Which is Better for Face Search:
FaceCheck or SocialCatfish?

Best Reverse Image Search Engines: A Detailed Examination

Disclaimer: This is not an independent review. These tests were conducted in May 2024 as part of internal competitive analysis by an expert paid by FaceCheck.ID.

Below tests evaluate the effectiveness of FaceCheck and SocialCatfish for searching the Internet using a photo of someone's face. We used various criteria to match different practical use cases. You should test the search engines yourself to see which one works best for your needs. Each search test is awarded 0 to 5 score points based on how well the search performed. Points are summarized and charted at the end.;

FaceCheck

SocialCatfish

16 Search by Face Tests

Explore the Best Alternative to SocialCatfish for Image Searching

Best Single Alternative to SocialCatfish Reverse Image Search - FaceCheck.ID

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FaceCheck vs SocialCatfish

FaceCheck.ID and Social Catfish both offer reverse image search functionalities tailored to specific user needs, but with varying levels of effectiveness and focus. FaceCheck.ID excels in detecting potential fraud and safety concerns, providing users with red flag warnings for scam profiles, and matching photos across diverse contexts—from social media to news websites. It has proven effective even with low-resolution images, demonstrating a robust ability to recognize faces over time and variations in appearance.

Conversely, Social Catfish, while also aimed at identifying scams and verifying identities, shows inconsistency in facial recognition and often produces false positives. Its service is complemented by features like searching across dating websites and social media, but it struggles with accuracy and the freshness of its data. While Social Catfish is occasionally effective, particularly in linking images to anti-scam websites, its overall performance is hampered by an outdated interface and slower processing speeds compared to more modern platforms like FaceCheck.ID. Both platforms serve niche markets focusing on identity verification and scam prevention, with each having its strengths and limitations in the expanding field of online security and personal verification.

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Recognize a Side Facial Profile?

Side Facial Profile

This screenshot from a recent video interview shows the side profile of a famous person. The goal is to test the search engine to see if it can recognize the person and find front-facing photos of them.

FaceCheck.ID easily recognized this side profile and found plenty of front-view matches of the person. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish found 708 pictures of men in suits with glasses, but only one was a positive match for the celebrity. This shows its poor performance in recognizing faces from a side view. Score: +2 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Romance Scammers?

Romance Scam Photo Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Romance Scammers?

This picture of a handsome unsuspecting doctor has been stolen by scammers and published on dating apps and used in many online romance scams. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can help the user uncover that this pic is associated with a scam operation. The doctor is innocent!

FaceCheck.ID found many fake social media profiles and scam reports and warned the user with red flags: Scam Alert, Scam Reports, and Many Accounts. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish returned a few results of this stolen photo with a lead to an anti-scam website. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Work with Poor Quality Photos?

Bad Photo of a Killer Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Work with Poor Quality Photos?

A low-quality photo of a serial rapist, murderer, and ex-colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The goal is to test the search engine's ability with a bad quality image with .jpeg artifacts where the person isn't facing the camera directly.

Even though the source image quality is very poor, FaceCheck.ID found lots of matching photos of this smiling convicted killer from various angles. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish returned numerous match results of this killer even from a couple of different angles. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Child Abusers?

Child Molester on the Run Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Child Abusers?

This is a photo of someone on the offender list for molesting kids. His status is 'Absconded,' meaning he ran away from his registered address without telling the authorities. The goal is to see if the search engine is able to find high-risk offenders.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching photos of this child predator in offender databases as well as on news websites. It warned the user with a red flag icon: Sex Offender. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish provided many exact match results of this predator. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Recent News?

Recently Arrested Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Recent News?

A photo of a serious sexual offender involving a child, who fled from the police and was hunted down and arrested, was all over the Australian news two weeks ago. The goal is to check if the search engine can find recently published images in its database.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching photos of this perpetrator on news websites, confirming that FaceCheck is continuously indexing new content. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish returned several exact match results of this man. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Recognize a Person wearing a Mask?

Masked Celebrity Actress Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Recognize a Person wearing a Mask?

This is a B-list celebrity wearing a face mask, only showing her eyes and forehead. The test is to see if the search engine can recognize faces even when they're covered by a mask. There is thousands of images of this celebrity all over the Internet, so finding a few matches should not be a problem.

FaceCheck.ID was able to easily recognize this actress just by her eyes and forehead and found many matching pictures of her. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish found a few matches of the actress without a mask. It found her pics just by matching her eyes and forehead. But not many matches and also false positive on the very top, so we're giving only 4 points. Score: +4 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Obscure Foreign Celebrities?

Unknown Singer from Laos Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Obscure Foreign Celebrities?

A picture of a not-so-famous singer from the country of Laos. Hardly anyone outside of Laos knows her. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can find info on obscure public figures from other countries.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching pictures on social media of this obscure beauty influencer from Laos. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish displayed plenty of results of brunette women; however, none of the women matched the obscure singer. Score: 0 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find an OnlyFans Model?

Random OnlyFans Model Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find an OnlyFans Model?

