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Best Value
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#1 rated ID theft protection service with a full suite of monitoring tools
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Includes up to $1 million in ID theft insurance per person for up to five adults
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Protect your children with robust parental controls and gaming alerts
Best for Insurance Premiums
Aura and LifeLock are two of the best identity theft protection services we've tested, but Aura identity theft protection wins this head-to-head matchup. It offers customers a variety of digital security tools, including a password manager, antivirus software, VPN, data removal services, online privacy features, and parental controls, all bundled into a single service. The pricing structure is straightforward and can be scaled according to the number of people you want to protect.
LifeLock identity theft protection is powered by Norton, a trusted security brand with decades of experience. LifeLock stands out for its extensive identity theft insurance coverage, which can range from $1.05 million to $3 million, depending on the plan you choose. LifeLock boasts robust identity monitoring, but you must pay for the top-tier plan to unlock all the services.
We've vetted and tested the best identity theft services available and now compare these two side by side to help you pick the right protection.
Pricing
Features
Security
Compatibility and customer support
FAQs
Aura vs. LifeLock: Which is better?
Aura vs. LifeLock review at a glance
Best overall
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| Star rating | ||
| Price | $9.00–$30.00/mo | $10.42–$40.00/mo |
| Types of monitoring | Credit, SSN, Home & auto title, Criminal & court records, lost wallet remediation, and more | Identity and SSN, dark web, phone takeover, home title, social media, and more |
| Credit monitoring | Yes, 3-bureau credit monitoring with all plans | Yes, up to 3-bureau credit monitoring |
| Identity theft insurance | $1 million per adult with all plans | Up to $3 million per adult with select plans |
| Identity restoration services | ||
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Learn more | Get Aura | Get LifeLock |
Aura pros and cons
Both services offer identity theft protection basics, such as monitoring services and online security (to keep you aware of hackers and identity thieves), dark web monitoring, and other digital security measures. Aura shines for its extensive suite of cybersecurity products, including antivirus, VPN, password manager, safe browsing tools, parental controls, and more.
Aura offers many features, but it lacks social media monitoring. This is an important feature to have in our increasingly digital world, so we hope it's added in the future.
- Includes password manager, antivirus software, data removal, safe browsing tools, and more
- Family plan includes parental controls and child fraud protection
- Includes three-bureau reports with all plans
- No social media monitoring or alerts
LifeLock pros and cons
LifeLock offers identity theft protection from a top cybersecurity brand, along with some of the highest insurance coverage we've seen. LifeLock outperforms Aura in monitoring.
Whereas Aura focuses on identity, credit, and dark web monitoring, LifeLock goes a step further and offers social media monitoring. Some other unique data it monitors includes phone takeover, buy-now-pay-later alerts, and utility account creation.
Although Aura includes all of its features across plans, some LifeLock features like bank account takeover alerts and home title monitoring are only available on the most expensive plan.
- Offers up to $3 million in insurance per adult
- Includes social media monitoring
- Can be combined with Norton antivirus
- Fewer features in lower-priced plans
Which identity theft protection is the better value?
Our Pick
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| Monthly price range | $9.00–$30.00/mo | $10.42–$40.00/mo |
| Best value plan | Aura Individual for $9.00/mo | LifeLock Advanced for $16.67/mo |
| Family plan | Aura Family for $25.00/mo | LifeLock Advanced for Family with Kids for $18.49/mo |
| Money-back guarantee | Yes, 60 days | Yes, 60 days |
| Learn more | Get Aura | Get LifeLock |
Aura plans
Aura offers a 14-day free trial with a 60-day money-back guarantee. To sign up for this trial, you’ll need to input a payment method: either a credit/debit card, Apple Pay, or PayPal. We love using services like Apple Pay and PayPal because they make canceling easier, but you can also use your card.
Aura’s plans are relatively simple because most online security features are available across all levels. The only real difference, other than increased storage and devices, is the addition of parental controls on the Family plan. Otherwise, Aura offers its identity theft protection features to all customers, making it a high-value ID theft service.
- Aura Individual: This plan provides all features available for adults, including $1 million in identity theft insurance, a cloud storage vault (1GB), online and device security for up to 10 devices, a privacy assistant, and more.
