The Best Identity Theft Protection Services in 2023

Founded over 25 years ago, Identity Guard has become one of the most trusted organizations for online identity theft protection. It’s our pick of the best identity theft protection company overall. 

Monitoring

Identity Guard hits the top marks when it comes to monitoring your credit score. It uses all three credit monitoring bureaus to make sure that there are no inconsistencies with your banking. It also offers dark web and high-risk transaction monitoring, even as part of its cheapest plan. 

If Identity Guard detects any critical risk to your personal information, it will immediately notify you so that you can take further action if you believe the threat to be authentic.

Insurance

Another reason Identity Guard is one of the best identity theft protection products is its insurance plan. This plan insures you for up to $1 million, providing strong identity theft coverage. The insurance is included in all pricing plans.

Recovery 

If there’s a serious threat and your identity is stolen, Identity Guard will assign you a case manager to help you sort out the issue. With a professional available to guide you, recovery made a much less daunting process.

Plans and Features

Identity Guard has three plans to choose from: Value, Total, and Ultra. The Value plan contains many great features, and the price is excellent for what you get. 

That said, if you want to receive features such as your monthly and annual credit report, social network monitoring, bank account monitoring, or any account takeovers, you’ll need to upgrade to the Total or Ultra plans. Likewise, if you wish to receive three-bureau credit and social insight reports, the Ultra plan has you covered.

This company also offers the option to upgrade to a family plan for a small extra cost. This covers up to five adults and any number of children in your household, making it one of the most comprehensive plans you can find.

Pricing and Free Trial

Identity Guard offers very affordable ID theft protection. The Value plan will cost you just $4.49 a month if billed annually, or $8.99 if billed monthly. Its higher-tier plans can be a bit pricey compared to the competition, but they come with some great features. 

This company doesn’t offer a free trial, but it does give you a 60-day money-back guarantee when you opt for the annual plan. You’ll have to front a fair bit of money, but if you’re unhappy with the service, getting your money back won’t be a problem.

Experian is an internationally acclaimed organization due to its work in credit monitoring, and it offers high-quality identity theft protection, too. Let’s see why it’s held in such high regard by many Americans.

Monitoring

Experian offers one of the market's best identity theft protection and credit monitoring services. Being one of three major credit bureaus, Experian has unfettered access to information and will have no trouble tracking down your credit reports. 

Besides using its own data, Experian also uses information from the other bureaus, meaning that the company is always on top of any inconsistencies. 

Additionally, the company can perform certain background checks and provides relevant alerts. For example, you can get notified if your name falsely appears in the court system, if someone tries to open financial accounts using your name, or if an individual with a criminal history moves next door.

Insurance

Experian doesn’t complicate things when it comes to the insurance policy that you get with each ID protection plan. You always receive identity theft insurance coverage for up to $1 million in damages, regardless of whether you’re on a trial, individual, or family plan.

Recovery 

As you can imagine, given Experian’s track record, it has one of the best identity theft protection services and anti-fraud teams in the business. 

The company will dispute any fraudulent information with the relevant financial institutions, take steps to improve your safety, and will be extra vigilant regarding your credit in the future. After Experian has confirmed with the relevant financial institutions that the activity was fraudulent, the blemish on your report will be removed. 

Plans and Features

Experian has three plans: Basic, Premium, and Family. The Basic plan is entirely free, but as the name implies, it only offers basic features. You’ll only get credit monitoring and alerts about your credit score, alongside FICO monitoring and a score tracker.

Upgrading to the Premium plan unlocks the more advanced features that make this service stand out, including extensive monitoring, timely alerts, personal data scrubbing, identity theft insurance, and more. 

Finally, the Family plan lets you protect your spouse and up to 10 children with some of the best family identity theft protection around.

Pricing and Free Trial

Experian has reasonable pricing for its services. The Premium plan starts at $24.99 per month, while the Family package costs a relatively affordable $34.99 per month. 

This means that, regardless of whether or not you have children, you’ll save money if you and your partner want coverage, making this some of the best identity theft protection for couples on the market.

Experian also offers a 30-day free trial, so you can try out its services without making a commitment.

Identity protection has become a rising modern-day issue, with more online services requiring companies to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money laundering (AML) regulations. The issue is especially relevant with rampant cybersecurity issues, and iDenfy is here to help. While it will not protect your identity from theft online, it will help protect your customers and your business from malicious parties. 

Monitoring

The company’s software can monitor various factors to keep your business KYC compliant. It includes identity verification, NFC verification, AML screening, address verification, and phone verification. 

Automated ID verification can process more than 2,500 different documents from over 190 countries, which is an impressive number and show’s the scope of the company’s international reach. iDenfy also includes facial recognition software used for facial mapping.

