Aura vs. IDShield: 2024 Review and Comparison

Should You Choose Aura or IDShield?

Identity theft, hacking, and financial fraud have become some of the most common — and devastating — crimes targeting Americans. According to the latest research [*]:

In 2022 alone, one in ten Americans had their identity stolen, with victims losing more than $50 billion.

If you’re reading this, you’re one of millions of Americans on the fence about whether to choose Aura or IDShield for identity theft protection. 

While both companies can help protect your identity, data, and finances, there are unique differences in their features, coverage, and support. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into both options so you can choose which one is right for you.

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What Is the Difference Between Aura and IDShield?

Both Aura and IDShield provide services designed to protect you against identity theft, data loss, financial fraud, hacking, and scams. For example, both services monitor your sensitive personal information across the Dark Web, social media networks, and more.

However, there are critical differences between the types and levels of protection each company offers.

At a high level, the main differences between Aura and IDShield are that: 

• Aura provides stronger digital security tools, faster and more reliable fraud alerts, more transparent insurance policies, and better family plans.
• IDShield provides access to private investigators as well as reputation management tools. 

Here’s a more in-depth comparison of Aura and IDShield’s key features:

Aura Overview: What’s Included and Pros & Cons

Aura was one of the first providers to offer an all-in-one safety solution by combining identity theft protection, financial fraud monitoring, and digital security features — along with identity restoration and insurance. 

While a relatively new player, Aura has already been ranked #1 by Money.com, TechRadar, USNews.com, and more.

Aura is owned by the same company as Identity Guard and offers many of the same features — most noticeably its $1 million insurance plan per adult that covers eligible losses due to identity theft. 

However, Aura offers a more modern approach — with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital security tools, 24/7 support, and an easy-to-use mobile app that works across Android and iOS devices. 

Here’s what you can expect as an Aura customer:

What do real customers say about Aura? 

Here are some excerpts from user reviews submitted to TrustPilot — an independent review site:

• Great experience. Getting an alert that someone is posing as me is a scary feeling, but Aura’s fraud specialist was very knowledgeable and walked me through the process. He gave plenty of helpful information and steps for me to take in order to make my identity more secure. 
• Clear communication. Clear communication from Aura made the experience pleasant, even though I thought my account had been hacked. We were able to clarify the name of the company in question based on Aura’s suggestions. 
• Best service I’ve ever experienced. Aura’s fraud specialist was beyond patient and helpful during our call and walked me through the process step by step to create a seamless and easy process to protect my credit score and my identity.

How much does Aura cost?

Aura’s pricing plans are transparent and straightforward. Simply choose how many people you want to protect, and you’ll have access to essentially all of the same features on every plan. Also, Aura’s prices won’t increase after your first year (unlike many other providers, such as LifeLock with Norton 360). 

🎯 Save up to 75% on your Aura plan when you use this special discount link.

Here are Aura’s protection plans and pricing (using the discount link above) as of January 2024: 

• Individual Plan: $6/month
• Couple Plan (full coverage for two adults): $11.49/month
• Family Plan (up to five adults and unlimited children): $20 month

Note: Aura’s family plan includes family-specific safety features, such as child identity theft protection, parental controls, and up to $5 million in identity theft insurance. 

What’s included in Aura’s free 14-day trial? 

Aura offers a 14-day free trial that includes 99% of the features you would get as a full customer. This means you can safely try out Aura’s digital protection tools without any risk. 

In just two weeks as an Aura free trial member, you could: 

• Scan the Dark Web for your personal data. Aura will check recent data breaches, Dark Web forums, and more to alert you if your personal data has been leaked or is for sale.
• Review your credit score and get help understanding your credit file. You’ll get access to your credit scores and reports from all three bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — with 24/7 support available to help you navigate each one. 
• Remove your personal data from data broker lists. Aura scans data broker (or “people finder”) websites for your contact information and requests that they remove it on your behalf. 
• Protect your devices with antivirus, a VPN, and more. You can do a full scan to search for hidden malware and other viruses — as well as access Aura’s Safe Browsing tools to protect you and your family against phishing scams. 

