Aura vs. Lifelock: Which Is Best in 2024?

If you think identity theft isn’t something to worry about, think again.

Last year, Americans lost over $52 billion to identity thieves.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world, and if you’ve not already been affected, you could be soon. It can truly happen to anybody.

Sounds pretty hopeless, right?

Fortunately, there are a bunch of identity protection services on the market that are meant to protect you and your loved ones against cybercriminals and identity thieves. But with so many different tools offering so many different features, it can be difficult to know if you’re truly protected.

Aura and Lifelock are two of the most popular identity protection tools on the market, but they both have their own pros and cons to consider.

In this article, we’ll compare the two so you can decide which is best for you and your family.

Let’s dive in!

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If you’re impatient and just want to know what our final thoughts are, here’s the Final Verdict:

💡 Both Aura and Lifelock are solid identity theft protection tools, but with Lifelock’s confusing pricing plans, it can be difficult to know if you and your family and truly protected.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one comprehensive solution for you and your family members, Aura is by far the better choice. Aura has all of the features Lifelock offers with more transparent pricing and an easy-to-use interface.

 

Aura vs. Lifelock at a glance

At a glance, Aura and Lifelock are similar tools at around the same price point. The main differences lie in their available features, ease of use, and the specific use cases for each.

Aura is an all-in-one comprehensive identity protection solution, while Lifelock is best for individuals looking more for identity, credit, and financial monitoring but who are less concerned about digital security tools like VPNs.

To help you better understand the differences, take a look at this feature comparison of Aura vs. Lifelock below:

Aura and Lifelock both aim to safeguard personal information and provide identity theft protection, their approach to how they do that and the features are different:

Here is how the two compare against each other in terms of feature sets:

 

Aura pros, cons, & pricing

Aura is an all-in-one comprehensive identity theft protection solution that’s perfect for individuals and families alike. It’s an award-winning service with the industry’s fastest fraud alerts and pricing plans that are simple to understand.

Pros of Aura

• 3-bureau credit monitoring: Aura offers monitoring with all three credit bureaus on all of its plans, unlike Lifelock (which only offers 3-bureau monitoring with its most expensive plan).
• Extremely fast fraud alerts: When your identity is on the line, every minute counts. Aura has been shown to catch more changes to customers’ credit reports and send out alerts up to 250 times faster than its competitors.
• Proactive protection: Every Aura plan includes a VPN, antivirus, password manager, and other safe browsing tools. 
• Transparent pricing: With Aura, there are no surprises when it comes to pricing. They don’t do first-year promotional pricing (meaning the rate you pay your first year is the same rate you’ll continue to pay if you keep the same plan).
• AI-powered Call Assistant: Aura’s new Call Assistant feature uses AI to help screen your calls and messages and filter out spam. They are one of the first identity protection services to utilize AI in this way.

Cons of Aura

• Individual plan pricier than other options: Aura’s individual plan starts at $12 per month, which is pricier than a lot of other basic identity protection services.
• Not a lot of flexibility in plans: Because Aura offers only 1 plan option for individuals and 1 for families, there’s not really any wiggle room if you’re on a tighter budget. All plans come with the same features and you get what you get.

Aura pricing

Aura has a simplified pricing model that’s easy to understand with no surprise price hikes after your first year.

These are their plan options as of May 2023:

• Aura Individual: $15/month (or $12/month billed annually)
• Aura Family: $30/month (or $24/month billed annually)

With Aura, all you really need to decide is whether you want protection for just yourself or the whole family. All offerings are available under each plan, so there’s no guesswork about what features you may or may not need.

 

Lifelock pros, cons, & pricing

Lifelock is an older company that’s been in the identity protection game since 2005. It’s best for individuals looking for a combination of dark web, financial, and credit monitoring. Lifelock has also partnered with the security company Norton since 2017.

Pros of Lifelock

• Household name: Lifelock has been in business since 2005 and has acquired nearly 50 million customers since then. It’s no question that they’re a trusted and respected household name in the industry.
• Integrates with Norton, another trusted name: If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you can upgrade your subscription to include Norton 360 Select so you’ll be protected from viruses and hackers.
• 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans: When it comes to identity protection, there are a lot of services all offering similar yet different features. It’s nice to know that you’ll be able to get your money back if you decide Lifelock just isn’t for you.

Cons of Lifelock

• Confusing pricing structure: Lifelock offers three individual plans as well as three family plans for adults and three plans for families with children. If it sounds complicated, it’s because it is. Then you have the option of paying annually to receive a discount, but it doesn’t go far considering the fact that subscription prices jump after your first year.
• High renewal pricing increases: Lifelock’s plans may appear cheap at first, but that’s because there’s a significant price jump after the first year (around 40%!), making it unaffordable for many customers.
• Lack of transparency: In 2022, Lifelock faced backlash after installing a cryptocurrency miner alongside Norton 360 software.
• Negative customer reviews: Lifelock has 4.0 stars on Trustpilot, which may seem good, but when you actually get to reading the individual reviews you’ll find that many are negative.
• Poor user data protection: Lifelock was sued in 2015 by the FTC for failing to secure user data. Then, in 2018, they had a bug that exposed millions of customer email addresses to the public.

Lifelock pricing

Lifelock has a range of subscription plans that can seem overwhelming at first. They have three basic pricing tiers for individuals, families, and families with children. 

To keep things simple, below are Lifelock’s plan options for individuals:

• Lifelock Standard: $9.99/month (renews at $11.99/month after year 1)
• Lifelock Advantage: $17.99/month (renews at $22.99/month after year 1)
• Lifelock Ultimate Plus: $23.99/month (renews at $34.99/month after year 1)

For families, Lifelock plans range from $14.99 per month all the way up to $46.99 per month.

Then, you’ll need to decide if you want Norton 360 add-ons. You’ll also need to decide how you prefer to be billed — monthly or annually (for a discount).

And after all that effort deciding on a plan that works for you and is in your price range, your subscription will renew at a significantly higher price point in your second year as a customer. Like, around 40% higher. If you’re on a budget, that kind of price increase is no joke.

Aura vs. Lifelock compared

Now that we’ve taken a high-level look at Aura and Lifelock’s pros and cons, let’s more closely examine what each product has to offer.

 

Identity theft monitoring

Identity protection tools will track your information online and monitor the Dark Web to ensure nothing is leaked. If a leak does happen, you’ll be sent a notification so you can take action and minimize further damage.

Both Aura and Lifelock offer identity theft monitoring. They’ll send you a notification if any of your personal information is found on the Dark Web or if your accounts become compromised. With Aura, you can also run free Dark Web scans at any time if you want peace of mind.

It’s important to note that while both services send fraud notifications, Aura’s alerts have been found to be around 4x faster than competitors. When it comes to identity theft, time is of the essence and every second counts.

✅ Winner: Aura

Both services offer identity theft monitoring and provide fraud alerts, but Aura’s alerts are typically faster.

 

Credit monitoring

Good identity theft protection services will notify you of any suspicious activity on your credit reports, like new inquiries. This can alert you to fraudsters who may be trying to get credit or applying for an account in your name. This gives you time to lock down your credit by freezing your reports.

If you’re looking to build your credit, having credit monitoring included in your identity theft protection is pretty important. Luckily, both Aura and Lifelock offer credit monitoring on all their plans. That said, Lifelock only monitors one credit bureau unless you upgrade to their most expensive plan.

Aura, on the other hand, monitors your credit across all three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) even on their cheapest plan.

✅ Winner: Aura

Since Aura offers three-bureau credit monitoring on all their plans, they’re the clear winner here. To get three-bureau monitoring with Lifelock, you’ll need to upgrade to their most expensive plan.

 

Device and online safety tools

Cybercriminals are getting smarter and finding new ways to hack into your devices. And if you work outside your home on a public wifi network, the risk of your data getting stolen becomes even larger. Which is where a VPN and other antivirus tools can really come in handy.

You can upgrade your Lifelock subscription to include Norton 360 Select, which will provide you with a VPN and antivirus that can be used on 5+ devices (depending on your base plan). With Aura, a VPN, antivirus, and password manager are already included in both plans.

✅ Winner: Aura

With Aura, you don’t have to upgrade your plan to gain access to online safety tools. None of these tools come with Lifelock’s base packages — you’ll need to upgrade your plan to include Norton 360 Select.

 

Identity theft insurance

Dealing with an identity theft case can be stressful, not to mention expensive. If you’re paying for an identity protection service, you should have peace of mind that you’ll be covered if something does go wrong.

Lifelock offers up to $1 million to pay for lawyers and experts for each adult on its plans. Then, depending on your subscription tier, they offer $25k, $100k, or $1 million each for stolen funds and personal expense compensation.

Aura offers up to $1 million in identity theft insurance for each adult on its plans. This includes any legal fees, lost wages, and other losses that are a result of identity fraud.

✅ Winner: Lifelock

Lifelock offers slightly more insurance coverage and also covers children on their family plans, while Aura’s insurance only covers adults.

