This site sells a $10 guide that teaches the manual process, so I benefit if you skip the subscription. I've written this to be useful rather than flattering to myself — including where Incogni is the better purchase.
How Incogni works
Incogni is operated by Surfshark, the VPN company, and launched in 2022 — considerably newer than DeleteMe. Its approach is automated legal requests at scale: it sends deletion demands to data brokers citing privacy legislation (GDPR, CCPA and the growing list of US state laws), tracks responses, and re-sends on a schedule.
That automation is the whole design. It's why the price is lower, why it can cover a broad list, and why it handles international brokers more comfortably than services built around US processes. It's also why it struggles with brokers that deliberately make removal awkward.
What it costs
Incogni typically sits well below DeleteMe — often around half, and lower again on annual billing or during the frequent Surfshark-ecosystem promotions. Check current pricing directly; this category discounts aggressively and any number I print will age badly.
The structural point stands regardless of the exact figure: it's a recurring subscription, and it stops working when you stop paying. Whatever the annual number, multiply it by ten and that's the real decision.
What Incogni does well
- Price. If you've decided to pay someone, it's meaningfully cheaper than the alternatives, and the core job — filing repeated opt-outs — is the same job.
- International coverage. Because it leans on GDPR as well as US law, it's a better fit than most competitors if you're in the UK or EU. Most removal services are built US-first.
- Genuinely hands-off. Sign up, verify, forget. The dashboard shows requests sent and completed.
- It keeps going. Same core value as any subscription: it re-files when you wouldn't have.
Where automation runs out
Automated legal requests work beautifully on brokers with a functioning compliance process. They work poorly on the ones that don't — and the ones that don't are frequently the ones hurting you most.
- The awkward brokers. Sites that require a phone call, a phone-code verification, or a form that silently fails are hard to automate. Some of the stickiest people-search sites fall into exactly this category.
- Name variants. Most opt-outs are suppression, matched on exact values. A record under your nickname, maiden name, or with a middle initial added is a different string and publishes as a new profile. Catching every variant is a judgement call that automation handles inconsistently — and it's the single most common reason people say removal "didn't work". More on that here.
- Verification of outcome. A request marked "sent" or "completed" in a dashboard is not the same as you being genuinely un-findable. The only real check is searching for yourself in a private window.
Incogni doesn't clean up cached search results, doesn't touch your social media settings, doesn't remove interior photos of your house from Zillow or your home from Street View, and does nothing to stop new records forming. Those four are entirely on you regardless of what you pay.
And the same trade applies: to file on your behalf, Incogni holds your name, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers and emails in one place. A reasonable trade — but a real one.
Incogni vs doing it yourself
| Incogni | Doing it yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Recurring, cheaper than most | Your time; $10 for a mapped route |
| Effort | Almost none | A weekend, then ~10 min/month |
| Awkward brokers | Automation struggles | You can make the phone call |
| Name variants | Inconsistent | You know all of yours |
| UK / EU coverage | Strong | Strong — GDPR templates work well |
| If you stop | You reappear | You reappear |
| Your data | Handed to another company | Stays with you |
| The four gaps | Not covered | You can do all four |
The verdict
Incogni is the right buy if
- You've already decided to pay someone, and want the cheaper option.
- You're in the UK or EU — the GDPR-led approach genuinely suits you.
- You want it fully hands-off and accept that some stubborn brokers will survive.
Do it yourself if
- You want the sticky brokers actually gone, not just requested.
- You have name variants — a maiden name, a nickname, a common misspelling.
- You want the four gaps closed.
- You'd rather pay once than forever.
Do the manual pass once so you know which sites actually surface you and what "gone" looks like. Fix the leaks — social settings, aliases, forwarding address. Then, if you know you won't keep up a monthly routine, subscribe to something cheap like Incogni to handle recurrence. You'll be the rare customer who can actually tell whether it's working.
70 removal destinations tiered by damage, the awkward brokers explained one by one, the search-engine cleanup, the social lockdown, and the ten-minute routine that keeps you off.
Check before you pay anyone
Run the free exposure check and see what's genuinely published about you. If it comes back clean, don't buy anything at all — from them or from me.