Spokeo vs Social Catfish (2026): Public-Records Report or Photo and Profile Check?
Updated: October 2026 · 175+ platforms searched
- Quick Answer: Spokeo or Social Catfish?
- Spokeo vs Social Catfish Compared: Inputs, Reports, Prices and Billing
- Where Social Catfish Fits: Photos, Catfish Checks and Pay-Per-Match Tokens
- Where Spokeo Fits: Address History, Relatives and Records From One Identifier
- How Each One Bills: Trials, Renewals and Cancelling
- What Neither Does, and the Free Step Before Both
- How to Choose Between Spokeo and Social Catfish
- Sources and Method (checked 31 October 2026)
Quick Answer: Spokeo or Social Catfish?
Disclosure: Lullar earns a commission if you buy a Spokeo membership through links on this page. Free checks first, a paid report only if you still need one.
They answer different questions. Social Catfish is built for “is this person who they say they are”: its homepage says “Search by name, phone, email, photo, username, or address” and it is the only one of the two with a reverse image search. Spokeo is built for “who is this person and where have they lived”: its search tabs are Name, Email (“Search by Email or Username”), Phone and Address, and its homepage lists six report categories: contact information, address history, property data and assets, personal details, social media profiles and court records, the last with the footnote “Criminal court records are not included in all plans. Additional fees may apply.”
- A dating-profile photo or a face you want to match: Social Catfish; Spokeo has no image search.
- An email address or username: Lullar free first, then either; both take an email or a handle.
- Address history, relatives, property or court records on a named person: Spokeo; Social Catfish’s pages describe matching profiles, contact info and public records without an address-history or property section.
- A tenant, job or credit decision: neither; both say they are not FCRA consumer reporting agencies.
Spokeo vs Social Catfish Compared: Inputs, Reports, Prices and Billing
Everything below comes from the two companies’ own pages as read on 31 October 2026 (links in the last section). Social Catfish states its trial and monthly prices in its FAQ; Spokeo shows its consumer price only at checkout, so the Spokeo price row is what reviewers reported in autumn 2026, not an official figure.
| Spokeo | Social Catfish | |
|---|---|---|
| Search inputs | Name, Email or Username, Phone, Address | Name, email, phone, username, address, image |
| Reverse image search | No | Yes, a separate image-search plan |
| Report leads with | Contact information, address history, property, personal details, social profiles; court records in some plans | “Matching profiles, contact info, and public records”; report tools listed as name, email, username and telephone search |
| Published price | Not on its public pages; reviewers quoted about $20–25 a month in autumn 2026 | FAQ: $6.48 (social) or $6.87 (image) for the first 3 days, then $28.94 or $28.97 every 30 days; another FAQ answer gives $5.73 for 5 days then $27.48 (social) and $5.99 for 5 days then $26.99 (image) |
| Plan model | Prepaid membership; “unused searches do not rollover”; single-report purchases also mentioned in its policy | Tokens (“1 token = 1 matched result”) or unlimited plans; trial then a membership “billed 30+ days at a time” |
| Renewal | Auto-renews at the same term; trial converts unless cancelled by 11:59 PM PT on its last day | Trial converts to the monthly plan; billed every 30 days until cancelled |
| Refunds | “All sales of all Spokeo premium content are final” | “Unable to issue refunds once a search has been conducted or data has been accessed”; cancellations “always FREE” |
| Cancel by | “Usage & Subscriptions” in Account Settings, or phone | Dashboard trash-can icon, email, or (844) 422-8347 Mon–Fri 6 AM–6 PM Pacific |
| Coverage | US; “more than 250 million adults in the USA” | No country limit stated on the pages we read; company based in California |
| FCRA | “Not a consumer reporting agency” | “Not a consumer credit reporting agency” |
Both compile data they did not create, both say results may be incomplete or out of date, and neither publishes an accuracy rate, so treat any match as a lead. Our paid people search comparison puts Spokeo beside BeenVerified, TruthFinder and Intelius, and our reverse dating profile search guide covers the free photo and username checks to run before a Social Catfish plan.
Spokeo's search takes a name, an email address or username, a phone number or an address, and its paid report gathers contact details, address history, social profiles, property data and, in some plans, court records from US public records. A trial converts to a renewing membership unless cancelled.
