Norton is one of the leading names in antivirus and cybersecurity, but its LifeLock service may not be its best offering. Business Insider's personal finance team compared LifeLock to the best identity theft protection services and found it to be underwhelming and expensive. Learn more about LifeLock and how it stacks up against its competitors.
LifeLock Pros and Cons
Pros
- Offers significant insurance for identity theft-related losses on higher-tier plans
- Well-established company with a recognizable name
- Dark web monitoring identifies any of your personal information changing hands on dark websites, which is very hard to do on your own
Cons
- Initial promotional pricing can be attractive, but prices significantly increase after the first year.
- Lower-tier plans may only offer limited credit monitoring and features.
- Some users report issues with reaching customer support or slow response times.
Protect Your Identity
$11.99 monthly or $89.99 for first year, then $124.99 upon renewal
Pros
Cons
Ultimately, LifeLock falls short when placed next to its competitors. However, when beefed up with Norton 360's cybersecurity features, LifeLock is up there with the best identity theft protection services.
LifeLock Standard- Get identity and social security number alerts via text, phone, email, or mobile app notifications
- All plans offer credit monitoring
- Up to $1 million in coverage for lawyers and experts, collectively, if needed, for all plans
Compare LifeLock Identity Theft Protection
$15 monthly or $144 annually
Pros
Cons
Aura ID Theft Protection offers comprehensive identity protection at some of the best prices on the market, which should be expected from one of the services we included in both our credit monitoring and identity theft protection guides.
Aura- All plans come with 24/7 customer support
- Every adult member on your plan is backed by $1,000,000 insurance policy to cover eligible losses and fees due to identity theft.
- Enjoy a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans.
- 60-day money back guarantee is only available for annual plans purchased through Aura’s websites (excludes Amazon) or via the Customer Support team.
$8.99 to $29.99 monthly for individuals, $14.99 to $39.99 monthly for families
Pros
Cons
Identity Guard is an identity theft protection service owned by Aura, another credit monitoring and theft protection company that made it to our guide for the best identity theft protection services for the best family plan. Identity Guard offers many of the same benefits as Aura with added flexibility, earning it a top spot on our list of best identity theft protection services.
Identity Guard- Fraud monitoring and alerts, monitor your name, Social Security number (SSN) and driver's license number to prevent identity fraud and will alert you if we detect your personal information is exposed
- 24/7/365 US-Based Fraud Agents
- Credit monitoring and bank account protection
- $1,000,000 identity theft insurance
$19.95 monthly or $199.50 annually
Pros
Cons
LifeLock Overview
LifeLock is an identity theft protection service provided by digital security company Norton, most well-known for its antivirus software.
The most noticeable aspect of LifeLock's service is its cost. LifeLock plans cost $11.99 monthly or $89.99 for first year, then $124.99 upon renewal, which is already more expensive than some of the services included in our guide to the best identity theft protection services. Its most expensive service, LifeLock Ultimate Plus, costs $34.99 monthly or $239.88 for first year, then $339.99 upon renewal. It's one of the most expensive identity theft plans across the entire industry. If this isn't enough, LifeLock's price increases after the first year.
For its high cost, LifeLock offers disappointingly little. It reserves tri-bureau credit monitoring for its most expensive plan, Ultimate Plus. Additionally, LifeLock offers no cybersecurity features despite being operated by a digital security company.
Despite its shortcomings, there are a few things to like about LifeLock. For one, it offers restoration experts with its cheapest plan, which some services reserve for their more expensive plans. Starting at its mid-tier plan, LifeLock offers financial account monitoring, something surprisingly uncommon among identity protection services. LifeLock has positively reviewed mobile apps for Android and Apple devices, and 24/7 member support. It also offers annual discounts, free trials, and family plans for all its services.
How LifeLock Works
LifeLock starts with identifying the plan for you, whether you want basic identity theft protection or something more comprehensive (albeit more expensive). Regardless of your choice, you should start with the 30-day trial, where you see which offerings you'd use from LifeLock. You should also get a feel for the layout and user experience. If you never use LifeLock, you're throwing that money away.
When you sign up for the 30-day LifeLock free trial, you must put in all the information you'd give if you were buying the product up front. You'll have a chance to add family members to your plan before adding credit card information. Be prepared to add your Social Security number, date of birth, and phone number.
LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Plans
LifeLock offers three plans: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Each ascending tier offers everything the last plan provided, with additional features. Additionally, Norton offers LifeLock in a bundle with its cybersecurity service, Norton 360.
LifeLock Standard
Cost: $11.99 monthly or $89.99 for first year, then $124.99 upon renewal
As its name would suggest, LifeLock Standard offers ground-level identity theft protection, leaving noticeable gaps in security.
- Social Security alerts and credit monitoring: Triggers when LifeLock detects fraudulent uses of your Social Security number and other personal information for credit or other services. LifeLock Standard also includes credit monitoring from Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus. It's worth noting that some of the best credit monitoring services will monitor one credit bureau for free.
- US-based identity restoration specialists: The cornerstone of any good identity protection services, restoration specialists guide you through the process of recovering from identity theft.
- Stolen wallet protection: If your wallet gets stolen or lost, you can call LifeLock, and they will help cancel or replace the various cards you had in there, such as credit cards and debit cards, insurance cards, and Social Security cards.
- USPS address change verification: People may target your mail to gain access to your personal information. LifeLock notifies you when someone files an address change request for any mail you expect.
- Dark web monitoring: Dark web monitoring identifies any of your personal information changing hands over dark web sites, which is very hard to do on your own.
- Identity theft insurance up to $25,000: The standard plan also offers $25,000 in reimbursements for stolen funds and up to $1 million in coverage for lawyers and experts.
LifeLock Advantage
Cost: $22.99 monthly or $179.88 for first year, then $239.99 upon renewal
LifeLock Advantage builds on the services that the standard plan provides.
- TransUnion identity lock and reports: LifeLock Advantage gives you access to a monthly credit report and credit score from TransUnion. You can instantly lock and unlock your TransUnion credit report. Credit locks are similar to credit freezes, which the three major credit bureaus must provide for free. While these are the same service, LifeLock is faster than the credit bureaus. However, you'll still have to manually freeze your credit reports with the other two bureaus.
- Payday loan lock: Someone with your personal information may go to a payday loan provider to take out money under your name. These loan providers usually don't do a credit check, so they're often hard to identify.
- Criminal activity monitoring: Monitors any crimes committed in your name.
- Financial account monitoring: Building on the credit monitoring that the Standard plan gives you, Advantage provides monitoring of your financial accounts including credit, checking, and savings accounts. This is a surprisingly uncommon feature found among identity theft protection services.
- Phone takeover monitoring: LifeLock Advantage monitors your phone account, preventing bad actors from making phone calls using your number and gaining access to the online accounts linked to your phone number.
- Identity theft insurance up to $100,000: LifeLock increases their reimbursements to $100,000 for any money lost to identity theft and the same $1 million in coverage for lawyers and experts.
LifeLock Ultimate Plus
Cost: $34.99 monthly or $239.88 for first year, then $339.99 upon renewal
LifeLock's densest and most expensive plan, Ultimate Plus, offers comprehensive security at a premium price. It's not only the most costly plan that LifeLock offers but is also more expensive than most identity protection services. Here's everything Ultimate Plus adds to the previous plans.
- Tri-bureau credit monitoring: Ultimate Plus finally adds the other two credit bureaus to its monitoring plan. Additionally, you can access monthly credit reports and scores from TransUnion daily. You can also access your credit reports from the other two bureaus once per year.
- 401(k) and investment alerts: Adding to the checking and savings account alerts, Ultimate Plus alerts you to changes in your 401(k) and investment accounts.
- Home title monitoring: Ultimate Plus locks down your housing records, so nobody can use your home title information against you. It also prevents identity thieves from using your home equity to take out a loan.
- Social media monitoring: LifeLock monitors your social media accounts for changes to your settings or unusual posting activity. It can also monitor your child's social media accounts for cyberbullying, hate speech, and explicit content if you sign up for the family plan.
- File-sharing network searches: Scans file-sharing networks to see if your personal information is available on these sites.
- Sex offender registry searches: Like criminal activity monitoring, LifeLock scans the sex offender registry for your name and personal information.
Norton 360 with LifeLock Select
Cost: $17.99 monthly or $179.99 annually
LifeLock, on its own, has disappointingly little to offer when it comes to cybersecurity. However, when paired with Norton 360, LifeLock gains more utility. Unfortunately, some of the features offered by Norton 360 with LifeLock only work on specific devices. For example, its ad-tracker blocker only blocks ads on Safari on iOS devices and SafeCam only works on PCs.
