Which is Better for Face Search:
PimEyes or SocialCatfish?

Analyzing the Best Reverse Image Search Engines: A Thorough Test

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 PimEyes 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.;

PimEyes

SocialCatfish

16 Search by Face Tests

Reverse Image Search: The Best Option Besides PimEyes or SocialCatfish

Best Alternative to PimEyes or SocialCatfish Reverse Image Search - FaceCheck.ID

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PimEyes vs SocialCatfish

PimEyes and Social Catfish serve different niches within the reverse image search engine market with varying levels of effectiveness. PimEyes excels in identifying images related to adult content, including performers and explicit materials on copyright-infringing websites, which makes it particularly useful for combating issues like revenge porn. However, PimEyes struggles with low-quality images and lacks social media integration, limiting its utility for broader personal and professional applications.

On the other hand, Social Catfish is more focused on verifying identities and exposing scams, often linking photos to anti-scam websites and providing diverse results from various angles. Despite this, Social Catfish suffers from poor facial recognition accuracy and often produces false positives, which diminishes its reliability for precise identity verification. Social Catfish's reverse image search seems secondary to its main services of email and phone lookups, which affects the modernity and speed of its search capabilities. While Social Catfish is effective in raising awareness about romance scams and occasionally finds exact matches, its overall performance is inconsistent compared to more specialized engines like PimEyes for specific content types.

Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes failed this test showing a message "The photo appears to be low quality, making it difficult to identify facial features." Score: 0 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Romance Scammers?

Romance Scam Photo Can PimEyes 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!

PimEyes found plenty of matching pictures of this doctor. After clicking thru the results, the user would find out this pic is used in many scams. 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Work with Poor Quality Photos?

Bad Photo of a Killer Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes failed to find the face in this poor-quality image and displayed the message "Face not found. Make sure the face on the photo is clearly visible." Score: 0 Points

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

Can PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Child Abusers?

Child Molester on the Run Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found five matching photos of this child predator. Score: +5 Points

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

Can PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Recent News?

Recently Arrested Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos on news websites, showing that it regularly updates its image database with new content. Score: +5 Points

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

Can PimEyes and SocialCatfish Recognize a Person wearing a Mask?

Masked Celebrity Actress Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes failed to find the face in this photo and displayed the message "Face not found. Make sure the face on the photo is clearly visible." Score: 0 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Obscure Foreign Celebrities?

Unknown Singer from Laos Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos of this obscure celebrity 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find an OnlyFans Model?

Random OnlyFans Model Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found explicit images of this OnlyFans girl on many shady copyright-infringing "leak" websites. PimEyes seems to be focused on helping users fighting "revenge" kind of content. 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 PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos of this Japanese adult performer. PimEyes shines when it comes to searching for adult film stars. Score: +5 Points

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

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

Find Old Person by Young Pic Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos of this person in her older years. However the photos seem to be limited to the subject in her 30s and 40s. 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find a Profile of a War Criminal?

War Criminal Soldier Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos of this soldier; however, it did not find any of his social media. Score: +4 Points

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

Can PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Escort Ads?

Brazilian Escort Ad Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many matching photos of this person. 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Handle Facial Expressions?

Exaggerated Expression Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many memes with an exact match of this facial expression, and also found the player with other facial expressions. 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find AI Generated Images?

AI Generated Girl Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes found many similar images of AI-generated women. 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 PimEyes and SocialCatfish Work with Blurred Photos?

Blurred Photo Can PimEyes 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.

PimEyes failed to find a face in this blurred photo and displayed the message "Face not found. Make sure the face on the photo is clearly visible." Score: 0 Points

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

Can PimEyes and SocialCatfish Find Social Media Profiles?

Social Media Model Can PimEyes 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?

PimEyes found many matching photos of this Iraqi model. However found zero profiles from the top social media sites. Because this is a social media test, we are lowering the test score to 3. Score: +3 Points

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

PimEyes and SocialCatfish - Bottom Line Comparison

Pros

Excels in Adult Oriented Searches

Large Image Database

Decent Facial Recognition Algorithm

Cons

No Social Media Images

Does not work with Low Quality Photos

Lots of Low Quality Adult Website Results

Bottom Line PimEyes is a powerful search engine with a vast image database. It focuses on indexing shady, copyright-infringing websites with "leaked" adult content, specializing in helping users combat revenge porn. It is highly effective at finding adult content. However, its effectiveness for other purposes is limited by the lack of social media indexing and its inability to search blurry or low-quality images. Despite these drawbacks, PimEyes is a highly recommended reverse image search engine.

PimEyes

Total Score: 57 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.