about you, our guide to running a background check on yourself explains the options.

FTC history: what the record shows

Spokeo. On June 12, 2012, the FTC announced that “Spokeo, Inc., a data broker that compiles and sells detailed information profiles on millions of consumers, will pay $800,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it marketed the profiles to companies in the human resources, background screening, and recruiting industries without taking steps to protect consumers required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”

According to the FTC’s press release:

• from 2008 until 2010, Spokeo marketed its profiles to recruiters and others, encouraging them to “Explore Beyond the Resume”
• the FTC alleged Spokeo violated the FCRA by “failing to make sure that the information it sold would be used only for legally permissible purposes,” “failing to ensure the information was accurate,” and failing to tell users of their obligations under the FCRA
• the FTC also alleged that Spokeo “deceptively posted endorsements of their service on news and technology websites and blogs, portraying the endorsements as independent when in reality they were created by Spokeo’s own employees”
• the settlement order “bars Spokeo from future violations of the FCRA, and bars the company from making misrepresentations about its endorsements or failing to disclose a material connection with endorsers”

The FTC called it “the first Commission case to address the sale of Internet and social media data” in the employment screening context. As the FTC’s own note says, “The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law,” and the stipulated order “is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation.” The case is over a decade old, so it shows what the FTC alleged then, not how Spokeo operates today.

BeenVerified. When we searched ftc.gov’s press releases and case listings in September 2026, we didn’t find an FTC enforcement action naming BeenVerified. That was a limited search. It doesn’t cover state actions or private lawsuits, and it isn’t a clean bill of health or an endorsement. It also doesn’t mean BeenVerified’s data is better.

Apps

BeenVerified’s iPhone app is free to download with in-app purchases for reports and memberships, and App Store subscriptions have to be canceled in the App Store, not on BeenVerified’s website. Spokeo AI (version 3.3.1, updated September 5, 2026) is a phone and email lookup app with an AI check for links to spam, scams, robocalls or fraud; its listing says it “requires a Spokeo account to login” and doesn’t support guest lookups. Check the seller name, BeenVerified, Inc. or Spokeo, Inc., before you download.

Spokeo vs BeenVerified: which should you use?

We won’t tell you which has more accurate data, because we can’t verify that and nobody outside the companies can check it reliably. What we can say is which facts might matter for your situation:

• If you want to know the price before you start, BeenVerified publishes its trial and membership prices. We couldn’t confirm Spokeo’s.
• If the FTC record matters to you, Spokeo has a 2012 settlement on file, and a limited ftc.gov search found none for BeenVerified, which isn’t a clean bill of health. Weigh the age of that case yourself.
• If you only need to identify a caller, both have phone lookups, and free options exist too, such as a search engine or your carrier’s caller-ID and spam-call features.
• If it’s for hiring or renting, neither is the right tool. Use an FCRA-compliant screening company.

Whatever you choose, treat results as leads. BeenVerified’s own data page says “some information may be outdated by the time it reaches us” and recommends using its reports “as a starting point for your research rather than the sole basis for important decisions.” That’s sound advice for any people-search site, Spokeo included.

Free official routes worth trying first

A lot of what these sites sell starts as public records you can often search for free at the source:

• Search engines, for news, social profiles and business pages.
• County court, property and recorder websites, which many counties put online.
• PACER, for federal court records, at $0.10 a page, capped at $3 a document, and you’re only billed in a quarter where you run up more than $30.
• The National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), run by the Justice Department with state, territorial and tribal governments.
• State business registries, for companies and their registered agents.

Official records are the original source, so check them before acting on anything a people-search report says.

You’re probably on both: how to get off

If you’ve read this far, there’s a good chance your own name is on both sites. Each company runs its own opt-out, separate from any membership, and opting out of one does nothing on the other.

