LifeLock vs IdentityForce

LifeLock and IdentityForce compete to protect adults, children, and businesses from identity theft and fraud. For a flat monthly fee, they provide:

• Preventive services
• ID fraud alerts
• Stolen funds replacement
• Fully managed identity restoration

Two of the Best Identity Theft Protection Services, membership with either company could save you countless work hours on identity restoration. It could also help you recover a million dollars or more! Prices range from $9.99 to $34.95 per adult account each month. With IdentityForce only, people sharing a home can share an account.

Read on for a detailed LifeLock vs IdentityForce comparison with prices for individuals and families. We personally tested LifeLock and IdentityForce to create a detailed comparison based on our real experience.

Key Differences Between LifeLock and IdentityForce

Which company could serve you best? The following points might help you decide. Reading them, remember that the most effective ID theft protection plans will alert you to credit report changes from all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

• LifeLock and IdentityForce are closely matched on family and couple pricing. LifeLock’s Core, Advanced, and Total tiers all offer couple and family options, covering two adults and up to 10 children.
• For most shoppers, LifeLock’s Advanced plan is worth a close look. At $19.99 per month, it now includes three-bureau credit monitoring, matching IdentityForce’s UltraSecure+Credit at the same price point.
• For high-income customers, LifeLock is the stronger choice. LifeLock’s Total plan offers up to $3 million in insurance coverage to cover stolen funds and legal bills, three times what IdentityForce’s best plan provides.
• LifeLock is also the better choice for budget shoppers. Its Core plan starts at $12.49 per month and now includes two-bureau credit monitoring, social media monitoring, and automatic data broker removal.

LifeLock’s subscription plans have closed much of the gap with IdentityForce on price and credit monitoring, while still offering the higher insurance ceiling on its top plan. That’s why in terms of pricing and value, our recommendation goes to LifeLock.

Company Profiles

Both LifeLock and IdentityForce are American corporations founded in 2005. From opposite coasts, they serve all 50 states. LifeLock is based in Tempe, Arizona and IdentityForce is in Framingham, Massachusetts.

IdentityForce was formed by the brother-sister duo Steven Bearak and Judy Leary. They launched the company as experts in the asset protection industry. Since 1978 their family had operated a thriving business, Stop-Loss Associates, that used credit and non-credit information to help protect government agencies and corporate clients from fraud. IdentityForce is a more personal version of Stop-Loss with its individual and family accounts.

LifeLock was started by the former business majors Todd Davis and Robert Maynard, Jr. Davis had been a star student at Baylor University, and Maynard graduated from college with honors in just five semesters. The two attracted start-up capital from Goldman Sachs and other major investors. Since 2017 LifeLock has been a subsidiary of Gen Digital. The business arrangement has benefited LifeLock customers by adding LifeLock anti-virus and anti-phishing software to accounts at all price points.

Finally, IdentityForce has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2007. The company has an A+ rating. LifeLock is not BBB accredited but it still has an A+ rating from the Bureau.

Overall Price Comparison – LifeLock vs IdentityForce

LifeLock’s simplified plan tiers compete well against IdentityForce’s plans. Here is an overview of each company’s rates and policies for you to easily compare prices:

• LifeLock prices per adult range from $12.49 to $34.99 per month with an annual plan.
  • Couple and family plans are offered at every tier, with family pricing covering two adults and up to 10 children.
  • Month-to-month plans are available, but opting for yearly billing gives you the lowest per-month average cost.
• IdentityForce prices per solo adult are $14.99 and $19.99 per month with annual plans.
  • Month-to-month plans for one cost $17.99, or $23.99 with three-bureau credit reporting.
  • Couples and other families get discounts.

LifeLock’s entry-level Core plan, at $12.49 per month, now includes two-bureau credit monitoring, social media monitoring, and automatic data broker removal, features that weren’t part of LifeLock’s cheapest plan before. Its insurance payout on Core is up to $1.05 million in total reimbursement, well above the $500,000 policy on IdentityForce’s cheapest plan. For three-bureau credit monitoring, LifeLock’s Advanced plan at $19.99 per month now matches IdentityForce’s UltraSecure+Credit at the same price point, so the choice comes down to which company’s extra features matter more to you.

Credit Monitoring Comparison – LifeLock vs IdentityForce

Monitoring your credit reports can help you identify fraud in its early stages. Obviously, this gives you a better shot at avoiding more serious consequences of identity fraud. For instance, with credit monitoring, you could be notified within a few minutes if somebody applied for a car loan in your name. This would give you time to contact the dealership before a fraudster drove away with your name tied to a big new investment.

ID protection companies can alert you in virtually real-time by smartphone, email, or a landline call. If you didn’t have credit monitoring, on the other hand, you might not be alerted to the problem until “your” first car payment was 60 days overdue.

The best ID protection plans from LifeLock and IdentityForce include alerts if your credit profile changes with Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. You can get notice right away of credit inquiries, new accounts, late payments and more. Furthermore, the plans supply you with credit reports and scores.

LifeLock has closed the price gap on three-bureau credit reporting. Its Advanced plan now offers three-bureau monitoring at $19.99 per month, matching IdentityForce’s UltraSecure+Credit price point exactly, though IdentityForce still edges ahead on some credit-related extras detailed below.

The top IdentityForce plan is called UltraSecure+Credit. Credit-related features help set it apart from the cheaper IdentityForce option called UltraSecure. You’ll get these extra benefits:

• Three-bureau monitoring for credit change alerts
• Quarterly three-bureau FICO credit scores & reports
• Monthly FICO credit score tracker
• FICO credit score simulator

Prices for UltraSecure+Credit

• IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit for one adult costs $23.95 per month without a contract, or $19.99 per month with 12 months of service.
• It costs $36 per month for two adults with a 12-month agreement. Adults can’t see each other’s private account info.
• Children can be added for $2.75 month-to-month or even less at $27.50 per year.

