The Best Identity Theft Protection Software for 2024

PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Picture this. You tap for an ATM withdrawal and get an error—no funds. The bank’s app on your phone rejects your credentials, so you try for an emailed password reset code. But you can’t log into your email. Your identity has been stolen. Thieves now own your email, your bank account, and the cash from that account. Whether it started with a data breach or a weak password, you’re in trouble. If that scenario sounds alarming, we suggest you try an identity theft service. We can’t do real-world testing of identity theft remediation, so we’ve focused on services that also include device-level security protection. Norton 360 With LifeLock is a longtime favorite, sharing the Editors' Choice honor with Bitdefender Ultimate Security. Both combine top-quality device-level protection with comprehensive handling of identity theft. Find all our picks below, followed by a detailed guide to understanding identity theft protection services.

Is It Worth Paying for Identity Theft Protection?

You don't need a security suite if you can guarantee you’ll never encounter a virus or other malware. And if you can guarantee nobody will ever steal your identity, you don’t need an ID theft protection service. But you can’t. The question is, what level of risk are you comfortable with?

Subscribing to a standalone identity theft protection service is like buying insurance. You put money into it every year but hope you never have to use it. You might begin to think those payments are just wasted. However, when you combine such protection with security software for your devices, the financial picture looks decidedly better.

For example, LifeLock has three different monitoring tiers crossed with three levels of family protection. At each of the nine possible combinations, adding Norton 360 adds only $10 and $30 to the price. It’s like you’re getting the security suite for a Crazy Eddie-style bargain. Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection Standard runs you $129.99 per year, but for $50 more, you get award-winning Bitdefender Total Security along with Bitdefender’s VPN and password manager. If you want something tangible for your money, opt for identity protection combined with standard device security.

What Are the Best Identity Theft Protection Apps for Families?

Monitoring and protecting your own identity is smart, but if your spouse or partner has their identity stolen, you’ll suffer, too. Identity protection services handle the need for family protection in a variety of ways. At the moment, Bitdefender only offers individual protection, though a family plan is in the works.

McAfee+ originally protected just individuals, but in January 2023, the company added a family option, with full protection for two adults and limited credit monitoring for four children. Adding family protection raises the subscription cost by $80 at the Advanced level and almost twice that at the Ultimate tier.

Norton 360 With LifeLock and IDX Complete both offer a family plan that covers you, your partner, and up to five children; Norton also weighs in with a plan for just you and your partner. There’s not much volume discount in either. Norton's two-adult plan just costs twice as much, while IDX Complete’s pricing for the family plan is just a few dollars short of double the individual price. Norton has the distinction of the very highest pricing level. If you opt for the partner plus kids plan at the top Ultimate Plus tier, you’ll pay $819.99 per year.

IDShield comes out as a leader for family protection. A family license costs twice as much as an individual license but offers identity protection for you, your partner, and all your minor children. Think your kids don't need identity protection? Wait until they turn 18 and discover someone, somewhere, has utterly ruined their credit.

Avast One Platinum relies on the same third-party partner that Bitdefender uses. However, where a Bitdefender subscription protects just you, Avast lets you add up to five family members. Each member gets a personal dashboard to track their own credit and personal data. And with 30 licenses to install the security suite component, your family can protect all their devices.

The same third-party partner that backs Bitdefender and Avast also provides identity protection for ESET Home Security Ultimate. ESET's protection matches what you get at Bitdefender's entry-level tier, lacking some advanced features such as tracking anomalous financial transactions. Like Avast, it protects family members, not just individuals, and its price is less than two-thirds of what you pay for Avast. ESET also specifically promises to continue its efforts even after a covered family member passes away.

The Best Overall Identity Monitoring Services

Some features are just a given in all sensible identity theft protection services. They all monitor the dark web to make sure your data doesn't turn up there. They also include a system to help you deal with the consequences of a lost or stolen wallet and have support experts standing by at all times, experts who will work with you as long as it takes to recover from identity theft. And they all back their remediation promises with at least $1 million of insurance.

Most of these services partner with a credit bureau to offer credit monitoring, a monthly credit score, and an easy way to freeze your credit. Some extend coverage to all three bureaus for an extra cost. A few offer analysis of your score, showing the important positive or negative factors. The unusual Credit Simulator in Bitdefender Ultimate Security, ESET Home Security Ultimate, and Avast One Platinum lets you see what would happen to your score if, say, you paid off a credit card or declared bankruptcy.

All the services except ESET will warn you of unauthorized change-of-address attempts. A few go further and track any attempts at illicit changes to your home title. You’ll get a warning from many if someone tries to open a new account in your name. Others watch your bank and credit accounts and flag anomalous transactions.

When choosing an identity theft protection service, read the details very closely. Some features may require a specific higher tier of service. For example, change-of-address warnings and anomalous transaction alerts require Bitdefender’s Plus level. Home title monitoring and tracking of retirement accounts only kick in at Norton’s Ultimate Plus level.

How Does Identity Theft Insurance Work?

All the identity theft remediation services mentioned here back their programs with an insurance policy of at least $1 million. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll cut you a big check. Before signing up, read the fine print.

Some services reimburse you for funds directly stolen in an identity theft attack. McAfee used to put a $10,000 cap on such reimbursement but now pledges up to a million if needed. With Norton, the cap depends on your service tier: $25,000 at the Select level, $100,000 at the Advantage level, and a full $1 million at Ultimate Plus. Bitdefender’s Plus level specifically offers up to $50,000 for ransomware recovery.

You’re also likely to find caps on reimbursement for specific losses due to identity theft. For example, if you lose your job due to identity theft, the insurance may cover lost wages, but not for long, perhaps $1,500 per week for eight weeks or $2,000 per week for five weeks. Caps also apply to travel expenses, childcare and elder care expenses, and notary fees.

Note that Norton doesn't impose such caps or sub-limits. At its top tier, it promises $1 million each for remediation, reimbursement of stolen funds, and compensation for personal expenses, for a total of $3 million.

Don’t imagine identity theft insurance will cover money lost due to your own negligence. If you give your bank account details to your new bestie, who then turns around and robs you, that’s your own fault. You’re also likely to find requirements that you notify the service promptly, file any appropriate police reports, and provide the remediation experts with any necessary documents.

So, if that $1 million (or more) in insurance money mostly doesn’t go to you, where does it go? The service uses that fund to pay lawyers, investigators, and other experts to get your life back on track after an identity theft event.

Who Has the Best Identity Theft Protection?

Most of us have come to accept that the protection of a security suite (or at least an antivirus) is necessary for our devices. It’s an easy decision. Read some reviews, buy the product of your choice, install it, and forget it. Buying into an identity theft protection plan requires more of an investment of your time and effort. You must sit down and enter the personal information you want to protect, the bank accounts you wish to monitor, and more. And you hope the identity theft protection service won’t go rogue and make off with the data you’ve supplied. Norton is a known and trusted name, as is LifeLock, and Norton 360 With LifeLock excels both at device protection and identity protection. Bitdefender Ultimate Security combines an outstanding security suite with a comprehensive shield for your identity. These two are our Editors’ Choice selections for identity theft protection.