The Best ID Protection Alternatives to LifeLock

Though LifeLock by Norton is one of the most popular companies for identity theft protection, there are so many others that may better suit your needs.
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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, IDShield, IdentityForce, and ID Watchdog.

If you’re still interested in learning about what LifeLock has to offer, you can read our Norton LifeLock review.

In this article
Best LifeLock alternatives
Aura
Identity Guard
IDShield
How to pick the right identity theft protection for you
How to cancel your LifeLock subscription
LifeLock alternatives FAQs
Bottom line

Here are the best LifeLock alternatives

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 $8.29–$40.99/mo for first yr Starts at $9.00–$30.00/mo Starts at $7.50–$33.33/mo Starts at $14.95–$34.95/mo
Identity theft insurance Up to $3 million Up to $3 million Up to $1 million per adult Up to $1 million
Credit monitoring
Credit reports Yes — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion Yes — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion Yes Yes
Credit score
Dark web alerts
Social media account alerts
Learn more Get Norton LifeLock
Read more
Get Aura
Read more
Get Identity Guard
Read more
Get IDShield
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Aura

4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On Aura Identity Theft's website
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
  • Provides VantageScore and not FICO score updates

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 only offers one-bureau credit monitoring with Equifax, while LifeLock Advantage only offers that plus a monthly credit score with 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. 

Aura Parental Controls' screen time management feature with settings for online activity, online history, content filtering, time limits, safe search, and devices.
Aura Parental Controls dashboard

What LifeLock does better than Aura

While Aura does offer up to $5,000,000 in insurance protection, that actually 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

Identity Guard

Save 33% Now!
4.8
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On Identity Guard's website
Identity Guard
  • Easy-to-use identity theft protection service
  • Includes extra features like a password manager
  • No dedicated remediation assistance available

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 $12.50/mo, while LifeLock Standard for Family with Kids starts at $13.24/mo for first yr.

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

IDShield

4.7
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On IDShield's website
IDShield
  • Full identity protection features included on all plans
  • Comes with bonus VPN and password manager
  • Affordable pricing compared to other options
  • Limited customer support

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

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.

LifeLock alternatives FAQs


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Is there a LifeLock free trial?

Yes, LifeLock offers a 30-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee.


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How much does LifeLock cost?

LifeLock’s plans range from $8.29–$40.99/mo for first yr. LifeLock offers three sizes of plans: individual, family with two adults, and family with two adults and up to five children. Each of these plans offers three tiers: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Each plan’s costs vary depending on if you opt for a monthly plan or an annual plan.


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Is LifeLock really worth having?

If you're willing to sign up for LifeLock's most comprehensive plan (LifeLock Ultimate Plus), then it might be worth having due to its strong protection against identity theft and other fraud. However, LifeLock might not be worth it if you only intend to use it for credit monitoring. Depending on your situation, one of the alternatives on this page could be a more suitable choice.


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Is Aura or LifeLock better?

We believe Aura is the better service over LifeLock. Aura includes all of its features with each plan, has affordable renewal pricing, and includes extra cybersecurity tools like a VPN and parental controls. 

You can learn more about how LifeLock and Aura stack up next to each other in our Aura vs. LifeLock comparison.


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What is the difference between Zander and LifeLock?

LifeLock is more expensive than Zander but it's also a more comprehensive service with credit monitoring features. Zander is a better choice if you're just seeking basic identity theft protection.

We also compared LifeLock vs. Zander so you can see which service is best for you. 

Bottom line

Protecting your family’s personal data is extremely important, and considering what company to use raises many questions. How many features do you get for what price? Do you need to protect just yourself or your family, too? How important is credit monitoring or other types of alerts and protections? It can be confusing, but evaluating your needs is an important step to ensure your and your family's safety online.

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

4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On Aura Identity Theft's website
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
  • Provides VantageScore and not FICO score updates
Author Details
Waverly Colville is a journalist and producer based in Brooklyn with over five years of professional experience in cybersecurity writing. She earned her B.J. in Investigative Journalism and a B.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Missouri.