LifeLock has come a long way since the days when it was subject to multiple Federal Trade Commission investigations (settled in 2015) and various lawsuits from customers and credit reporting agencies. That might give one pause before declaring it the best identity theft protection even if it does have great features. However, In 2017, it became a subsidiary of Symantec, purchased for $2.3 billion.

You may recall the ads where LifeLock's founder posted his Social Security number everywhere, as a statement in his confidence about LifeLock's protection services. While he did experience numerous instances of identity theft based on those Social Security number postings, LifeLock's theft protection services helped him recover.

The company offers a wide range of identity monitoring and protection options, including stolen wallet protection, ID verification monitoring, home title monitoring and checking and savings account application alerts. 

LifeLock's ID theft protection services range from $7 a month to $20 a month the first year. Terms apply. Reimbursement of $25,000 to $1 million is available, depending on the monitoring plan. The lower-price protection services monitor credit only from one credit bureau. The $20-a-month identity theft protection plan monitors all three major credit bureaus. You can pull credit reports once a year, but the service will provide you with a credit score monthly, based on Experian data.

SSN and credit alerts, dark web monitoring, alerts on suspicious activity like crimes committed under your name and credit card activity and fraud alert services are all marks in LifeLock's favor, despite its past stumbles. 

LifeLock Terms of Service

Base price: $89.99 or $7.50 a month for the first year.

IdentityForce offers two tiers of service: UltraSecure and UltraSecure Plus Credit, the latter of which includes credit reports and scores. We liked how the credit score monitoring not only watches all three reporting agencies but provides a visual tracker that lets you examine your credit rating over time.

IdentityForce identity theft protection monitoring includes quite a lot beyond credit information. It checks for public information record changes, address changes, court and arrest records and payday loan applications, and checks for identity information on a variety of illicit identity-sharing websites to act as a guard dog from identity thieves. The company also monitors sex offender registries to see if your name is associated with such things. We also like that it tracks SSNs for new usages or associations with new names.

Its mobile app has been updated with a feature called Mobile Attack Control. This monitors your smartphone for spyware and insecure Wi-Fi locations, as well as "spoof" networks (networks that act as if they're legitimate connections but they're not). Additionally, the phone app will present alerts if there are security issues monitored by IdentityForce that need immediate attention.

The company did not disclose frequency of service monitoring (beyond credit reporting agencies). That said, we liked how the company has an interesting credit score simulator which can help you understand how different balances, payments and balance transfers might have an impact on your credit score. IdentityForce offers a 14-day free trial version, so you can see if it offers the best identity theft protection for your needs. 

Right now, the UltraSecure program is $100 per year (or $10 for a monthly plan), and the UltraSecure Plus Credit for individuals is $180 per year (or $18 per month).

IdentityForce Terms of Service

Base price: $100 a year or $10 a month.

Complete ID is a service provided by Experian, one of the big three credit reporting agencies, and is exclusively available to Costco members. Costco Executive members pay $9 a month plus an optional $3 a month for child protection, and Gold Star Costco members pay $14 a month and an optional $4 a month for child protection. 

Complete ID provides an annual credit report from the three agencies. It also offers monthly credit scores and provides a nice graph over time so you can see how your score has improved. These perks may help make it the best identity theft protection if you're seeking multiple services in one.

The identity monitoring service offers monitoring for unauthorized use of your Social Security number and other noncredit identity monitoring to help prevent you from being the victim of stolen identity. A valuable feature is its neighborhood watch, updated monthly, which provides details on sexual predators and crimes in your area.

As with all of the services we're spotlighting, Complete ID offers $1 million in limited identity theft insurance. And unlike some of the competitors listed here, it has a clear summary of benefits. Base price (for Costco Executive members): $108 a year.

Complete ID Terms of Service

Base price (for Costco Executive members): $108 a year.

ID Watchdog describes its service as "True Identity Protection." The company's big differentiator is helping you recover after you've been the victim of an identity theft experience. It offers a guarantee of "100% identity theft resolution," but the fine print introduces some notable limits.

First, the company will only help you if it detects a new incident of fraud while you're an active customer. It doesn't guarantee you'll get back any money you lost, but it will provide access to its team of Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialists.

