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Best for identity theft insurance
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Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
Best for mid-tier monitoring
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Easy-to-use identity theft protection service
Includes extra features like a password manager
LifeLock and Identity Guard are two of the best identity theft solutions. LifeLock is a bit more expensive, but it offers a more sizable identity theft insurance plan. On the other hand, Identity Guard is a more substantial identity theft monitoring solution that comes with monitoring and a lower amount of insurance at a lower price.
We reviewed LifeLock vs. Identity Guard based on pricing, features, data security, and support to help you decide which one is best for you.
LifeLock and Identity Guard have similar offerings, but you’ll want to sign up for the highest level to get the most value out of either subscription. From our experience, LifeLock’s Standard plan and Identity Guard’s Value plan, which are the most basic tiers, didn’t include enough protection.
However, the highest-tier plans for both companies offer extensive solutions to help protect your identity in several different ways. While the expense may seem high, ID theft protection is worth it to keep your personal information safe.
LifeLock stands out for the amount of identity theft insurance you get with the Ultimate Plus Plan, while Identity Guard provides the most extensive monitoring with the Ultra plan.
 Our Pick
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| Price | $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr | $7.20–$31.99/mo |
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million |
| Credit monitoring | ||
| 3-bureau credit reports | ||
| Credit score | ||
| Identity recovery | ||
| Dark web alerts | ||
| Social media account alerts | ||
| Get Norton LifeLock | Get Identity Guard |
LifeLock is the more expensive of the two services, but the higher price comes with additional identity theft insurance. LifeLock offers up to $3 million in insurance, while Identity Guard offers up to $1 million.
LifeLock also offers a variety of plans, including individual, family, and family with children. This gives you greater flexibility based on the number of people you’d like on your account. Identity Guard offers only an individual or family plan. It doesn’t offer the third option for those without kids. However, Identity Guard's family plan covers unlimited kids, while LifeLock's covers up to five.
Neither option gives you access to your FICO score, but they do provide updates to your VantageScore. For the most comprehensive look at your credit, you should look at both your FICO and VantageScore.
Our Pick
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| Paid annually | $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr | $7.20–$31.99/mo |
| Paid monthly | $11.99–$339.99/mo | $8.99/yr–$39.99/mo |
| Best value plan | LifeLock Ultimate Plus starting at $19.99/mo (billed annually) for first year | Identity Guard Ultra starting at $23.99/mo |
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million |
| Get Norton LifeLock | Get Identity Guard |
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LifeLock’s membership plans are structured similarly to Identity Guard, with three different tiers as well as family plans. LifeLock has family plans for two adults as well as family plans for two adults plus five kids.
Each LifeLock plan includes at least $1.05 million in identity theft coverage for lawyer fees, stolen funds reimbursement, and personal expenses. It also offers a 30-day free trial for new users to try the service and a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans.
IdentityGuard offers several individual and family plans to help meet your identity protection needs. All of the individual plans cover one individual, while the family plan gives you protection for five adults and unlimited children.
Identity Guard offers a 60-day money-back guarantee on all annual plans.
| Feature |
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| Credit monitoring | ||
| Financial activity alerts | ||
| 3-bureau credit reports | Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion | Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion |
| Credit score | ||
| FICO score | ||
| Credit lock and freeze | ||
| Identity recovery | ||
| Dark web alerts | ||
| Social media account alerts | ||
| SSN monitoring | ||
| Home title monitoring | ||
| Address change alerts | ||
| Get Norton LifeLock | Get Identity Guard |
LifeLock and Identity Guard’s top-tier plans provide an abundance of monitoring to help keep you safe online and offline. With both services, you get real-time monitoring in the following areas:
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You won’t find too many differences between LifeLock and Identity Guard as far as monitoring. Neither LifeLock nor IdentityGuard offers access to your FICO score. While the VantageScore is becoming more popular, the FICO score is still the most widely used for new credit. Without access to your FICO score, you may not have an accurate picture of your credit.
LifeLock does offer more substantial identity theft insurance coverage. With the Premium Ultra plan, you can get up to $3 million in protection to help offset identity theft losses. The Standard plan starts by offering $1.05 million, which is slightly more than Identity Guard's standard $1 million.
