WhatsMyName App vs Sherlock vs Maigret vs Namechk: Which One Should You Use?

Looking for a free Sherlock alternative that works without installing Python? There are four tools most people reach for when they need to search a username across many platforms: WhatsMyName App, Sherlock, Maigret, and Namechk. On the surface they all do the same thing. Under the hood they are built for different situations, and they do not find the same accounts.

Most comparisons stop at feature lists. We went further: on 25 October 2026 we ran WhatsMyName App and Sherlock side by side on the same 20 usernames, from the same computer and the same connection, and checked the disagreements by hand. The results are below, including the places where Sherlock did better.

Short answer: if you want a Sherlock alternative that runs in your browser with no setup, use WhatsMyName App. In our test it finished faster, checked more sites, and reported zero accounts for usernames that do not exist. If you work from a terminal or need to script searches, Sherlock is still the better fit, and running both finds more than either one alone.

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Quick Comparison Table

Tool	Sites checked	Install needed	Open source	Best for
WhatsMyName App	730 checks	No (runs in your browser)	Built on the open WhatsMyName dataset	Fast lookups, no setup, any device
Sherlock	481 (19 adult sites off by default)	Yes (Python command line)	Yes	Terminal users, scripts and batch runs
Maigret	About 5,900, top 500 by default	Yes (Python, or a local web mode)	Yes	Deep investigations and identity mapping
Namechk	100+	No (runs in your browser)	No	Checking if a handle is free to register

Site counts are taken from each project in October 2026: Sherlock v0.16.2 and Maigret v0.6.6.

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We Tested WhatsMyName App and Sherlock on 20 Usernames

We could not find a published benchmark that compares these tools on accuracy, so we made one. The goal was simple: run both tools the way a normal person would, on the same usernames, and see what each one gets right and wrong.

How we ran the test

• Same machine, same network. Both tools ran on one laptop over one connection, one username at a time, so neither had a network advantage.
• Default settings. Sherlock v0.16.2 installed with pip and run with no extra options. WhatsMyName App ran its normal 730 checks: the 732 entries in the WhatsMyName dataset minus two we switch off because they cannot tell a real account from a missing one.
• 20 usernames. Ten brand and organisation handles (nasa, spotify, microsoft, mozilla, wikipedia, natgeo, adidas, bbcnews, netflix, github), five public figures who use the same handle widely (torvalds, mkbhd, ninja, gvanrossum, dhh), and five random strings that should not exist anywhere, such as zq8xv0kplmw3rtq9.
• Hand checks. Where one tool said an account existed and the other did not, we opened a random sample of 50 of those profiles in a normal browser and looked at what was really there.

The random strings are the cleanest accuracy test. Nobody has registered them, so every "found" result for them is a false positive.

The results

Measure	WhatsMyName App	Sherlock
Median time per username	81 seconds	134 seconds
False positives on the 5 invented usernames	0 on all 5	4 on every one
Accounts reported across the 15 real usernames	2,025	1,659
Real accounts found that the other tool missed (hand-checked sample)	18 of 18 checkable were real	16 of 16 checkable were real
Checks that ended in an error, per run	87 to 98	Not reported separately

What the numbers mean

Speed. WhatsMyName App finished a username in 81 seconds at the median while checking more sites. Sherlock took about 134 seconds almost every time, because a handful of slow sites run into its 60 second timeout. Our times crept up on later runs, which looks like some sites slowing down repeated requests from the same connection, so treat the exact seconds as a snapshot rather than a constant.

False positives. For every invented username, Sherlock reported the same four accounts: AllMyLinks, baby.ru, F3.cool and TikTok. Those checks currently say "found" for any name you type, which also means every real search carries those four results whether they are real or not. WhatsMyName App reported nothing for any invented name. One caveat in fairness: 87 to 98 of WhatsMyName App's checks ended in an error on each run, and an error is never counted as found, so part of that clean record comes from checks that simply did not answer.

Coverage. Across the 15 real usernames, WhatsMyName App reported 366 more accounts than Sherlock. A found result means the username is registered on that site, not that it belongs to the brand or person you had in mind: the "adidas" account on BiggerPockets, for example, belongs to an individual, not the company.

Where Sherlock did better

On the 242 sites both tools cover, they disagreed 563 times. Our hand check showed these disagreements are mostly misses rather than false positives: whichever tool found the account was almost always right.