Like all the other commercial identity monitoring services we've profiled in this directory, ID Watchdog offers a $1 million identity theft insurance policy. But that policy's exact terms, limits and benefits aren't spelled out until you complete the signup process.

The base program doesn't provide a credit report or credit score information, but if you sign up for the premium $220-per-year service, you can get a copy of your credit report and your credit score. The catch? You get that report once a year. You can already do that yourself, for free, by going to annualcreditreport.com. Still, if you don't need to check your credit often, this might make sense as the best identity theft protection for you.

While the company says that it provides monitoring services, it does not specify, anywhere in its terms and conditions, how often it performs checks for each type of service it monitors.

ID Watchdog Terms of Service

Base price: $150 a year or $15 a month.

One of Identity Fraud's standout features is price. It has the second-lowest entry-level price of any of the services we explored. The company also offers a business cybercrime protection service called BizLock. Those two facts alone make it the best identity theft protection for some.

Identity Fraud's personal service is $100 a year, with a bump to $160 a year for credit reporting and monitoring. Like all our other identity theft prevention contenders, Identity Fraud offers $1 million in fraud insurance (except for those in New York state, where the limit is $25,000 in coverage), with a $0 deductible. And we like that Identity Fraud's insurance benefits are clear and easy to find.

The company does provide a credit score, but it's limited to data from TransUnion, one of the three credit-reporting agencies. The company will send you a monthly "no news is good news" email if your identity has had a quiet month. It also offers lost wallet services, along with identity resolution and prevention assistance.

Identity Fraud Terms of Service

Base price: $100 a year or $10 a month.

PrivacyGuard offers a 14-day trial program, but instead of it being free, you have to pay a buck. So while you can still see if you like the program, the company loses all the friction-reducing benefits of trial-to-live conversions by requiring users to jump through that dollar hoop at the beginning of the relationship. Go figure.

Beyond the slightly shoot-themselves-in-the-foot trial program, PrivacyGuard provides many of the usual credit and identity protection services offered by its competitors. It offers daily credit monitoring, a key value in protecting a person's identity against identity thieves, and a frequency level sorely lacking among many of the company's competitors.

PrivacyGuard's base $10-per-month program does record scans. A $20-a-month program does credit scans. A $25-per-month program does both. Like most other vendors, Privacy Guard offers a $1 million policy. Prior to signing up, the company provides some information about the policy's benefits and limitations, but not enough for it to be useful for making a purchasing decision.

PrivacyGuard updates credit scores monthly and monitors public records and Social Security numbers. It also offers a yearly public records report, which provides all of the public records information that it's found in one clear document.

PrivacyGuard offers a trial version.

PrivacyGuard Terms of Service

Base price: $120 a year.

McAfee's identity theft protection service is the least expensive we've seen for a year of coverage. You can get a full year of basic coverage for $35 as introductory pricing for new customers, and it includes antivirus protection. This is substantially less expensive than the other players we've discussed here.

It offers a slick "cyber monitoring" service that constantly scans for credit activity and alerts you if something unusual happens. The company does monitor your Experian credit file but doesn't connect to either TransUnion or Equifax.

Like most other vendors, it offers to reimburse up to $1 million for identity recovery (unless you're in New York state), and its recovery service will also return up to $10,000 in stolen funds. As an added benefit, if you lose your wallet, the company will do its best to reissue "a variety of contents from IDs and credit cards to concert tickets."

McAfee is probably best known as an antivirus company founded by its very eccentric eponymous founder, John McAfee. In 2011, Intel bought the company and renamed it Intel Security Group but by 2017, McAfee (now known as McAfee LLC) was back out on its own, having been spun out to TPG Capital (although Intel still owns a minority stake).

We're telling you all this because the company's DNA is very clearly antivirus. A presales call to the company asking about its identity theft program first resulted in complete confusion about how many devices we wanted antivirus installed on, and then, once transferred to the "identity theft department," culminated in our editor attempting to explain to the rep what credit reporting agencies did and why you'd care about them.

That doesn't mean the product itself is bad. Fortunately, just about all of this service is automated and there's never been any question about McAfee's software chops. If its automated systems see odd behavior for one of your tracked accounts, those alerts may be your first and best protection when you need to secure your credit.

The company actually offers four tiers of identity protection service. Its Basic plan is the aforementioned $35 for the first year. 

McAfee Terms of Service

Base price: $35.