Aura Identity Theft Protection review
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Miglė Vosyliūtė
Writer
Aura Identity Theft Protection is one of the most popular services to fight against identity thefts today. While it monitors data related to your identity overall, it also helps you to manage your credits.
For example, it offers a triple-bureau monitoring and looks out for suspicious activities in your bank accounts. Moreso, you get almost real-time notifications about any financial changes. But that’s not all. To stand against a continuously growing number of cybersecurity threats, Aura also provides you with a VPN, password manager, and the antivirus software.
So, to find out if this provider does its job well, we have thoroughly tested it and put everything in one Aura Identity Theft Protection review. Here, you will learn how good Aura is in terms of security, performance, usability, and other critical aspects.
| ⭐ Rating: | |
| 🥇 Overall rank: | #2 out of #3 |
| 💵 Price: | From $10/month |
| ✂️ Free version: | No |
| 🖥️ Platforms: | Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS |
| 🔥 Coupons: | Aura Identity Theft Protection coupon 42% OFF! |
Pros and cons of Aura
What does Aura Identity Theft do?
Like the name gives out – Aura’s biggest focus is protecting your online identity from cyber thieves. However, to ensure that to the maximum extent, SSN, credential account, and email monitoring aren’t enough.
Reputable identity theft protection services are expected to include versatile feature suites. Luckily, Aura offers exactly what we expect to get and even more.
Identity, SSN, and Online Account Theft Protection
The amount of personal information we must expose online is ridiculous. And yet, it’s inevitable if we want to proceed with already normal tasks, like online shopping. Fortunately, Aura protects your SSN, online accounts, and identity.
- Social Security Number and ID monitoring. SSN is one of the most powerful identifiers, which plays an important role in activities like taking a loan. That’s why Aura tracks all new activities related to your SSN and informs you about them.
- Child SSN monitoring. Childrens' identity theft cases is on the rise for the past year. Therefore, Aura has implemented Social Security Number monitoring not only for you but also for your kid.
- Criminal and court record monitoring. This sensitive information can be a powerful asset for anyone who wants to compromise you. With this in mind, Aura ensures you’re informed about any attempts to use your court records.
- Online accounts protection. Unauthorized access to your online accounts can lead to financial losses and reputation tarnishing. Luckily, Aura constantly looks out for breached accounts related to your email.
With Aura, you instantly receive security alerts if any part of your personal information is being breached. But, of course, to be informed about that, you must provide all of the information for the Aura service itself at the beginning of your profile setup. And if you have suffered from identity theft, there’s a $1,000,000 insurance policy.
Credit monitoring
Financial frauds are running up the hill, along with identity thefts. Consequently, there are more and more robust credit monitoring services, and Aura is one of them.
First and foremost, it monitors your financial situation across three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It constantly looks for new loans or even newly added credit cards using your or your child's names. This also applies to your already existing credit accounts, so unexpected purchases from your account are also under the watchful eye of Aura.
In case of an emergency, you can use the credit monitoring tool to lock your bank accounts and protect them from hackers or other third parties with sneaky intentions.
Finally, the monthly (or daily and even weekly) credit score and annual credit report allow you to keep track of your financial habits.
Extra security features
Identity theft protection isn’t the only sphere that Aura focuses on. This service offers additional security features that comprehensively protect your personal data and devices.
To stay anonymous online, you can use Aura’s VPN connection which uses an industry-leading encryption cipher found in the best VPNs on the market. Using a VPN helps you mask your online inquiries from your ISP and third parties that tend to sell your data. Not to mention the opportunity to unblock geo-restricted access using a foreign IP address.
Another tool for securing your data online is Aura’s password manager. It uses industry-leading AES-256 encryption to secure your logins that are stored in the vault. Plus, you will always be informed about breached accounts, weak or old passwords. And a password generator will help you create new complex passwords. However, apart from these features and basic autofilling capabilities, this password manager doesn’t offer as much as dedicated password manager apps do.
On the bright side, there’s also an ad and tracker blocker. With it, you can easily avoid pop-ups, banners, or other types of adware, as well as various trackers that collect your personal information. But that’s not the only way to avoid malware, as Aura includes antivirus software too. Perhaps, it’s not the best-rated antivirus service, but it definitely includes essentialities like real-time malware protection, anti-ransomware, virus scans, and more.
Finally, for the Family plan owners, Aura offers the Parental Controls suite. With it, you can track the amount of data your child uses, limit the websites they can visit, and the overall screen time.
How much does Aura cost?
The starting price of Aura Identity Theft Protection is $10.00/month if you choose to be billed annually. However, there are three subscription plans to select from.
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Individual (1 member) | Identity theft protection, antivirus, online & device security (10 devices), financial fraud protection | $10.00/month billed annually |
| Couple (2 members) | Everything as in the Individual plan, but online & device security for 20 devices | $18.00/month billed annually |
| Family (5 members) | Everything as in the Individual and Couple plans + Parental Controls, Child Identity Protection, Safe Gaming, and 50 devices for online & device security | $29.00/month billed annually |
The main difference across Aura’s subscriptions is the number of members allowed per account.
Of course, with the bigger number of members, you also can have more simultaneously protected devices. While the Individual plan users can connect up to 10 devices for antivirus, VPN, and password manager protection, couples double that up. And Family plan users are allowed to have up to 50 connections at once.
But the Family plan has something else to be wanted for. Next to all Aura’s features each plan receives, Family users also get Parental Controls tools and Child Identity Protection package. Consequently, the subscription pays off twice.
No matter your subscription plan, every newcomer gets a 14-day free trial to test the service. However, you can even extend this trial using a 60-day money-back guarantee and use Aura risk-free for over two months!
Is Aura worth your money?
