Aura vs LifeLock Comparison for 2024

The AARP reported that American adults lost $43 billion to identity fraud in 2023.1 While the number of people impacted was lower year on year, the dollar amount significantly increased from $23 billion in 2022.

If these figures have you worried about your own finances, it’s worth exploring identity theft protection services. You can start with two of our favorite identity theft protection services: Aura and LifeLock. They offer extensive features that can protect your bank balance and alert you when someone uses your Social Security number or if your information shows up on the dark web.

But how do you choose between these two popular brands? In our experience, Aura is the better option, as it offers features tailor-made to your situation and provides better protection if you have kids.

Here’s what you need to know.

About Aura

The company’s founder knows what it’s like to have their information stolen. It happened to them in 2014 and inspired them to create a service that was not only affordable but easy to use.

Since, Aura has partnered with other brands to build its product suite. It uses Hotspot Shield for its VPN. Check out our thoughts about it in our Hotspot Shield review. ProtectMe by Kidas produces gaming and cyberbullying alerts, and Circle powers the parental controls.

While all of these brands are reputable, the information you share with Aura is shared with the others in order to run these features, which not everyone will love.

>> Check Out: Aura Identity Theft Protection Review

About NortonLifeLock

The Norton name is synonymous with its award-winning antivirus software. But the company has branched out into other categories by creating its own VPN and purchasing LifeLock.

Symantec bought LifeLock in 2017 and began offering it as a stand-alone service with its Norton 360 subscription. The key difference with Aura is that Norton doesn’t need to send your information to other providers to power its features.

However, its privacy policy states that it will share personal data for marketing and other purposes. Fortunately, you can opt out, which we recommend doing when you first log in.

>> Learn More: LifeLock Review 2024

Prices and Plans Breakdown

Now that you know a bit more about each company, we’re going to break down both of their pricing. Since we recently purchased a plan from Aura and NortonLifeLock, we’ll give you the inside scoop.

Aura

It’s easy to choose a plan with Aura simply by its name. Each tier tells you exactly who the plan is for. Here’s a quick overview of Aura’s prices and plans:

The Kids tier primarily focuses on parental controls and online safety. But what we liked most was that it gave us coverage for as many devices and children as we had.

The Individual and Couple tiers offer identical features, and the Family plan covers up to five adults and as many children as there are living in your house. You can try out any package free for 14 days, and there is also a 60-day money-back guarantee on all annual payments.

Speaking of money, Aura let us pay with a credit or debit card, Apple Pay, or PayPal.

NortonLifeLock

Unfortunately, NortonLifeLock doesn’t make choosing an identity theft protection plan easy. Its pricing is located across two web pages: one for the stand-alone product and the other for adding Norton 360 to the plan. Here are the prices of LifeLock’s stand-alone plans:

And here are the plans offered with Norton 360:

One aspect we didn’t like was how much the price increased in the second year. In many cases, it almost doubles. Fortunately, you have a 30-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind. But you need to add a credit card or PayPal information to activate the offer.

>>Read More: Norton Antivirus Cost and Plan Pricing

Verdict: Aura made it effortless for us to choose the right plan. It also has more payment options available, and the price doesn’t almost double after 12 months.

Comparing the Features

There are a lot of similarities between Aura and LifeLock. Both offer financial activity alerts, three-bureau credit reports, dark web alerts, Social Security number monitoring, and more. But there are a few differences in how they approach specific features.

Identity Protection

Both services keep a close eye on millions of data points to ensure your personal information isn’t in the hands of the wrong people or found in questionable places, including data broker sites, online marketplaces, and dark web forums.

LifeLock takes a preventative approach. When it finds your information, it makes it easy for you to file requests to take these details down. Aura is more reactive. It only provides alerts that a breach has occurred, but it’s up to you to take action on your own.

If you need to access insurance, Aura and LifeLock have you covered. However, the amounts are significantly different. Aura will cover each adult up to $1 million, whereas LifeLock is up to $3 million on its premium tiers. It breaks that $3 million down to coverage for lawyers, experts, and stolen funds reimbursements.

