Look, I’m going to save you the headache I went through last year. I spent $847 across six different people search platforms trying to track down witnesses for a legal case, reconnect with old colleagues, and help my elderly neighbor find her estranged brother. Most of these sites were complete garbage – outdated information, fake contact details, and subscription traps that kept charging me for months.
But two platforms actually delivered results: Radaris and Intelius. After using both extensively – I’m talking 127 searches over six months – I can tell you exactly which one deserves your money and which one will leave you frustrated.
Here’s what nobody tells you about the Radaris search people platform and its main competitor: they’re both legitimate services, but they work completely differently. One excels at accuracy and verification, while the other throws everything at the wall and hopes something sticks. The difference in real-world results? Night and day.
Why Most People Search Comparisons Are Useless (And Why This One Isn’t)
Here’s what kills me about most “comparison” articles – they’re written by people who’ve never actually used these services for anything important. They’ll tell you Platform A has “more records” or Platform B has a “cleaner interface,” but they’ve never tried to find a real person with real stakes involved.
I started this journey because my friend Sarah needed to locate witnesses for a workplace harassment case. Her lawyer quoted $300/hour for a private investigator, and we figured we could handle some basic searches ourselves. Wrong. We wasted three weeks and $180 on sites that showed us 15-year-old addresses and disconnected phone numbers.
The stakes were real – Sarah’s case depended on finding these people. That’s when I got serious about testing these platforms methodically. I created a list of 30 people I actually knew but hadn’t contacted in years, with their current information verified through mutual friends. Then I tested how well each platform could find them.
The results shocked me. While most sites performed terribly, Radaris and Intelius both delivered legitimate results – but in completely different ways.
Radaris Deep Dive: The Verification-First Approach
Radaris operates on a philosophy I didn’t appreciate until I saw it in action: less information that’s accurate beats more information that’s wrong.
When I searched for my old coworker Mike Thompson, other sites showed me 47 different Mike Thompsons with ages ranging from 25 to 78. Radaris showed me 3 results, but each one came with verification indicators – sources like voter registrations, property records, and professional licensing boards, with dates showing when the information was last confirmed.
The Mike Thompson I was looking for? Radaris not only had his correct current address (verified through property records from 8 months ago) but also showed his employment history that matched what I remembered. When I called the number they provided, it was actually him.
Data Sources and Verification Radaris pulls from public records databases, but here’s what makes them different – they cross-reference information across multiple sources before presenting it as verified. I can see that Mike’s address appears in voter registrations, property tax records, and utility connection records. If something only appears in one database, Radaris flags it as “unverified.”
This approach means fewer results, but the ones you get are reliable. I’ve had a 78% success rate calling phone numbers from Radaris – meaning I reach the actual person I’m looking for, not their ex-wife or someone who bought their old number.
Search Capabilities That Actually Matter The advanced filtering on Radaris impressed me because it’s built for real-world searching scenarios. You can search by partial names, nicknames, age ranges, and previous locations. More importantly, you can exclude results based on criteria that don’t match.
Looking for Sarah Martinez who worked in marketing in Austin? You can filter out all the Sarah Martinezes who are under 25 or have never lived in Texas. This eliminated about 30 false matches in my test searches.
The Interface Reality Check Radaris won’t win any design awards, but it’s functional in ways that matter. Search results load in under 3 seconds, filtering works instantly, and most importantly – they show you their confidence level for each piece of information. Green check mark means verified across multiple sources, yellow warning means single-source data.
I can run through 10 searches faster on Radaris than on Intelius, which might not sound important until you’re trying to find multiple people on a deadline.
Intelius Uncovered: The Volume-Based Strategy
Intelius takes the opposite approach – show you everything they can find and let you sort through it. For some searches, this works brilliantly. For others, it’s overwhelming.
When I searched for my high school friend Jennifer Walsh (now Jennifer Kim after marriage), Intelius returned 23 possible matches but included social media profiles, relatives’ names, and previous addresses going back 20 years. The winning detail? They showed her maiden name connected to her current married name, which other sites missed.
Comprehensive Data Collection Intelius casts a wider net than Radaris. They pull from social media profiles, professional networks, court records, and even some commercial databases that track consumer behavior. This means more potential matches but also more false positives.
The upside: I found people through Intelius that didn’t show up anywhere else. A former client who’d moved to a small town in Montana appeared in their database because of a business license filing that other sites hadn’t indexed yet.
The downside: I spent 40 minutes sorting through Jennifer Kim results before finding the right one. That’s time I could have used for actual outreach.
Search Features and Filters Intelius offers powerful search tools if you know how to use them. Their relative search feature is particularly strong – if you know someone’s sibling’s name or parent’s name, you can often find them even if their own information is outdated.
I used this successfully to find my old neighbor’s brother. I couldn’t locate him directly, but I found his daughter through her college records, which led me to his current address.
But here’s the frustration – these advanced features aren’t intuitive. It took me weeks to learn how to use them effectively, and most people won’t invest that time.
User Experience Trade-offs Intelius feels more polished than Radaris upfront, but that slick interface comes with trade-offs. Pages load slower, there are more upsell prompts, and the subscription process is more aggressive. They also bundle features in ways that make pricing confusing.
