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Best for family protection
Best for long-term pricing
Aura, Identity Guard, and Norton LifeLock offer the best identity theft protection with restoration services. Aura will keep your entire family safe with unique tools not found in other ID protection services. Identity Guard utilizes AI to evolve as your protection needs change. Finally, Norton offers more insurance than its competitors. Which one is right for you hinges on your individual needs and goals.
| Service |  Aura |  Identity Guard |
 Norton LifeLock |
| Starting price | Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $8.99/mo | Starts at $7.50/mo (billed annually) for first year |
| Number of people covered | 5 Adults, unlimited children | Up to 5 adults, unlimited children | Up to 2 adults, up to 5 children |
| Types of identity monitoring | Credit, SSN, Home & auto title, Criminal & court records, lost wallet remediation | Credit, SSN, change of address, home title, social media, financial accounts | Identity and SSN, dark web, phone takeover, home title, social media |
| Identity restoration services | |||
| ID theft insurance | Up to $1 million | Up to $1 million | Up to $1.05 million through $3 million, depending on plan |
| Credit monitoring | |||
| 3-bureau credit reports | |||
| Extras | Safe Gaming, Antivirus, VPN, Password manager, Parental controls, AI spam call & message protection | Password manager, safe browsing tools, data removal services | Data removal services |
| Details | View Plans | View Plans | View Plans |
To review identity theft protection services, we sign up for the service several days prior to our review. This allows the service time to begin populating our dashboard with identity and credit monitoring information and send us real-time alerts. During this time, we also evaluate the service's ease of use, contact customer support, and play around with the extra features.
After spending some time with the service, we use our proprietary grading rubric which calculates a star rating based on prices, identity monitoring features, credit features, and other criteria.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full ID theft testing methodology here.
Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security
If you’ve read recently about data leaks at schools that have exposed children’s Social Security numbers (SSNs), you may be wondering what you can do to protect your kids’ identity. Child identity theft and credit card fraud are real crimes that can be a complete nightmare to address. These are some ways kids’ identities are stolen:
But Aura has your family covered. Not only does the service provide protection for children, but it also provides parental controls, safe gaming features, as well as the ability to freeze your child’s credit. This can assist your children in starting their credit journey with a clean slate when it comes time.
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Aura walks you through the setup process so you have all your settings activated from the beginning. The dashboard is comprehensive, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. The features are robust, including, as previously mentioned, child protection features. We were also impressed with Aura’s additional features that go beyond identity theft protection:
One feature unique to Aura is the ability to monitor your individual transactions, so you can receive a notification if there’s a purchase made over your spending limit. Additionally, Aura can prioritize what’s important to you by allowing you to customize your experience at the very beginning. When you sign up, Aura asks a series of questions about your goals to really hone in on what’s important for you.
All of Aura’s extras and features don’t come cheap. Aura has one of the highest price tags we’ve seen. If you want to cover your family, you’ll be paying $25.00/mo (billed annually) monthly. The annual plans will save you money, but you’ll still be spending a lot annually on the family plan.
Aura may not work for you if you have a large family and a tight budget. That’s ok. Other services like Identity Guard are less expensive and still have the core features you need to have identity recovery services for your family.
Easy-to-use identity theft protection service
Includes extra features like a password manager
While Identity Guard and LifeLock look similar in pricing, LifeLock jumps up for the second year while Identity Guard doesn’t. If huge price hikes for something you like aren’t your thing, Identity Guard may be the answer.
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We loved the price on the Value plan because it’s one of the lowest we’ve seen. We were also impressed with how easy it is to use Identity Guard. The portal is clean, and you can navigate through it with ease. Its additional features, like the password manager, were a bonus that we appreciated.
Identity Guard is designed with the user in mind. Its intuitive artificial intelligence monitoring, which is powered by IBM Watson, scans the dark web for any mention of you. Identity Guard’s use of AI means that it is learning and evolving to protect you, even as threats become more advanced. We love tools that work smarter, not harder.
