Aura vs. Zander Identity Theft Protection 2024: Which Is Best For You?

Identity theft protection is serious business. Which service is best for you?

Last updated Jun 13, 2024

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4.9

Editorial Rating

On Aura Identity Theft's website

Identity Protection

Aura Identity Theft

Up to 68% off Family Annual Plans

Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security

4.2

Editorial Rating

On Zander Insurance Identity Theft Protection's website

Identity Protection

Zander Insurance Identity Theft Protection

Low price
Easy-to-use dashboard

Identity theft protection services aim to help users avoid the costs of identity theft. Aura and Zander are two of the largest providers of these services.

Aura is a great option for all-around protection, while Zander offers popular features at a more affordable price.

In this article, we’ll compare Aura and Zander to help you decide which is right for you. We’ll explore prices, monitoring, customer service, and everything else you need to know.

In this article

Aura vs. Zander review at a glance
Aura vs. Zander: prices
Aura vs. Zander: monitoring and alerts
Which is safer, Aura vs. Zander?
Aura vs. Zander: compatibility and customer support
Aura vs. Zander FAQs
Aura vs. Zander: Which is better?

Aura vs. Zander review at a glance

Aura is one of the best identity theft protection services on the market. It’s got all the features you’re likely to need, and the plan selection is simple — all you need to do is decide how many people you need to cover. That said, it lacks social media account monitoring, and the plans are a bit more expensive than Zander’s.

Zander is a more affordable option with a similar feature set, including extras like a virtual private network (VPN) and antivirus, but it lacks credit monitoring. Apart from that downside, Zander is a very solid pick.

Aura: Best for overall protection
Zander: Best for budget-conscious users

Aura vs. Zander compared


Price	$9.00–$30.00/mo	$6.75-$21.99/mo
Identity theft insurance	Up to $1 million per adult	Up to $1 million per adult
Credit monitoring
3-bureau credit reports
Credit score
Identity recovery
Dark web alerts
Social media account alerts
Learn more	Get Aura Read Aura Review	Get Zander Read Zander Review

Aura pros and cons

Pros

Useful bonuses like password manager, VPN, and antivirus
Strong child protection tools
24/7 customer support

Cons

No social media account monitoring
Provides VantageScore but not FICO

Zander pros and cons

Pros

Lower price than many competitors
Easy-to-use dashboard
Elite Bundle plan includes antivirus and VPN

Cons

No credit monitoring
Shares data with other companies

Aura vs. Zander: prices

	Our Pick
Paid annually	$108.00–$300.00/yr	$75.00–$240.00/yr
Paid monthly	$12.00–$30.00/mo	$6.75-$21.99/mo
Best value plan	Family for $25.00/mo (billed annually)	Elite Bundle Family for $21.99/mo
Identity theft insurance	Up to $1 million per adult	Up to $1 million per adult
Learn more	Get Aura Read Aura Review	Get Zander Read Zander Review

Aura plans

Aura offers three plans: Individual, Couple, and Family. Child-focused features are limited to the Family plan. Apart from that, all three options offer the same features and protection, including credit monitoring, antivirus, a VPN, a password manager, and more.

The VPN and password manager help keep your personally identifiable information private, so it’s awesome that they’re included in even the cheapest plans.

The only major difference in plans is how many people are covered, which makes choosing a plan simple. There’s also a 14-day free trial (credit card required) and a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the service with confidence.

Individual: This plan provides coverage for a single individual. It offers all the main Aura features, including $1 million in identity theft insurance, credit monitoring, financial account monitoring, spam protection, and 1 GB of secure cloud storage. Subscribers also get Aura’s antivirus and VPN. Individual plans cover up to 10 devices.
Couple: This plan offers the same coverage but for two adults. It provides $2 million in identity theft insurance ($1 million for each individual) and 2 GB of secure storage. The Couple plan also covers up to 20 devices. Other features are identical to the Individual plan.
Family: The Family plan covers up to five adults and unlimited kids and adds a few extra child-related features: child SSN monitoring, parental controls, and the safe gaming feature. This is also the only plan with AI-powered spam call protection. Aura Family also beefs up the insurance to $5 million ($1 million per adult), provides 5 GB of cloud storage, and covers up to 50 devices.

Wondering what could happen when someone steals your identity? Learn more about potential identity theft losses.

Zander plans

Zander offers two plans: Essential and Elite Bundle. Both plans come in two versions: Individual and Family. Individual plans cover a single adult, while Family plans cover two adults and up to 10 dependent children.

Unlike Aura, Zander doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee. However, if you sign up for an annual plan and cancel early, you may be able to get a refund for the unused time on the subscription.

Essential Plan: This is Zander’s basic plan, with identity theft coverage, dark web monitoring, data breach updates, and other identity theft basics. This plan is very affordable but lacks some monitoring features (like bank account and debit card monitoring) and other extras that come with the Elite Bundle.
Elite Bundle: The Elite Bundle is Zander’s high-end offering. It includes everything in the Essential plan, plus extra monitoring (home title, bank and retirement accounts, and debit and credit cards) and bonus features like a VPN, antivirus, and password manager.

Winner: Although Zander can be cheaper, we feel you get more for your money with Aura. We especially like that features aren’t gated behind different plan tiers with Aura.

