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Best for Couples or Families
- Excellent identity theft protection service
- Includes a password manager and VPN
- Robust tools for children’s security
Best for Comprehensive Identity Protection
- Comprehensive three-bureau credit monitoring
- Dark web and social media alerts
- Data shared with third parties for targeted advertising
Aura is the better identity theft protection service between the two, due to its comprehensive protective features. In general, couples and families will appreciate Aura's robust monitoring and alerts. It also has generous identity theft insurance, parental controls, and device protection.
On the other hand, Experian IdentityWorks is operated by Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus in the United States. It has credibility, and offers comprehensive identity protection alerts.
We’ll dive deeper into Aura and Experian IdentityWorks to learn more about what each offers and how they share your data.
Which identity theft protection is the better value?
Which identity theft protection has the better features?
Which identity theft protection is more secure?
Which identity theft protection has better compatibility and customer service?
FAQs
Aura vs. Experian IdentityWorks: which is better?
Aura vs. Experian IdentityWorks overview
Budget is often a primary factor in choosing an identity theft protection, and Aura offers the best value. It has affordable plans and provides the monitoring and credit alerts you’d expect from ID theft protection companies. The service gets more affordable with additional people, so it's ideal for couples or families. It even has additional services for preventing children's identity theft.
Meanwhile, Experian IdentityWorks is the more costly option, but it does provide comprehensive identity theft protection. Unlike Aura, it has social network monitoring and change of address alerts. Experian also provides quarterly credit reports, while Aura only does annual reports.
If you’re looking for a free option, Experian IdentityWorks offers a basic plan with minimal identity monitoring features like dark web surveillance, personal privacy scan, and free Experian credit reports and monitoring. It's a good option if you aren't ready to invest in identity theft protection yet but still want to monitor your credit.
- Aura: Best for couples or families
- Experian IdentityWorks: Best for comprehensive identity protection
Aura vs. Experian IdentityWorks compared
Star rating | ||
Price | $12.00–$32.00/mo | Free–$34.99/mo |
Types of identity monitoring | Dark web, social media, SSN, and home title monitoring | Dark web, social media, and SSN monitoring |
Credit monitoring | ||
Identity theft insurance | Up to $5 million | Up to $1 million |
24/7 customer support | ||
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
Aura pros and cons
- Better value per person
- Includes digital security tools
- 60-day money-back guarantee
- No social media monitoring or address change alerts
- Doesn't provide a FICO score
Experian IdentityWorks pros and cons
- Free version available
- Provides quarterly credit reports
- Comprehensive credit monitoring reports and alerts
- No annual plans and monthly plans are expensive
- No 24/7 customer support
Which identity theft protection is the better value?
Aura is a more budget friendly options, and comes with more features for its price. It offers $1 million per person in identity theft insurance, for up to $5 million for a family.
Our Pick
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Price range | $12.00–$32.00/mo | Free–$34.99/mo |
Best value plan | Aura Family for $25.00/mo (billed annually) | Experian IdentityWorks Family for $34.99/mo |
Money-back guarantee | 60 days | 14 days |
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
Aura plans
All Aura plans offer a 14-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans. Every plan has the same identity theft protection features and digital security tools, including antivirus software, password manager, and a virtual private network (VPN). But, the number of people, devices, and storage allowed increases with each plan.
Aura also provides $1 million in identity theft insurance for each adult on the plan. The insurance policy can make it easier to manage identity theft losses.
The biggest difference between plans occurs with the Family plan. It covers up to five adults and an unlimited number of children. It also includes several family protection features to monitor a child's identity and ensure their safety online. An additional feature of the Family plan is spam call and message protection, which blocks robocalls and other suspicious phone numbers.
- Individual: Covers one adult and the online security features cover up to 10 devices. This plan includes premium identity theft protection, financial fraud protection, and fraud remediation. It also includes a $1 million identity theft insurance and 1 GB of vault storage.
