Last Updated on March 18, 2023
Many people are quickly learning that identity theft is a real crime that can happen to anyone. Today, identity theft accounts for some of the largest insurance claims and personal property losses for individuals and businesses. However, there are simple and affordable ways to protect your data and ensure that your identity is secure.
When it really comes down to what you get for the money you spend, Aura is really a much better option for most individuals and budgets. LifeLock has some great features, but it is expensive, and their customer service really leaves something to be desired.
Aura doesn’t shine over LifeLock in every aspect (that less than awesome dashboard and the skimpy VPN for example), but when it comes to providing a well rounded product that really does a good job of protecting your personal information and finances, Aura is hands down a more robust product, and is certainly a much better value for your money.
Identity protection products are one of the best and most popular ways individuals can protect their identity and the identity of their family members. Products like Aura and LifeLock are two popular options that many people consider.
When you consider LifeLock and Aura, they both have great features that are designed to keep your personal information safe. However, you will find that when it comes to pricing and what you get for your money, Aura and LifeLock are quite different.
If you are currently in the market for an identity theft protection product, you are likely doing a ton of research. In this article, we will help you with your research project, by comparing these two products. We will break down how these products are similar and how they differ, so that you can make the best selection for you and your family.
Who Should Buy Aura
Aura is a product from the company that brought you Identity Guard. This is a software program that protects your identity from criminals that are trying to access your personal information through your computer.
All of Aura’s plans start with a robust package of features. Each plan, no matter the price, provides you with a VPN, password manager, antivirus protection, identity theft insurance and fraud resolution. This is the base package with Aura, so if you are looking for a single product that gives you pretty much everything you need, Aura is a good choice.
Delving deeper into the identity protection packages offered by Aura you’ll see that their product is designed to track your financial resources, your social security number, much of your personal data and they will even keep watch over your home title (if you own your home) and any criminal prosecution that may use your identity or personal information.
Aura has one of the best identity theft insurance products should any of their scans result in identifying a case where your personal information has been misused. For individuals, Aura’s insurance provides $1 million in coverage, and for families the coverage is up to $5 million, and covers up to 5 adults in the same family.
To protect your personal information, including your social security number and identifying information, Aura’s system collects data and information from a wide range of sources including the world wide web, the dark web, data broker listings, and criminal court listings. If you purchase their family plan, they will also do this for your children to help protect their identities from criminals and illicit activities.
If you are concerned about protecting your finances, Aura has great products to keep your money safe. Not only will they monitor your credit ratings, but they will also keep a check on your bank accounts, retirement accounts and other financial products. They also provide each customer with their Lost Wallet product. This handy tool allows you to quickly lock your bank accounts and credit cards if you should lose or misplace your wallet or purse.
One of the unique features that come with all of Aura’s packages is the VPN. With most other identity protection products you have to purchase a VPN separately. With Aura, the VPN comes along with their highly effective antivirus program. With your Aura VPN and antivirus programs, you can protect your personal information or your children’s on up to 50 devices.
Now that you know a bit about the Aura products, you may be curious if this product is right for you. Aura is a great plan if you:
You should select Aura if:
Who Should Buy LifeLock
LifeLock is a well known and respected product from Norton. Coming from one of the original antivirus software manufacturers, LifeLock has many years of experience behind their product. Besides protecting your personal information on your computer, phones, and tablets, LifeLock monitors your credit rating, banking and investment accounts (including your 401K).
LifeLock also has a wide lens when it comes to monitoring your information. They search the world wide web, the dark web, credit reporting bureaus, and criminal court proceedings.
If a threat should be identified or someone does happen to gain access to your personal information LifeLock offers base insurance of up to $1 million for resolution and lawyer fees. In their higher level products you get $1 million for resolution and lawyer services, and an additional $1 million for replacing any lost funds from your accounts.
Norton’s LifeLock product does offer VPNs in some of their packages if you want to safely surf the web even when you are on public connections, or traveling to foreign countries.
If you are curious about the cost of LifeLock plans, you will be surprised to learn that they are quite affordable. Their basic plan starts at a very reasonable $8.29 per month for an individual plan. The prices increase across the plans based on the features and the type of plan (individual, couple or family).
You should select LifeLock if:
If you are still not sure about LifeLock, it is a great product for you if:
Aura vs LifeLock: Most Important Features Compared
Now that we’ve covered both products in a general overview, it’s time for us to look closer at some of the stand out features for LifeLock and Aura. We have selected these features because they are the most important for protecting your personal information given an understanding of where and how people are being targeted by criminals today.
Dark Web Monitoring
Despite Norton’s long time presence in the market for antivirus software, their dark web monitoring was a bit of a disappointment. Aura quickly identified multiple threats to the information we used for our test, while LifeLock only produced a couple.
To be honest, we expected more from LifeLock. With so many opportunities to wow us with their product, dark web monitoring was the one place we thought that LifeLock would shine.
Monitoring & Alerts
When you consider the list of monitoring tools that both LifeLock and Aura offer, it is hard to pick one over the other. Both offer:
- Web and Dark Web monitoring
- Bank account monitoring
- Social Security monitoring
- Mailing address monitoring
- Social media monitoring
- Home title monitoring
- Sex offender database monitoring
- Payday loan monitoring
- Investment product monitoring (including 401K)
The one thing you need to remember when comparing LifeLock and Aura is that these features are available on all Aura packages. LifeLock offers an increasing number of these on their higher level products. The more of these you want, the more you will have to pay. It is however reassuring that LifeLock offers these for those that want them.