Even though Identity Guard is inexpensive, it still offers plenty of features that we love:
We found that Identity Guard only offers dedicated identity restoration assistance on its Ultra plan, which is the most premium plan. If you're looking for an identity theft protection plan on a budget, you'll be on your own to rectify any cases of identity theft if you opt for one of Identity Guard's basic plans.
We also had a slight issue when trying to check out with our Identity Guard subscription, but we tried a different payment method and succeeded. Although this is a minor issue, it can still be annoying to try multiple payment methods.
Read Our Identity Guard Review
Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
If you’re looking for extensive insurance coverage with your identity theft prevention service, Norton LifeLock has it. While this isn't the only feature available to you, LifeLock’s insurance is more generous than other plans.
Most services offer up to $1 million in coverage per adult, but LifeLock starts with over $1 million in coverage, and its Ultimate Plus plan covers up to $3 million for an adult. Those funds cover lawyers, stolen funds reimbursement, personal expense compensation, and any other costs accrued from restoring your identity. This is great news if you ever need Norton’s remediation services.
LifeLock monitoring dashboard /images/2023/05/05/lifelock-identity-theft-protection_09.jpg)
LifeLock includes a LOT of identity monitoring features:
If you want to try LifeLock before committing to a subscription, it offers a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual accounts and a 14-day money-back guarantee on monthly accounts. Norton even offers plans that bundle Norton 360 with LifeLock, so you can meet many of your cybersecurity needs with just one subscription.
We tested LifeLock on iOS for an iPhone and found the app easy to install and use. This isn’t the case for all ID protection services, so knowing we could easily access our account in case of emergency impressed us.
Continuing the theme of access, we found the dashboard easy to use as well. It has a clean design that allows you to access all the services quickly. We didn’t need to hunt for features. Overall, this experience was good, and we are comfortable recommending LifeLock.
We didn’t have a great experience with customer service. We used both the live chat feature and called, but we found the reps to be less than knowledgeable. Now, these were not the remediation representatives you would work with in case of identity theft, but they are the support staff for the LifeLock product. We received conflicting information from them and overall didn’t enjoy the experience.
New accounts were relatively well-priced, but prices after the first year went way up. And some features aren't available unless you opt for the Ultimate Plus plan. For example, you'll only get one-bureau credit monitoring with the Standard and Advantage plans, but you'll get three-bureau credit monitoring with the Ultimate Plus plan.
Read Our Norton LifeLock Review
If you’re in the market for identity theft protection services, there are questions you should ask when doing research. Whether you’re looking for just yourself or your entire family, some core features are indicative of a good identity theft protection company. Ask yourself these questions when comparing brands:
Restoring your identity after it’s been stolen can be an incredibly frustrating process. If you purchase ID theft protection, make sure you choose one that also helps you restore your identity.
You won’t need to worry about calling the right agencies, dealing with the credit bureaus, or juggling lawyers to deal with identity theft losses. An agent will be able to help you deal with all the legal ramifications of identity theft without the headache.
While restoring your identity without a service is possible, you’ll find it much easier if you have a professional on your side. Identity theft protection services are well-equipped to assist you in restoring your good name.
Most will even pay for the remediation services when involving outside parties like lawyers and private investigators. Getting your identity back can get pretty pricey, so these services provide the tools and insurance to help.
To know if you’re a victim of identity theft, look for obvious signs of suspicious activity. Unrecognized purchases on your financial accounts, stolen funds, or unfamiliar line items on your credit report are all indicators.
Sometimes, however, you won’t know until it’s too late. If someone is able to steal the deed to your home or change your address to intercept mail, it could be a long time until you realize this is happening.
ID theft protection is definitely worth it for your peace of mind, especially if you find yourself affected by identity theft. Aura will make sure everyone from your grandma to your kids is covered to prevent theft. Identity Guard gives you AI-enabled technology that evolves over time. And LifeLock offers high insurance coverage that ensures you won’t pay out-of-pocket for remediation.
Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security
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