- Aura Couple: The Couple plan provides all features available in the Individual plan but doubles insurance premiums to $2 million ($1 million per adult), cloud storage increases to 2 GB, and online and device security increases to up to 20 devices.
- Aura Family: This tier provides all features available in the Individual and Couple plans, increases insurance to $5 million ($1 million per adult), cloud storage to 5 GB, and online and device protection to 50 devices. It also includes parental control features like spam call and message protection, safe gaming with cyberbullying alerts, and child identity protection with the ability to freeze children’s social security numbers.
Aura offers antivirus software on all of its plans to protect against malware. It also offers protection for unlimited children and three-bureau credit monitoring. Although it offers less insurance coverage for identity restoration than LifeLock, its lower-priced plans include more identity theft protection features to help anyone avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.
LifeLock plans
LifeLock offers three plan tiers: Core, Advanced, and Total. You can also purchase the Advanced plan for two adults or for two adults and up to 10 children.
Depending on the identity theft protection features you need, you may have to pay more, even as an individual, just to get your credit score. LifeLock does offer a 30-day trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Similar to Aura, you’ll need a payment method to begin your trial.
- LifeLock Core: The Core plan includes credit, checking, and savings activity alerts for two accounts, two-bureau credit monitoring, monthly credit reports from one bureau, and up to $1.05 million in identity theft insurance. It also includes extras like data removal services, dark web monitoring, and breach alerts.
- LifeLock Advanced: The Advanced plan offers all the features of the Core plan, plus scam support and reimbursement. It also monitors all three credit bureaus and increases your identity theft insurance amount to $1.2 million.
- LifeLock Total: The Total plan offers all features of the Advanced plan, plus daily credit scores, annual three-bureau credit reports, investment account alerts, home title monitoring, and social media account monitoring. It also increases your identity theft insurance amount to $3 million.
The family version of each of these plans includes special features for children’s identity theft protection. If you want parental controls, however, you’ll have to purchase a Norton 360 plan that includes LifeLock and Norton antivirus.
Which identity theft protection has the better features?
| Feature |
Our Pick
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| Social Security Number monitoring | ||
| Financial activity alerts | ||
| Credit monitoring | Yes, 3-bureau credit monitoring with all plans | Yes, up to 3-bureau credit monitoring |
| Credit reports | Yes — Experian, TransUnion, Equifax (with all plans) | Yes — Experian, TransUnion, Equifax (with select plans) |
| Credit score | Yes, VantageScore | Yes, VantageScore |
| Credit lock | Yes, Experian (with all plans) | Yes, TransUnion (with select plans) |
| Identity theft insurance | $1 million per adult (with all plans) | Up to $3 million per adult (with select plans) |
| Dark web monitoring | ||
| Social media account alerts | ||
| Home & auto title monitoring | ||
| USPS address change alerts | ||
| Parental controls | Yes, with Aura Family plan | Not included with LifeLock plans |
| Learn more | Get Aura | Get LifeLock |
Aura and LifeLock are neck and neck in terms of identity theft protection features, with the exception of social media account fraud alerts, parental controls, and insurance payouts. LifeLock offers social media monitoring across all plans, but Aura doesn’t have an equivalent available.
Aura offers parental controls built into its product, while LifeLock sells Norton Family separately or as part of a much larger Norton 360 package. Although we like Norton Family better overall, Aura offers child identity protection with Aura Family, whereas LifeLock doesn't.
Since identity theft losses can be substantial, LifeLock’s up to $3 million in remediation assistance is generous, but this amount is only offered on its most expensive plan. Aura’s $1 million in insurance is standard across the industry and would likely cover what you need.
When comparing the two products, we prioritize parental controls over social media fraud alerts, so Aura is a better value when it comes to features.
People without kids or influencers who rely on their social media as their job may feel differently, but even then, we think Aura offers a more reasonably priced product for the features you get. If you’re considering the overall price, Aura starts lower and renews at a lower rate. This isn’t an instance of “you get what you pay for” because Aura is powerful and secure.
Which identity theft protection is more secure?
Identity theft protection services are privy to a lot of your personal data. It can be a nerve-wracking amount of information you offer, so you want to make sure the service you’re using is protecting your data.
We looked at Aura and LifeLock to see whether your data is protected by two-factor authentication (2FA), whether either service collects that information internally, and whether it’s sold or given to a third party. You shouldn’t have to worry about additional security and potential scams and spam while you’re working to protect your identity.
