Username research and open data
Numbers we measure ourselves, with our own engine, on our own server. Every page says how the data was collected, what it can't tell you, and when it was last updated, and most come with a CSV you can reuse under CC BY 4.0. Last tracker update: October 26, 2026.
- Site health trackerHow many of our 3,457 sites work each night, and which big platforms fail. Last night: 96.6% working.Nightly test, page updated weekly · CSV
- Short-handle scarcity indexHow many 4-letter, 5-letter and dictionary-word handles are already taken on 10 big platforms. Same names every month.Monthly · CSV
- What's inside a 3,000-site checkerThe honest breakdown of our site list: 58 major platforms, and 91% of sites on about ten kinds of community software.One-off, October 2026
- Tool benchmark 2026Sherlock, Maigret, Blackbird and our engine on the same 10 usernames: hits, false positives, errors and speed.Quarterly (next: January 2027) · CSV
- Username format studyWhich username formats fit the rules of the most sites: 21 formats against our full site list.One-off, October 2026 · CSV
- Username data study60 handles, common and random: how often a name is already taken across platforms.One-off, October 2026 · CSV
How we do research
- Our own measurements. Every number comes from our engine or from tools we ran ourselves, on the date shown. We don't repeat other sites' statistics as our own.
- Aggregates only. We publish totals, never the usernames people search and never our detection rules.
- Method and limits on every page. Each study says what was measured, how, and what it can't show.
- Corrections. If you find an error, tell us. We fix it and note the change on the page. See our editorial policy.
Using our data
You may reuse the CSVs and charts with credit: "Source: FreeUsername (freeusername.com)" and a link to the page. Journalists and researchers can ask us for more detail on a method.