Optery Review 2024: What Does Our Testing Reveal?

Optery is a user-friendly, customizable data removal service that provides proof of its progress and reassurance every step of the way. You can opt for the free plan to receive Exposure Reports with screenshots of pages where your data has been found. You can also pay for Optery so its team can step in to take down those listings for you. 

We have some minor gripes, like its use of TLS encryption for data in transit. Otherwise, it ranks among the best data removal services we've reviewed.

Learn about Optery's various plan options, features, our testing experience, and more in this review. 

Optery review at a glance

4.6

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Optery's website

Privacy Protection

Optery

• Has a free plan that finds your data on broker sites
• Removals Report comes with screenshots to prove progress
• AES-256 encryption isn't always used

Our experience

We had a positive experience with Optery, as everything about using the service was easy. Once we signed up for the service, we were immediately provided with a breakdown of what our plan included and next steps. 

Setting up our account only required our email address, state/region, city, and birth year. All the other fields are optional. 

However, you'll be asked to complete your profile with additional information if you'd like. Although sharing your private information with a service might feel illogical, data removal services work by collecting your information to accurately find and remove it from other websites. 

All Optery plans start by sending you an Exposures Report, which is populated with screenshots of websites where your private information is being exposed and sold. Optery starts removing your listings within 24 hours, but warns that it could take several weeks before these removals are complete.

The main dashboard will also provide a summary of how exposed you are, as well as the protection progress and status. These statistics are followed by a detailed list of websitse, plan coverage, exposure risk, and screenshots. We found the dashboard incredibly informative and reassuring as far as progress.

Our only concern about our Optery experience is the choice of encryption. Although data at rest uses AES-256, data in transit uses TLS, which isn't as strong as AES.

Otherwise, Optery is a standout data removal service with proven progress and results. 

Who is Optery best for?

• Recommended for a customizable data removal service

If you're not sure how much you need from your data removal service, Optery has plenty of options. It offers a free plan, but its paid plans are also desirable for people looking for reassurance that their personal data is deleted from the internet and out of reach from identity thieves.

With Optery you can get a free account, which can help you find data broker sites containing your private information. The search takes about an hour to complete, and then you can use its helpful opt-out guides to remove your data.

You can also automate your opt-out requests by upgrading to a paid subscription. Optery will begin the process of removing your information from data broker sites and then send a Removals Report, which includes before and after screenshots to prove your data has been deleted.

Optery prices and subscriptions

Optery has a free plan and paid subscriptions that run from Free–$24.99/mo. There are three paid tiers: Core, Extended, and Ultimate. 

The major differences between the plans include how many site removals are included, if the removals are automated by bots or if there's a human touch as well, and whether you get a removal report with before and after screenshots.

As far as price, Optery has a wide range so it beats most services on the lower end but is also more expensive on the higher end. See how Optery compares:

• Optery: Free–$24.99/mo
• Incogni: $7.49–$14.98/mo
• HelloPrivacy: Free–$24.99/mo
• DeleteMe: $8.71–$27.42/mo

Optery is unique from these data removal services because it offers a free plan. While this doesn't include any removal services, it is helpful for people who are willing to opt out of these sites on their own.

While Optery technically doesn't have a family plan, you can bundle several individual plans for a discounted price. 

Optery features

Optery has all the features you'd expect from a data removal service: a large number of site removals, detailed reports, frequent recurring removals, and custom removal requests. We like that Optery provides Removal Reports with screenshots to prove where your data has been found and that it's been taken down. 

The only drawbacks we noted were the feature limits for specific plans. For instance, the paid Optery Core plan doesn't provide Removal Reports, so you'll need to purchase a higher-tier plan. Also, custom removal requests are limited to Ultimate plan subscribers. 

What data does Optery protect?

Optery offers services to help you remove your personal information from the internet. Some of the data it can help delete includes:

• Name
• Birth date
• Current and past addresses
• Alternate names
• Phone number
• Names of relatives

Data brokers and people-search sites covered

• Up to 575+ sites

Optery has three paid tiers that offer different numbers of removals. Here's the breakdown:

• Core: Removals from 80+ sites
• Extended: Removals from 180+ sites
• Ultimate: Removals from 575+ sites

Note that the Core plan can only remove one name, city, and state from its removals. So if you have any name variations or cities and states from past addresses, those won't be covered under Optery Core. 

