Best for identity theft insurance

4.9

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On LifeLock's website

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LifeLock

• Open-source software allows users to customize
• Works with major web browsers as well as Tor, Vivaldi, and Brave
• Leaves a lot to be desired with its interface

Best for mid-tier monitoring

4.8

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On Identity Guard's website

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Identity Guard

• Comes with essential password manager features and digital legacy, emergency access, and more
• Can cover up to six users and unlimited devices
• Has suffered multiple security breaches

Having your identity stolen can be an overwhelming experience. The National Council on Identity Theft Protection estimates that there is a new identity theft victim every 22 seconds.[1] There are many reasons to sign up for an identity theft product  — you may be protecting yourself after your personal information was exposed in a data breach, or you may be taking a proactive approach so that you’re more protected if your identity is stolen. No matter your reasoning, it is important to find an identity theft product that meets your needs.

Identity theft solutions come with many different features to help keep you safe, including monitoring your credit, Social Security number (SSN), social media accounts, and more. That way, you can take a more active role in protecting your personal information.

LifeLock and Identity Guard are two popular identity theft solutions. Both offer effective solutions in helping you stay ahead of fraudsters who may gain access to your information.

LifeLock and Identity Guard both have similar offerings, but you’ll want to sign up for the highest level to get the most value out of either subscription. From our experience, LifeLock’s Standard plan and Identity Guard’s Value plan didn’t include enough protection.

However, the highest-tier plans for both companies offer extensive solutions to help protect your identity in several different ways. While the expense may seem high, ID theft protection is worth it to keep your personal information safe.

We looked at both LifeLock and Identity Guard to find the best option for users. LifeLock is a bit more expensive, but it offers a more sizable identity theft insurance plan. On the other hand, Identity Guard is a more substantial identity theft monitoring solution that comes with monitoring and a lower amount of insurance at a lower price.

• LifeLock: Best for identity theft insurance
• Identity Guard: Best for mid-tier monitoring

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard review at a glance

	Norton LifeLock Our Pick	Identity Guard
Price	$7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr	$6.67–$19.99/mo
Identity theft insurance	Up to $3 million	Up to $1 million
Credit monitoring
3-bureau credit reports
Credit score
Identity recovery
Dark web alerts
Social media account alerts
	Get Norton LifeLock Read Norton LifeLock Review	Get Identity Guard Read Identity Guard Review

LifeLock and Identity Guard both provide important tools to keep your identity and credit secure. From our experience, their top-tier plans offer the most extensive monitoring solutions. While you may be seeking credit monitoring, the other alerts are helpful in protecting your identity overall.

LifeLock is the more expensive of the two services, but the higher price comes with additional identity theft insurance. LifeLock offers up to $3 million in insurance, while Identity Guard offers up to $1 million.

LifeLock also offers a variety of plans, including individual, family, and family with children. This gives you greater flexibility based on the number of people you’d like on your account. Identity Guard offers only an individual or family plan. It doesn’t offer the third option for those without kids.

Neither option gives you access to your FICO score, but they do provide updates to your VantageScore. For the most comprehensive look at your credit, you should look at both your FICO and VantageScore.

LifeLock pros and cons

IdentityGuard pros and cons

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard: prices

Reviewed by Andrew Adams

“LifeLock also offers a variety of plans, including individual, family, and family with children. This gives you greater flexibility based on the number of people you’d like on your account. Identity Guard offers only an individual or family plan. It doesn’t offer the third option for those without kids.”

LifeLock plans

LifeLock’s membership plans are structured similarly to Identity Guard, with three different tiers as well as family plans. LifeLock has family plans for two adults as well as family plans for two adults plus five kids.

Each LifeLock plan includes at least $1 million in identity theft coverage for lawyer fees, stolen funds reimbursement, and personal expenses. It also offers a 30-day free trial for new users to try the service.

• LifeLock Standard: LifeLock’s Standard plan is bare bones, but it does include identity and SSN alerts as well as Equifax credit monitoring. The Standard plan also includes dark web monitoring and data breach notifications.
• LifeLock Advantage: Beyond the Standard plan features, the Advantage plan also includes additional reimbursement for stolen funds and personal expenses, monthly credit scores, and identity lock, which allows you to lock your TransUnion credit file.
• LifeLock Ultimate Plus: The Ultimate Plus plan includes the features from the previous two tiers and adds a lot of great additional features, including home title monitoring, sex offender registry reports, and social media monitoring. The Ultimate Plus plan also gives you up to $3 million in coverage for an identity theft incident.

Identity Guard plans

IdentityGuard offers several individual and family plans to help meet your identity protection needs. All of the individual plans cover one individual, while the family plan gives you protection for five adults and unlimited children. Identity Guard also offers a 60-day money-back guarantee on all its plans.