Search on Spokeo →Where Social Catfish Fits: Photos, Catfish Checks and Pay-Per-Match Tokens
Social Catfish’s homepage title is “People Search: Find Anyone Online by Name, Phone, or Photo”, and the photo is the point. Its reverse image search takes an uploaded picture, offers to run separate reports when it detects more than one face, and asks for an age or other details to “improve your image search”. Its guides are about Tinder profile searches, romance scams and “how to search someone across social networks”, which is the use it is built around: you have a photo or a handle from a dating app or a marketplace and want to know whether the same face or name appears elsewhere.
Its FAQ describes two plan families, “a reverse search plan and/or an image search plan”, sold “either by token use or unlimited searches”, where “1 token = 1 matched result” and “if we don’t have a match, you don’t use a token”. The membership page says a report comes with unlimited name, email, username and telephone searches. Prices are published, which is rare in this category, but the FAQ gives two sets of figures (3-day and 5-day trials, with monthly rates from $26.99 to $28.97), so read the checkout screen for the one that applies. Its own advice is sound: “Please run a search to experience the product before purchasing.”
Two cautions from its own pages. Refunds are not issued “once a search has been conducted or data has been accessed”, and its FAQ says the information it provides “may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date”. For the free version of the same check, our reverse image search guide walks through Google, Bing and Yandex image search, and reverse username search covers the handle.
Don't just read — try a search now
Where Spokeo Fits: Address History, Relatives and Records From One Identifier
Spokeo is the one to open when the question is about a person’s footprint in US public records rather than their photo. Its homepage describes “public records on over 250 million people” and lists what a report may include: phone numbers, email addresses and usernames; address history; property data and assets; personal details; social media profiles; and court records, with the footnote that criminal court records are not in every plan and may carry extra fees. Its phone search promises the “current phone owner name, previous phone owners, cell phones and landlines, carrier details, spam risk, and more”, and its Email tab is labelled “Search by Email or Username”, so the handle from a dating app works here too.
What it does not do is search by image. If your only lead is a photo, start with Social Catfish or the free reverse image engines, get a name or handle, and then bring that to Spokeo for the address history and relatives. On price, Spokeo publishes nothing on its public pages; reviewers in autumn 2026 quoted about $20–25 a month and about $15 a month on a three-month plan, close to Social Catfish’s published $26.99–$28.97. Its payment policy mentions “Single Report purchases” as well as membership plans, with the terms shown at sign-up. Our Spokeo review covers what readers report; reverse email lookup puts the free and paid steps in order.
Before you click: Spokeo’s payment policy says a trial converts to a renewing paid membership unless cancelled by 11:59 PM Pacific on its last day, with no refunds or proration. Trial length and price appear at sign-up.
Check Spokeo's current offer →
How Each One Bills: Trials, Renewals and Cancelling
Spokeo (payment policy): an uncancelled trial “shall convert to an ongoing subscription”; cancellations “must be received prior to 11:59 PM PT on the last day of the trial”; plans are prepaid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually and renew at the same term; all sales are final, with no refund or proration for partial months; unused searches do not roll over; cancel under “Usage & Subscriptions” in Account Settings or by phone at 1-888-271-9562.
Social Catfish (FAQ and terms): the trial is charged up front ($6.48 or $6.87 for 3 days in one FAQ answer, $5.73 or $5.99 for 5 days in another) and then “you will be billed automatically for your monthly rate depending on your search plan every 30 days”; cancel from the dashboard (Manage Account, Plan Info, Cancel, or the trash-can icon under Account Plan Details), by email, or by phone at (844) 422-8347, Monday to Friday 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific; “cancellations are always FREE”; no refund “once a search has been conducted or data has been accessed”; cancelling keeps the account so a membership can be renewed later.
Rule of thumb: both convert a cheap trial into a monthly charge and neither refunds a month you have used, so set a reminder the day you sign up. Social Catfish publishes its numbers; Spokeo shows its price only at checkout.
What Neither Does, and the Free Step Before Both
Neither shows anything inside a private account, neither verifies that a profile photo belongs to the person messaging you (a match only shows where else the picture appears), and neither publishes an accuracy rate.
Lullar is a free starting point, not a report: a name, email or username becomes one-click searches on 175 public platforms; a username is checked directly on about 60 of them; an email is checked for a Gravatar, and the part before the @ is tested as a username, where a hit may be someone else. It has no photo search, no phone search and no public records, cannot see private accounts, and does not detect which services an email is signed up to. Run it from the box above before you pay for anything; Lullar vs Spokeo shows where the free check stops. For a dating match, cheater lookup by email or phone and search social media accounts by email go step by step; for a handle, account finder checks it across public platforms.
