Guides · updated 2026-08-24
What are the alternatives to DeleteMe and Incogni?
There are three routes: a state deletion platform, which is free where it exists; doing it yourself, which is free everywhere and slow; or a paid service. Since California's platform became mandatory in August 2026, the paid services' core offer is available free to a large share of their market.
The options, honestly
California's DROP platform
freeEvery registered data broker, for California residents only.
The only option with a legal suppression obligation behind it, so removed data cannot simply be re-added. Nothing outside California has an equivalent.
Doing it yourself
freeAnything with a published opt-out route.
Works everywhere and costs only time. An evening for the largest twenty, then a re-check every few months. Four of the largest brokers require this anyway.
Incogni
about $96 a year420 data brokers.
Automated and inexpensive. Does not cover professional profile sites or what AI models say. For a California resident, much of its list is now available free.
DeleteMe
about $129 a year92 broker entries, with human review.
The people are the differentiator: a human pushes back when a broker stalls. Custom requests are capped, and sites that do not publicly display your data are effectively out of scope.
Cartograph
$99.99 a year503 sources, plus AI answers, plus breach and infostealer exposure.
Files the free state request for Californians rather than charging for it, then works what it does not reach: profile aggregators, search results, and the pages AI models cite. New, and without human case review.
What changed in August 2026
Before then, the case for a paid service was simple: contacting hundreds of brokers by hand is tedious, so pay someone. Since 1 August 2026 a California resident can do the largest part of that with one free state request, and the state can enforce a suppression obligation that no company can.
On 2026-08-25 we checked 503 sources against the state registry: 398 are registered and therefore covered. If you live in California, ask any paid service what it does beyond that list before you subscribe.
What none of them do
Every service in this category works a list of people-search sites. None of them touch the professional profile aggregators that scrape career information, and none of them look at what an AI model says when someone asks about you, even though those models answer by reading web pages in real time.
How to choose
- In California and want the basics: use DROP. It is free and stronger.
- Want a human to fight a stubborn listing: DeleteMe.
- Want the cheapest automated broker coverage outside California: Incogni.
- Worried about what shows up when someone searches or asks an AI about you, rather than only about brokers: that is the gap Cartograph was built for.
The full comparison, including where the others are better.
Common questions
- What is the cheapest way to remove my data?
- Free, in two forms. If you live in California, one request through the state's DROP platform covers every registered data broker. Everywhere else, doing it yourself costs only time. Paid services are worth money for repetition and for the sites you cannot easily reach, not for the broker list itself.
- Is DeleteMe or Incogni better?
- They solve slightly different problems. Incogni is cheaper and fully automated across a larger broker list. DeleteMe costs more and includes human review, which matters when a broker stalls or the listing is unusual. Neither covers professional profile sites or what AI models say.
- How much do they cost?
- Checked on 24 August 2026 from their own pages: Incogni is about 96 dollars a year on the annual plan, DeleteMe about 129 dollars a year.
- Does either remove me from AI answers?
- No. Neither looks at what a model says about you, even though current models answer by reading web pages at the moment they are asked.
- Is a free trial or a one-off scan enough?
- A scan tells you where you are. It does not change anything. Removal is a process with legal deadlines of 30 to 45 days and a strong tendency for data to reappear, so a single pass is worth having and not worth mistaking for a solution.
- What should I ask before subscribing to any of them?
- Three questions. Which of these sources does my state already handle free? Which ones do you not cover, and will you name them? And how will you show me that something actually came down, rather than that an email was sent?
- Can I cancel and keep the removals?
- The removals already granted stay granted; nobody re-publishes you because you cancelled. What you lose is the repetition, and since data reappears within months, that is most of what you were paying for.
Sources
- Security.org, Incogni review and pricing · read 24 August 2026
- AllAboutCookies, DeleteMe versus Incogni · read 24 August 2026
- California Privacy Protection Agency, Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform · read 24 August 2026
Every figure on this page is either taken from a source above on the date shown, or measured by Cartograph on 2026-08-24. If something here is out of date, write to support@usecartograph.com.