A photo of a random woman on OnlyFans who lives in Vietnam. The goal is to see if the search engine can find OnlyFans profiles.

FaceCheck.ID found her OnlyFans profile as well as many social media profiles. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish produced results of open-mouth women in glasses and marked them as exact matches. But in fact, none of them matched the searched person. Score: 0 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find an Adult Actress by Low-Res Pic?

Low-Res Pic of Adult Actress

A low-resolution picture of an obscure Japanese adult film actress. The goal is to see if the search engine can find Asian adult film stars using low-resolution photos.

FaceCheck.ID found several matching photos of this Japanese adult performer. We were able to find positive matches with even smaller test picture (65x65) where her face is measuring only 23x29 pixels! Score: +4 Points

Social Catfish yielded numerous results of Japanese women; however, none of the women matched the searched person. Score: 0 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find an Old Person by Their Young Pic?

Find Old Person by Young Pic Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find an Old Person by Their Young Pic?

This photo is from 1976, showing a woman who was 27 years old at the time. The goal is to see if the search engine can find a more recent photo of the same person.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching photos of this person in her older years. One of the photo is when the subject was 65 years old prooving FaceCheck's ability to find an older face by a young face. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish returned the original picture match; however, it was not able to find the person in her older years. Score: +1 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find a Profile of a War Criminal?

War Criminal Soldier Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find a Profile of a War Criminal?

A picture of a Russian soldier who filmed himself committing terrible war crimes. The goal is to see if the search engine can find this soldier's social media profiles.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching photos of this soldier, including social media profiles. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish delivered numerous results of the soldier; however, the top results did not match. Score: +4 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Escort Ads?

Brazilian Escort Ad Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Escort Ads?

A photo from a Brazilian escort ad. We blurred it on this page for privacy. The goal is to see if the search engine can find images on escort ads websites.

FaceCheck.ID found many matching photos of this person on escort sites as well as social media. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish found many results of red-haired women; however, none of the women matched the searched person. Score: 0 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Handle Facial Expressions?

Exaggerated Expression Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Handle Facial Expressions?

The camera captured a soccer player with a funny facial expression in this photo. The goal is to see if the search engine is robust enough to find images of the same person with a normal facial expression.

FaceCheck.ID found many photos of the soccer player with various facial expressions, demonstrating its robustness and reliability in recognizing the person despite variations in their appearance. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish returned plenty of results of the soccer player even with a couple of different facial expressions. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find AI Generated Images?

AI Generated Girl Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find AI Generated Images?

This image was generated by an artificial intelligence app. The goal is to test if the search engine can find similar AI images.

FaceCheck.ID found many similar images of AI-generated women. FaceCheck also raised a red flag: "AI-Generated Face" to alert the user that AI face was detected. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish discovered some AI-generated pics of women; however, none of them was really too similar to the source person. Score: +1 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Work with Blurred Photos?

Blurred Photo Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Work with Blurred Photos?

Even though this photo is heavily blurred, almost anyone would recognize the iconic president in the photo. A good reverse image search engine should be able to recognize this person too.

FaceCheck.ID had no problem with this blurred photo and found many matches of the president. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish found lots of photos of the president, having no problem with the blurred pic. Score: +5 Points

Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Social Media Profiles?

Social Media Model Can FaceCheck and SocialCatfish Find Social Media Profiles?

This person is a social media fitness model from Iraq. The test is: can the reverse image search engine find social media profiles of a person from an Islamic country?

FaceCheck.ID found many social media accounts of this Iraqi fitness model such as TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Clubhouse and more. Score: +5 Points

Social Catfish provided a plethora of brunettes; however, none of them matched the Iraqi fitness model. Score: 0 Points

FaceCheck and SocialCatfish - Bottom Line Comparison

Pros

Searches Social Media Profiles

Red Flag Warnings

Indexes Lots of Quality Websites

Cons

Slower than Other Sites

Less Indexed Images than Others

Not as Many Explicit Adult Images

Bottom Line Although FaceCheck.ID is relatively new and has a smaller image database than its competitors, it excels thanks to its state-of-the-art face search algorithm and indexing of images from high-quality websites. FaceCheck.ID shines in matching low-quality, blurred images and recognizing people in masks, and faces from various angles, not just frontal views. Focused on user safety, it’s particularly effective at uncovering catfishing and identity theft. It also detects photos used by scammers, searches social media profiles, and identifies mugshots and suspects mentioned in the news.

FaceCheck

Total Score: 79 Points

Pros

Entertaining YouTube Videos

Strong Brand Name

Effective in Some Cases

Cons

Poor Face Recognition

Questionable Marketing Tactics

Slow App and Aged User Interface

Bottom Line Social Catfish's reverse image search is an add-on to their primary email and phone lookup services. Since image search is not their main focus, it feels like an afterthought. The technology appears outdated, resulting in inconsistent facial recognition performance. While it delivers good results occasionally, it often falls short. However, their YouTube channel excels in raising awareness about romance scams.