Best Identity Theft Protection Services 2025: How They Compare

Providers such as LifeLock and Aura can be worth the cost to keep your information safe. But freezing and monitoring your own credit is cheaper.

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Updated May 29, 2025 · 2 min read

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Identity theft protection companies pledge to act as guardians of your personal information for a monthly or annual fee. Generally, they start with credit monitoring, then layer on additional services to alert you to potential problems.

But alerts just flag you after the fact; they can't prevent someone from stealing and misusing your financial data. That’s why NerdWallet advises proactively freezing your credit — it can prevent the opening of fraudulent accounts. Compare providers and decide for yourself.

Aura

Pros

Extensive list of features includes VPN and antivirus protection for multiple devices, plus an Experian credit lock.

Can add up to five adults, plus an unlimited number of kids and devices to the family plan.

All plans have a 14-day free trial, and annual plans offer a 60-day money back guarantee.

Cons

Does not monitor social media accounts.

If you cancel the annual plan after 60 days, you still have to pay for the full year (but still retain access to the account).

Cost: The plan for individuals is $15 a month if you pay monthly, or $144 if you choose the annual plan. The couples plan is $29 per month, or $264 annually. Families pay $50 a month, for the monthly plan or $384 for the annual plan.

Best for: People who are budget conscious or have larger families. Read our full Aura review.

LifeLock Ultimate Plus

Pros

The top-tier plan, Ultimate Plus, offers services to help detect and recover from identity theft.

Includes social media monitoring and three-bureau credit monitoring.

Valuable additional features, such as a $1 million identity theft recovery plan and investment account alerts.

Cons

Top-tier plan is costly. Paying for a year upfront drops the price, but it jumps at auto-renewal.

In 2023, LifeLock notified customers about a data breach that exposed nearly 1 million users of its password management system.

Cost: Coverage for two adults is $69.99 a month. Discounts are available for paying annually — $32.99 a month for two — but the cost will be higher starting with the second year.

Best for: Those who don’t have an entire family to protect; those who can afford to spend a little extra for comprehensive coverage. Read our full LifeLock review.

IDShield

Pros

No tiers and clear pricing make it easy to understand exactly what you're getting.

Unlimited consultations with an identity theft expert.

Scans social media posts for reputational risk.

Cons

Multiple alerts may lead you to dismiss them without reading, missing important information.

Cost: Monitoring of the three credit bureaus is $19.95 per month for individuals or $34.95 for a family plan.

Best for: Price-sensitive customers who want to have their social media accounts scanned as part of a package. Read our full IDShield review.

IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit

Pros

Competitive list of features.

Dark web monitoring and credit activity monitoring for children under the family plan.

Advanced alerts for suspected fraud.

Cons

If you’re signing up to get the VPN or mobile device protection, you don't get to choose the type you get.

Cost: $34.90 a month or $349.90 a year for the IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit Individual plan, which offers monitoring at all three major credit bureaus. The UltraSecure+Credit family plan runs $39.90 a month, or $399.90 for a year.

Best for: Those who want advanced fraud monitoring. Read our full IdentityForce review.

ID Watchdog Premium

Pros

Keeps credit monitoring, alerts and recovery simple.

A standout feature: You get help recovering from preexisting identity theft for an extra, case-dependent fee.

Primary account holder can add a second adult and up to four children to family plan account.

Cons

Equifax bought ID Watchdog in 2017 — the same year it experienced a data breach affecting 147 million people.

App gets lower rating than those of its competitors.

Cost: $21.95 a month or $220 for an annual plan for the individual ID Watchdog Premium, which offers three-bureau credit monitoring. The family plan costs $34.95 monthly or $350 annually.

Best for: Those who need help recovering from preexisting identity theft.

This is a small sampling; you may find a different provider that suits you better. You’ll need to unfreeze your credit temporarily, if you've already frozen it, to allow a provider access to your files for monitoring.

What identity theft protection services do

In general, identity theft protection companies offer three main services:

Monitoring: Identity theft protection firms monitor your credit files and alert you about activity, such as new accounts opened in your name and credit inquiries received, so you can react quickly.
Alerts: They notify you of instances where your personal information has been used, like if someone tries to open a bank account in your name. This can be helpful because many people don’t realize identity theft has happened until their credit is wrecked, their bank accounts are depleted or they suddenly have a lot of new debt in their name.
Recovery: If someone hacks your information and uses it maliciously, these companies can help you recover lost money and help undo the damage to your credit. Most offer insurance policies of up to $1 million.

Many also offer tangential services, such as alerts about identity theft news and local sex offender registries. Some monitor dark web sites known to traffic in stolen personal and financial data, which is something you can't do yourself.

You can take steps to protect your identity yourself

You can perform the basic services offered by identity theft protection companies yourself, often at no charge:

You can keep an eye on changes to your credit reports and get a free credit score through NerdWallet.com.
You can report identity theft and follow free recovery paths outlined by the federal government at IdentityTheft.gov.
You can freeze your credit files at all three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — for free, something an identity theft protection company cannot do for you.

"The first thing consumers need to do if they’re worried about ID theft is just to freeze their credit reports," says Chi Chi Wu, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. "Freeze, freeze, freeze. Everything else is gravy on top of that."

Are identity theft protection services worth it?

Most Reddit users say no

We sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check on how users feel about identity theft protection services. We used an AI tool to help analyze the feedback. Here is the general consensus that rose to the top of our analysis. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Overall, users expressed significant skepticism about paid identity theft protection services, with many noting these services cannot prevent identity theft and only offer monitoring that individuals can do themselves for free.

The general consensus was that taking personal protective measures like freezing credit reports, setting up fraud alerts, and monitoring accounts directly is more effective than paying for a third-party service, though some users reported being satisfied with services like IDShield and LifeLock despite their limitations.

Consider your time, energy and budget

You may want a full suite of safeguards and don’t mind paying for peace of mind. Or you may know you won’t do it yourself.

If so, compare prices and coverage details to find a plan that fits. Make sure the product you choose monitors credit data at all three credit bureaus; otherwise, you're paying for incomplete protection.

Avoid credit monitoring products from the credit bureaus, which tend to have less robust coverage and may limit your right to sue them, even if they are the ones that exposed your financial data.

Consider paying for an identity theft protection service if:

You’re already the victim of identity theft or at high risk of it.
You are unwilling to freeze your credit reports.
You know that you won’t go through the effort of actively monitoring your own credit.
You have checked and don't have adequate identity theft monitoring available for free as a benefit or as a result of a data breach.

» Ready to get started? Get your free credit report from Nerdwallet.

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