Here is the list of features.
- Secure VPN: Offers security and privacy when connecting to web-based services by obscuring your IP address.
- Ad-tracker blocker: Blocks unwanted ads on Safari on iOS devices.
- SafeCam for Windows PCs: Lets you block unauthorized usage of your PC's camera.
- Privacy monitor: Similar to dark web monitoring, this feature scans data broker websites looking for your personal information.
- Security for PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets: Antivirus and malware software for your devices. The number of devices varies based on your plan: five devices, 10 devices, or unlimited devices.
- Cloud backup for Windows PCs: Stores files on the cloud. Storage space varies based on plans: 100 GB, 250 GB, or 500 GB.
- Virus Protection Promise: This is Norton's satisfaction guarantee. If Norton cannot remove a virus from your device, you get a refund on the price paid for the current term of your subscription.
- Password manager: This service provides an online vault for your passwords. It can also generate complex passwords for you and auto-update them in the vault.
- Parental controls: Parents can monitor activity on their children's devices.
LifeLock Costs and Fees
LifeLock is more expensive than many of its competitors. Below are the prices for the first year of LifeLock and Norton 360 at the most affordable tiers.
| Price | |
| LifeLock Standard | $11.99 monthly or $89.99 for first year, then $124.99 upon renewal |
| Norton 360 with LifeLock (Select) | $17.99 monthly or $179.99 annually |
| LifeLock Advantage | $22.99 monthly or $179.88 for first year, then $239.99 upon renewal |
| LifeLock Ultimate Plus | $34.99 monthly or $239.88 for first year, then $339.99 upon renewal |
Prices for LifeLock increase after a year.
It's worth noting that LifeLock also has couples and family plans that offer coverage for multiple people at a discounted price. AARP members also have access to discounts for Norton 360.
LifeLock Reviews and Ratings
LifeLock has received mixed customer reviews, receiving an average of 4.8 stars out of 5 on its Trustpilot page. Across 7,499 reviews, 89% gave the service four stars or above. Its mobile apps are also highly rated. On the Apple app store, LifeLock received an average of 4.8 stars over 146,000 reviews, and its Android app received an average of 4.6 stars across over 40,000 reviews.
While LifeLock doesn't offer cybersecurity features on its own, you can sign up for Norton 360 with LifeLock Select, which combines its antivirus software and identity protection services. This service comes in three tiers and is slightly more expensive than LifeLock but offers far more value. Services include a VPN, antivirus software, and parental controls.
Ultimately, LifeLock falls short when placed next to its competitors. However, when beefed up with Norton 360's cybersecurity features, LifeLock is up there with the best identity theft protection services.
Alternatives
Here's a breakdown of how LifeLock compares with the services listed on our best identity theft protection services list.
| Company | Monthly subscription cost |
| LifeLock Ultimate Plus | $34.99 monthly or $239.88 for first year, then $339.99 upon renewal |
| Identity Guard | $8.99 to $29.99 monthly for individuals, $14.99 to $39.99 monthly for families |
| Aura | $15 monthly or $144 annually |
| IDShield | Starting at $14.95/month |
| PrivacyGuard | $9.99 per month |
| Complete ID | $8.99 monthly for Executive members, $13.99 monthly for Business and Gold Star members |
| IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit | $29.95 monthly or $299.50 annually |
Paying for an entire year upfront can save you money, though not all services offer annual subscriptions. Though you can also access various discounts for these services, LifeLock identity theft protection is still the most expensive product by a significant margin. Let's compare LifeLock's services against some of its competitors.
Lifelock vs Aura
$15 monthly or $144 annually
Pros
Cons
Aura ID Theft Protection offers comprehensive identity protection at some of the best prices on the market, which should be expected from one of the services we included in both our credit monitoring and identity theft protection guides.
Aura- All plans come with 24/7 customer support
- Every adult member on your plan is backed by $1,000,000 insurance policy to cover eligible losses and fees due to identity theft.
- Enjoy a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans.
- 60-day money back guarantee is only available for annual plans purchased through Aura’s websites (excludes Amazon) or via the Customer Support team.