That cuts both ways. Sherlock found real accounts that WhatsMyName App reported as not found, including NASA on Snapchat, adidas on Pinterest, and accounts on TradingView, Plurk, Crowdin and Pixelfed. In those cases the WhatsMyName check returned "not found" for a profile that was live, which means the check for that site needs fixing in the dataset. WhatsMyName App in turn found real accounts Sherlock missed, such as Wikipedia on X, MKBHD on Linktree and GitHub on PyPI.

The practical takeaway: for a quick, low-noise check, WhatsMyName App is the better first pass. For anything that matters, run Sherlock as well, and open every result before you rely on it. More on why real accounts can show as not found is in our guide to missing results.

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Is There a Sherlock Online Version?

Not an official one. Sherlock is a command line program: you install it with pipx, pip or Docker and run it from a terminal. The project does not offer a website where you type a username.

The options people usually get pointed to all involve some setup or cost. Hosted actors on Apify run Sherlock in the cloud through an account, the Sherlock-Deno remake needs Deno installed, and the Docker image needs Docker. Some paid web platforms wrap Sherlock's search in their own interface.

If what you want is "Sherlock, but in my browser, free", WhatsMyName App is the closest match. It is not Sherlock under the hood: it runs the checks from the community WhatsMyName dataset. But it answers the same question, on more sites, from a phone or a laptop, with no install and no sign-up.

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WhatsMyName App

WhatsMyName App is a browser-based tool that runs 730 site checks at once. You enter a username, click Search, and results stream in as they arrive, with a direct link to every profile it finds and a short guide for the bigger platforms. All the guides are listed on the platform guides page.

The detection rules come from the WhatsMyName dataset, maintained by Micah Hoffman and an open community on GitHub. Other tools, including Blackbird and Naminter, build on the same dataset.

What it is good at:

• Running a fast check from any device without setup
• Low noise: no false positives on invented usernames in our test
• Exporting found accounts to CSV for notes or reports
• Showing every result, including checks that failed, so you know what was not tested

Where it falls short:

• Some site checks in the dataset are out of date and miss live accounts, as our test showed
• It does not read profile details such as bios or linked accounts
• It runs in a browser, so it does not slot into scripts or automated pipelines

Try WhatsMyName App free

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Sherlock

Sherlock is a free, open source Python tool from the Sherlock Project, released under the MIT licence. Version 0.16.2 (September 2026) ships with 481 sites, 19 of them adult sites that are skipped unless you add the --nsfw option. It is one of the most widely installed username tools in the OSINT community and is available through pipx, pip, Docker and several Linux distributions.

You run it with a single command such as sherlock username. It prints results in the terminal and can save them as text, CSV or XLSX. It accepts several usernames in one run and can route requests through a proxy with the --proxy option.

What it is good at:

• Fitting into scripts and automated workflows
• Running on servers with no browser
• Batch runs over many usernames
• Catching live accounts on some sites where the WhatsMyName dataset check is broken

Where it falls short:

• Needs Python and a terminal, so it is not practical for non-technical users
• Checks fewer sites than WhatsMyName App or Maigret
• Four checks currently report any username as found, adding the same false positives to every search
• Slower per username in our test, mostly due to waiting on slow sites

When to choose Sherlock over WhatsMyName App: if you search from a script, a server or a terminal pipeline, Sherlock fits better. For a quick result in a browser with no setup, WhatsMyName App is faster.

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Maigret

Maigret started as a fork of Sherlock and has grown into the most thorough tool of the four. The current release, v0.6.6 (September 2026), knows about roughly 5,900 sites, but by default it checks the 500 most popular ones; add -a to scan them all.

Its key difference is depth. When Maigret finds an account, it reads the profile for details such as names, locations and links to other accounts, and it can search again on any new usernames it discovers. That lets it map a network of connected identities instead of returning a flat list. It produces reports in formats including HTML, PDF, XMind, JSON and CSV, supports HTTP and SOCKS proxies as well as Tor, and has a local web mode (maigret --web) if you prefer a browser to the terminal.

What it is good at:

• The largest site list of the four
• Recursive identity mapping across linked profiles
• Report generation in many formats
• Proxy, Tor and I2P support

Where it falls short:

• Needs Python, Docker or another install route
• More output than you need for a quick check
• A steeper learning curve for non-technical users

When to choose Maigret over WhatsMyName App: when the investigation is serious and you need profile details, linked identities or a written report. For a quick check of where a username appears, WhatsMyName App is faster and easier.

