LifeLock by Norton is one of the top names in identity theft protection. It offers plans for individuals and families at three different tiers to suit anyone’s budget. Each tier comes with some level of identity monitoring, credit monitoring, identity theft insurance coverage, and other unique features to keep you protected from identity thieves.

However, there are several alternatives to LifeLock that may better meet your needs. We’ve summarized the pros and cons of several of the best identity theft protection services below, like Aura, IdentityForce, ID Watchdog, and more.

How to pick identity theft protection for you

LifeLock is one of the best-known names in identity theft protection for a reason, though it might not be the best choice for everyone.

There are a ton of factors to consider when choosing alternative identity theft protection services, including pricing, who is being covered, how much insurance is available, and if they offer credit monitoring services.

We’ll provide details on the following ID theft protection options for you to compare to LifeLock so you can see which best fits your needs.

• Aura
• Identity Guard
• IdentityForce
• ID Watchdog
• IDShield

Aura

4.9

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On Aura Identity Theft's website

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Aura Identity Theft

• Excellent identity theft protection service
• Includes a password manager and VPN
• Robust tools for children’s security
• Provides VantageScore and not FICO score updates

Aura is another popular identity theft prevention tool that monitors your credit and identity. Like LifeLock, it offers a whole suite of features, like home title monitoring, monitoring with all three credit bureaus, a virtual private network (VPN), and more. These features are available with all Aura plans, but LifeLock only offers them on Ultimate Plus and other premium Norton packages.

LifeLock Standard only offers one-bureau credit monitoring with Equifax, while LifeLock Advantage only offers one-bureau credit monitoring plus a monthly credit score with Equifax. If you’re looking for credit protection from TransUnion and Experian as well, then you can subscribe to any Aura plan.

An area where Aura takes it a step further than LifeLock is child ID theft protection. Many identity monitoring services will cover children by monitoring their identities online. However, Aura offers a safe gaming feature that monitors cyberbullying and sends geo-alerts for sex offenders in the area.

Aura is more expensive than LifeLock. Aura’s family plan, which covers five adults and unlimited children, is $24.00/mo. LifeLock’s comparable family plan, which includes two adults and five children, starts at $19.99/mo for first yr. For individual plans, Aura is $12.00/mo. LifeLock’s individual plan starts at $7.50/mo for first yr.

Get Aura | Read Our Aura Review

Identity Guard

4.8

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On Identity Guard's website

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Identity Guard

• Easy-to-use identity theft protection service
• Includes extra features like a password manager
• No dedicated remediation assistance available

The biggest pro of Identity Guard is that it has a ton of great features for a lower monthly cost (for individuals) than many of its competitors. Identity Guard offers dark web monitoring, a password manager, and more in all three tiers of its plans. For individual-level plans, Identity Guard’s prices cannot be beaten by LifeLock, especially with LifeLock’s prices rising after the first year.

If you want to protect the whole family, Identity Guard’s family plans cover five adults and unlimited kids, while LifeLock’s plans are limited to two adults and five kids. The prices are cheaper too. The Value Family plan starts at $10.00/mo, while LifeLock Standard for Family with Kids starts at $13.24/mo for first yr.

A con of Identity Guard is its limitations in identity restoration services. LifeLock offers identity theft insurance between $1 million to $3 million in coverage per adult (depending on the plan) as well as U.S.-based identity restoration specialists. Although it offers up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, Identity Guard doesn’t mention identity restoration services on its site. After some research, we found that Identity Guard will pay for a lawyer and other remediation fees, but there doesn’t seem to be assistance with recovering from identity fraud.

And while LifeLock offers at least one-bureau credit monitoring in every tier, Identity Guard only offers credit monitoring in its Ultra Plan.

Get Identity Guard | Read Our Identity Guard Review

IdentityForce

4.2

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On IdentityForce's website

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IdentityForce

• Lots of features
• Easy-to-use dashboard
• Dicey privacy policy

IdentityForce offers plenty of account monitoring for the whole family. It also comes with features that LifeLock lacks, including medical ID fraud protection, a password manager, a credit score tracker, and a credit score simulator. IdentityForce’s award-winning ChildWatch feature makes this option really appealing to parents wanting to monitor their children’s safety online as well.