This service is monitored 24/7 to ensure that the AI-processed verification is free from fraud and other potential issues. The review process takes around three minutes with almost 100% success rate.  

Furthermore, iDenfy is compatible with over 2,000 apps and frameworks most businesses use online, including Gmail, Slack, WordPress, and Shopify. 

Insurance

If you need an insurance plan like most ID theft protection services offer, don’t expect to find any here. This online solution will try to save you from using your business insurance in the first place, but it won’t provide you with the coverage necessary in case you need a reimbursement.

Recovery

There’s no option to recover stolen personal data or funds. This service is solely used for identifying users and ensuring compliance by online businesses. 

Plans and Features

There aren’t any predetermined pricing plans. You will have to choose from a list of features that you want to implement, provide an estimated number of customers you need to identify, and then you’ll have to provide your email to receive a quote. You can choose any of the following options:

• ID verification
• Biometric verification
• Liveness detection
• Sanctions, PEP, and watchlist
• Address verification
• Adverse media / Negative news
• Business verification
• Fraud detection and prevention.

Pricing and Free Trials

Identity protection costs are much different than what a business must set aside for user verification services. Thankfully, iDenfy has a practical pricing plan which starts at just $1.4 per successful verification. 

Users who get denied or haven't finished the verification process for whatever reason won’t get charged to your account. This prevents any false or malicious attempts from incurring unnecessary charges.

If you want to know what iDenfy can do for you besides making your business compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and ISO-27001 standards, you can book a free demo with the company’s representatives.

LifeLock’s reputation as a top identity theft protection provider was only improved when it was acquired by Symantec in 2017, joining the well-known Norton 360 ecosystem. Here’s what this prestigious service has to offer.

Monitoring

The best identity theft protection companies use the three credit bureaus to monitor credit reports, and LifeLock is no different. It’ll also monitor the dark web and sort through other resources to ensure your personal information isn’t showing up anywhere it shouldn’t be.

However, not all of these services are available in the lower-priced plans, so if you wish to take advantage of all of LifeLock’s features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of its premium plans. If a threat is detected, you’ll receive an alert via phone, email, or the mobile app.

Speaking of which, LifeLock also has what might be the best identity theft protection app for Android and iOS, with a sleek interface and easy access to quick customer support service.   

Insurance

We don’t consider the insurance provided by LifeLock to be the best option on the market. Loss reimbursement only extends to $25,000 on the Standard plan, while the benchmark of $1 million can only be found in the most expensive package. 

Recovery 

Despite the personal insurance on the Standard plan only going to $25,000, the plan covers up to $1 million in recovery fees. This money goes towards covering the costs of legal services and other expenses associated with recovering your identity and trying to bring the perpetrators to justice. Legal fees can rack up quickly, which is why it’s important to use reliable legal services and get your money’s worth.

On top of that, you can claim up to $25,000 for any personal expenses that occurred due to your identity being stolen. As the plans go up, the identity theft protection options improve significantly, as does the amount you can claim in compensation. 

Plans and Features

One of the standout features of LifeLock is that it can be combined with the Norton 360 suite through an optional and inexpensive upgrade. This further helps counter potential threats, and it’s our recommendation as the best identity theft protection with an antivirus included. 

We wouldn’t regard LifeLock as a great option for families, however, as the plans that include coverage for your spouse and children can be over twice the price of the standard subscription. Other identity theft protection companies offer family plans with more extensive coverage at a more reasonable price.

Furthermore, the features in the lower-tiered products are relatively limited. If you’re looking for advanced identity theft protection, the Ultimate Plus package has the most comprehensive features to help keep your identity safe and is one of the best online identity theft protection plans on the market.  

Pricing and Free Trial

At first glance, LifeLock isn’t the most expensive of the identity theft protection products we’ve reviewed, with a starting price of around $9.99 per month with the monthly plan or $8.99 per month if you decide to pay for it on an annual basis.

However, the prices increase significantly after the first year, and the increase is more noticeable with the more expensive plans. For example, a full year of the Ultimate Plus package will set you back $239 initially, but it will renew at $339 per year.  

That said, LifeLock is far from the most affordable identity theft protection on the market, but it has a 60-day money-back guarantee when you pay for an annual subscription, which lets you try it out before committing.

IdentityForce goes to great lengths when it comes to protecting your privacy, making it one of the best-rated identity theft protection services around. It’s rated A+ by the BBB, and we regard IdentityForce as the most secure identity theft protection service. 

Monitoring

IdentityForce has some of the most advanced monitoring in the business. It covers fraud, performs dark web monitoring, protects against tax fraud and medical ID theft, and monitors your social media accounts. This is especially important considering that the average American has 7.1 social media accounts, making it extremely difficult to track all the information that’s being posted and processed there.

Credit monitoring service isn’t available in the standard package, but you can upgrade your plan to include three-bureau credit monitoring.

Insurance

IdentityForce gets full marks from us on its insurance plans, as it covers up to $1 million in expenses for both packages, which is something we always look for in our reviews of identity theft protection services. This includes all out-of-pocket expenses that might occur in case of identity theft, alongside lost wages. 

Recovery 

If the worst happens, IdentityForce is there to help pick up the pieces and help you rebuild. The support team is available to do all of the heavy lifting, saving you potentially hundreds of hours by taking care of time-consuming paperwork.

The company boasts a 100% identity recovery rate and offers  24/7 support during the recovery process, so it’s hard to argue against the notion that IdentityForce offers some of the best protection against identity theft on the market.

Plans and Features

IdentityForce uses two-factor authentication and guarantees to protect your information as if it were the company’s own. In addition, the company offers some advanced monitoring features, such as sex offender monitoring, dark web monitoring, and social media identity monitoring. 

It provides medical ID fraud protection and reviews all your medical benefits to ensure they’re only being used by you and your family. It also provides lost wallet assistance so that you can be completely sure all your credit, debit, and ATM cards are canceled and replaced in case your wallet gets lost or stolen.

The service can detect and protect against credit card scams and account takeovers and will also protect your children’s identity with the ChildWatch service if you choose to upgrade your plan. This service costs only an additional $2.75 per month per child with either of the two plans, UltraSecure and UltraSecure+Credit. 

Pricing and Free Trials

IdentityForce has a simple pricing structure. You can pay extra to add credit monitoring or choose to go without it. Without credit monitoring, IdentityForce’s UltraSecure plan costs $17.99 per month or $179.90 a year. With credit monitoring, the price jumps to $29.95 per month or $359.40 per year.

The price is a fair bit higher than some of IdentityForce’s competitors, but you can be assured that the quality of service doesn’t get much better than this.

IdentityForce also has a Business Protection package, but you’ll need to contact the company for further details and to get a quote.

While it’s not the most affordable identity theft protection service on our list, IdentityForce does offer a free trial for all interested customers. This trial is only available on the basic UltraSecure package (without credit monitoring) and lasts for 30 days.

Aura is a relatively new player on the market. Launched in 2014 after its creator was a victim of ID theft, the service was designed with a clear driving idea - to help people avoid getting into a similar situation and protect their privacy.

Monitoring

Aura monitors your ID for theft in three ways. First, it keeps track of your finances by working with all three credit bureaus. The identity theft protection reviews your bank accounts, as well as your 401k and other investment accounts, all the while sending monthly and annual credit reports. It also monitors your SSN and runs regular dark web scans, searching for stolen info.

There’s also an element of prevention at play. Aura will send removal requests on your behalf to various people search engines and data brokers, provide you with email aliases to cover your actual address, and give you access to tools for blocking tracking apps.

Insurance

We’ve mentioned in the guide leading up to our reviews of identity theft protection software that a $1 million insurance policy is a must for these types of services. Aura goes a step further and provides coverage of up to $5 million for the users of its Family plan, providing $1 million per adult. 

This provides an incredible value for families, as you’ll be able to fully insure your children or siblings, too, not just yourself and your significant other.

Recovery

Aura covers your fees and other losses caused by identity theft. It has an internal white glove resolution team that helps with each case of ID theft or similar incidents by devising a personalized strategy for each client. You’ll also get 24/7 support for any inquiries and will be able to instantly lock your credit to protect your credit score.

Plans and Features

Aura’s advanced identity theft protection isn’t tiered across its plans, which is great news for people on a budget. 

You’ll always get access to its complete set of features (other than parental tools in plans that don’t cover children), including antivirus protection, VPN, email aliases, comprehensive identity monitoring, and more. The difference between the plans lies in how many users will be covered.

Parents can include their children within the Family package without any limitations. Not only that, but Aura will add Social Security monitoring for each child and the ability to set up parental controls on your children’s mobile devices.

Pricing and Free Trials

The pricing starts at just $12 per month for individual plans and goes up to $37 per month for the family plan that covers five adults and an unlimited number of children. 

However, it’s the Couple plan that makes this one of the most affordable identity theft protection services. At $22 per month, you and your spouse can reap all the benefits of this service, including insurance and protection against financial fraud.

Aura is also a very consumer-friendly choice. Each plan can be tested entirely free for 14 days. Additionally, if you subscribe to an annual plan, you have 60 days to request a full refund if you’re not fully satisfied with your purchase.