Aura vs. Zander: monitoring and alerts

Feature	Our Pick
Credit monitoring
Financial activity alerts
3-bureau credit reports	Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion
Credit score
FICO score
Credit lock and freeze
Identity recovery
Dark web alerts
Social media account alerts
Social Security number monitoring
Home title monitoring
Address change alerts
Learn more	Get Aura Read Aura Review	Get Zander Read Zander Review

The big difference between Aura and Zander, at least when it comes to monitoring and alerts, is credit monitoring. Aura provides credit monitoring, credit reports, and can pull your credit score. These can provide clues that your identity has been stolen, and Zander misses a big piece of the identity theft puzzle by omitting them.

Yes, it’s true that you can technically monitor your credit on your own with free tools like Credit Karma. However, this requires checking additional services rather than having everything covered under one dashboard. It’s definitely a tradeoff you will have to take into account.

Not sure what monitoring and alerts you need? Check out our identity theft protection and credit monitoring guide.

Winner: Aura definitely offers more comprehensive coverage. Zander covers most of the basics, but you’ll have to get your credit monitoring elsewhere.

Which is safer, Aura vs. Zander?

ID theft protection services have access to a lot of very sensitive data. For that reason, data privacy and security are extremely important and should be a top concern when selecting one of these services.

There aren’t any major red flags in terms of security with either Aura or Zander. Both are reputable companies that offer two-factor authentication to help keep your account safe.

Aura vs. Zander data security


Two-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication
Collects data
Shares data with third parties
Learn more	Get Aura Read Aura Review	Get Zander Read Zander Review

Both Aura and Zander collect data and share it with third parties for advertising purposes. We also found that Zander has trackers and cookies from third parties and affiliates on its website — this is potentially the other reason it’s able to offer its service for less than competitors.

There doesn’t appear to be anything nefarious happening here, but privacy-conscious users should be aware that their data is being used for advertising purposes.

Winner: We’ll call this one a tie. Both companies have similar privacy and security features and data-sharing practices.

Aura vs. Zander: compatibility and customer support

Platform
Windows
macOS
Android
iOS
24/7 customer support
Customer support options	Live chat, phone, email, online guides	Phone, email, online form, online guides
Learn more	Get Aura Read Aura Review	Get Zander Read Zander Review

Both Aura and Zander work on the most common platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Both services are easy to use and provide clear overviews of your identity alerts and other information.

As for customer support, both offer similar options, including email, phone, and online guides. Both are available 24/7, so you can get assistance anytime you have a concern about your identity.

In testing, we found Zander to be a bit slow to respond to form submissions, and there’s no live chat option.

Winner: Draw. Both services offer similar compatibility and customer support options.

Aura vs. Zander FAQs

Is Zander worth it?

Overall, yes, we feel Zander is worth it. It’s a very solid identity theft protection service from a company that’s been around a long time, and the price is lower than many competitors. You’ll have to monitor your credit with another service, but, given the prices, this will be a fair tradeoff for many.

Why does Aura need my Social Security number?

Aura needs your Social Security number to pull your credit reports. The company is very transparent about this and claims that, despite having over 25 million members, it’s never lost customer data.

What are Zander’s downsides?

Zander is a great identity theft protection service, but it does have a few downsides. The biggest is definitely the lack of credit monitoring, which means you’ll need to handle that yourself with another service.

Another downside is that the company collects and shares user data with third parties and affiliates. This isn’t unique to Zander, but it’s still a bit disappointing for a company selling an identity theft protection service.

Finally, the mobile apps have poor ratings, with complaints about usability and bugginess.

Aura vs. Zander: Which is better?

Both Aura and Zander have a lot to offer. Aura brings a ton of features to aid with identity theft protection, plus a simple plan structure and solid mobile apps. However, it’s a bit pricey and lacks social media account monitoring.

Zander has most of the features you might want at a lower price than many competitors, but it lacks credit monitoring and shares quite a bit of data with third parties.

We think either would be a fine pick, but if we had to choose one, it would be Aura. The features and apps are effective and easy to use. It’s a bit more expensive, but you won’t need a second service to monitor your credit.

Up to 68% off Family Annual Plans

4.9

Identity Protection

Aura Identity Theft

Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security

Learn More

Aura vs. Zander alternatives

If neither Aura nor Zander meets your needs, don’t sweat it — there are a lot of identity theft protection services on the market. They all offer roughly the same features, with minor differences, so you can find the solution that fits your situation best.

Here are three of our favorite alternatives:

LifeLock: Norton LifeLock is one of our favorite identity theft protection services. It offers up to $3 million in identity theft insurance, plus monitoring for your credit, social media accounts, home title, and more. You also have the option to add other Norton services if you want an antivirus, VPN, password manager, parental controls, or other security features.

Get LifeLock | Read Our LifeLock Review

IDShield: IDShield is a very full-featured identity theft protection solution, with monitoring for pretty much everything you could want. It also offers up to $3 million in identity theft insurance, plus extras like a VPN, password manager, and antivirus. Best of all, all these features are available on all IDShield plans.

Get IDShield | Read Our IDShield Review

Identity Guard: Identity Guard is an easy-to-use and comprehensive identity theft protection service. It includes up to $1 million in insurance and has extra features like a password manager.

Get Identity Guard | Read Our Identity Guard Review

4.9

Editorial Rating

On Aura Identity Theft's website

Identity Protection

Aura Identity Theft

Up to 68% off Family Annual Plans

Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security

Author Details

Dave Schafer

About the Author

Dave Schafer is a professional writer with a decade of experience specializing in cybersecurity. His expertise spans gadgets, technology, and the internet, with a focus on topics such as routers, hardware, and VPN product comparisons.