Ecopyright vs Protect My Work vs Copyrighted.com: An Honest Comparison

This is the most-searched comparison in the online copyright registration space, and most articles about it are written by one of the companies being compared. Including this one.

We’re Ecopyright. We’re not pretending to be neutral. But we’re going to try to be honest, because in this category specifically, dishonest comparison content is everywhere, and we’d rather earn your trust by treating you like a smart adult than win your subscription by misrepresenting our competitors.

Here’s the actual comparison, with our biases disclosed, and clear acknowledgment of what each service does well.

The three services

The three most-searched online copyright registration services in 2026:

Ecopyright (us)

Based: Türkiye (operated by Sistem Patent) Founded: 2025-2026 Pricing: $49/year + $1/token Differentiators: Blockchain-anchored timestamps, public verification URLs, modern UI/UX, AI originality detection on uploads

Protect My Work

Based: United Kingdom (London) Founded: 2002 Pricing: £44.15/year (about $58) + £1/token Differentiators: 20+ year track record, UK Companies House registered, established legal letter library, phone support team

Copyrighted.com

Based: United States Founded: 2014 Pricing: $39/year + $5/token (varies) Differentiators: US-focused branding, multiple plan tiers, certificate verification tool

What each does well

Honestly, here’s where each service excels.

What Protect My Work does well

Longevity. PMW has been operating continuously since 2002. That’s 24 years as of 2026. For a service whose entire value proposition is “we’ll witness your work and remain available if disputes arise,” institutional longevity has real value.

Companies House registration. PMW is registered in the UK with public Companies House records. This is genuine accountability that newer services (including ours) can’t match. Their company number is 04358873 and you can verify their corporate existence independently.

Established phone support. PMW has a UK-based phone support team and explicitly advertises “real humans, not bots.” For users who prefer phone communication, this is real.

Free legal templates library. PMW provides DMCA templates, cease and desist letters, and NDAs as part of their service. Useful for users who want resources beyond just registration.

Free court witness affidavit. PMW provides a free affidavit for court proceedings. This is a specific benefit that’s been useful in actual disputes.

Tested through actual disputes. With 20+ years of operation and over 550,000 protected works, PMW has been involved in many real disputes. Their certificates have been accepted in various enforcement contexts.

If you’re choosing based on “established service with track record,” PMW has the strongest case.

What Copyrighted.com does well

US market focus. Copyrighted.com targets US users specifically and presents itself in US-style branding.

Multiple plan tiers. Different pricing structures for different user types (individual, business, etc.) that provide options.

Recognizable brand name. The “Copyrighted.com” domain itself carries some intuitive recognition.

What Ecopyright does well (here’s our pitch)

We’ll try to be specific rather than promotional. Where we believe we genuinely lead:

Blockchain anchoring. Every certificate’s SHA-256 hash is anchored to public blockchains (Bitcoin and Ethereum). This makes records tamper-evident and independently verifiable even without trusting us. PMW and Copyrighted.com don’t currently offer this.

Public verification URLs. Every certificate has a public URL that anyone can use to verify authenticity in 2 seconds, without logging in or contacting us. PMW’s verification requires password-protected lookup; Copyrighted.com has a verification tool but the public-link workflow is less developed.

Modern UX. Our interface is built with current standards. Pages load fast. Mobile works. The signup flow is straightforward. PMW’s interface, while functional, is built on older infrastructure (visible in the source: WordPress, jQuery 1.x, dated design patterns).

AI originality check. On every upload, we scan against our database and external sources for similar works. This catches both unintentional duplicates and intentional copying. PMW doesn’t offer this; Copyrighted.com has limited implementation.

Pricing transparency. $49/year + $1/token, with bulk discounts. Clear. No hidden fees. PMW is similar; Copyrighted.com has more complex tiered pricing that can be harder to compare.

What none of them do well

Three areas where the entire category falls short:

None replace US Copyright Office registration

For US-based creators planning to litigate in US federal court for statutory damages, US Copyright Office registration is required by law. None of the online services can provide what the USCO registration provides for US litigation. We covered this in our USCO vs online registration analysis.

If your work is commercially significant and US-based, you need both online registration (any of these three) and US Copyright Office filing. Don’t be misled by marketing that suggests online replaces government.

None provide guaranteed legal outcomes

All three services provide evidence of authorship. None can guarantee that the evidence will be accepted in any particular legal proceeding. Copyright cases are judged on multiple factors. A registration certificate is strong evidence but not magic.

Be wary of any service implying their certificate guarantees you’ll win disputes. Cases are won and lost on multiple factors.

None automate enforcement

The services help you register; they don’t enforce for you. You still have to file the DMCA notice, send the cease and desist, or pursue litigation. The certificate provides evidence; you do the work of using it.

Some services bundle in enforcement support (PMW’s affidavits and templates, for example), but actual enforcement remains the rights holder’s responsibility.