However, IdentityForce’s privacy policy is not the best. It states that it can collect the information you provide, which is normal for identity theft protection, but it also logs data from your device and imports any third-party data it can find on you. Unfortunately, it can use this data for marketing purposes.

IdentityForce is also lacking in the customer service department. Its customer support information isn’t listed in the IdentityForce portal. During our testing, we submitted a request to cancel our subscription via the online form but didn’t receive a response for several hours. When we called, the agent was rude and pretty unhelpful.

Get IdentityForce | Read Our IdentityForce Review

ID Watchdog

ID Watchdog monitors suspicious activity in many ways, including financial account monitoring for your credit cards and bank accounts, fraud alerts, and even social media monitoring. It’s great for people who want comprehensive coverage and identity theft protection, especially individuals or small families. Larger families may want to look into alternatives that cover more children and adults in their family plans.

We also had good experiences with customer support. We had to reach out several times for issues while creating and logging in to our account, but support was friendly, helpful, and patient with us each time.

The major drawback of ID Watchdog is that many of its features are only available in their higher tier plans, which are more expensive than LifeLock and some other competitors. ID Watchdog’s Premium Individual plan costs $21.95/mo, while LifeLock Ultimate Plus Individual costs $19.99/mo for first yr. The ID Watchdog plan includes the personal VPN and safe browsing features, credit lock, and three-bureau annual credit reports.

Get ID Watchdog | Read Our ID Watchdog Review

IDShield

Unlike its competitors, which offer limited features in their lower-tier plans, IDShield includes it all in every plan. You can even get a VPN, password manager, and antivirus software, all of which are not included with LifeLock. With IDShield, you’ll have comprehensive cybersecurity to protect your device from hackers, malware, identity thieves, and other threats.

IDShield is also great because it’s affordable compared to competitors. It offers two tiers for individual plans: one-bureau credit monitoring for $14.95/mo or three-bureau credit monitoring for $3.99/mo. The family plan is $29.95/mo for one-bureau credit monitoring and $29.95/mo for three-bureau credit monitoring. It includes your spouse and all dependents under 18 living with you. This makes it much cheaper than LifeLock, especially because it offers more features in even its lowest tiers.

However, IDShield’s login is confusing. If you log in from IDShield’s website, you’ll find one dashboard while IDShield.cloud provides a completely different one. We also had issues using the registered offenders tab; we had to restart our browsers each time we accessed it.

Our experience with IDShield’s customer support was also lacking. When we called, the customer service agent was short with us. And the only option to cancel your account is to call customer service.

Get IDShield | Read Our IDShield Review

How to cancel your LifeLock subscription

You can cancel your LifeLock subscription by calling 1-800-LIFELOCK (543-3562) or by using its 24/7 live chat. If you wish to cancel from your member portal, you should sign in to your account and then open the My Subscriptions tab. There will be an option to cancel there.

LifeLock alternatives FAQs

Bottom line

Protecting your family’s personal data is extremely important, and considering what company to use comes with many questions. How many features do you get for what price? Do you need to protect just yourself or your family too? How important is credit monitoring or other types of alerts and protections? It can be confusing, but evaluating your needs is an important step to make sure you and your family are safe online.

If you’re looking to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft, you can read through our list of the best identity theft protection services.

4.9

Learn More

On Aura Identity Theft's website

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Aura Identity Theft

• Excellent identity theft protection service
• Includes a password manager and VPN
• Robust tools for children’s security
• Provides VantageScore and not FICO score updates

Author Details

Waverly Colville

About the Author

Waverly Colville is a Brooklyn-based journalist and producer. She's a graduate of the University of Missouri with degrees in investigative journalism and international relations. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HBO, Reuters, and The New Yorker.