• Identity Guard Value: Identity Guard’s Value plan leaves a lot of gaps if you’re looking for comprehensive identity protection. You do get $1 million in identity theft insurance and monitoring for data breaches, high-risk transactions, and dark web monitoring. Unfortunately, you don’t get access to your credit scores or any credit bureau monitoring.
• Identity Guard Total: The Total plan offers a bit more coverage, but it is still lacking some important features. You’ll get credit monitoring and a monthly credit score, but you won't be able to lock your credit — which can be an important tool after an identity theft incident. The Total plan adds bank account monitoring along with the other monitoring features included with the Value plan. You also still receive $1 million in identity theft insurance.
• Identity Guard Ultra: The Ultra plan includes all the bells and whistles and gives you the most robust identity protection. With the Ultra plan, you still get $1 million in identity theft insurance, but you also get access to fraud resolution services to help you after an incident. The Ultra plan adds monitoring for social media, credit cards, home titles, and sex offenders, among others. You can also use Experian Credit Lock and access your annual credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard: monitoring and alerts

When comparing LifeLock and Identity Guard’s top-tier plans, there is an abundance of monitoring to help keep you safe online and offline. With both services, you get real-time monitoring in the following areas:

• Dark web: Scans the dark web for instances of your email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, or other personal information. If you know that your information is on the dark web, you can change passwords or information to mitigate potential theft.
• Bank accounts: Monitors your financial accounts for suspicious activity, such as large withdrawals. These alerts enable you to stop the fraudsters quickly if they have access to your accounts.
• Social media: Monitors your social media profiles and alerts you of abnormal activity or suspicious links. Identity thieves can use social media to gain personally identifiable information about you or to find new victims based on your friend list.
• Home title: Notifies you in case of any changes to your home title or deed. Keeps fraudsters from gaining access to your home equity or jeopardizing ownership of your home.
• Sex offender: Scans the sex offender registry for your name and personal information and alerts you if your name or information is found on the registry.
• USPS address changes: Alerts you to any changes made to your address through the United States Postal Service.

You won’t find too many differences between LifeLock and Identity Guard as far as monitoring. Neither LifeLock nor IdentityGuard offers access to your FICO score. While the VantageScore is becoming more popular, the FICO score is still the most widely used for new credit. Without access to your FICO score, you may not have an accurate picture of your credit.

LifeLock offers a more substantial protection package. With the Premium Ultra plan, you can get up to $3 million in protection to help offset identity theft losses. LifeLock also offers a third tier of plans for families with two adults but no children. IdentityGuard only offers individual memberships or membership plans for up to five adults and unlimited kids.

Which is safer, LifeLock vs. Identity Guard?

Protecting your personally identifiable information is a critical component of keeping your identity secure. When looking for identity protection, it is important to ensure they’re protecting your data during the process. We looked at the privacy policies of both solutions to make sure they were collecting only necessary data and that they weren’t sharing data unless it was necessary as part of the solution.

Both LifeLock and Identity Guard offer two-factor and multi-factor authentication to help protect your account information. Multi-factor authentication can keep your account safe even if someone has access to your password. In order to gain access to your account, the fraudster will also need access to your other authentication items, such as a phone, biometrics, or email.

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard data security

Identity Guard’s parent company is Aura, which is also the name of another identity theft product on the market. If you look at Identity Guard’s privacy policy, you’ll be redirected to the Aura policy. Both Identity Guard and LifeLock need a significant amount of personal information in order to perform the services outlined, so you’ll have to give up some data to gain the benefits of the service. We didn’t see any red flags in either privacy policy.

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard: compatibility and ease of use

Neither LifeLock nor Identity Guard has desktop apps for Windows or macOS. However, you can access your identity theft protection accounts from any web browser. From our testing, we thought LifeLock’s browser dashboard was more intuitive and easier to use than Identity Guard.

Additionally, you can access either identity theft protection service from their iOS or Android mobile app. The LifeLock mobile app was also more user-friendly than Identity Guard. We’ve used Identity Guard for some time, and each time we got an alert via email, it was a bit of a hassle to find the actual information — especially on a mobile device. You can’t access the full details of an alert from the app, so you’ll have to log in to the website to get all the pertinent information.

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard: customer service

Both LifeLock and Identity Guard offer content libraries with helpful tips on what to do if you encounter identity theft or other issues with your identity. However, Identity Guard’s content was more up -to-date. We couldn’t find any 2023 blogs on LifeLock’s website.

However, LifeLock comes with 24/7 member support via live chat. This is a notable feature since identity theft can happen at any time. Being able to access customer support, even in the middle of the night, can help you mitigate any damages from identity theft. Identity Guard offers customer support via phone or email, but only during specific business hours and with no support on Sundays.

LifeLock vs. Identity Guard FAQs

What is the best identity theft protection: LifeLock vs. Identity Guard?

While LifeLock and Identity Guard seem similar, we determined that LifeLock is ahead of Identity Guard in the race for the best identity theft protection service.

LifeLock is only a few dollars more than the comparable Identity Guard plan. We found the extra expense worth it, especially for the additional insurance coverage in the unfortunate event that we are a victim of identity theft. It’s also easier to use and navigate than Identity Guard.

Signing up for an identity theft protection program can both help you prevent identity theft and help mitigate any issues if your identity is stolen. However, identity theft programs are effective only if you use them, so make sure you set up your account in its entirety and pay attention to the monitoring alerts you receive. An unread monitoring alert is sort of like the old question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

4.9

Up to 30% off first year when paid annually

Learn More

On LifeLock's website

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LifeLock

• 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
• Customer support experience is lacking

Author Details

Andrew Adams

About the Author

Andrew Strom Adams is a freelance writer focused on online privacy and digital security. He writes on various topics to help individuals protect themselves on the internet. Andrew has worked in legal marketing, technology, and startups. He has more than 12 years of experience in marketing and communications. He holds an M.B.A. from Westminster College and a B.A. in journalism from Oklahoma Baptist University. When he’s not writing, he’s playing with his two kids or watching reality TV.