The WhatsMyName alternative built for username search
WhatsMyName is a community-maintained OSINT dataset started in 2015 by Micah "WebBreacher" Hoffman. It is a single openly licensed JSON file describing how to check a username on each site — currently around 700 of them — and it powers many other tools. The whatsmyname.app web interface is a separate free front-end built on that data.
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Search a username →What WhatsMyName is best for
OSINT practitioners and tool builders who want a large, openly licensed and false-positive-conscious site list they can query directly or wire into their own scanner.
Where WhatsMyName leaves a gap
- –The GitHub project is now a data file only — the bundled checker scripts were removed in 2023, so you depend on third-party front-ends to actually run a scan
- –A site can only be included if the username appears directly in the profile URL, which rules out platforms using numeric IDs or sitting behind a login
- –Coverage moves at the pace of volunteer pull requests, so a site whose detection breaks can stay broken until someone opens an issue
- –The web interface is designed for investigators: a filterable result table and a CSV export rather than a plain-language report
Why AliaScan is a strong alternative
- ✓WhatsMyName's list is the larger of the two; AliaScan's 400+ platforms are curated around sites people actually use, so there is less to triage after a scan
- ✓Checks are monitored commercially, so a platform that changes its not-found behaviour gets fixed without waiting on a community pull request
- ✓Output is written for someone making a decision — a linked report you can save, re-run and export — rather than a research artefact to filter
- ✓Nothing to keep in sync: no dataset to pull, no front-end to pick, and no dependency on which third-party tool happens to be online that day
WhatsMyName vs AliaScan — FAQ
Is WhatsMyName still maintained?+
Yes. The dataset is actively updated on GitHub and now describes roughly 700 sites. What changed is its scope: the project removed its bundled checker scripts in 2023 and focuses purely on the data, leaving the scanning to front-ends such as whatsmyname.app and the many other tools that read the file.
What is a good WhatsMyName alternative?+
AliaScan covers the same handle-to-accounts job as a hosted product. Its list is smaller and deliberately curated at 400+ platforms, but every check is maintained in-house, scans finish in under 30 seconds, and the result is a linked report rather than a filterable table you work through yourself.
Does AliaScan check more sites than WhatsMyName?+
No. WhatsMyName's dataset is larger, at around 700 site definitions. AliaScan runs 400+ curated platform checks and puts its effort into upkeep, speed and readable output instead of raw list size. If maximum breadth is what you are after, the open dataset is genuinely hard to beat.