How to Choose Between Spokeo and Social Catfish
- A photo from a dating app or marketplace: free reverse image engines first, then Social Catfish’s image plan; Spokeo cannot take a picture.
- An email address or username: Lullar free, then Spokeo for the address history and relatives behind it, or Social Catfish if you also want to pay per matched result.
- Where someone has lived, who they are related to, what property they own: Spokeo; those sections are not on Social Catfish’s pages.
- Court records: Spokeo in some plans, with extra fees; see our Spokeo vs BeenVerified vs TruthFinder comparison for the record-heavy services.
- One match, not a month: Social Catfish’s token plans, or Spokeo’s single-report option if the checkout offers it.
- Your own listing removed: Social Catfish has an opt-out form (up to a week, per its FAQ); our removal guide covers Spokeo and the rest.
Personal use only. Both sites say they are not consumer reporting agencies under the FCRA, so their results may not be used for employment, tenant, credit or insurance decisions. Social Catfish's FAQ lists credit, employment, insurance and tenant screening as prohibited uses. Such decisions need a consumer reporting agency; neither of these products is one.
Before you click: Spokeo’s payment policy says a trial converts to a renewing paid membership unless cancelled by 11:59 PM Pacific on its last day, with no refunds or proration. Trial length and price appear at sign-up.
Check Spokeo's current offer →
Sources and Method (checked 31 October 2026)
Public pages read on 31 October 2026 without logging in or buying anything; we quote them, not third-party reviews, except where a reviewer figure is labelled as such. Spokeo’s consumer price is not on its public pages and was not purchased to check.
- Spokeo homepage and payment policy: spokeo.com and spokeo.com/payment-policy: search tabs, report categories and footnotes, 250-million figure, FCRA footer; trial conversion and the 11:59 PM PT cut-off, auto-renewal, prepaid terms, no refunds, searches do not roll over, single-report purchases.
- Social Catfish homepage: “Search by name, phone, email, photo, username, or address”; image upload and multi-face handling.
- Social Catfish FAQ: both sets of trial and monthly prices; tokens versus unlimited plans; 30-day billing; cancellation steps; refund policy; FCRA “don’ts”; accuracy disclaimer; opt-out form and one-week timing.
- Social Catfish membership levels: unlimited name, email, username and telephone search with a report; “run a search to experience the product before purchasing”.
- Social Catfish terms of service: cancellation routes and hours, cancellations free, no refunds once data accessed, California governing law, not a CRA.
Not verified: Spokeo’s current price and trial terms, which of Social Catfish’s two FAQ price sets is charged today, and how many results either returns for a given photo or handle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Spokeo better than Social Catfish?
It depends on what you hold. Social Catfish takes a photo as well as a name, email, phone, username or address, and is built for checking whether a dating or marketplace profile is real. Spokeo takes a name, email address or username, phone or address, and its report leads with address history, relatives, property and social profiles. Photo: Social Catfish. Records on a named person: Spokeo.
How much does Social Catfish cost compared with Spokeo?
Social Catfish's FAQ publishes its prices: $6.48 or $6.87 for a 3-day trial then $28.94 or $28.97 every 30 days in one answer, and $5.73 or $5.99 for 5 days then $27.48 or $26.99 a month in another, depending on social or image plan. Spokeo shows its price only at checkout; reviewers in autumn 2026 quoted about $20 to $25 a month. Both renew until cancelled.
Does Spokeo have a reverse image search?
No. Spokeo's search tabs are Name, Email or Username, Phone and Address. Social Catfish sells a separate image-search plan. Google, Bing and Yandex image search are free and worth running first.
Can I get a refund from Social Catfish or Spokeo?
Social Catfish's terms say it is unable to issue refunds once a search has been conducted or data has been accessed, though cancelling is free. Spokeo's payment policy says all sales of premium content are final and payments are not refunded or prorated. Treat both as non-refundable.
Does Social Catfish or Spokeo search by username?
Both do. Social Catfish lists username among its search inputs and its reports include unlimited username searches. Spokeo's Email tab is labelled Search by Email or Username. Lullar checks a username free across public platforms before you pay either.
Can I use Spokeo or Social Catfish to screen a tenant or employee?
No. Both say they are not consumer reporting agencies under the FCRA, and Social Catfish's FAQ names credit, employment, insurance and tenant screening as prohibited uses. Use a consumer reporting agency.
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