The Best ID Protection Alternatives to LifeLock

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 LifeLock alternatives that may better meet your needs. In a head-to-head comparison, Aura is the best, but in case you're looking for other options, we also review Identity Guard, and IDShield.

The best LifeLock alternatives

• Aura: Best overall
• Identity Guard: Best for AI-driven theft detection
• IDShield: Best for ID theft legal support

Top LifeLock alternatives compared

Learn more about the following identity theft protection companies so you can see which best fits your needs.

Best For	Best digital and identity protection	Best overall	Best for AI-driven theft detection	Best for ID theft legal support
Price	Starts at $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr	Starts at $12.00–$32.00/mo	Starts at $6.67–$29.99/mo	Starts at $14.95–$34.95/mo
# of people covered	Up to 2 adults and 5 children	Up to 5 adults and unlimited children	Up to 5 adults and unlimited children	Up to 2 adults and 10 children
Types of identity monitoring	Credit, dark web, social media, social security, home title, and USPS address change alerts	Credit, dark web, social security, home title, and USPS address change alerts	Credit, dark web, social media, social security, home title, and USPS address change alerts	Credit, dark web, social media, social security, and USPS address change alerts
Credit reports	Yes — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion	Yes — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion	Yes	Yes
Credit score
Identity theft insurance	Up to $3 million	Up to $3 million	Up to $1 million per adult	Up to $1 million
Identity restoration services
Learn more	Get Norton LifeLock Read more	Get Aura Read more	Get Identity Guard Read more	Get IDShield Read more

Aura

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)

These features are available with all Aura plans, but LifeLock only offers them on Ultimate Plus and other premium Norton packages.

What Aura does better than LifeLock

LifeLock Standard offers one-bureau credit monitoring with Equifax. LifeLock Advantage only offers that plus a monthly credit score with Equifax. Unfortunately, LifeLock only has one-bureau coverage so you're limited to Equifax. If you’re looking for credit protection from TransUnion and Experian as well, then you can get that with 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. It also offers parental controls that help with content filtering and screen time management. 

What LifeLock does better than Aura

While Aura does offer up to $5,000,000 in insurance protection, it caps out at $1,000,000 per adult. LifeLock, on the other hand, offers up to $3,000,000 worth of coverage per adult.

Get Aura | Read Our Aura Review | Read Our Aura vs. LifeLock Review

Identity Guard

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. 

What Identity Guard does better than LifeLock

For individual-level plans, Identity Guard’s prices can't be beaten by LifeLock’s, especially after the first year, when LifeLock's prices rise. 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 $14.99/mo, while LifeLock Standard for Family with Kids starts at $12.49/mo (billed annually) for first year.

What LifeLock does better than Identity Guard

A con of Identity Guard is its limitations in identity restoration services. LifeLock offers identity theft insurance with coverage between $1.05 million and $3 million per adult (depending on the plan) and 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 doesn't offer credit monitoring at all with its Value plan.

Get Identity Guard | Read Our Identity Guard Review | Read Our Identity Guard vs. LifeLock 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 plans. With IDShield, you’ll have comprehensive cybersecurity to protect your device from hackers, malware, identity thieves, and other threats.

What IDShield does better than LifeLock

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 $19.95/mo. 

The family plan is $29.95/mo for one-bureau credit monitoring and $34.95/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.

What LifeLock does better than IDShield

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 | Read Our IDShield vs. LifeLock Review

How to pick the right 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 many factors to consider when choosing alternative identity theft protection services, including:

• Pricing
• The number of people being covered
• The amount of insurance available
• Whether they offer credit monitoring services

If you're on a budget, going with the most affordable option may be all you need to get some peace of mind. But if protecting your online information is your main priority, then going with more expensive options will likely net you more valuable features. You'll need to identify which features are most important to you before choosing a software.

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.

FAQs

Bottom line

Norton's LifeLock is a great identity protection service, with high-quality identity theft restoration and insurance offered. However, it's not for everyone. If you're looking for an alternative, Aura is the one we recommend the most. Aura offers better child protection than Lifelock. Other alternatives include Identity Guard, which has a better range of plans, and IDShield, which is better for those on a budget.

If you want to protect yourself from identity theft, read through our list of the best identity theft protection services.