- Couple: Covers two adults, and the online security features cover up to 20 devices. This plan has the same features as the Individual plan, including a $1 million identity theft insurance for each adult and 2 GB of vault storage.
- Family: Covers five adults and unlimited children, and the online security features cover up to 50 devices. In addition to the features included in the Individual and Couple plan, the Family plan also has online parental controls, safe gaming features, and identity protection for children. It also includes a $1 million identity theft insurance for each adult on the plan and 5 GB of vault storage.
Experian IdentityWorks plans
All Experian IdentityWorks plans have a seven-day free trial. Unlike Aura, there's no money-back guarantee. So, you want to maximize your free trial to ensure its features are right for your needs. The paid plans include features like credit monitoring and alerts from all three credit bureaus, financial alerts, identity theft alerts, and access to Experian CreditLock.
Experian IdentityWorks offers a free plan that only offers one-bureau credit monitoring from Experian and limited identity theft monitoring. It's ideal for those on a budget or who might not be ready to invest in full-service identity protection yet.
- Basic: Free plan that provides a credit report and credit monitoring from Experian. It also includes a FICO score tracker, dark web surveillance report, and personal privacy scan. It's good for basic credit monitoring but doesn't alert you to other identity theft signs or how to resolve it.
- Premium: Covers one person with credit monitoring and reports for all three financial bureaus. It also has advanced identity theft monitoring, a $1 million insurance policy, and daily Experian FICO scores.
- Family: Covers two people and up to 10 children. It has all the same features as the Premium plan. The Family plan also provides daily Experian credit reports and daily Experian FICO scores.
Which identity theft protection has the better features?
Both services offer similar protective features, such as SSN monitoring. Aura goes a step further and also offers home title monitoring.
Our Pick
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Social Security Number monitoring | ||
Financial activity alerts | ||
Credit monitoring | ||
3-bureau credit reports | Yes — Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian | Yes — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion |
Credit score | ||
Credit lock and freeze | ||
Identity theft insurance | Up to $5 million | Up to $1 million |
Dark web monitoring | ||
Social media monitoring | ||
Home title monitoring | ||
Address change alerts | ||
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
When comparing the paid plans, the differences in monitoring and alerts are minimal and may depend on personal preferences.
The biggest difference is how Aura provides online monitoring for children. Aura is the family-friendly choice if you’re looking to protect your child's identity and ensure their safety online. It offers cyberbullying alerts and parental controls for online browsing.
Another difference between Aura and Experian is how often credit reports are delivered. Aura provides annual credit reports, while Experian IdentityWorks provides them quarterly. And if you’re on Experian's Family plan, you get Experian credit reports daily. However, both services offer ongoing credit monitoring, so you'll always get an alert on inquiries on your credit report.
A notable difference is Aura doesn't provide FICO scores like Experian IdentityWorks. Instead, it shares VantageScore credit scores. While both credit scores are valid, 90% of lenders use FICO to make lending decisions.[1] Aura not providing a FICO score is a missing part of its financial fraud protection.
Which identity theft protection is more secure?
When you use an identity theft protection service, you need to share your personal information, like your Social Security number (SSNs), financial data, and more. Otherwise, the service can't track your identity and alert you to suspicious activity.
It's unavoidable for Aura or Experian IdentityWorks to collect your personal data. But it does have a responsibility to protect it.
Aura vs. Experian IdentityWorks data security
Both services collect your data to watch for signs of identity theft. However, Experian sells it some of it third parties for marketing purposes.
Our Pick
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Collects data | ||
Shares data with third parties | Yes — as necessary to work with partners | Yes — sells it to other companies |
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
Aura's privacy policy clearly states that it doesn't sell your data. We did spot a red flag in a section stating that Aura collects information to provide its services. It mentions that it may use your information to promote co-branded offers with its partners, but we'd prefer not to received unsolicited advertisements.
Overall, we do like that Aura doesn't allow its partners to use our information for anything other than communicating, evaluating, improving, and administering offers.