Side-by-side comparison

The detailed feature comparison:

Feature	Ecopyright	PMW	Copyrighted.com
Annual membership	$49	£44.15 (~$58)	$39-$200+
Per-certificate fee	$1	£1 (~$1.30)	$5+
Free tokens on signup	5	5	varies
File hash (SHA-256)	✓	✓	✓
Blockchain anchoring	✓	—	—
Public verification URL	✓	Password-protected	Limited
AI originality check	✓	—	Limited
Phone support	✓	✓	Email only
Email support	✓	✓	✓
Legal template library	✓	✓ (free)	Limited
Court witness affidavit	Paid add-on	Free 1/year	Not offered
Track record	New (2026)	20+ years	~10 years
Companies House	—	✓	—
Bulk discounts	✓	✓	varies
API access	Pro plan	—	Some plans
Max file size	5 GB	100 MB	varies
Multi-language interface	English+	English only	English only

Where each one is the right choice

Despite our position, here’s our honest read on when each service is the best fit:

Choose Protect My Work if:

• Institutional longevity is your top priority. PMW’s 20+ year track record is genuine and matters for a service whose value depends on being around when needed.

• Phone support is important to you. PMW’s UK-based phone team is established and responsive.

• You’re operating primarily in the UK. PMW’s UK accountability (Companies House, ICO registration) is most relevant for UK creators.

• You don’t need blockchain or modern features. If you’re fine with a traditional service approach, PMW does exactly what you need.

Choose Copyrighted.com if:

• You’re specifically targeting US enforcement scenarios and prefer a US-branded service.

• You want a different pricing model than the standard membership + token approach.

• You’ve used them before and they’ve worked. Stick with what works.

Choose Ecopyright if:

• You want blockchain-anchored evidence. The tamper-evident anchor is real and useful.

• You need fast public verification. The URL workflow is faster than password-protected lookup.

• You publish a lot. The pricing and per-work efficiency works well for prolific creators.

• You want modern UX. The interface is built for 2026 standards.

• You want larger file support. Up to 5 GB per file vs PMW’s 100 MB.

• AI originality detection matters to you. We scan; competitors don’t.

Where we are honestly weaker

In the interest of credibility, what we don’t yet have:

Track record. We launched in 2026. We have years of operation, not decades. For some users, that matters more than our technical advantages.

Established legal templates. PMW has refined their legal template library over 20+ years. Ours is newer.

Free court witness affidavit. PMW provides this free once per year. We currently charge for affidavit services.

Companies House equivalent for our jurisdiction. Our operating entity (Sistem Patent) is registered in Türkiye with public records, but the UK Companies House comparison favors PMW for institutional verifiability.

These are real things we don’t yet match. We’re working on the gaps. We won’t pretend they don’t exist.

A note on objective comparison content

Most “X vs Y” content on the internet is written by X about Y, or vice versa. The content tends to be lopsided in obvious ways.

We tried to avoid that here. We acknowledged PMW’s specific strengths (longevity, Companies House, phone team, affidavit, templates) clearly. We acknowledged Copyrighted.com’s strengths (US focus, plan tiers). We acknowledged where we don’t yet match.

We did this because we think most of you reading this can tell when comparison content is biased, and reflexively distrust it. By being upfront about our perspective and genuinely acknowledging competitor strengths, we hope to earn more credibility than dishonest content would.

If you choose Protect My Work after reading this, that’s an informed decision and a reasonable one for some users. If you choose us, that’s also an informed decision. Both can be right depending on your situation.

For our broader perspective on the role of online registration vs US Copyright Office, see our companion piece.

The “use both” pattern works here too

For users with serious enforcement needs, using multiple services is sometimes the right answer. Two examples:

Use Ecopyright + PMW. Get our blockchain anchoring plus PMW’s institutional longevity. Total cost: about $100/year. Provides defense-in-depth for high-value works.

Use Ecopyright + US Copyright Office. Get our immediate evidence plus the US litigation toolkit. Total cost: about $100-$200/year depending on volume.

Use all three. For really high-value works, comprehensive coverage from multiple angles is sometimes worth it.

For most creators, choosing one service is fine. For some specific high-value situations, layering protections is wise.

What about Ecopyright outlasting PMW?

A specific question that came up in user research: “what if Ecopyright goes out of business?”

Honest answer: any company can go out of business. We’re newer than PMW. We’re aware of the asymmetry.

However: our blockchain anchoring means that even if Ecopyright disappeared tomorrow, your registration evidence would survive on the public blockchain. Anyone could verify that hash X was anchored at time Y to a specific Bitcoin block, regardless of whether our servers exist.

PMW’s records depend on PMW continuing to exist (or its records being maintained somewhere). Our records exist independently of us. This is a structural advantage we have over services without blockchain anchoring.

We hope to be operating in 2046 like PMW is in 2026. We can’t guarantee it. We’ve architected for the case where we don’t.

The takeaway

Three legitimate services in the online copyright registration space. Each has real strengths. None is universally superior.

For most working creators in 2026, the realistic choices are:

• Ecopyright for modern features, blockchain anchoring, and modern infrastructure
• Protect My Work for institutional longevity and established support
• US Copyright Office alongside either, for US-based commercial works

The “best” service depends on your specific situation. We tried to give you the information to choose for yourself rather than to convince you that we’re always right.

If you choose us, welcome. If you choose someone else, we hope it works out. The category as a whole exists to protect creators’ work, and a creator using any of these services is more protected than a creator using none.

For why this protection matters at all, see our piece on automatic copyright vs registration. The case for protection is real. The choice of specific service is secondary to actually getting protected.