Yes, Aura is worth your money. By choosing any of its plans, you receive all essential cybersecurity tools and eliminate the hassle of picking separate services. That being said, you receive fully-fledged identity theft protection, credit monitoring, antivirus, VPN, password manager, and the Family also gets Parental Controls tools too.
Moreover, even with the Individual plan, you can simultaneously protect up to 10 devices per account. While the Family plan gives you 5 accounts with 50 simultaneous connections. One way or another, no spare devices are left unprotected.
But it’s no surprise that separate dedicated security apps with different focuses, like a reputable password manager, are more powerful than all-in-one packages. They include more additional security features that improve not only usability but also your protection.
Is Aura safe?
Yes, Aura is fairly safe. However, there are some things to keep in mind if you’re severely concerned about your privacy. Since Aura provides identity theft protection, collecting personal information about you is part of the job to protect you. Hence, you must be prepared to give your account, identity verification, billing, and similar information.
Apart from identity theft protection, Aura provides a VPN service. For this, the provider has to know your actual location approximately so the best server location can be suggested. But that’s not all; Aura also informs you about logging your device type, browsers you use, bandwidth usage, and more.
And, let’s not forget that the company is based in the US – a member of the 5-Eyes alliance. Therefore, the government could access your data, but only when it’s court-approved in extreme situations, like criminal investigations, terrorism cases, and such.
However, Aura’s VPN uses AES-256 encryption, which is currently the strongest cipher on the market, ensuring your data is unreadable. Plus, the company follows a no-logs policy, meaning your activity logs aren’t collected.
While a VPN has some withdraws, during our tests, we have found that Aura antivirus offers some decent malware protection. While running a quick scan, it took the program 26 seconds to find up to 80% of threats and instantly move infected files to the Quarantine. However, the real-time protection performance was worse, as only 5 malicious files out of 10 were detected.
So, considering it all, there is some deterrence, but overall, Aura is a safe provider to use, with no noticeable dark spots in the past.
How to buy Aura Identity Theft Protection?
When buying Aura Identity Theft Protection, you have to provide them with quite an amount of information. However, it’s all about you and all you know of, so no extra preparation is needed, and the process is smooth overall. Here’s how it’s done:
- Head to the official Aura website and choose your subscription plan.
- Enter your email address.
- Continue by giving your name and address.
- Fill in your personal information (payment details, SSN, etc.)
- Finish the signup process and get the Aura app to your device.
Interface and setup
The Aura app is available for all major operating systems (except Linux). Meanwhile, you can get its password manager and ad blocker browser extensions on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
Downloading and setting up your Aura account is far from something troublesome. Just when the app is installed, you can start setting up fingerprint authentication to your account on iOS devices or two-factor authentication on other devices.
Aura desktop app
Aura can definitely be proud of a well-designed desktop application for both Windows and Mac devices. However, the app for Apple computers lacks some features; consequently its functionality suffers.
If you are a Windows user, you receive all the available features. Those include identity protection, secure network, antivirus, and more features, like the ProtectMe safe gaming feature.
You can find all the security sections listed on the left side of the app. And each section will give you access to specific features.
On the macOS version you will also find separated security sections. However, you won’t find the mentioned Safe Gaming section that the Windows app has. And there’s also no separate unit for the Preferences.
Apart from lacking features in the Mac app, both desktop versions look very similar. They are made to be beginner-friendly and flattering to use overall.
Aura mobile app
Just like desktop apps, Aura’s mobile applications are also a candy to an eye. Both iOS and Android apps look great, but the Android app offers more functionality over iOS version.
While the iOS version is a bit messy, as you have to go through more tabs to find the one you need, in the Android app, you have everything in one place. But, overall, this shouldn’t impact your experience severely.
On the other hand, both mobile apps include the Parental Control feature, which isn’t available on desktop devices. With it, you will be able to control what websites your kids can visit, how much time they spend online, and more.
All in all, Aura has done an excellent job at developing intuitive applications. After all, ease of use highly adds up to your online protection, as in other case, you would most likely avoid using the app.
Final verdict
Aura Identity Theft Protection is an all-in-one cybersecurity solution that’s suitable for both advanced and beginner users. Within a single subscription, you receive not only identity protection features but also credit monitoring, antivirus, VPN, and password management feature suites.
This provider has three subscription plans to choose from. Hence, you’re not burdened with unnecessary financial spendings, as there’s a possibility to have a plan for one, two, or five persons at once. Plus, you can combine a 14-day free trial with over two months of money-back guarantee and test the service before fully committing to it.
So, at first glance, Aura might seem like an expensive service to use; however, the number of features you receive offsets the cost. And most importantly, this provider uses only advanced security technologies to help you stay protected at all times.
More identity theft protection guides from Cybernews:
Best identity theft protection for business: protect your teammates and your businesss
Best identity theft protection for seniors: help the elders to secure their online identities
IDShield review: is it really the best on the market?
FAQ
Can Aura be trusted?
Yes, Aura can be trusted. Even though it’s located in the US, the company applies multiple trustworthy regulations to your security and privacy. For example, it doesn’t log your online activity and openly shares what type of personal data it collects.
Is Aura Identity Theft any good?
Yes, Aura Identity Theft is a robust protection service. It strongly focuses on protecting your overall online being by offering numerous identity theft protection features as well as additional secure network tools.
Does Aura offer a family plan?
Yes, Aura does offer a family plan. It costs $29.00/month, works for 5 simultaneous accounts, and includes all the available features with an additional Parental Controls tool.
Is Aura better than LifeLock?
Aura is better than Norton LifeLock in terms of price-to-quality ratio. With the Aura Identity Theft Protection plan, you receive a versatile cybersecurity suite of features with even a VPN, antivirus, password manager, and more tools included. While Norton LifeLock basic plan includes ID and SSN alerts along with credit monitoring.
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