myFICO vs. Credit Karma 2025: Identity Protection vs. Credit Monitoring

Credit Karma is a better choice for monitoring credit than myFICO because it offers more core features for free. Credit Karma includes credit building and money management tools that myFICO doesn’t. On the other hand, if you’re concerned about identity theft, myFICO includes tools that help with protection and remediation.

Privacy-minded people will like myFICO’s data-sharing policies but may prefer Credit Karma’s level of encryption. Read on to see more of the differences between these two and figure out which is best for you.

myFICO vs. Credit Karma review at a glance

While myFICO offers a free score with some credit monitoring, the real value is in its paid plans, which offer identity theft protection and remediation.

Credit Karma doesn’t offer paid services, so the free plan doesn’t include insurance coverage or remediation. But the free service does give you tools to monitor and work on your credit score.

• myFICO: Best for identity theft coverage
• Credit Karma: Best for credit monitoring

myFICO® vs. Credit Karma

		Our Pick
Star rating	4.3 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Price	Free–$39.95/mo	Free
Free plan
Financial account monitoring
FICO® score
Credit score	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax
Credit score update frequency	Daily	Daily
Credit report	Yes — Experian on free/basic plan, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion on paid plans	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax
Credit report update frequency	Monthly for Basic or Premier, Quarterly for Advanced	Daily for TransUnion, weekly for Equifax
Credit lock
Credit analysis
Credit building
Extras	Identity monitoring, identity theft insurance, 24/7 identity restoration	Identity monitoring, free-to-open checking account, and helps you find insurance policies, loans, and credit cards
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

myFICO pros and cons

One of the most appealing aspects of myFICO is that it provides you with your FICO® score, which is usually what lenders look for when determining your creditworthiness. It also includes identity theft protection and remediation to assist you in case you become the victim of identity theft or fraud. Since the plans are month to month, you can cancel at any time, but you can always use the free credit check plan if you just want to view your score.

This service needs to collect sensitive information about you for its services to work, but we don’t like that it also shares information with affiliates and third parties to provide services (though the latter is sometimes unavoidable). We were also surprised to find out that there were no free trials and no refunds available. Considering the month-to-month payment structure, you’ll have plenty of time to cancel before your next charge, but if you miss it, there’s no chance of getting your money back for the month.

Credit Karma pros and cons

Credit Karma is a completely free service that allows you to monitor your credit. It includes features like credit building that help you improve your credit score. There are also credit card and loan offers to help you consolidate debt. At the very least, Credit Karma is a free way to monitor your credit and catch anything that could be affecting it before it becomes an issue.

Like other credit monitoring services, Credit Karma collects data. But Credit Karma is egregious when it comes to sharing a lot of your data with third parties, including for marketing purposes. While all of these credit card and loan offers could help you consolidate debt, they can also be overwhelming if your goal is simple credit monitoring.

Which is the better value?

Credit Karma is the better value because it never charges a fee. Even though there aren’t any identity theft protection features like with myFICO, you still have the ability to see what’s affecting your credit score.

		Best Value
Price range	Free–$39.95/mo	Free
Best value plan	Basic for $19.95/mo	Free
Money-back guarantee		N/A
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

If you want more monitoring and protection, myFICO’s paid plans offer that. The free plan for myFICO is basic and includes simple credit monitoring, but the paid plans offer identity theft insurance, remediation services, and more as you move up in price. We think the Basic plan is the best value because you get the features we listed for the lowest price myFICO offers. Identity monitoring isn’t included, but you still have access to credit monitoring.

Credit Karma offers a completely free plan that gives you credit monitoring and building services as well as credit card and loan offers. Credit Karma can help you file your taxes via TurboTax, shop for better insurance, and also manage your finances. For a free service, there is a significant amount of value in the features offered.

Which has the better features?

Credit Karma has more of the core features you’d hope to find in a credit monitoring service, like credit building and money management tools. While myFICO includes more identity theft protection, Credit Karma includes more financial monitoring.

		Best Features
Credit score monitoring	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax
Credit report	Yes — Experian on free/basic plan, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion on paid plans	Yes — TransUnion and Equifax
Financial account monitoring
Credit lock
Credit analysis
Credit dispute resolution support
Credit builder account
Money management tools (bills, budget, etc.)
ID theft insurance	Yes — $1 million
Extras	Identity monitoring, identity theft insurance, 24/7 identity restoration	Identity monitoring, insurance policies, loans, credit cards, and free-to-open checking account
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

If identity protection is your goal, myFICO definitely has the better features. Even on the Basic plan, you get identity theft insurance and remediation. Unfortunately, the credit monitoring and financial management features are fairly sparse.

Credit Karma includes plenty of credit monitoring features and financial management tools. You can keep track of your credit and anything affecting it, open new credit cards, and even get a free checking account. Like myFICO, Credit Karma even offers credit dispute assistance, so you can challenge a line item that may be dragging down your score.

Which service is more secure?

While both services share data with third parties, myFICO shares data to provide you with services and has a separate privacy policy outlining how it protects your data.

	Our Pick
Two-factor authentication
Collects data
Shares data with third parties	Yes, with affiliates to provide services	Yes, for marketing purposes
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

To use a credit monitoring service, you have to input a lot of personal information. That’s a given. Credit Karma shares a lot of your data with third parties, including for marketing purposes, while myFICO shares data with affiliates to provide services.

Both platforms include two-factor authentication (2FA) and are encrypted, but only myFICO includes its data protection efforts in its privacy policy. The trade-off for Credit Karma being free and offering so many features is that it gets to share your data.

Which has better compatibility and customer support?

Credit Karma includes more customer support options so you can reach support faster.

		Our Pick
Android
iOS
Credit dispute resolution support
24/7 customer support
Customer support options	Phone, email	Live chat, email, online guides
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

Neither service offers 24/7 support, but Credit Karma does have more options when it comes to reaching out to support. We love live chat, so any service offering that gets bonus points in our books. Credit Karma also includes a more modern interface and a stronger encryption key for your data.

Both services offer highly rated apps, with minimal reports of issues. iPhone users of both services have reported lagging in credit reporting as the main issue. Android users have reported issues with myFICO freezing and crashing.

FAQs

myFICO vs. Credit Karma: Which is better?

Credit Karma is the better service if your goal is to monitor and maybe improve your credit score.

		Best Overall
Value
Features
Privacy and security
Customer support
Learn more	Get myFICO Read myFICO Review	Get Credit Karma Read Credit Karma Review

Despite competitors having lower monthly costs, we like myFICO for identity theft protection and remediation. However, it doesn’t deliver the same credit monitoring features that Credit Karma offers for free.

Credit Karma offers credit building, financial monitoring, and money management tools in addition to free credit monitoring. It does share a lot of your data for marketing purposes, which myFICO doesn’t, but it also offers you plenty of options for opening new lines of credit, shopping for insurance, and you can even open a free checking account.

Taking advantage of some of the best credit monitoring services available will help you keep track of your credit score, so you’re never surprised when you need to use it.

Top alternatives

If you’re looking for a service that collects less data or offers more features, check out some of the alternatives we’ve tested and recommend below.