IDShield Overview: What’s Included and Pros & Cons

IDShield is an identity theft protection service launched by LegalShield — a reputable legal service provider that has been in business since 1972. IDShield offers a wide range of identity theft protection services including credit monitoring and fraud resolution.

Here’s what you can expect as an IDShield customer:

The bottom line: Aura provides more features, stronger protection, faster fraud alerts, and more ways to keep you safe. Try Aura free for 14 days and secure your entire family against online threats.

What do real customers say about IDShield?

Here are some independent reviews on Trustpilot from real IDShield customers: 

• Fabulous customer service: The employees that I had the pleasure to talk to during the times I have called were helpful and patient. They took the time to walk me through everything and answered all my questions regardless of how silly they may have been.
• What I love about this program: Is how fast I was notified that my passport had been compromised and was located in five areas of the Dark Web. It told me when it was compromised, where, and by who. 
• Not sure if better than Lifelock: Was a little shocked when I called to check on an alert that I received that the agent did not see any of the data breaches that another service had notified me about. I had switched from Lifelock to IDShield because I thought it might be better but I may have been wrong.

💡 Related: Is IDShield Worth It? What You Need To Know →

How much does IDShield cost?

IDShield offers two pricing tier levels, depending on whether you want one-bureau or three-bureau credit monitoring. You can also choose between an individual and family plan. 

Here are IDShield’s plans and pricing as of January 2024:

• Individual (one credit bureau monitoring — only TransUnion): $14.95/month
• Individual (three-bureau monitoring): $19.95/month
• Family (one credit bureau monitoring — only TransUnion): $29.95/month
• Family (three-bureau monitoring): $34.95/month

Who should choose IDShield?

IDShield is an appealing option for people who want special features that competing services don’t offer. Here are some of the reasons you might select IDShield as your identity theft protection provider:

• You want private investigators to help track down the people who scammed you. While this may feel justified, be aware that your options when dealing with scammers (especially those who live in foreign countries) are very limited.
• You want to identify potentially embarrassing photos of you on social media. You can use IDShield’s reputation management tool to find photos of you that you don’t want the public to see.
• You only want one-bureau credit monitoring. IDShield allows customers to choose lower-tier plans that don’t monitor all three credit bureaus for signs of identity theft. Not sure which you need? Learn more about why you should always choose three-bureau credit monitoring.

How To Choose Between Aura and IDShield

People rely on Aura and IDShield to help make them less vulnerable to identity thieves and scammers, but that doesn’t mean both companies offer the same services. 

Here are some direct comparisons that illustrate some of the major differences customers care about most:

Comprehensive monitoring (identity and credit)

Both Aura and IDShield monitor customer accounts for suspicious changes that may indicate identity theft is taking place. However, they offer different levels of coverage for detecting unauthorized activity. Here’s a breakdown of how both providers compare on credit and ID theft protection services:

✅ Our choice: Aura

Aura offers more in-depth identity theft monitoring and alerts than IDShield, especially when it comes to credit score monitoring and family protection. IDShield’s reputation management service stands out, but it isn’t enough to earn it a winning position.

💡 Related: Aura vs. IdentityForce — How To Choose →

Digital security for proactive protection

Aura and IDshield both offer high quality security services to protect users against malware and other internet threats. However, they don’t offer the same ease of use:

✅ Our choice: Aura

Trend Micro is a reputable cybersecurity company with great products — but forcing users to sign up for separate services makes the IDShield experience overly complicated. Aura wins this round due to stronger protection and ease of use.

Fast and reliable fraud alerts

Both Aura and IDShield send alerts to users when they detect sensitive data has been breached or misused. However, not all services monitor the same data and may not trigger alerts as quickly as customers would like.

✅ Our choice: Aura

Aura and IDShield offer near real-time alerts when suspicious activity involving your SSN or other protected data occurs. However, Aura’s faster fraud alerts and more detailed notifications mean you’ll be able to react to fraud faster.

