LifeLock vs. Experian 2024: Key Differences That Matter (2024)

Norton LifeLock and Experian IdentityWorks are two of the biggest identity theft prevention services you can buy. When comparing them side by side, our research showed that Experian comes out on top, though LifeLock does come with extra bells and whistles.

No matter which you go with, identity theft protection services can help you catch identity theft in its early stages or remediate an issue if you become a victim.

Check out our comparison below if you’re curious how Norton and Experian compare.

LifeLock vs. Experian IdentityWorks review at a glance

These two ID theft protection services have a lot of similarities, but some key differences may matter to your situation. People on a tight budget who want identity protection could benefit from Experian’s free plan, and its also the better option if you want to monitor your FICO score.

On the other hand, LifeLock comes from Norton and can be used on its own or bundled with Norton’s other security products. Norton has so many options, providing a slew of support options to fit your preferences.

• Norton LifeLock: Best support options
• Experian IdentityWorks: Best for a budget

LifeLock vs. Experian IdentityWorks compared

LifeLock pros and cons

Experian IdentityWorks pros and cons

Which has the better prices?

Overall, Experian has better prices for its plans, including a basic plan that's free of charge and still provides some peace of mind. You can really start piling on the extra features with Norton, which makes it much more expensive overall.

LifeLock plans

LifeLock offers a lot. Each of the plans we listed below is intended for a single person. Couples receive the same features per person, and family plans include special features for children. Each family plan can cover up to five children.

LifeLock offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for annual plans and a 14-day money-back guarantee for monthly plans.

• Standard: Basic coverage with identity theft insurance, ID and Social Security number (SSN) alerts, and one-bureau credit monitoring. Identity theft insurance up to $1.05 million.
• Advantage: Everything in the Standard plan plus identity lock, phone takeover monitoring, alerts on crime in your name, and buy now pay later alerts. Identity theft insurance up to $1.2 million.
• Ultimate Plus: Everything in the Advantage plan plus credit scores, three-bureau credit monitoring and reports, investment and 401(k) alerts, home title monitoring, and social media takeover alerts. Identity theft insurance up to $3 million.

Experian IdentityWorks plans

Experian is surprisingly robust, given it’s one of the three major credit bureaus. The plans we listed cover one person, except for the family plan, which covers an additional adult and up to 10 children. We wish Experian offered a plan for couples without children like LifeLock does.

The paid plans offer a seven-day free trial to try out the features before committing to the service.

• Free: Basic coverage with Experian credit report, FICO score, FICO score monitoring, credit monitoring and alerts, dark web surveillance report, and personal privacy report.
• Premium: Everything in the Free plan plus $1 million in identity theft insurance, three-bureau credit monitoring, alerts, and scores, lost wallet assistance, monthly privacy scans and data removal services, FICO score tracker, identity, social media, and financial account alerts plus other bonuses.
• Family: Everything in the Premium plan with coverage for an additional adult and up to 10 children.

Monitoring and alerts

Both LifeLock and Experian offer most of the major features you want from identity theft protection, but Experian edges ahead of the competition by offering FICO monitoring (even on its free plan).

LifeLock and Experian share a lot of similarities with one big difference. While both VantageScore and FICO are used to assess your creditworthiness, FICO scores tend to be used more over time than VantageScore. Experian offers FICO, while LifeLock offers VantageScore. We haven’t seen a lot of identity theft protection services that use FICO, so this is a deviation from the norm in a good way.

Additionally, Experian offers three-bureau monitoring on its paid plans, while LifeLock only offers it on the Ultimate Plus plan.

LifeLock monitors your home title to alert you if it’s transferred, which is good if you own a home. However, we don’t think it’s absolutely necessary, so it’s not a deal breaker for us that Experian doesn’t include it. Critical features like SSN monitoring, dark web monitoring, and the ability to lock your credit are included in both service’s offerings.

Overall, both of these services offer the core alerts and monitoring features you’ll need to monitor your credit and personal information.

Norton alert

Experian alert

Which is safer?

While both Norton and Experian are reputable and trustworthy companies, Experian offers better multi-factor authentication to help keep your account just a little bit safer.

You give a lot of personal information to identity theft protection services, so you need to know what those services are doing with your data. You also deserve to know how they protect the information you entrust to them. Finally, you deserve to know who has access to all that data. We’re not in love with third-party sharing, especially when it’s for marketing purposes.

Experian offers multi-factor authentication (MFA), which isn’t as widely adopted as two-factor authentication (2FA). The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends MFA.

Otherwise, these two are pretty similar. We weren’t thrilled with how much data the service collects and shares. While both services are transparent about data sharing, it’s still not the best practice.

Experian collects as much data as possible and shares it with various third parties. It’s outlined very clearly in the U.S. privacy policy. We expect your spam calls and emails to go way up with this data sharing. LifeLock isn’t better, using all the data it collects for various purposes, including promoting the interests of its third-party affiliates.

Which has the better compatibility and customer support?

Norton has more options for customer support, included a 24/7 live chat option. This puts it way over the top as the better option in this category.

Both LifeLock and Experian are user-friendly and have clean, easy-to-use dashboards. There’s a lot to explore within each service, and we found that the information organization was comparable. Design is also important, and both dashboards are aesthetically pleasing and modern.

The biggest difference we found was access to customer support. Experian customer service was kind of terrible. Phone hours are limited, and there’s no chat option. We tried searching for answers, but we mostly got blog post suggestions. The FAQs weren’t very helpful either.

LifeLock offers more options, including a live chat. We didn’t find that incredibly helpful either, as the tech didn’t seem to be well-trained or knowledgeable. But LifeLock's community forums were incredibly helpful, so that’s a win.

LifeLock chat session

LifeLock vs. Experian IdentityWorks FAQs

LifeLock vs. Experian IdentityWorks: Which is better?

When looking between the two services, we determined that Experian IdentityWorks is the better option. It offers a free plan so you can get basic monitoring and a host of other features that we appreciate. Neither service has ideal customer support options, but both come up pretty equal regarding security and data protection. We will give LifeLock a shout-out for the community forum, but nothing beats reliable personalized customer support.

Overall, though, both of these options will give you a host of protections for both your identity and your other accounts. While LifeLock offers $3 million in identity theft insurance, more than its competitors, both services offer remediation specialists to help you, so you won’t have to navigate that alone.

Whatever you decide, the best identity theft protection services keep you safe from hackers and identity thieves and give you a rounded view of your credit.

LifeLock and Experian IdentityWorks alternatives

If neither LifeLock nor Experian suits your needs, consider one of these alternatives:

Identity theft losses can destroy your credit, take significant time, effort, and funds to clean up, and possibly even land you in some legal hot water. An identity theft protection service will help you fix any issues and restore your identity with ease and assistance.