Meanwhile, Experian IdentityWorks has a lengthy table revealing what sensitive personal information it has sold to third parties. Data like SSNs, geolocation, and citizenship/immigration status have been collected and sold, shared, or disclosed to third parties.
Experian also states that you have the right to opt out from "sale, sharing, processing, and use of personal information for sales, certain profiling, or targeted advertising," so at least you have some control over your data.
Both services at least offer you to level up your account security with multi-factor authentication.
Which identity theft protection has better compatibility and customer service?
Aura offers more customer support options, along with 24/7 availability to help you solve your problems
Our Pick
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Android | ||
iOS | ||
Dedicated restoration specialists | ||
Lost wallet remediation | ||
24/7 customer support | ||
Customer support options | Live chat, phone, email, online guides | Phone, email, mail |
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
As far as compatibility, Aura and Experian IdentityWorks have the same offerings. Both can be accessed from any browser on your desktop, and they offer mobile apps for Android and iOS so you can receive identity alerts on the go. Aura’s VPN and antivirus also have desktop apps for Windows and macOS.
However, Aura and Experian IdentityWorks have noticeably different approaches to customer support.
Aura provides 24/7 customer support. It's possible to contact them via live chat, phone, or email. It also has online guides to help you with problems or questions about Aura.
Experian IdentityWorks doesn't provide 24/7 customer support. It's a bit more difficult to contact them since it doesn't openly share a phone number on its website. Surprisingly, you can get customer support through snail mail, but it's a slow option. Finally, you can contact Experian via an online form. But it's not clear when you’ll get a response back.
FAQs
Is Aura credit monitoring legit?
Aura has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, so you can trust that it's a legitimate monitoring service to prevent or stop identity theft. It monitors online accounts, financial transactions, credit reports, the dark web, and more.
Is Experian IdentityWorks trustworthy?
Experian IdentityWorks is operated by Experian, one of the leading credit bureaus. It handles millions of people's sensitive financial information. Your data is most likely safe with Experian. But, you should ensure you are using a strong password and enable multi-factor authentication to protect your account.
Which is better, Aura or LifeLock?
Aura has robust identity theft protection, additional cybersecurity features like a VPN and antivirus, and is more affordable than LifeLock. Meanwhile, LifeLock provides a higher insurance policy.
Get a full comparison of Aura and LifeLock to learn more about their similarities and differences.
What is the difference between Experian and Experian IdentityWorks?
Experian is a major credit reporting agency in the United States. It's responsible for collecting and sharing consumer credit information. Experian IdentityWorks focuses on identity theft protection.
Aura vs. Experian IdentityWorks: which is better?
Overall, Aura is the better choice. It's more affordable, has robust child protection services, includes device security, and doesn't sell your data to third parties. You can review our identity theft protection and credit monitoring guide to learn more about how a service like Aura can protect you.
Aura offers a single service that covers device security and identity theft protection. It's more user-friendly for families and offers tools to protect your children's identity and online browsing experience.
Experian IdentityWorks is operated by one of the three major credit bureaus. While it does have credibility and all the necessary tools for identity theft protection, it's more expensive than Aura. It also admits to selling your personal information to third parties.
Our Pick
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Value | ||
Features | ||
Test results | ||
User experience | ||
Learn more | Get Aura | Get Experian IdentityWorks |
Top identity theft protection alternatives
If you're looking for the best identity theft protection service for you, then you want to research your options. While Aura is a good choice, you may also want to consider these alternatives to determine if their ID theft protection is worth it:
Service | |||
Individual monthly price | Starts at $7.50/mo (billed annually) for first year | Starts at $7.20/mo | Starts at $14.95/mo |
Family monthly price | Starts at $18.49/mo (billed annually) for first year | Starts at $14.99/mo | Starts at $29.95/mo |
ID theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million | Up to $3 million |
Credit monitoring | |||
3-bureau credit reports | |||
Details | Get LifeLock Read LifeLock Review |
Get Identity Guard Read Identity Guard Review |
Get IDShield Read IDShield Review |