💡 Related: The 7 Best Credit Monitoring Apps of 2024 → 

Restoration support and coverage

If you’re the victim of identity theft, you don’t want to be stuck dealing with it on your own. Both Aura and IDShield offer customers access to 24/7 support with fraud resolution experts. Here’s how the two companies compare on fraud resolution:

• Aura’s White Glove Fraud Resolution Specialists offer round-the-clock, U.S.-based support to help you limit the damage of identity theft, protect your identity from repeat attacks, and recover your identity after it has been stolen.
• IDShield’s Private Investigator-led Restoration Services can actively look for the scammers who stole your identity, and may be able to provide evidence that you can use against the perpetrators in court. 

✅ Our choice: Tie

Both companies offer excellent customer support and identity restoration capabilities. While IDShield provides access to private investigators, the value of tracking down scammers is limited — especially if they don’t live in the United States. 

Ease of use

Aura and IDShield both offer mobile and desktop apps that are accessible on MacOS, Windows, Android, and iOS. However, there’s a clear difference once you start using them. 

• Aura has an excellent user interface that provides easy access to all features and alerts. Aura’s minimalist design and detailed explanations offer help to users who may not be familiar with the many different kinds of elaborate scams that criminals try to pull off.
• IDShield also offers a minimalist design — however, it doesn’t feature a single, centralized page for reviewing alerts. Instead, you get multiple alert categories that you have to click through individually. Additionally, you’re forced to sign up for multiple services to get access to all of the product’s features. 

✅ Our choice: Aura

Aura’s modern and easy-to-use design makes it the clear winner. IDShield could perform better if it consolidated the onboarding process so that users don’t have to sign up separately for Trend Micro and LegalShield. Better alert management would also help. 

💡 Related: The 6 Best Aura Alternatives Right Now (Ranked and Rated) →

Insurance coverage

Identity theft insurance covers stolen funds reimbursement, legal fees, expenses, and more. 

While both Aura and IDShield offer industry-standard $1 million insurance coverage to members on an individual plan, Aura goes a step further by providing up to $5 million in coverage for families ($1 million for each adult). 

IDShield doesn’t break down how its insurance coverage actually works on multi-member family plans. There is no way to know if multiple family members are covered until you actually make a claim and have it processed. 

✅ Our choice: Aura

This may be the easiest opportunity for IDShield to improve its offering. The company doesn’t clearly state its insurance policy terms, leaving a lot of uncertainty about what is and is not covered. Aura’s terms are clearly stipulated and posted publicly.

Cost and membership plans

Both companies offer a range of membership plans. However, Aura simplifies the process by offering the same features on all plans (with additional protections for families on its Family Plan). 

With IDShield, you have to pay extra for three-bureau credit monitoring (which comes standard on Aura plans).

Aura also has a clear advantage when it comes to covering couples and families. IDShield doesn’t offer a separate couples plan, nor does its Family Plan support additional adult family members — meaning that adult siblings, grandparents, and children over 18 years old won’t be covered under a single plan. On Aura’s Family Plan, adult family members are covered, even if they live in different households.

✅ Our choice: Aura

Aura’s simplified individual and family plans offer greater value at a lower price than IDShield. It’s an especially attractive option for customers who want to protect older family members who wouldn’t qualify for IDShield’s family plan.

Our Final Recommendation: Aura Gives You More For Less

Identity theft is a unique crime because anyone – children, parents, and grandparents alike – could be a victim. Identity thieves are constantly creating increasingly sophisticated scams, and it falls on individuals to protect themselves and their families from these threats.

Along with some basic protective steps you can take on your own — such as implementing a credit freeze with all three bureaus, reviewing your credit reports at annualcreditreport.com, and filing claims with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — signing up for an identity theft protection provider is one of the best things you can do. 

When it comes to Aura vs. IDShield, Aura simply offers better value for the price, with more comprehensive coverage and the industry’s fastest and most reliable alerts. 

Aura’s identity theft protection features three-bureau credit monitoring services, five-member family coverage, and $1 million per-member insurance policy make it the best choice for customers who want to protect themselves and their families from scams and fraud.

Get award-winning protection for online threats. Try Aura free for 14 days.