LifeLock is our favorite identity theft protection service on the market today. When we last tested LifeLock, we appreciated their extensive monitoring capabilities that they keep expanding, large insurance, and an intuitive interface. There’s definitely a reason why they’re one of the biggest names in the industry right now.
That said, though, the main value of LifeLock comes from their premium plan, which costs at least $19.99 per month. It also takes a commitment to set up the amount of monitoring they offer. That’s why we’re going to recommend a few alternatives. After testing 20 different identity theft protection services, we found the three best LifeLock alternatives:
- Aura — Best Bundles
- Identity Guard — Best Fraud Resolution
- IdentityIQ — Most Flexible Insurance
Now, let’s dig into the details so you can figure out which alternative is the best for you.
>> Read More: A 2025 Guide to Identity Theft Protection Services
1. Aura — Best Bundles
We received over 20 data breach alerts right after setting up Aura.
Aura is one of LifeLock’s biggest competitions in terms of features and protections. It’s the closest identity protection capabilities we’ve found to LifeLock — except with a lower rate. Aura’s subscription plans are also simple and straightforward, something LifeLock struggles with. It does away with tiered plans and instead offers all-inclusive subscriptions for different household types. There’s one for individuals, couples, and families of up to five adults. There’s also an add-on digital protection plan for kids. Here’s how they look:
Aura Identity Theft Protection Plans
| Plans & Features | Individual (1 Aadult) | Couple (2 Aadults) | Family (5 Aadults, Uunlimited Kkids) | Kids (Uunlimited Kkids) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity Theft Insurance | $1 Million | $1 Million/Adult | $1 Million/Adult | No |
| Social Security Number (SSN) & Personal Information Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dark Web Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Home & Auto Title Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Public Records Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Lost Wallet Remediation | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Financial Account & Transaction Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Experian Credit Lock | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Expert Fraud Resolution | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| VPN, Antivirus, Encrypted Vault, Password Manager, etc. | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Parental Controls & Safe Gaming | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Child SSN Monitoring | No | No | Yes | No |
| Monthly Billing | $15 | $29 | $50 | $13 |
| Annaul Billing | $144 (Avg. $12/Month) | $264 (Avg. $22/Month) | $384 (Avg. $32/Month) | $120 (Avg. $10/Month) |
What stood out to us the most when we compared Aura and LifeLock is the price of three-bureau credit monitoring. LifeLock requires their premium plan for it, which costs at least $19.99 per month, whereas Aura includes it with all their plans, so you can get it as low as $12 per month. That goes for a lot of the monitoring features they both offer, but Aura offers it for cheaper, such as home title monitoring. The big thing you get for the extra price of LifeLock is the up to $3 million insurance per adult, whereas Aura’s caps at $1 million per adult.
Another unique similarity we found when testing Aura and LifeLock is their cybersecurity tool bundles. The difference is Aura includes their cybersecurity tools in every plan except their child plan, whereas with LifeLock you need to add Norton 360 to one of their bundles. Aura’s option is definitely cheaper, but we like Norton 360’s cybersecurity tools more since Aura’s antivirus does not include a firewall and the VPN only connects to U.S. servers.
Aura’s VPN lets us connect to U.S. locations only, whereas Norton 360 offers 30 locations.
So, why choose Aura over LifeLock? For one, Aura’s family plan offers more value. It’s cheaper than LifeLock’s top-tier family plan (Ultimate Plus) with similar or better features — aside from LifeLock’s higher insurance. Aura’s family plan also covers up to five adults and unlimited children instead of two adults and five children. That brings even more value. The individual and couple plans also provide more value than LifeLock — offering three-bureau credit monitoring instead of one-bureau credit monitoring and nearly as much insurance as LifeLock’s Advantage plan for less money per month.
>> Learn More: Aura vs. IdentityForce 2025
FYI: A firewall helps protect your computer from online threats that can steal information from your computer. They act as a barrier between you and malicious files that can result in your identity getting stolen if downloaded.
2. Identity Guard — Best Fraud Resolution
Our Identity Guard dashboard shows us anytime a potential sign of identity theft pops up.
