01 · Product name
Sherlock
Check whether a username exists across hundreds of sites.
Published by Sherlock Project.
In short
Sherlock is an open-source command-line tool that takes a username and checks many websites for a matching profile URL. It is a fast first pass, not a proof that two accounts belong to one person. Expect false positives where a site returns a soft 200, and false negatives where a profile is private or renamed.
Product pricing strategy
02
Free
Sherlock is free. You do not buy a seat to use what the project publishes.
Yes. Sherlock is open source and runs locally. You need Python and the patience to verify hits. There is no official paid tier.
Utility and features
03
Sherlock, maintained by the Sherlock Project, is the username tool people mean when they say “run the name.” It requests profile URLs and reports the sites that appear to have that handle. The list of sites changes as the project updates, and each site can break the check without warning.
- What a hit means. A site responded as if the username exists. Open the URL. Usernames are reused by strangers, and some sites answer every check with a page.
- How it runs. Python, from a checkout or pip. You can limit the site list, export JSON or CSV, and use a proxy. There is no hosted search in the upstream project.
- Where it fails. Private accounts, renamed handles, rate limits, and sites that changed their URL scheme. Update the tool before a case, not after.
Use it when you have a handle and need a map of where to look next. Do not use a hit list as an identity. Confirm the profile, the creation details you can actually see, and whether the name is common. Maigret is the closer cousin if you want a longer report. Holehe is the tool to open when you have an email instead of a username.
- 1
Install Sherlock from the project repository and run it on a username you are allowed to investigate.
- 2
Open the reported URLs. Discard sites that show an error page or an unrelated person.
- 3
Export JSON if you need to keep the raw result with the date you ran it.
- 4
If the handle is common, add a second selector — an email, a photo, or a phrase — before you merge identities.
Caveats
04
Sherlock is a local Python tool. There is no official hosted search and no paid tier. A ‘found’ row means the site responded as if the username exists. Usernames are reused by strangers. Private, renamed, and rate-limited profiles come back as misses.
The site list changes when the project updates, and a site can break the check by changing its URL. Export JSON with the date you ran it. Confirmation is opening the page. Sherlock does not prove that two accounts belong to one person.
Screenshots
05
Potential use cases
06
- Take a username that already appeared in a case, install Sherlock from the project repository, and run it locally. You get a list of sites whose profile URL looked occupied, plus an export if you asked for JSON. Open every URL. Pivot a promising profile to Maigret for a longer report, or to Holehe if you later obtain an email. A hit is a page that answered, not proof two accounts are one person.
- For a brand string, run the same check and treat the output as a squatting map: sites where that string is registered as a username. The dated URL list is what you hand a colleague to verify. Discard error pages and unrelated people. Site definitions rot. Update the checkout before a case, not after you have already briefed the hits.
- If you are checking handles you yourself forgot, the input is your own username and the output is a reminder list. That is a personal pass, not an investigation. The same false-positive rule applies: some sites return a page for every string. Do not merge a stranger’s profile into your own notes because the path contained your handle.
Hard cases
The case where the first result is easy to over-read.
A soft 200 on a common handle
Sherlock marks a site found because the HTTP response was not a clean miss. You open it and the page is a generic error, a login wall, or a different person who picked the same short name. Drop it. Keep the JSON so you can show the check happened, and do not let the count of ‘found’ sites into a report. If the handle is common, wait for a second selector before you treat any of the real profiles as the same person.
Questions
Is Sherlock free?
Yes. Sherlock is open source and runs locally. You need Python and the patience to verify hits. There is no official paid tier.
Can Sherlock prove two accounts are the same person?
No. It only suggests where a string appears as a username. Confirmation is a separate step.
Citations
07
Titled sources. These public pages are what the quotes on this listing come from.
Product
Sherlock repository
https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock