Aura vs. LifeLock

Did you know the Federal Trade Commission received over one million reports of identity theft in 2023?1

It took many forms, from scams to data breaches at global companies. Thankfully, there are solutions that can protect your identity and help you get life back to normal if your sensitive information falls into the wrong hands.

Two of the top providers are Aura and LifeLock. Both provide the standard offerings like identity theft insurance, credit monitoring services, and recovery solutions. But which one does it better? After researching, trialing, and testing both options ourselves, we found that despite a lower review score, Aura is the best choice.

Aura Dashboard

Here’s why we prefer it.

Prices and Packages

We get it, identity theft protection isn’t something you want eating up your budget. We’d rather spend our money on a nice dinner or a new video game too. But, getting our identity stolen would cost a lot more than either of these identity theft protection services. They surprised us with how inexpensive they were. Here’s the details.

Aura

Aura makes it easy to choose a plan that suits you and your family. The features are tailored to the package, so you only pay for what you need.

For example, the Kids tier offers unlimited devices for all the children in your family. It even has features for the little ones who get overly excited when they score exclusive loot in “Fortnite” or those constantly sending you Reels at all hours of the night.

Meanwhile, the individual and couple plans provide the same features for each adult on the plan. We ended up getting the individual plan while testing Aura. Some of the essentials include:

• Identity theft insurance
• Password managers
• Spam list removal

The family plan offers excellent value for money. It covers up to five adults, unlimited children, and there is no limit on devices. Think of it as a combo of the Kids and Couple plan in regards to features. It has everything you need to protect your identity while keeping the kids safe when they’re online.

In addition to the simple naming conventions, we also liked how much Aura costs every year.

NortonLifeLock

Norton LifeLock Dashboard

When we tested NortonLifeLock, we had a hard time figuring out which package was right for us. We needed to examine each feature individually instead of picking the plan with the name that described us. We’re also not massive fans of the price jump in the second year.

You’ll find the above plans on the LifeLock page. But there is a link below that takes you to nine more plans — that’s right, nine. To make things easier, here’s a quick overview of NortonLifeLock’s plans and pricing:

The key difference between these plans is access to Norton 360. Norton 360 comes with patented antivirus software and other useful apps, such as a VPN, password manager, and webcam blocker. But many of these are included in the Aura plans at no extra cost.

How Are They Similar?

On the surface, Aura and NortonLifeLock provide a lot of the same features. Some of the most common features are:

• Credit monitoring
• Financial activity alerts
• Three bureau credit reports
• Credit score checks
• Credit locks
• Identity recovery
• Dark web alerts
• Parental controls
• Social Security number monitoring
• Home title monitoring
• Address change alerts

However, not all of these features are included in every package. For example, parental controls aren’t part of Aura’s Individual and Couple tiers or NortonLifeLock’s individual plans. Both of these make sense.

Norton LifeLock Transaction Alerts

We weren’t a fan with NortonLifeLock’s Standard, Select, and Advantage Plans only including one bureau credit monitoring though. All of Aura’s adult plans come with three-bureau credit monitoring.

Where Do They Differ?

Without having multiple screens to comb through the details of each individual plan, it’s challenging to determine which one has the features you need and the best coverage. But we’ve condensed all the important information into a brief overview to help you see the differences between Aura and LifeLock.

LifeLock’s list of features specifically protects adults. Family policies include up to $1.5 million of coverage per child. But, the security components, such as Password Manager or Privacy Monitor only support enough devices to work for the parents in most cases.

>> Read About: 5 Child Identity Theft Statistics Every Parent Should Know

There are parental controls available when you purchase LifeLock with Norton 360. You’ll get content filtering, screen-time limits, and device locations. But we feel the lack of protection for kids is a miss, considering almost one million children were victims of identity theft in 2022.2

Aura’s approach is completely different, as it has features specifically designed to protect children online. This is why it makes our list of the best identity theft protection services for children. Some of these features include:

• Parental controls: Aura lets you filter harmful sites and place time limits on apps like Roblox, Snapchat, and YouTube.
• Safe gaming: Receive alerts when kids are threatened via in-game voice or text messages on over 200 popular PC games.
• Child Social Security number monitoring: The service scans billions of public records to determine if someone else uses your child’s SSN.
• Child credit freeze: You can request freezes to your children’s credit file through a seamless process that alerts TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.

Monitor your kids' content with Aura

Aura’s app works on an unlimited number of devices so you can use it on your kids devices as well. This differs from LifeLock as it depends on the plan you choose. It’s up to five for the lower tiers, and for the premium options, it’s as many as you need.

What’s in the Fine Print?

To keep you safe, identity theft protection services need to collect a lot of your personal information. But before we started handing it over, we looked into what Aura and Norton do with it.

Aura

You won’t need a lawyer present to decipher Aura’s privacy policy. It’s presented well and easy to read.

But one line that stands out is that Aura can use your data to promote co-branded offers with partners. This may include contacting you about services from companies it thinks you might be interested in. However, it restricts the usage of your details to communicating, evaluating, and improving offers.

This line didn’t surprise us, as some of Aura’s services are white labeled. Its VPN is a reskin of Hotspot Shield, and Circle powers the parental controls. Even the gaming and cyberbullying alerts are backed by ProtectMe by Kidas. So, some of your details are shared with these partners to power them.

Norton

All of Norton’s products are proprietary, and any information you give them is logged. However, there is a note in their privacy policy that LifeLock shares personal data for marketing and other purposes. But you can opt-out.

The rest of your information is used to ensure your identity is protected. Some of the groups Norton shares your data with include:

• Data analytics providers
• Payment processors
• Public authorities and legal proceedings
• Social media and internet platforms
• Restoration services

None of these raised alarm bells for us, as most identity theft protection services partner with third-party providers to improve their services.

Verdict: Aura or LifeLock?

LifeLock was one of the first major brands to provide identity theft protection. It’s maintained a stellar reputation for offering high-quality products, especially when combined with Norton 360 and its award-winning antivirus software.

However, it doesn’t do enough to protect all family members. Aura not only has a plan designed for children, but features that keep them safe online. Some of the features include game message alerts and usage reports. We also liked that it made choosing a plan easy courtesy of its naming conventions.

While there are some concerns about sharing data with third parties, these are outweighed by the extra features, such as antivirus software, VPN, and password manager apps, that are available at no additional cost. That’s why Aura is our top pick.

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