Best Alternatives to LifeLock Identity Theft Protection in 2024 (2024)

LifeLock — now NortonLifeLock — is one of our favorite identity theft protection services on the market today. When we reviewed NortonLifeLock recently, we found numerous unique features, a robust suite of protections, and a beautifully designed app. There’s definitely a reason why they’re one of the biggest names in the industry right now.

That said, though, they’re certainly not for everyone. The service is vast and requires a lot of setup on the front-end for it to be functional. The list of features can get confusing, and some of them won’t even work unless you’re running a PC. The user experience can feel a bit overwhelming, like you’re drinking from a firehose.

Because of these reasons, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the four best alternatives to NortonLifeLock. They are:

1. Aura
2. Identity Guard
3. IdentityForce
4. ID Watchdog

Over the course of this in-depth guide, we’re going to unpack all three LifeLock alternatives in terms of features and pricing so you can get a better idea which service might be best for you.

1. Aura

Aura is one of NortonLifeLock’s biggest competitions in terms of features and protections. Unlike LifeLock, Aura’s subscription plans are simple and straightforward. 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

We did a more in-depth comparison of Aura and LifeLock where we found that they have very similar features; give or take a few. For example, Aura does both home and auto title monitoring, while LifeLock offers only home title monitoring and only with its upper-tier plans. On the other hand, LifeLock offers better insurance coverage with reimbursem*nts up to $3 million per adult as opposed to Aura’s $1 million per adult.

What you will not get from Aura is digital protection as comprehensive as Norton 360 – the all-in-one antivirus and cybersecurity suite from NortonLifeLock. Aura’s antivirus software doesn’t have a firewall and the VPN connects to U.S. servers only. But keep this in mind: Aura includes cybersecurity features in all plans, whereas LifeLock requires a slightly pricier bundle to include Norton 360.

So why choose Aura over LifeLock? For one, Aura’s family plan offers more value. It’s cheaper than NortonLifeLock’s top-tier family plan (Ultimate Plus) but offers similar features. Plus, Aura includes parental control features in the family plan so parents can broaden their kids’ identity and digital safety. There are features like cyberbullying and online predator monitoring in gaming chat rooms, for example. We also like that Aura covers more users. The Aura family plan protects up to five adults and unlimited children; that of LifeLock protects up to two adults and five kids only.

That aside, when we reviewed Aura, we loved how quickly it managed to detect potential fraud and deliver alerts. We received over 20 data breach alerts right after setting it up – which took less than 20 minutes, by the way. And then throughout the first week of our testing, we received several other alerts about our bank and credit card transactions.

That’s one other thing we liked about Aura; how it monitors personal finances. It’s true that fraud attempts are often detected in your credit report first, but if you get alerts about personal transactions too, you’d be able to prevent costly financial repercussions. Unlike the other LifeLock alternatives down this list, Aura does a great job matching LifeLock’s monitoring for personal finances.

So overall, if you want a service that offers protections as robust as LifeLock but more affordable and more user-friendly, Aura is likely the best LifeLock alternative for you.

2. Identity Guard

Identity Guard is a top-notch service with features that rival NortonLifeLock, albeit 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

Pretty exhaustive, right? What you’re not going to get with Identity Guard is some of the more tertiary benefits offered by NortonLifeLock such as their VPN, their virus protection, or their cloud storage. But to be completely honest — while those are nice perks — they aren’t super important to us.

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. 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.

One of the really cool things about Identity Guard is their gamified approach to identity protection. After entering answers about our personal lives and behaviors that they refer to as “Threat Questions,” we were presented with a dashboard that provided us with a “Risk Management Score,” a dynamic feature that shows how vulnerable we are over time and makes suggestions on how to improve. This is a really unique feature; one that NortonLifeLock doesn’t offer.

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. IdentityForce

We were really happy with our findings after using IdentityForce’s latest suite of services. They offer one of the best desktop experiences we’ve seen, along with extremely detailed reports and actionable notifications. The overall design of the service and the number of resources they offer really inspire confidence that you’re in good hands.

You can choose between two tiers of service here, UltraSecure and UltraSecure+Credit. As always, we recommend going with the latter, as the protections are more complete. We’ve broken them down in our IdentityForce service and pricing guide, but we’ve also provided the highlights here.