1. BeenVerified. Its FAQ says you can remove your information from its people search results, and warns that “different information about you might appear because it can’t conclusively be associated with the information you previously opted out,” which you can opt out too. Our BeenVerified opt-out guide walks through it. Then check PeopleLooker separately with our PeopleLooker opt-out guide.
2. Spokeo. Spokeo’s registry filing says an opt-out at spokeo.com/optout removes you from all its public websites except ThatsThem. Our Spokeo removal guide covers the steps, including its note, based on Spokeo’s help pages, that each listing needs its own request.
3. ThatsThem. Spokeo’s filing says ThatsThem needs its own request at thatsthem.com/optout. Our ThatsThem opt-out guide explains it.
4. Search again in a few months. New records can create new listings on either site.

California residents can also use the state’s DROP system, which brokers had to begin processing on August 1, 2026. Our guide to the California Delete Act explains how it works.

Canceling a membership doesn’t remove your listing, and opting out doesn’t cancel a membership. You may need both steps.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

Dana is a nurse who recently moved after a difficult breakup. A friend tells her that searching her name brings up her new street on a people-search site. She doesn’t know which one, so she checks the big names.

1. She doesn’t buy anything. She searches her own name on BeenVerified and Spokeo and finds a listing on each, one with her new city.
2. She opts out of both using each company’s own process, with a separate email address she set up for privacy requests.
3. She remembers the trade names. Because Spokeo’s registry entry says ThatsThem needs its own request, she checks ThatsThem and removes a listing there too. She also checks PeopleLooker, which shares a registry entry with BeenVerified.

She keeps a note of each site, the date and the email she used, and sets a reminder to search again in three months.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a $1 trial is a one-off charge. BeenVerified’s trial renews into a paid plan unless you cancel.
• Using either site for tenant or job screening. Neither is a consumer reporting agency.
• Treating a 2012 case as current news. It’s official, but it describes 2008 to 2010.
• Opting out of Spokeo and missing ThatsThem. Spokeo’s own filing says ThatsThem needs a separate request.

Where to go from here

For a wider view of these sites, see our guides on whether BeenVerified is legit and whether Spokeo is legit. For the full clean-up, our data broker opt-out list and guide to removing yourself from people-search sites cover the rest, and our free data removal guide explains what you can do without paying.

We don’t sell people searches or background checks. Our free Reputation Scanner is launching soon. It’s a self-search tool, not a people-search tool: you search your own name, or your child’s as their parent or guardian. It will show the top 10 negative results, ranked by how serious they are and how likely they are to be about you, and draft removal requests you review, edit and send yourself. It will be free to use, with no account and no billing. Read how the scanner will work. If people-search listings are part of a wider problem with your name online, our personal reputation management team can look at it through a free audit.

Frequently asked questions

Is BeenVerified or Spokeo better?

We don’t rank them on data quality, because that can’t be verified from outside. What can be compared: BeenVerified publishes its trial terms and membership prices; Spokeo’s prices couldn’t be confirmed; Spokeo settled FTC charges in 2012; and neither says it is a consumer reporting agency.

Is Spokeo cheaper than BeenVerified?

We can’t say. As of September 2026, BeenVerified’s pricing page lists a 7-day trial capped at 100 reports, then $36.89 a month or $71.94 every 3 months, plus tax, and its separate “Is BeenVerified Free?” page says it has “$1 trials for new customers.” The pricing page doesn’t state a price for the trial itself. Spokeo’s site blocked our checks, so compare the checkout screens yourself before paying.

Are BeenVerified and Spokeo owned by the same company?

No. The Lifetime Value Co. LLC and BeenVerified, LLC run BeenVerified, PeopleLooker and other sites, according to each site’s privacy policy and California’s data broker registry. Spokeo is Spokeo, Inc., in Pasadena, California. Spokeo, Inc.’s trade names include ThatsThem, AnyWho and FreePeopleDirectory, according to California’s data broker registry.

Can I use BeenVerified or Spokeo for a background check on a tenant or employee?

No. BeenVerified says it isn’t a consumer reporting agency, and Spokeo told California’s registry it isn’t FCRA-regulated. For employment, tenancy, credit or insurance decisions, use an FCRA-compliant screening company, with the person’s permission where the law requires it.

Does opting out of Spokeo remove me from BeenVerified?

No. They’re separate companies with separate opt-outs. Spokeo’s own filing also says ThatsThem needs its own request.