Identity Guard is a top-notch service. When we compared Identity Guard and LifeLock, we found that their features rivaled each other with a similar price tag. We’ve broken down Identity Guard’s pricing and service plans, but, for quick reference, here’s a chart of the highlights for each of their service tiers: Value, Total, and Ultra.
Identity Guard Plans
| Identity Guard Service | Value | Total | Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dark Web Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Account Monitoring | No | Yes | Yes |
| Credit and Debit Card Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| 401k and Investment Account Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Criminal and Sex Offense Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Address Change Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Title Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring | No | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly Price | $8.99 | $19.99 | $29.99 |
| Annual Price | $90 ($7.50 Per Month) | $200.04 ($16.67 Per Month) | $300 ($25 Per Month) |
Pretty exhaustive, right? What you’re not going to get with Identity Guard is some of the more tertiary benefits offered in LifeLock bundles with Norton 360 such as their VPN, their virus protection, or their cloud storage. But, to be completely honest — while those are nice perks — we recommend going with a third party for those tools anyway.
What is important, however, are key features like triple-bureau credit monitoring, triple-bureau credit reports, and bank account monitoring. When we tested and reviewed Identity Guard, we found this is what they do really well. Worth noting, though, you’ll only get triple-bureau protection if you go with Ultra protection — their most expensive plan — just like LifeLock. Well worth it for the peace of mind that you’ll be provided knowing all three credit bureaus are being monitored for discrepancies rather than just one.
Did You Know? The person who steals your identity is not necessarily the person who uses your identity. Oftentimes, identities are sold by the thief on illicit marketplaces, and then the buyer uses the identity to commit fraud. That’s why most identity theft protection services offer dark web monitoring. It allows you to catch the attempted sale of your identity before it’s used.
Identity Guard makes it easy to freeze your credit to stop thieves from opening accounts in your name.
That premium plan also comes with one of our favorite features from Identity Guard: white glove fraud resolution. Now, you might think that’s the same as the identity restoration experts that most identity theft protection services provide, but it’s not.
Identity Guard’s white glove fraud resolution means anytime you experience fraud — whether it’s a suspicious credit card transaction or a fraudulent line of credit — they’ll resolve the entire issue without requiring you to lift a finger. Well, you may need to sign a form they pre-filled for you to dispute a transaction, but they’ll basically handle it all. LifeLock provides similar service but only for identity theft incidents — not for all types of fraud, which Identity Guard includes in all plans.
>> Read About: Aura vs. Identity Guard 2025
Identity Guard’s Watchlist page showed us the information they monitored and a risk assessment tool called Threat Questions.
Another thing about Identity Guard we found really helpful was the Safe Browsing plug-in contained in the Ultra package. This is a comprehensive protection for your browser that protects against unwanted ads, HTTPS files, phishing and spam emails, and even unauthorized cryptocurrency mining. While NortonLifeLock offers its own take on safe browsing, it’s nowhere near as comprehensive as Identity Guard. That’s why Identity Guard ranks so high on our list of best identity theft services.
3. IdentityIQ — Most Flexible Insurance
Despite the dated look, we were pleased with IdentityIQ’s dashboard, which clearly displayed all important information.
In addition to covering the cost of lawyers and experts to recover your identity if it gets stolen, IdentityIQ also reimburses stolen funds after an identity theft event. Only LifeLock’s premium plan can cover up to $1 million of stolen funds, whereas all IdentityIQ plans offer that much coverage. IdentityIQ also offers all the traditional monitoring services and advanced monitoring capabilities of LifeLock to keep your identity safe. Here’s a look at IdentityIQ’s plans and pricing:
IdentityIQ Plans
| IdentityIQ Service | Secure Basic | Secure Plus | Secure Pro | Secure Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity Restoration, Stolen Funds, and Personal Expense Insurance | $1 Million | $1 Million | $1 Million | $1 Million |
| Credit Monitoring | One Bureau | One Bureau | Three Bureau | Three Bureau |
| SSN Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Synthetic ID Theft Protection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lost Wallet Assistance | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ID Theft Restoration Service | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Criminal Identity Theft Monitoring | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Credit Score Simulator and Tracker | No | No | No | Yes |
| $25,000 Family Identity Theft Insurance | No | No | No | Yes |
| Monthly Price | $8.49 | $11.49 | $21.49 | $31.49 |
| Annual Price | $86.61 ($7.44 Per Month) | $117.19 ($10 Per Month) | $219.19 ($18.49 Per Month) | $321.21 ($27 Per Month) |
Pro Tip: If you’re looking for an easy-to-use identity theft protection service, check out our IdentityForce review. They make one of our favorite identity protection desktop apps that makes it easy to leverage all of their features. But, it doesn’t come cheap, with plans starting at $19.90 per month.
