Aura Identity Theft Protection Review 2025

Our Methodology

We start every review by diving deep into product features, company claims, and real user experiences to get an authentic picture of what to expect. This research guides our hands-on testing priorities. Then, we purchase the product or service and put it through its paces. With Aura, we scanned the Internet for our personal information, tested credit locks, and more.

Finally, we compare prices with the competition. Is Aura charging a fair price based on what we saw and experienced? How does it compare to other identity theft services from LifeLock and Identity Guard? These price comparisons help us make our final recommendations and consider a product or service like Aura for one of our ‘best of’ lists.

Purchasing and Setting Up Aura Identity Theft Protection

It only takes about 10 minutes to get started with Aura. You’ll be asked which service package you’re interested in before entering your personal information to get your account set up. Here’s a current breakdown of Aura’s pricing structure:

Unlike services like LifeLock, Aura doesn’t have tiers that include different features. Aura keeps it simple by offering one comprehensive plan for individuals, couples, and families. It can also be purchased as an annual or monthly subscription. Our Aura pricing breakdown details what each member gets with their Aura plan.

The Family plan includes parental controls like safe gaming for Windows, screen time management, and detailed online activity reports. If you’re a single parent with one child and want those features, you can buy an Individual plan for yourself and add a Kids plan for $10 per month. Otherwise, it makes sense to buy the Family plan for $32 per month.

Once you’ve got your account set up, you’ll be asked to answer a few questions that will help tailor the service to your needs.

Some features require specific information from you, and others need digital signatures on authorization forms. It wasn’t as straightforward as we expected, but that’s a good thing because the more information Aura knows about you, the better it can protect you.

All in all, it took us about 30 minutes to answer all of the setup questions. We recommend having all of your devices with you, including your phone, tablet, and laptop, so you can set up Aura’s cybersecurity features at the same time. Also, be prepared to turn over sensitive information like your Social Security Number, which Aura needs to be able to monitor it.

Aura Identity Theft Protection — An Overview

Aura offers a list of features longer than most identity protection services we’ve tested. Here’s a quick rundown of the services provided with an Individual plan:

• Identity theft protection
• $1M identity theft insurance
• Triple-bureau credit monitoring
• Instant credit lock
• Home and auto title monitoring
• Financial transactions alerts
• Antivirus software
• VPN
• Password manager
• People search sites and spam list removal
• Fraud remediation services

To be clear, most identity protection services worth their salt offer these features. However, many competitors charge extra for features like VPN and password manager as premium add-ons. The differences between these services come down to execution. This is why we put each function through its paces and live with each identity protection service on a daily basis for an extended period of time.

Putting Aura to the Test

Aura offers a comprehensive identity theft protection service. Let’s take a closer look at how each component works. Let’s start with their flagship service: their identity theft protection.

Identity Theft Protection

Aura’s suite of identity theft protections is one of the most comprehensive we’ve tested. While features like account breach monitoring and Social Security number monitoring are fairly standard, Aura distinguishes itself with home and auto title monitoring.. You might not have known those titles need monitoring, and that speaks to Aura having its finger on the pulse of the fraud-based crime trends.

So does it work? We’d say so. When we first set up an account, Aura alerted us to five critical issues we had to address. A worrying number? Not really. And fortunately, most of them stemmed from old data breaches involving online accounts we don’t even use anymore. Still, we were glad to see Aura doing its job and picking up on those so quickly.

And for context, here’s everything we tested out under Aura’s identity theft protection umbrella:

• Personal information and ID monitoring: We definitely don’t want our personally identifiable information floating around the internet. Aura notified us if this registered information fell into the wrong hands.
• Social Security and ID authentication monitoring: Aura monitored the internet to see if anyone used our Social Security numbers or conducted transactions using our information identity.
• Online account monitoring: Aura was the first to know of any breaches to our online accounts or passwords. If you don’t want that happening to you, here are some tips for creating a strong password.
• Home title and address monitoring: Aura ensured no one stole our identities by forwarding our mail or used our home title to get a collateral loan.
• Auto title monitoring: Similar to home title monitoring, Aura monitored our car ownership titles.
• Criminal and court records monitoring: Aura even monitored criminal registries and court records to notify us in case our identities appear on any of those. According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft cases related to evading the law increased by five percent in 2024, making this monitoring increasingly important.1

Now, keep in mind, these protections are reactive, not preventative. That means when it comes to identity theft, Aura isn’t going to stop someone from stealing your identity, but will let you know if someone is trying to do so. That way, you can take the necessary steps to thwart them and avoid bigger damages.

Identity theft insurance is the backstop of this approach. If you’ve been victimized by identity theft, Aura’s insurance policy can cover up to $1 million in losses per adult plan member. While $1 million insurance is standard in the industry, Aura’s policy is more comprehensive than most. It includes coverage for accounting fees, legal expenses, and even childcare costs incurred while dealing with identity theft issues.

Fraud Protection

Aura protects users from credit fraud by monitoring their credit accounts across the three major bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. We consider three-bureau monitoring a premium feature in the industry. For example, the lowest tier of Identity Guard’s subscription plans doesn’t cover credit monitoring at one bureau, much less three. Three-bureau monitoring is reserved for Identity Guard’s mid-tier and top-tier plans, which start at $16.67 per month.

On top of that, Aura helps prevent financial loss by keeping track of personal finances from bank accounts to investment accounts. Credit protection covers a wide scope, but these were the highlights of our tests.

• Credit monitoring: Aura alerted us to new inquiries on our credit files, like new credit cards or bank loans, across the three major bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Aura claims to deliver fraud alerts significantly faster than competitors. We found that believable, since we received near-instant notifications during our tests.
• Monthly credit score updates: Aura sent us monthly updates on our VantageScore credit score, which helped us track our creditworthiness and pick out inconsistencies. If our score had dropped without us taking out a loan or missing a payment, it could indicate someone was using our credit file. If you’re looking to take out a mortgage or other big loan, we suggest checking our list of the best credit protection services.
• Credit lock: Aura lets you lock your credit with Experian, but not with the other two major credit bureaus: TransUnion and Equifax. You can independently lock your credit with TransUnion and Equifax, just not through your Aura subscription.
• Financial fraud monitoring: We linked our financial accounts, including credit cards, bank accounts and investment accounts, and set alerts for unusual spending activity. Remember, stopping financial fraud is a race against time. The sooner you can report unusual activity, the sooner you can put a stop to unauthorized spending.
• Annual credit report: Finally, we were able to retrieve a copy of our credit reports from the three reporting bureaus, thanks to Aura. It’s worth noting, though, that getting credit reports is free, regardless of whether you’re an Aura user. Check out our guide on how to get a free copy of your credit report for more information.

To be clear, it’s a little difficult to test identity theft protections without breaking the law or posting our personal information all over the dark web. Based on the tests we can conduct, such as applying for a loan with a credit lock on, Aura’s protections are effective. We compare them favorably with LifeLock, which is backed by antivirus giant Norton. For more information on that, you can read our side-by-side Aura vs. LifeLock comparison.

Device and Network Protection

Most of the identity and credit protection features involve reactive monitoring; however, with device and network protection, Aura becomes proactive. This means it can actually protect your personal information from getting stolen in the first place rather than just alert you after the fact. Here’s what you’ll get:

• Antivirus: Did you know that there are over 450,000 new malware samples every day.2 Scary stuff. What’s more, some types of malware are designed specifically to steal sensitive information, like account passwords and personal files. Thankfully, Aura’s antivirus protection can scan, detect and isolate threats for removal. Yes, Aura includes an actual antivirus.
• VPN: Aura’s VPN protected our internet connection with military-grade encryption to hide our activity from cybercriminals. And if you’re thinking, “What does an identity protection brand know about VPNs,” well, Aura actually owns a number of VPN services, like the Hotspot Shield VPN we tested. Protecting your identity is all about staying private, and with a VPN, you can hide your browsing activity, encrypt your traffic and stay anonymous.
• Safe Browsing: Visiting malicious websites is another leading cause of online identity theft, and with the Safe Browsing extension, Aura prevents you from entering questionable sites that could endanger your identity. Some of the sites Aura blocked for us were phishing sites, which are sites known to contain malware.
• Password manager: Our online accounts contain sensitive details, from personal information to payment specifics. Aura locks those up by generating strong passwords and securely storing passwords using encryption. Aura’s password manager worked across all our devices, from desktops and laptops to tablets and smartphones.
• Smart Vault: In addition to a password manager, Aura offers Smart Vault, an encrypted file storage that lets you store sensitive and important files and share them with your trusted contacts. Each adult member of all Aura plans gets 1 GB of secure storage. We used ours to store sensitive work files and digital copies of important paperwork.
• Anti-Track and ad blocker: Websites use trackers to see what you’re up to online — the websites you visit, items you purchase, shows you watch and more — and use the information they gather to profile you. While they generally don’t get personal information from trackers, it’s a good idea to block those to prevent them from being used to target you with ads.
• Email alias: Data breaches continue to grow as a threat with over 3,158 occurring in 2024 alone.3 To protect you, Aura can generate an email alias to use in place of your real email address so that only the alias gets exposed during a breach. This is similar to Surfshark’s Alternative ID feature, which we tested when we got a Surfshark One subscription.

These digital protections come bundled together in one convenient package, which made us wonder: Would splitting these services up and purchasing them separately provide better protection? After extensive testing, our answer is a qualified… maybe. Here’s why:

A piecemeal approach requires hunting down the best antivirus software, the best VPN, and more. Then, you have to right-size each individual subscription to make sure you’re getting the most for your money. That takes a lot of effort, and there’s a chance your subscription costs will increase when it’s time to renew. By packaging together all services you need, you’re saving yourself a lot of hassle that often translates to minimal benefit.

Was Aura’s antivirus software the most powerful we’ve ever tested? No. Was their VPN the fastest? Also no. Did either of these come with the bells and whistles we saw when we reviewed NordVPN or put TotalAV to the test? Nope. We’re not faulting Aura for any of that though. We give credit where credit is due, and we appreciate Aura for putting together a service that conveniently includes most if not all features you need to protect your identity.

The Drawbacks of Using Aura

While Aura excels at protection, we found the web interface could use some refinement. Based on our experience with various identity theft protection services, we think Aura could have spent more time developing a better user interface. Although it is powerful, it’s not exactly intuitive. By comparison, our review of Identity Guard lays out what a good interface looks like. That said, we eventually got used to the quirks of the Aura web portal.

Another area where Aura falls short is in the depth of its supplemental features. They offer excellent protection if we consider the fact that they’re bundled with Aura’s identity protection service. But individually, they are not at the top of their respective industries. To give you one example, the Aura VPN offers only 80+ server locations, whereas NordVPN offers 120+ locations.

In our opinion, these lackluster “side services” aren’t a deal breaker. They provide basic functionality and that’s okay. If you are looking for a comprehensive VPN or a top-notch antivirus program, you may want to consider a more bare-bones identity theft protection service so you’re not wasting money on features you won’t use.

Is Aura Worth It?

Based on our testing, we think Aura is an excellent choice for anyone needing comprehensive digital security and identity theft protection.