Protecting your personally identifiable information is a critical component of keeping your identity secure. When looking for identity protection, it is important to ensure they’re protecting your data during the process. We looked at the privacy policies of both solutions to make sure they were collecting only necessary data and that they weren’t sharing data unless it was necessary as part of the solution.
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| Two-factor authentication | ||
| Multi-factor authentication | ||
| Collects data | ||
| Shares data with third parties | Minimal | Minimal |
| Get Norton LifeLock | Get Identity Guard |
Both LifeLock and Identity Guard offer two-factor and multi-factor authentication to help protect your account information. Multi-factor authentication can keep your account safe even if someone has access to your password. In order to gain access to your account, the fraudster will also need access to your other authentication items, such as a phone, biometrics, or email.
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Identity Guard’s parent company is Aura, which is another identity theft product on the market. If you look at Identity Guard’s privacy policy, you’ll be redirected to the Aura policy.
Both Identity Guard and LifeLock need a significant amount of personal information in order to perform the services outlined, so you’ll have to give up some data to gain the benefits of the service. We didn’t see any red flags in either privacy policy, just be aware of the data they share.
| Platform | Our Pick
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| Windows | ||
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| 24/7 customer supportt | ||
| Customer support options | Live chat, phone, email, forums, online guides | Phone, email, online guides |
| Get Norton LifeLock | Get Identity Guard |
Neither LifeLock nor Identity Guard has desktop apps for Windows or macOS. However, you can access your identity theft protection accounts from any web browser. From our testing, we thought LifeLock’s browser dashboard was more intuitive and easier to use than Identity Guard.
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Additionally, you can access either identity theft protection service from their iOS or Android mobile app. The LifeLock mobile app was also more user-friendly than Identity Guard. We’ve used Identity Guard for some time, and each time we got an alert via email, it was a bit of a hassle to find the actual information — especially on a mobile device. You can’t access the full details of an alert from the app, so you’ll have to log in to the website to get all the pertinent information.
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Both LifeLock and Identity Guard offer content libraries with helpful tips on what to do if you encounter identity theft or other issues with your identity. LifeLock also offers community forums, where you can ask other LifeLock users questions.
LifeLock comes with 24/7 member support via live chat, whereas Identity Guard offers 24/7 support via phone. This is a notable feature since identity theft can happen at any time. Being able to access customer support, even in the middle of the night, can help you mitigate any damages from identity theft.
Identity Guard also offers customer support via email, but only during specific business hours and with no support on Sundays.
The downside to LifeLock is that you’ll need to sign up for its Ultimate Plus plan to get the most out of the service, which can be expensive.
Yes, there are several other worthwhile identity theft protection services. LifeLock is one alternative to Identity Guard that we liked. There are also several LifeLock alternatives to consider.
In January 2023, LifeLock confirmed that a hack happened that compromised the accounts of customers’ password managers. LifeLock notified customers of the attack and informed them that their personal information may have been accessed by a third party. However, LifeLock said that the attack was based on previously exposed credentials used to log in to the site and not a compromise of its systems.
Yes, Identity Guard and its parent company, Aura, are reputable companies. Aura has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
While LifeLock and Identity Guard seem similar, we determined that LifeLock is ahead of Identity Guard in the race for the best identity theft protection service.
LifeLock is only a few dollars more than the comparable Identity Guard plan. We found the extra expense worth it, especially for the additional insurance coverage in the unfortunate event that we are a victim of identity theft. It’s also easier to use and navigate than Identity Guard.
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Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
Signing up for an identity theft protection program can both help you prevent identity theft and help mitigate any issues if your identity is stolen. However, identity theft programs are effective only if you use them, so make sure you set up your account in its entirety and pay attention to the monitoring alerts you receive. An unread monitoring alert is sort of like the old question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Although we've laid out the best use cases for LifeLock and Identity Guard, these services still might not be the best option for you. Here are some additional identity theft protection services to consider:
| Service | 
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| Individual monthly price | Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $14.99/mo | Starts at $14.95/mo |
| Family monthly price | Starts at $25.00/mo (billed annually) | N/A | Starts at $25.00/mo (billed annually) |
| ID theft insurance | Up to $1 million | Up to $2 million | Up to $3 million |
| Credit monitoring | |||
| 3-bureau credit reports | |||
| Details | Get Aura Read Aura Review |
Get Omniwatch Read Omniwatch Review |
Get IDShield Read IDShield Review |
Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
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