The most noticeable difference between Aura and LifeLock is that Aura offers one plan at the same price as LifeLock's cheapest plan. In Aura's one plan, you get identity theft monitoring, tri-bureau credit monitoring, identity theft recovery services, and even some device and online safety software.
To get the same level of security with LifeLock, you have to subscribe to its most expensive plan. Even then, you still wouldn't get the same level of cybersecurity as you would Aura unless you sign up for Norton 360 with LifeLock.
LifeLock vs IdentityForce
$29.95 monthly or $299.50 annually
Pros
Cons
- What you need to know: There are various types of credit scores, and lenders use a variety of different types of credit scores to make lending decisions. The credit score you receive is based on the VantageScore 3.0 model and may not be the credit score model used by your lender.
- $1 Million Identity Theft Insurance
- Password Manager
- Credit Monitoring: 3 Bureau
- Credit Score Simulator
- Quarterly 3 Bureau Credit Scores and Credit Reports
- Credit Freeze & Credit Report Fraud Assistance
Like LifeLock, IdentityForce also charges premium prices. That said, IdentityForce has the features to justify its price, including a credit scoring simulator and a robust selection of cybersecurity measures.
It's also worth noting that the price bump for IdentityForce's family plans compared to its individual plans is far less than the price increase for LifeLock's family plan.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Rated LifeLock Identity Theft Protection
We evaluate each identity protection service based on how well it can protect, monitor, and recover your identity. We'll look for key services that all identity protection services should have, such as dark web monitoring and public records monitoring, as these two features are difficult to find elsewhere.
We also look at whether an identity theft protection service includes credit monitoring and how comprehensive that monitoring is (single-bureau monitoring, tri-bureau monitoring, etc.). However, this isn't as important to us, as you can find pretty decent credit monitoring services for free. We also look for features that help the customer recover their stolen identity, such as stolen wallet protection, identity theft insurance, and dedicated fraud experts who can help you regain your identity.
Identity theft protection services often follow a tiered pricing system, offering a greater variety of features with their more expensive plans. Once you reach the highest tier of service, you'll find a similar set of features across all services, which is why we pay particular attention to how high up their tier system you have to get to unlock certain features and how much the most expensive tier costs.
While this is our primary consideration when we rate identity theft protection companies, we also look at a company's customer ratings to identify any issues. We also consider QoL features such as mobile apps, return policies, family plans, free trials, and annual discounts.
Using this evaluation method, we find that LifeLock, without the addition of Norton 360, is a lackluster service compared to some of its competitors. Services like PrivacyGuard offer a credit scoring simulator that shows you how certain information can affect your credit score. Other services like IDShield may not provide outstanding services, but they are much cheaper. However, once you add Norton 360, the service becomes far more useful.
Read our full explanation of how we rate identity theft protection services.
FAQs
Does LifeLock monitor all three credit bureaus?
Yes, LifeLock monitors all three credit bureaus. However, it reserves tri-bureau credit monitoring for its most expensive plan, Ultimate Plus.
What does LifeLock do if your identity is stolen?
If your identity is stolen while using LifeLock, its Identity Restoration Specialists will help you through the process of resolving your identity theft. This will include gathering information to open a case and contacting merchants and third parties.
Can I cancel LifeLock at any time?
Yes, you can cancel LifeLock at any time. You can get a full refund if you cancel within 60 days of the renewal billing date of LifeLock's annual subscription and 14 days of the renewal billing date of the monthly plan. However, many customer reviews left on LifeLock's Better Business Bureau page cite difficulty getting a refund even if they canceled their subscription within the refund period.
Who is LifeLock best for?
Lifelock is best for individuals concerned about identity theft who want comprehensive protection and peace of mind, as well as those with sensitive financial information or high online activity. It may not be the best choice for those with a tight budget (you may want to consider a cheaper alternative) or those who are comfortable with their own identity monitoring.
What is LifeLock's free trial period?
LifeLock offers a 30-day free trial period for their Standard, Advantage, or Ultimate Plus plans. During this trial period, you will be able to try their identity theft protection services without being charged. You will have to provide payment information to participate in the trial, but you won't be charged until the 30-day trial period is over.
Is LifeLock worth it?
No, LifeLock probably isn't worth its high price. You can get similar or even better identity protection at a lower price point from identity theft protection services like Aura or IdentityForce. However, LifeLock is much more valuable once you add Norton 360 for cybersecurity.