IdentityForce Plans

One of the first things that impressed us was the company’s attention to detail and how granular they get with data. Some services skimp on this, but in our credit report alone, we were able to see everything — and we do mean everything — that was impacting our scores. Not only that, IdentityForce explains why they report on specific data. Keep in mind this is quite rare for the industry, and it’s not something we experienced with NortonLifeLock.

In our review of their services, we said IdentityForce’s credit reporting, monitoring, and analysis was the gold standard, and we stick to that statement.

We also got loads of use out of the Credit Score Simulator offered by IdentityForce. There are a few other services on the market that dabble with these, but IdentityForce’s is the most complete we’ve found. Using this tool, you can simulate what would happen if you changed certain behaviors or if certain financial situations were to occur. It’s a really helpful tool for anyone looking to improve their score or recover from financial hardship. And again, it’s not something that NortonLifeLock brings to the table.

You can see the IdentityForce Credit Score Simulator below. It definitely won’t win any design awards, but trust us when we say it’s ultra-useful.

Finally, we’d like to point out the attention to detail IdentityForce pays in its alerts. Some services will tell you — hey — your email address shows up on the Dark Web, but IdentityForce takes it a step further. It tells you where the breach originated, what type of breach it was, when the breach occurred, and a summary of what steps you should take to protect yourself. Really helpful stuff here!

IdentityForce also pays special attention to Social Media, something NortonLifeLock doesn’t really do. The ‘Force will monitor your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube accounts for a wide variety of nefarious and untoward activity including account hacking, malware, and inappropriate behaviors.

So while you’ll get a lot of frills with NortonLifeLock, you get rock-solid, highly detailed core functionality with IdentityForce. It’s a matter of preference, for sure, but the credit monitoring functionality alone makes IdentityForce one of our favorites, which is why we gave it our Best Service recognition this year.

With that said, let’s move on to our final pick — ID Watchdog.

4. ID Watchdog

If you’ll pardon the obvious pun, ID Watchdog is a bit of an underdog here, but they’re still worth recognizing for their credit locking ability, the scope of their protection, and their intuitive user experience — all for a really reasonable price. We think ID Watchdog is a great alternative to NortonLifeLock, especially for those who are looking for something a little more utilitarian.

There are two tiers of service with ID Watchdog, Plus and Platinum. We’ve provided a quick punch list of plans below.

ID Watchdog Plans

Immediately worth pointing out is ID Watchdog’s 401k/HSA Reimbursem*nt in their Platinum plan. Unlike NortonLifeLock, ID Watchdog places retirement and health savings accounts in it’s own special category. Good news if you’re of retirement age or have been in a traditional career for a long time.

We also loved that we were able to lock our TransUnion and Equifax credit reports at the push of a button, and were given handy information on how to do the same with Experian. Credit locks are one of the best things you can do to protect your identity, as it makes it so no one can take out a new line of credit or establish a loan in your name. Very few people take advantage of this service or even know it’s available to them.

Another thing we’d like to point out is ID Watchdog’s dashboard. It has a very “command center” feel, and everything you need is at the tips of your fingers. Set up was super intuitive, and we were given detailed information on how to set up all of our protections, and why they were necessary. As a bonus point, their resources aren’t buried somewhere in a help section — everything is right there, available to you when you need it. While NortonLifeLock’s dashboard definitely feels more modern, we still appreciate the standard-issue utility offered by ID Watchdog.

ID Watchdog also takes identity protection very seriously. Their dark web scan is super robust, and they also offer an identity profile report where you can examine records of personal information located in public and the USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) database. Worth noting, a lot of records are going to show up here. Don’t be alarmed. True to form, ID Watchdog does a great job explaining where the records came from, and if action should be taken.

Finally, ID Watchdog also offers a great Solicitation Reduction feature where you’re able to register for the National Do Not Call List and decrease the amount of junk mail and pre-screened credit card offers you receive. It took about a month for us to notice a difference, but it actually was pretty significant. A nice little add-on there!

Four Great LifeLock Alternatives, One Decision

All said, while NortonLifeLock is a top-rated service, there are plenty of other options out there. In our experience, Aura, Identity Guard, IdentityForce, and ID Watchdog are all worth taking a hard look at when picking out identity theft protection. Aura would be our pick, but that’s based on a myriad of financial and personal factors.

There are a lot of considerations when shopping around. You shouldn’t always go with the one that has the most name recognition or the longest list of features. To find the service that’s right for your situation and lifestyle, head over to our identity theft protection services buyers guide.

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