A few decades back, if you needed to identify a phone number, you’d just thumb through the listings in the public directory or phone book for your country or area code until you found the person you wanted to call.

Today, our phones hold our phone books in a tiny SIM card, which saves phone numbers, email addresses and the contact’s photo. However, if you get a call or text message from an unknown number that’s not saved on your phone or SIM card, you may need a different service to find the person’s name or identity.

To help you with that, here are some of the best sites to identify phone numbers online.

Best Sites To Identify a Phone Number Online

Most people search for anything they’re looking for on search engines like Google, Bing and others, but these aren’t as good for finding phone numbers as people search sites are. However, you could find phone numbers related to a business or company depending on whether or not it has an online presence.

People Search Engines

People search engines on the other hand, not only help you find who you’re looking for, but they also show you contact details, relatives, location, work history, and more. Most of these sites rely on information from public records and allow you to search using what you already know. 

They also use reverse tactics, social media profiles, web searches and other methods. For instance, you can look up a cell phone number belonging to a person if you know their name, email address or physical address. The following list of the best search sites will help you find people online with just a  phone number.

However, some of these sites charge a fee, and some of the information may be outdated, so you may or may not find the right identity.

Social Media Platforms

One of the best ways to identify a phone number is by looking it up on social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, which have a massive user base from all over the world.

Most of these users share information including their personal and/or business phone numbers, so you can easily find the person behind a specific number. Just enter the phone number into the platform’s search bar and see what it turns up.

However, not everyone’s profile is public, so you may have to connect with the person first before you can access and see their personal details. Some also hide such information from their friends, which makes it even harder to find.

While you can use social media to identify a phone number at no cost, there’s no specific search function for identifying phone numbers.

If you had no luck identifying a phone number using social media platforms, you can try number lookup services, which are specifically made to find phone numbers and their owners.  Below are some useful options:


This is a popular app for smartphones that displays the name of the person calling you, even if they’re not in your address book. It runs via mobile data or WiFi, but if you don’t want to use the app on your phone, you can always run an online check to identify an unknown phone number via the TrueCaller website. Although you’ll need to sign in with an email address to get the results.

Apart from matching names and phone numbers, Truecaller can also block unwanted calls, preventing pesky spam callers and marketers from disturbing you.


Whitepages allows you to search for people by their name and phone number in the US, whether they’re landline or mobile numbers.

The interface is simple, so you’ll just enter the number in the Phone search field and the site will help you identify the owner. Like TrueCaller, this site also offers an Android app, which you can use as a caller ID app, and search for a number from its over 200 million entries in the United States.

If there’s no entry for the number you’re looking for, Whitepages will give you a few basic details like location, fraud risk, or spam risk related to it.


ZabaSearch provides public data about people and how they’re connected to others. Such data can be a phone number, physical address and birth date, or any personal information available on the web.

It collects information and puts it in a convenient platform for anyone to access. You can search for a phone number and find people that way, or if you have a name or address, it’ll run a check through its database and give you the results, where possible.


AnyWho is an online service that lets you reverse lookup and identify phone numbers for free. Just enter the phone number you’re looking for and it’ll display all the details about it.

You can also perform yellow page searches and people searches while you’re at it, especially if you find that the name associated with the phone number is unfamiliar. While its algorithm lets you search the directory in reverse, it only gives you numbers for the US, and cell phone numbers aren’t available, so your search is limited.

Spy Dialer

This is another free service that’s legal to use when you want to search for and identify a phone number, person’s name, address and email address to dig up more details.

Its database contains billions of numbers, letting you find cell phone numbers, landline numbers, and VoIP numbers.  Its main drawback is that it searches for the name and phone number separately, unlike other platforms that show you all the details behind a phone number.

Search Phone Numbers Easily

A phone number can reveal a lot of information about a person like their name, location, addresses, and much more. If you received a call from a number that’s not familiar to you or that’s not saved in your phone book, it can be challenging to get information, especially for cell phone numbers. Thankfully, the sites mentioned above make them easy to find and identify before you ring them back.

Do you have useful tips and tricks that help you identify a phone number? Share them with us by dropping your comment in the section below.