Threat Resolution Services
The quality of customer service you receive when you actually need help resolving an attack on your identity, is really important. When it comes to customer service, we would pick Aura hands down.
They call their fraud resolution product, “white-glove”, meaning that you can expect the best and highest quality from their agents. This is definitely true, and it is certainly where LifeLock falls apart.
While both Aura and LifeLock offer some basic tools to prevent further harm if your identity has been stolen, Aura goes above and beyond with their 24/7/365 customer service. You can call their customer service and fraud resolution numbers at any time, and you will be put in touch with a helpful, kind, and professional fraud resolution expert. This person will be the only person you talk to, and they will guide you through the process of fixing what someone has stolen from you.
LifeLock also has customer service and fraud resolution. Unfortunately you can only reach a human in their fraud resolution departments Monday through Saturday, and only during normal business hours.
Theft Insurance
Another place where Aura shines over LifeLock is with their identity theft insurance. Aura’s product is one of the best on the market, and really does provide more insurance protection for you and your family if you should need it.
When you buy Aura, you get $1 million in resolution support per person. This means that with the individual package you get $1 million, with their couples package you get $2 million, and the family package gets up to $5 million in coverage.
LifeLock provides a standard $1 million across the board, no matter which package you purchase. The only exception to this is that their highest level package does provide an additional $1 million in fund replacement coverage. This is surprisingly lower than the market average for identity theft insurance.
Setup Speed
When you first start using your new identity theft protection product, you will probably be curious to see what bits of your information have already been accessed. Most people are really surprised that even if you think you are doing everything right, your information is out there, and someone has probably tried to use it.
Aura’s product quickly generates an initial list of threats and fraud activity. As a matter of fact, their program gives you a pretty robust list in just a few minutes. A full list is usually created in no more than 12 hours.
LifeLock is also good at creating a base list of your existing threats, but it takes much longer to populate your initial list. By much longer, we are talking well over 12 hours, across the board.
Ease of Use
We would love to rave about the ease of use of Aura and LifeLock. Unfortunately only one of these products really provides an intuitive and easy to use web/app dashboard. And, that product is LifeLock.
The software designers at Norton have really learned a thing or two about how to make a simple to use and intuitive user interface. Their dashboard on the web and on their app are clean, have all of your alerts on the front page, and all of the services provided in your package are posted right on the landing page. You don’t have to dig for anything.
The Aura dashboard is sadly another story all together. We had hoped that the Aura dashboard would mimic that of Identity Guard. Since this is the predecessor to Aura, and made from the same software company, you would think they would have similar user interfaces.
However, the Aura dashboard is nothing like the Identity Guard dashboard, and not in a good way. You have to dig to find your alerts and many of the services that you need are only accessed through one or more dropdown menus. It would be really nice if the Aura dashboard had more of the important, basic information right up front.
When it comes to ease of use, LifeLock wins, hands down.
Additional Services
The two features that we want to cover under additional services are the antivirus software and VPNs. These are two features that both products provide, that you may not get from other identity protection products.
To be honest, it is nice to have the option. However, if we are picking a product based simply on the antivirus protection and the VPN, we would select LifeLock. And this makes sense. You cannot go wrong buying antivirus and a personal network from the company that was a trailblazer in the development of both.
If you are drawn to Aura by some of its other features, the VPN and antivirus protection are nice, but they certainly aren’t the best possible options on the market.
Price
Simply put, Aura is clearly one of the most affordable identity protection products you can find on the market today. It also has a very simple pricing structure. They have three options, and each option has the same features.
LifeLock does have a really affordable base level. But it is the base level and it doesn’t really give you much to write home about. LifeLock’s pricing structure is more complicated and there are some pretty substantial price increases between the levels. Also, LifeLock has a reputation for increasing the price of their plans every year.
Here is how the Aura pricing structure works:
| Plan Type | Annual Billing | Monthly Billing |
| Individual | $144/year | $15/month |
| Couple (2 adults) | $264/year | $29/month |
| Family (5 adults, unlimited children) | $444/year | $50/month |
LifeLock has a more complex pricing structure. They offer three levels of protection and just family and individual coverage. If you want coverage for you and your spouse but you don’t have children, you will either have to use the family level or buy two individual options. Also with LifeLock, each level of pricing gives you different benefits.
| Plan Type | Annual Billing | Monthly Billing |
| Individual Standard | $89.99/year | $11.99/month |
| Individual Advantage | $179.88/year | $22.99/month |
| Individual Ultimate Plus | $239.88/year | $19.99/month |
| Family (2 adults) Standard | $149.87/year | $23.99/month |
| Family (2 adults) Advantage | $287.88/year | $45.99/month |
| Family (2 adults) Ultimate Plus | $395.88/year | $69.99/month |
| Family (5 adults) Standard | $221.87/year | $35.99/month |
| Family (5 adults) Advantage | $359.88/year | $57.99/month |
| Family (5 adults) Ultimate Plus | $467.88/year | $79.99/month |
Final Thoughts on Aura vs LifeLock
When it really comes down to what you get for the money you spend, Aura is really a much better option for most individuals and budgets. LifeLock has some great features, but it is expensive, and their customer service really leaves something to be desired.
Aura doesn’t shine over LifeLock in every aspect (that less than awesome dashboard and the skimpy VPN for example), but when it comes to providing a well rounded product that really does a good job of protecting your personal information and finances, Aura is hands down a more robust product, and is certainly a much better value for your money.
