FreeUsername

About FreeUsername

FreeUsername is a free username search. Type a handle and it checks 3,450+ public websites, showing site by site where a profile with that name appears to exist. It is useful for checking whether a name is free before you claim it, finding your own old accounts, protecting a brand name, and open-source research done responsibly.

About the author: David James

David James is the editor of the guides on this site. He writes and reviews each blog post, checks the steps against the platforms’ own help pages and our own test searches, and updates a guide when a platform changes its rules. Corrections and questions about a guide go to him through the contact page.

Who runs this site

This site is run by FreeUsername, a small independent team that builds the username search, its engine and the FreeUsername app. FreeUsername is our name for the site and the app: the same team makes the free FreeUsername: Username Checker app for Android, which runs the same search. Hadi Dev Lab is only the developer and publisher service provider for the apps (it holds the Google Play developer account); it does not own the service. You can see David James’s public work on GitHub (david-james-dev).

There is no account and nothing to pay. The site shows Google ads to stay free, and the usernames you search are never shared with advertisers. We count visits with Umami on our own server and with Google Analytics; the privacy policy lists every service and cookie. Questions, corrections and abuse reports go to [email protected].

Formerly WhatsMyName Apps

Until October 2026 this site was called WhatsMyName Apps and lived at whatsmynameapps.us. We renamed it FreeUsername so nobody mistakes us for the open-source WhatsMyName project, and every old link now forwards to the same page here. Same team, same free search. The rebrand post has the details.

Independent, not affiliated

FreeUsername is an independent product. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the WhatsMyName open-source project, its maintainers, or the Sherlock and Maigret projects. This website and our Android app use their site data, credited under its licences, and the FreeUsername engine adds more sites we verify ourselves. We are also not affiliated with any site we check.

Powered by the FreeUsername™ engine

Our username search runs on the FreeUsername engine. We built the engine ourselves. Its site list combines data from the WhatsMyName project (CC BY-SA 4.0), Sherlock and Maigret with sites and detection rules we add and verify ourselves. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these projects. We built it for OSINT research and to work with AI tools and agents. Once the project reaches its main goals, we plan to open-source parts of the code so others can learn from it and build on it. freeusername.com is owned by us.

Our own search engine

We built the engine ourselves. Its site list combines data from WhatsMyName, Sherlock and Maigret with sites and detection rules we add and verify ourselves. We test each rule against real accounts and made-up names, and update it when a site changes.

The engine uses site data from the WhatsMyName project, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, together with Sherlock and Maigret. Every site is added and re-verified with our own detection and verification tools.

FreeUsername is not affiliated with or endorsed by the WhatsMyName project or by any site it checks. You can browse every supported site.

How results work

For each site, our server requests the public profile address for the username and compares the response with that site's detection rule. Each result gets one of four statuses:

• Found: the response looks like an existing public profile.
• Not found: the response matches the pattern for a missing profile.
• Blocked: the site refused or rate-limited the request, so there is no answer.
• Unknown: the response did not clearly match either pattern.

Limits

Every status is a lead to verify, not a fact. Sites redesign their pages and block automated checks, and our rules can lag behind, so false positives (Found when there is no profile) and missed profiles happen. A matching username does not tell you who owns the account: many unrelated people share handles. Open the profile yourself before relying on any result. Read how it works for details.

Responsible use

FreeUsername is not a consumer reporting agency. Do not use results for decisions about employment, housing, credit, insurance or any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or similar laws. Do not use it to stalk, harass or expose anyone. See the terms of use and privacy policy.

How we research and test

Platform rules come from each platform's help center and tool facts from each project's own repository or website, with the review date on the page. 58 of our 65 platform checker pages also show what we got when we ran a known account and a made-up name through the checker. No tool pays for placement. The full rules, including how we make money and how to report an error, are in our editorial policy.

Contact

Email [email protected] or see the contact page for how to report a wrong result. We post updates on Bluesky.