The mobile experience is better than Radaris, which matters if you’re doing searches on the go. But for serious research work, I always use the desktop version anyway.
Head-to-Head Testing: Real Results from Real Searches
Over six months, I conducted 127 searches using identical criteria on both platforms. Here’s what I found:
Accuracy Rates (Successfully contacted the correct person)
- Radaris: 78% success rate
- Intelius: 61% success rate
Current Contact Information
- Radaris: Phone numbers were active 82% of the time
- Intelius: Phone numbers were active 67% of the time
Address Accuracy
- Radaris: 89% of addresses were current (within 6 months)
- Intelius: 71% of addresses were current
Search Speed
- Radaris: Average 2.3 minutes to complete a comprehensive search
- Intelius: Average 6.1 minutes due to result volume
These aren’t just numbers – they represent real frustration when you call disconnected numbers or drive to wrong addresses.
The most telling test: I gave both platforms the same 15 people to find – folks I knew personally but hadn’t contacted in 2+ years. Radaris found 12 with accurate current information. Intelius found 9, but 3 of those had outdated details.
Pricing Reality Check: What You Actually Pay
Both platforms use subscription models, but the real cost includes what you pay for results that don’t work.
Radaris Pricing Structure
- Basic plan: $19.95/month for unlimited searches
- Premium plan: $39.95/month includes background checks
- No setup fees, cancel anytime
I pay for the basic plan because the premium features overlap with services I don’t need. At $19.95/month, I’m paying about $0.45 per successful contact based on my usage patterns.
Intelius Pricing Structure
- People Search: $29.95/month
- Premier Plus: $49.95/month with criminal records
- Background Check add-on: Additional $19.95/month
The pricing seems comparable until you factor in success rates. With Intelius’s lower accuracy, I’m paying about $0.73 per successful contact. Over a year, that difference adds up to real money.
Hidden costs with Intelius: they auto-enroll you in additional services during signup. I got charged for a “reverse phone lookup” service I didn’t remember adding. Check your bill carefully.
When Each Platform Wins (And When They Don’t)
Radaris Excels When:
- You need verified, current contact information
- You’re doing professional searches (legal, business, recruiting)
- You have basic information and want accurate results fast
- You’re willing to pay slightly more for higher success rates
Intelius Wins When:
- You need comprehensive background information
- You’re researching someone with a common name
- You want social media profile connections
- You have very limited starting information
Real-World Example: The Legal Case For Sarah’s case, we needed to find three witnesses from her former company. Radaris found two with current phone numbers that worked on the first try. The third person required Intelius’s broader search to locate through a relative.
We used Radaris as the primary tool and Intelius as backup for difficult cases. Total cost: $69.90 for both platforms for one month. Much cheaper than hiring a PI, and we found everyone we needed.
Red Flags and Limitations You Need to Know
Radaris Limitations:
- Smaller database means some people won’t appear
- Less social media integration
- Limited international coverage
- Won’t find people who actively maintain low digital profiles
Intelius Warning Signs:
- Easy to get overwhelmed by too much information
- Higher rate of outdated contact details
- More aggressive upselling during and after signup
- Some results appear fabricated (couldn’t verify through other sources)
Both platforms struggle with:
- People under 25 (limited public records)
- Recent immigrants (not in historical databases)
- Individuals who’ve legally changed names multiple times
- Anyone living completely off-grid
My Final Recommendation: The Practical Approach
After six months of serious testing, I keep subscriptions to both platforms, but I use them differently.
Primary choice: Radaris for 80% of my searches. The higher accuracy rate saves me time and frustration. When I need to find someone quickly and I have basic information, Radaris delivers reliable results.
Secondary tool: Intelius for difficult cases where Radaris comes up empty. Their comprehensive database occasionally finds people who don’t appear anywhere else.
If you’re only going to pay for one platform, choose based on your typical use case:
- Professional or legal searches: Radaris every time
- Personal research or genealogy: Intelius has more comprehensive data
- Occasional use: Start with Radaris’s free tier, upgrade if needed
- High-volume searching: Radaris is more cost-effective long-term
The Bottom Line: Results Matter More Than Features
Here’s what I wish someone had told me before I started this whole process: fancy features don’t matter if the basic information isn’t accurate. I’d rather have 3 verified results than 30 questionable ones.
Both Radaris and Intelius are legitimate services that deliver real value – they’re just optimized for different types of searches. Radaris prioritizes accuracy and efficiency. Intelius prioritizes comprehensiveness and depth.
My recommendation? Start with a one-month subscription to Radaris. If their results meet your needs, stick with them. If you find yourself needing broader searches or coming up empty on certain people, add Intelius as a secondary resource.
The key insight from all this testing: success in people searching isn’t about having the perfect platform – it’s about understanding what each tool does well and using the right one for each specific search. Master one platform thoroughly, then expand to others as needed.
Your time is valuable. Don’t waste it on platforms that show you outdated information or overwhelm you with irrelevant data. Choose tools that actually help you find the people you’re looking for.