Aura vs. LifeLock data security
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Our Pick
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| Encryption | AES-256 and TLS 1.2 or higher | AES-256 |
| Two-factor authentication | ||
| Collects data | Minimal | Minimal |
| Shares data with third parties | ||
| Learn more | Get Aura | Get LifeLock |
Aura and LifeLock both offer robust encryption protocols and two-factor authentication, ensuring your data remains secure. Although both companies share data with third parties, this sharing is minimal. This means that data is shared for operational purposes, not sold to third parties for marketing.
For example, if you want to enable financial account monitoring, you need to connect your bank accounts. To do so, Aura would need to share your data with Plaid (with your consent) to offer that identity protection service.
Although Aura and LifeLock are similar in their data security measures, we feel more secure using LifeLock because it's never been breached. Aura reported that it was breached in March 2026 following a targeted vishing attack. The majority of exposed records were names and email addresses, which impacted fewer than 20,000 active customers and fewer than 15,000 former customers.[1]
In 2022, LifeLock accounts were hacked following a credential stuffing attack, where bad actors reused usernames and passwords stolen from other breaches. However, LifeLock's data hasn't been breached.[2]
Which identity theft protection has the better compatibility and customer support?
| Platform |
Our Pick
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| Windows | ||
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| Dedicated restoration specialist | ||
| Lost wallet remediation | ||
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Customer support options | Chat, phone, online guides | Chat, phone, online guides |
| Learn more | Get Aura | Get LifeLock |
Aura and LifeLock both offer web-based portals, so you can log in from any device without relying on an app. Aura’s mobile apps for device security work on all operating systems, but you’ll only get the VPN, not the antivirus, on iOS. (However, many security apps aren't iOS compatible because of Apple's built-in security features.)
LifeLock offers its service on the Big Four (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS) as well. However, you’ll need to purchase a VPN and antivirus separately as they aren’t included with any LifeLock plans, not even LifeLock Total. Norton does offer antivirus packages that include LifeLock, but they are more expensive.
Both services offer 24/7 support via support guides and a phone number you can call. The 24/7 phone support appears to be more geared toward assisting with identity theft complaints than toward general troubleshooting. For that, it’s suggested you reach out to the chat boxes.
LifeLock's chat is available 24/7, while Aura's chat is only available Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. If your preferred support is via chat, you will likely prefer LifeLock.
FAQs
Is Aura or LifeLock better?
We conducted a side-by-side comparison of Aura and LifeLock and think Aura is better. Even though LifeLock offers a decent starting price and a hefty amount of identity theft protection insurance, Aura’s long-term pricing structure is more affordable.
Also, Aura includes more features on lower-priced plans.
Is there a company better than LifeLock?
Yes, Aura identity theft protection is better than LifeLock. Aura is considerably better, with a more affordable long-term pricing structure and more robust features on lower-priced plans.
With LifeLock, you essentially need to purchase the most expensive package to get all the features. With Aura, you can purchase a package based on the number of people you need to cover, but all plans include robust features.
What’s the difference between Aura and LifeLock?
The biggest differences between Aura and LifeLock are the inclusion of parental controls and device protection. While Aura offers device protection with antivirus included on all its plans and parental controls with its family plans, LifeLock requires users to purchase both of those services in addition to any LifeLock plan.
While LifeLock may offer higher insurance premiums, Aura offers more useful features.
Is Aura a better company than LifeLock?
Whether Aura is a better company than LifeLock is subjective, but in general, Aura offers more with its product than LifeLock. It offers more features, including parental controls and antivirus protection with its lower-priced products, while LifeLock makes you purchase those separately.
Overall, Aura is a safe, effective all-in-one solution that gives you robust features no matter which plan you choose.
Aura vs. LifeLock: Which is better?
Aura is the better service because it offers the best value and is the ultimate "set-and-forget" digital protection service. With Aura, you get all the core identity monitoring features, including three-bureau credit monitoring and online security software, with all plans. With competitors like LifeLock, you need to pay higher-tier subscription fees to unlock the complete service.
LifeLock is part of the Norton family, and Norton has long been a leading name in security. Unfortunately, that also means LifeLock offers a wide variety of products that all cost enough to make you second-guess whether they fit your monthly budget. Aura decided to include all of these in a single service.