With the Ultimate plan, you can also activate Expanded Reach. This allows Optery to make deletion requests to even more data brokers that don't meet Optery's removal verification process. 

To activate this feature, you must sign the Limited Power of Attorney form. 

Reports

Optery provides two types of reports: Exposure Reports and Removal Reports. Exposure Reports are sent to all accounts when you first sign up, but only to Free Basic accounts on a quarterly basis afterward.

For Extended and Ultimate users, Optery submits Removal  Reports quarterly. These reports include screenshots where your information was listed on a data broker site as well as screenshots after Optery has taken down this information.  

We received our Exposure Report about two days after signing up for Optery. It told us how many data brokers were scanned and how many profiles it was able to match with our information. The 54-page report also included screenshots of data broker websites with the matched profile information.

For Optery Free users, this information could be overwhelming but the site at least provides opt-out guides. 

You can see these reports within the dashboard, but Optery will also email you to let you know when your reports are ready.

Recurring and custom removal

Paid Optery plans include automated scans and removals every 30 days. You can find the information 

Unfortunately, custom removals are only included with the Ultimate plan. There are tons of data brokers out there, so it would be handy to have this included with all paid plans. 

Does Optery keep your data safe?

Before sharing your data, you should consider the organization's privacy policy and how it plans to protect your data. 

According to Optery, it doesn't sell your information to third-party vendors. It also enacts several security measures like access control (ensuring employees receive only minimal access to data to complete their jobs), employee and contractor confidentiality agreements, and multi-factor authentication with authenticator apps.

The company's privacy policy contains a "plain language" section before it dives into the full legal document. This makes it easy to identify key points.

Optery’s only real red flag is its encryption. Data at rest is securely protected by AES-256 encryption, which is an industry-standard protocol. However, when data is in transit (moving from one location to another) it has only TLS encryption. It's not the highest encryption standard, so it's not an ideal choice.

Optery customer support

Optery has a live chat, guides on how to remove your information from data broker sites, and a help desk for FAQs. The guides and help desk were easy to read and were pretty useful in learning how to use Optery and how to opt out of data broker sites.

We contacted support via live chat to get some clarity on the Ultimate plan. Although we were worried about the average response time being listed as two hours, support replied within a couple of minutes. 

Top alternatives

Optery is only one of several data removal services that we recommend. So if you're not fully sold on this service, you should check out our recommended alternatives:

Starting price	From $10.75/mo (billed annually)	From $7.49/mo (billed annually)	From $9.00/mo (billed annually)
Max # of people covered	4	4	5
Data broker opt-out
# of site removals	750+	180+	30+
Privacy reports
Real-time alerts
Learn more	Get DeleteMe	Get Incogni	Get Aura

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Optery good?

We love Optery's ease of use, detailed reports, and extensive plan options. A standout feature is the Optery Free Basic plan, which can provides reports of your personal information on data broker sites and guides for manual removal. This is a great benefit that we couldn't find with the other competitors. 

If you do decide to use the paid subscription, you can receive the Removals Report, which includes before and after screenshots of Optery's work.

However, there are some drawbacks to using Optery. Its features are limited depending on your selected plan. And while it does use AES-256-bit encryption for data in storage, it uses TLS encryption for data in transit. TLS encryption isn't the strongest choice, so it does raise a red flag on the security of your data.

Overall, Optery may be a good data removal service for people who want to utilize the free plan to find their information on data broker sites and or have the money to splurge on higher tier plans with more extensive features.

See how Optery compares to our recommended alternatives: 

• Optery vs. DeleteMe
• Optery vs. Incogni

4.6

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Optery's website

Privacy Protection

Optery

• Has a free plan that finds your data on broker sites
• Removals Report comes with screenshots to prove progress
• AES-256 encryption isn't always used

Author Details

Sara J. Nguyen

About the Author

Sara J. Nguyen is a freelance writer specializing in cybersecurity. She aims to help people protect their data while enjoying technology. She has written about online privacy and tech for over 5 years for several organizations. When she's not writing about the latest cybersecurity trends, you can find her on LinkedIn.

Steph Trejos