Finding people online is easy if you have the right tools. You can track down someone's phone number, figure out their address, see their relatives, dig up their email address, read arrest records, and more when you use a people search engine.

Most of these resources are free to use, at least for the initial search. Depending on what you're trying to find about the person, you might be told that you have to pay for the information. However, there are free people search websites you can use—they just might not provide as much detail as the tools listed below.

Lots of free results.

Four ways to search for people.

Last name not required.

Sponsored links blend in with real information.

TruePeopleSearch.com lets you find people by name, phone number, or address. It's one of the best people search engines because the free results are much more detailed than what you'll find on some of these other sites.

Some examples of the free information you can see here include the person's current address, wireless and/or landline phone numbers, age, previous towns where he or she used to live, relatives, email addresses, associated names, and possible associates.

If there are lots of records, TruePeopleSearch will show an age filter that you can use to narrow down the results.

If you want to pay for more results, there's a link on every person's page that will take you to another site to buy the full report.

Only requires the name (not location).

Shows very basic information for free.

Lets you pay to find loads of information.

Requires payment to see results.

Takes about 15 minutes to finish the whole search.

TruthFinder does an awesome job at finding people, and the search is more thorough than most people search engines.

A search starts by analyzing traffic offenses, misdemeanors, court records, judgments, felonies, bankruptcies, relatives, phone numbers, online profiles, assets, arrest records, weapons permits, mugshots, sexual offenses, and address information.

TruthFinder then searches for the person's job information, email addresses, education history, death records, government watch list records, social media images, dating profiles, videos, registered domains, online interests, blog posts, and more.

However, the only information you can see for free is the person's full name. You'll need to pay to see other possible names they might go by, as well as their age, the location they currently live or have lived in the past, a list of possible relatives, the last four digits of at least one of their registered phone numbers, and the email provider of at least one of their email addresses.

Results are available instantly after you pay.

Reveals personal details most people search tools don't include.

Unique filtering options.

Completely free.

Many users set their profiles to private.

A search can yield too many results to narrow down quickly.

Inaccurate results if user omitted information from their profile.

As one of the world's largest social networks with hundreds of millions of people accessing it daily, it makes sense to use the Facebook search tool as an incredibly useful way to find people online. You can search by name and include the person's city, school, and/or employee.

You can use the social media platform to search for people you went to high school and college with, as well as work colleagues, friends from elementary school, non-profit organizations, and friends of friends.

A Facebook search is also great for finding people in specific geographic locations living in your local area that you might not already know, as well as any kind of association, club, or group. 

While many people block searches of their Facebook profiles and only give information to those visible in their immediate circles of friends and family, others do not. When a profile is public, it allows anyone who finds it immediate access to a person's posts, photos, check-in statuses, and other personal details.

Several ways to search for people.

Gathers information from multiple sources.

Several ways to pay for reports.

Sometimes offers really cheap reports.

Often offers really cheap trial plans.

You must pay to see the results.

Results take several minutes to populate.

BeenVerified is another behemoth of a people search engine. Much like TruthFinder listed above, this site digs up a wealth of information on the person you're trying to find, leveraging millions of data points and dozens of sources.

You can get background reports, contact information, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, criminal records, and more with the BeenVerified people finder.

Another benefit that helps you find anyone with this tool is that you can search using whatever information you have on them: name, number, address, email, and even their vehicle's VIN. If you pay, username searches are enabled, too, which can query over 50 websites to find the person online.

Paid reports include information like when the data was last verified as accurate, maps showing past and current locations, built-in social media feeds, asset details, and loan records.

Near-instant results.

Provides some information for free.

Free report has few details.

Not as up to date as similar sites.

Lots of ads.

Zabasearch is a free people search engine that scours public information, such as court records and phone directories. You can search by the person's phone number or their name.

The free results include the person's name, phone number, age, address, relatives, and social media profiles. Deeper reports can be had if you follow the links on the person's page to Intellius.

Easy to use.

Direct results.

No user account needed to view results.

Results limited to professional details.

Depending on your settings, the subject of your search may see that you’ve looked at their profile.

Use LinkedIn to search for professional networks that other people are involved in. If you make an account yourself and add your business profile to it, you can pick up quite a few details about how others are connected to that business.

LinkedIn lets you see where someone works, who they work with, their former positions, current or former supervisors, any kind of recommendations they might have received, and much more. There are a few filtering options available, and even more if you have a Sales Navigator or Recruiter account.

Depending on privacy settings, you might not be able to see everything that someone has provided in their LinkedIn profile. Additionally, if you're a registered user, the fact that you looked at someone's profile typically will be made known to them. 

Search by name or username.

Basic results are free.

Pulls data from other sites.

Useful search refining tools.

Instant results.

Fewer useful results than similar websites.

Full of advertisements.

PeekYou adds an interesting twist to the world of free people search engines; it allows you to search for usernames across a variety of social networking communities.

For instance, if you want to learn more about the person who uses the handle I-Love-Kittens; PeekYou will show you anything else that username might be doing on the web. There's an astonishing amount of information you can dig up on someone using only their username.

PeekYou also lets you search for people by their name. This is useful if you're looking for their social media accounts for further research.

Relatively inexpensive reports.

Details what you'll see by paying.

Basic results are revealed quickly.

Search by name, phone, email, or address.

Must pay for deeper information.

Emailing the report costs more.

PeopleFinders is another people search engine that provides a few details for free, like the person's aliases, age, family members, and sometimes the first several digits of their phone number or the cities they're associated with. You can pay a few dollars for the full search report (it's a trial of the full membership), or more if you want a full background report.

The search report you can get from PeopleFinders can include any of the following: full name, current address, phone number, prior residences, relatives, aliases, age, neighbors, property records, bankruptcies, judgments and liens, marriage and divorce records, criminal information, sex offender records, and more.

If you buy the report, you can print it off for free, but using the "email PDF" option requires another small payment.

Maybe you need to find a long-lost school friend or locate a relative that you haven't heard from in years. Another reason to use a people search tool is to simply verify information that you have on someone, like your neighbor, a new friend, or a potential employee.

If you find yourself on one of these websites and you want to remove your information from the internet, there's usually a form you can fill out on the website to request they delist your personal details.

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