LifeLock Total

LifeLock’s subscriptions now include three main plans: Core, Advanced, and Total. Starting rates for adults are $12.49, $19.99, and $34.99 per month. Family plans covering two adults and up to 10 children start at $34.49, $47.99, and $74.99 per month respectively.

Both the $19.99 Advanced plan and the $34.99 Total plan now include three-bureau credit monitoring (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), a meaningful upgrade from LifeLock’s previous structure, where only the top plan offered full credit bureau coverage.

LifeLock Total provides daily one-bureau credit score updates and an annual three-bureau report with VantageScore 3.0 scores, plus up to $3 million in total insurance coverage, the highest of the two services.

IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit still offers quarterly FICO scores within their app, along with a monthly credit score tracker and credit change simulator, tools LifeLock doesn’t match. If those specific features matter most to you, IdentityForce remains the stronger pick. But for overall insurance coverage and value at the mid-tier price point, LifeLock’s Advanced plan is now a close match to IdentityForce at the same cost.

Review

Compared with LifeLock, IdentityForce can provide more valuable credit reporting.

• Top-tier IdentityForce membership includes quarterly credit reports and scores from all three bureaus. LifeLock limits credit scores to annual reports.
• IdentityForce has the advantage of dealing in FICO scores while LifeLock gives Vantage scores. FICO scores are more popular with lenders.
• Only with IdentityForce can you get a monthly credit score tracker.

Additionally, with IdentityForce, you’ll get a credit score simulator. That’s not included with LifeLock Total or any other LifeLock plan. LifeLock’s advantage lies elsewhere: a higher insurance ceiling and a stronger entry-level plan, so which service wins depends on whether credit-monitoring depth or overall coverage matters more to you.

Other Features – Best LifeLock vs IdentityForce Plans

As explained above, IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit offers stronger day-to-day credit reporting tools. But LifeLock’s Total plan now offers a more generous insurance package: up to $1,000,000 for stolen funds, $1,000,000 for personal expenses, and $1,000,000 for lawyers and experts, for up to $3,000,000 in total coverage. With IdentityForce, lawyers’ bills and stolen funds replacement are deducted from a single $1 million policy. You wouldn’t need to pay a deductible with either company.

Here are some features that both top-tier plans share:

• Two-factor authentication
• Mobile and desktop account access
• Dark web monitoring
• SSN fraud alerts
• Banking and investment account alerts
• Alerts about crimes committed in your name
• Alerts about sex offenders in your neighborhood
• Lost wallet protection

IdentityForce also monitors payday lenders, vehicle registration databases, and medical insurance records for identity fraud, sources LifeLock doesn’t track. LifeLock, meanwhile, now includes social media monitoring on every plan.

LifeLock might have special appeal with its Norton computer protection. However, IdentityForce provides similar benefits with its dark web monitoring, anti-keylogging software, and other features for safer web use with Android and iOS equipment.

View Plans

Links to LifeLock

LifeLock’s top plan provides $1 million for stolen funds and a separate $1 million for legal expenses — two distinct policies and not a shared pool. See what’s included.

Compare LifeLock vs IdentityForce Family Plans

Both companies offer pricing for families. A couple on LifeLock’s Advanced plan pays $35.99 per month, and a family of two adults plus up to 10 children pays $47.99 per month, all-included rather than priced per child. IdentityForce’s family pricing for UltraSecure+Credit works out to about $36 per month for a couple, plus roughly $2.25 to $2.75 per child depending on billing term.

For larger families, LifeLock’s flat per-plan family pricing can work out to better value than IdentityForce’s per-child model, especially for households with more than a couple of kids. For couples or smaller families, the two services land close to the same monthly cost.

Conclusion

LifeLock and Identity Force seem evenly matched, but overall, LifeLock wins on both value and level of protection. LifeLock’s Core plan, at $12.49 per month, now includes two-bureau credit monitoring, social media monitoring, and automatic data broker removal, plus up to $1.05 million in insurance coverage. Step up to LifeLock’s $19.99 Advanced plan and you get three-bureau credit monitoring at the same price as IdentityForce’s UltraSecure+Credit.

Where LifeLock pulls ahead is at the top end: its Total plan offers up to $3 million in insurance coverage, three times what IdentityForce’s best plan provides, along with Norton 360 device protection that IdentityForce doesn’t match. IdentityForce still has the edge if you specifically need monitoring for payday lenders, vehicle registrations, or medical insurance records, or if quarterly FICO scores and a credit score simulator are a priority. But for most households looking for strong all-around protection with the highest insurance ceiling available, LifeLock is the better buy.

Want to learn more about IdentityForce? Read our detailed IdentityForce review or how they compare to Identity Guard.

*LifeLock does not monitor all transactions at all businesses.
**Terms apply to all LifeLock plans.
***The credit scores provided are VantageScore 3.0 credit scores based on data from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion respectively. Any one bureau VantageScore mentioned is based on Equifax data only. Third parties use many different types of credit scores and are likely to use a different type of credit score to assess your creditworthiness.
****Reimbursement and Expense Compensation, each with limits of up to $1 million for Ultimate Plus, up to $100,000 for Advantage and up to $25,000 for Select, when purchased in Norton 360 with LifeLock plans. And up to $1 million for coverage for lawyers and experts if needed, for all plans. Benefits under the Master Policy are issued and covered by United Specialty Insurance Company (State National Insurance Company, Inc. for NY State members). Policy terms, conditions and exclusions at: LifeLock.com/legal.