Verdict: We’ll call it a draw. While LifeLock offers more insurance coverage, it’s only available on premium plans. Aura provides the same amount, no matter the tier you choose.

Credit Monitoring

Aura and LifeLock made it easy for us to keep an eye on our credit score and stop anyone from taking out loans in our name while we tested both services. Some of the features we liked most include:

• Credit score reports: Aura provides monthly alerts, and LifeLock offers unlimited one-bureau scores that are updated daily.
• Credit lock: You can easily lock and unlock your credit file with TransUnion to stop taking out lines of credit or loans.
• Fraud monitoring: Both services monitor linked financial accounts and send alerts for unusual spending activities.
• Financial monitoring: You can receive updates if someone tries to add or remove account holders. Notifications can occur for other changes as well, such as increasing withdrawal limits or linking new accounts.

All of these services are available on every Aura plan. However, you only get access to the credit lock feature, fraud monitoring, and financial monitoring on LifeLock’s higher tiers.

Three-bureau credit monitoring, which is the industry standard for identity theft protection, is only available on higher Norton tiers too. It’s also important to note that free reports are unavailable with the cheapest offerings.

Verdict: Aura provides adequate protection on every tier. With LifeLock, you’ll need to pay close attention to the included features to get the credit monitoring you want.

Device and Online Protection

In addition to financial protection, Aura and LifeLock keep you safe while browsing online, no matter what device you use. Both services have apps compatible with iOS, Windows, and Android. Some of the features include the following:

The main difference between Aura and LifeLock is the number of devices you can protect. For Aura, you can protect ten devices on an Individual plan, 20 on the Couple plan, and as many as you want on a Family plan.

LifeLock ranges from five on its Standard plan to unlimited devices on its top package.

Verdict: You’ll need to pay a lot extra for Norton 360, but their cybersecurity products are top of the line. But if you’re on a budget, you’ll get a lot of value from Aura’s plans.

Child Protection

This is where Aura and LifeLock begin to differ. While both offer parental controls, Aura takes it a few steps further. Some of the ways they keep your kids safe are:

• Device management: Remotely monitor your children’s devices, including tracking their location.
• Content filtering: Prevent your kids from accessing specific websites.
• Screen time limits: This feature lets you limit how long kids can stay on devices. Once their time is up, it automatically locks.
• Child SSN monitoring: Aura provides the same protection for your kids’ Social Security numbers as your own.

• Usage tracking: Get detailed reports on how long your kids spend online. You’ll also get browsing history and timings for social media apps, Roblox, and YouTube.
• Safe gaming: Currently, it only works for PC games, but the feature provides in-game voice and text monitoring. You’ll receive an alert if it detects predators, cyberbullying, or scams while they’re playing online.
• Child sex offender geo-alerts: You’ll receive an alert to known and new criminals within a one-mile radius of your address.

LifeLock offers many of the same parental controls with Norton 360 plans, including reports on what videos your kids are watching on YouTube, content filtering, screen time limits, and device location. However, it doesn’t provide protection for gaming and devices limited by basic tiers. With Aura, there aren’t any device limits on plans for kids.

Verdict: Aura’s Kids and Family plans provide excellent protection for children. We also liked that there is no limit on devices or the number of children in your family. Norton restricts children to five.

Final Verdict: Aura or LifeLock?

If you already have a Norton 360 plan, we recommend adding LifeLock to protect yourself from identity theft. It has excellent insurance coverage for the whole family and can provide alerts about your credit, Social Security number, and more from one dashboard.

However, Aura is our preferred choice of the two identity identity theft protection services. It’s easy to purchase the right plan. Plus, you gain all the essential features and some additional ones that benefit you and the kids in the long term.

You still get some of the tools Norton 360 offers, like a VPN and antivirus app, on every plan too. Aura covers all your bases if you want to feel a little bit safer online.