 

Identity restoration

Even with the help of an identity protection service, there’s still always the potential that a cybercriminal will be able to get hold of your personal information. If the worst does happen, you want a service that’ll help you pick up the pieces and minimize further damage.

In the case your identity is compromised, both Aura and Lifelock will assign a U.S.-based fraud resolution expert to help restore your identity and recover assets. They also offer lost wallet remediation to secure any credit, debit, or ID cards you may have.

✅ Winner: Tie

Both Aura and Lifelock provide access to U.S.-based fraud resolution experts and provide lost wallet remediation, so they tie in this category.

 

Family plans

If you have family members that you’re also trying to protect, you’ll want to make sure the service you choose will be able to cover them.

Lifelock offers a couple different options for families. They have plans covering up to 2 adults as well as plans covering up to 2 adults and 5 children. These plans range in price from $14.99/month to $46.99/month.

But what if you need to cover other adults in your family, like elderly family members, for instance?

That’s where Aura’s family plans are a lot more flexible. They cover up to 5 adults and unlimited children, so it’s perfect for just about any family situation there is. And pricing starts at just $24/month.

✅ Winner: Aura

Both Aura and Lifelock offer plan options for families, but Aura’s plans are a lot more flexible at a lower price point.

 

Ease of use

An identity protection tool is worthless if you’re not able to actually use it. While every tool is going to come with some kind of learning curve, Lifelock’s is more difficult than most. Many users on Trustpilot have complained that it isn’t user-friendly.

Despite being an all-in-one solution with a lot of different features, Aura is relatively easy to set up and use.

✅ Winner: Aura

Just take a look at customer reviews and it’s clear that Aura has an interface that’s user-friendly and easier to use than Lifelock.

 

Customer support

Both Lifelock and Aura offer 24/7 customer support, and Lifelock’s most expensive plan also offers “priority support.” Despite both companies offering round-the-clock support, we found that there was a huge difference in quality between them.

Lifelock’s support seems to be outsourced overseas so communication barriers may be an issue. Not only that, but Lifelock’s support team can be somewhat difficult to reach outside of the typical 9-5 business hours. If you have a problem on a holiday, for example, you could end up waiting several days to have it resolved.

Aura has a U.S.-based customer support team with an 1800 number you can call and get a real person on the line to speak to to get answers to your questions fast.

✅ Winner: Aura

While both companies claim to offer 24/7 customer support, Aura’s support team is completely U.S.-based and available 24/7/365 to help you.

 

Customer ratings

Sometimes, the best way to make a decision about a product is to look at real customer reviews. Both Aura and Lifelock are highly rated on Trustpilot — Aura with 4.5 stars and Lifelock with 4.0 stars.

But what are customers actually saying about Aura?

• “Service is over and beyond what I expected. With one phone call, my Aura rep called each creditor and checked my credit reports and offered great follow-up advice. If you want peace of mind, you need Aura.”

• “Aura caught several fraud attempts early on and were able to mitigate the damage almost immediately. I will not be without this service. It is a very wise investment!”

Let’s compare that to what customers are saying about Lifelock…

• “The software/website is buggy, it won’t connect or keeps disconnecting monitored accounts, I have to check daily to see which accounts are still connected and monitored and ‘customer service’ is a joke.”

• “I can never get a supervisor when I need one. The help I get is people reading from a script and doesn’t really address the issue I called about.”

Yikes.

✅ Winner: Aura

While both are highly rated on Trustpilot, Lifelock has a ton of negative reviews compared to Aura, who has mostly glowing reviews.

 

Aura vs. Lifelock: you decide

So, to recap, here are the winners of each of the categories we discussed:

• Identity theft monitoring: Aura
• Credit monitoring: Aura
• Device and online safety tools: Aura
• Identity theft insurance: Lifelock
• Identity restoration: Tie
• Family plans: Aura
• Ease of use: Aura
• Customer support: Aura
• Customer ratings: Aura

In 2023, identity thieves and cybercriminals are running rampant and investing in identity protection is more than worth it — but not all tools are on the same level of quality.

While both Aura and Lifelock are solid companies with good ratings and similar features, Aura outshines it and other competitors.

Even Aura’s lowest-priced plan offers comprehensive identity and credit monitoring. Plus, you’ll get a suite of online safety tools at no extra cost. And the best part is that price-wise, what you see is what you get. Unlike Lifelock, there are no hidden renewal hikes that may surprise you later down the line, making it perfect if you’re working on a budget.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy my other two recent articles about cybersecurity:

• 10 Best Lifelock Alternatives in 2023
• 10 Free Dark Web Scanners You Should Be Using in 2023