Install with pip3 install maigret, then run maigret username.

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Namechk

Namechk checks 100+ platforms and domain names and is built for a different job: helping people and brands see whether a username is free to register. It is not an OSINT tool.

It runs in a browser with no install, but its smaller site list and availability focus make it a poor fit for research. It tells you whether a name looks taken, not where a specific person has an account.

When Namechk makes sense: you are launching a brand or picking a handle and want to know where it is still available.

When to use something else: any investigation, or any time you need to know whether a particular person has an account on a particular platform.

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Sites and Apps Like Sherlock

If you are looking for tools like Sherlock, these are the ones worth knowing:

• WhatsMyName App: free, in your browser, no install. The easiest Sherlock alternative for most people.
• Maigret: the deepest open source option, with profile parsing and recursive search.
• Blackbird and Naminter: command line tools built on the WhatsMyName dataset.
• Snoop: another fork of Sherlock with a larger site list. Its licence allows personal use only.

For a wider list with ratings, see our roundup of the best free OSINT username search tools and the OSINT tools directory.

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Looking for Sherlock Search, the Face Search App?

Sherlock Search (sherlocksearch.com) is a different product with a similar name. It is a paid reverse face search service: you upload a photo and it looks for pages where that face appears. It has nothing to do with the open source Sherlock username tool.

None of the tools on this page search by face. They all start from a username. If you have a username, any of them will help. If you only have a photo, you need a reverse image or face search tool instead.

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Side-by-Side: Which Tool for Which Situation

Situation	Best tool
Quick lookup from a phone or tablet	WhatsMyName App
No technical background, need results fast	WhatsMyName App
Free Sherlock alternative with no install	WhatsMyName App
Running searches inside a script or automation	Sherlock
Deep investigation and identity mapping	Maigret
Need a written investigation report	Maigret
Need proxy or Tor support	Maigret (Sherlock supports proxies)
Maximum platform coverage	Maigret
Checking if a handle is free before registering	Namechk

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A Note on Accuracy

Every tool here gets some results wrong, in two directions. A false positive is a result that says an account exists when it does not. A false negative is a real account the tool misses.

Our test found both. Sherlock's false positives were concentrated in four broken checks that fire for any username. WhatsMyName App had no false positives on invented usernames, but some of its checks missed live accounts that Sherlock caught. Neither tool was reliable enough to trust without clicking through.

For any result that matters, open the profile and confirm it yourself before drawing conclusions. A matching username is a lead, not proof that two accounts belong to the same person.

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How They Relate to Each Other

These tools overlap less than you might expect. Sherlock keeps its own list of sites and detection rules. Maigret began as a fork of Sherlock and has since built a much larger site list of its own. WhatsMyName App, Blackbird and Naminter all use the community WhatsMyName dataset.

That is why the tools find different accounts for the same username, and why running two of them, one from each family, finds more than either alone.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free Sherlock alternative?

For most people, WhatsMyName App. It runs in your browser with no install, checks 730 sites, and in our 20 username test it was faster than Sherlock and reported no accounts for usernames that do not exist. For deep investigations, Maigret is the stronger choice.

Is there a free online version of Sherlock?

There is no official web version. Sherlock is a command line tool you install with pipx, pip or Docker. WhatsMyName App is a free browser-based tool that answers the same question without an install.

Is WhatsMyName App better than Sherlock?

For quick searches, yes: it needs no install, checks more sites, and was faster with fewer false positives in our test. Sherlock is better for terminal use, scripts and batch runs, and it caught some real accounts that WhatsMyName App missed.

Which tool has the most accurate results?

In our test, WhatsMyName App had no false positives on invented usernames, while Sherlock reported the same four false accounts every time. Both tools missed some real accounts the other found, so the most accurate approach is to use two tools and check every result by hand.

Is Sherlock Search the same as Sherlock?

No. Sherlock Search is a paid face search service that works from a photo. Sherlock is a free, open source tool that searches by username. They are unrelated.

Does Maigret replace WhatsMyName App?

For professional investigators who need profile details and reports, Maigret is more powerful. For quick lookups without setup, WhatsMyName App is faster and easier. Many investigators use both.

Is Sherlock still actively maintained?

Yes. Version 0.16.2 was released in September 2026, and the project continues to add and fix sites at github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock.

Which tool is best for beginners?

WhatsMyName App. There is nothing to install, and results come with direct links you can open straight away.

Ready to run a search? Try WhatsMyName App free.