Honestly, we find IdentityIQ’s Secure Plus plan not to be worth the price increases from their Secure Basic plan. The only thing it adds to the Secure Plus plan is an annual credit report. You can get a credit report from all three bureaus for free on a weekly basis through Annual Credit Report, so we don’t put any value on that benefit.1
We also don’t think the Secure Max plan is worth it. If you want a plan that offers coverage for your family, we recommend going with Aura instead. It costs about the same and offers $1 million insurance per adult instead of only $25,000.
We tested IdentityIQ’s Secure Max plan so we could access all of their monitoring capabilities.
All that said, we really like how comprehensive the coverage of their individual insurance is. Their $1 million coverage can be used toward lawyers and experts to recover your identity, reimburse any stolen funds, and reimburse personal expenses related to an identity theft incident. LifeLock separates the insurance for these categories. They still provide $1 million coverage in all tiers, but that can only be used for lawyers and experts. However, the Standard plan only covers $25,000 for stolen funds and personal expense reimbursement with the Advantage plan, upping that coverage to $100,000.
The flexibility of being able to use IdentityIQ’s insurance for any of the three categories can be a major benefit depending on your personal circumstances.
>> Check Out: Best Identity Theft Restoration Services
Three Great LifeLock Alternatives, One Decision
There’s no getting around the fact that LifeLock offers some of the most comprehensive identity protections with some of the largest insurance. That makes finding alternatives tough. It took us testing 20 different services to just find three, afterall. Through those tests, we found that Aura’s a great alternative if you’re looking for a family plan, Identity Guard for fraud resolution, and IdentityIQ for affordable insurance with wide coverage.
Still not sure which LifeLock alternative is right for you? Check out our identity theft protection services buyers guide. In it, we cover the exact steps you need to take to figure out what you need from an identity theft protection service. That way, you can get the coverage you need to reduce your risk of identity theft and protect yourself if it gets stolen.
FAQs
- Which identity theft protection service is most like LifeLock?
We’d say Aura. It matches LifeLock in many categories, including identity protection, credit monitoring, and personal finances monitoring. LifeLock offers better insurance coverage and digital protection features, but the same can be said about all our other LifeLock alternatives.
- What are the best features of Identity Guard compared to LifeLock?
We really like that Identity Guard includes three-bureau credit monitoring in their mid-tier plan. That makes it more affordable than LifeLock’s three-bureau credit monitoring, which requires their premium tier. Identity Guard also offers white glove fraud resolution service in the premium tier, which LifeLock does not offer.
- Which Identity Guard plan should I choose?
We recommend at least Identity Guard’s Total plan. That’s the minimum you need to access their three-bureau credit monitoring service.
- What makes Aura a good alternative to LifeLock?
Aura stands out when compared to LifeLock for the value they provide. All of the features and capabilities that Aura offers are available through LifeLock, but Aura makes their services very affordable with plans starting at $12 per month for full coverage. To get full coverage from LifeLock, you’d need to spend at least $19.99 per month.
- Is IdentityIQ’s insurance better than LifeLock’s insurance?
While all of LifeLock’s plans offer more insurance than IdentityIQ, we like the flexibility in coverage that IdentityIQ offers. Their $1 million coverage can be used for any identity theft-related expenses and losses, including lawyers for recovery and stolen funds reimbursement. LifeLock categorizes their insurance, so even though their basic plan offers up to $1,050,000 insurance, only $25,000 of it can be used for stolen funds reimbursement.
