Identity protection and reputation management overlap more than either industry admits. The same exposed data that lets someone open a credit card in your name is the data that puts your address on a people search site, and the tools that clean one often clean the other.
Seven services here cover that overlap. Our main guide sorts everything by price. This page is about which of these actually protect an identity versus which only monitor one, because that gap is where the money gets wasted.
New Life Reputation runs this site and sells none of these.
Monitoring is not protection, and most of this market is monitoring
Worth being blunt, because the marketing blurs it deliberately.
Monitoring tells you something has already happened. A new account appeared, your details showed up in a breach, a credit inquiry was made. Useful, and entirely retrospective.
Reduction shrinks what is available to steal in the first place: fewer broker records, fewer real details in circulation, fewer places holding your phone number.
Prevention stops the transaction. A credit freeze is the only widely available thing in this category that does that, and it is free.
Most products sell monitoring at protection prices. The freeze that actually blocks new accounts costs nothing and takes about fifteen minutes across the three bureaus, and no subscription here substitutes for it.
The seven
| Service | From | Monitors | Reduces exposure | Insurance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aura |
12 a month | Credit, identity, breach | 200 plus brokers | Yes |
 Cloaked |
9.99 a month | Breach | 1,000 plus sites, plus aliases | Yes |
 Privacy Bee |
8 a month | Exposure | Up to 1,121 brokers | No |
 DeleteMe |
129 a year | Quarterly reports | 950 plus sites | No |
 Optery |
3.99 a month | Re-scans | 375 to 635 sites | No |
| Incogni | 7.99 a month | Continuous | 420 plus brokers | No |
 Mozilla Monitor |
Free | Breach | Nothing | No |
The full-stack options
Aura
From 12 dollars a month, and the most complete bundle here: identity theft protection, credit and financial fraud monitoring, antivirus, a VPN, a password manager and removal from 200 plus brokers. Family plans cover up to five adults with unlimited children, plus parental controls and child identity protection. A 14 day trial and 60 day refund on annual plans. Founded 2017, roughly 200 million dollars raised at a reported 2.5 billion valuation.
If you want one subscription covering the whole surface, this is it, and the family coverage is genuinely hard to replicate by assembling parts.
Three things belong in the decision. The data removal component is the weakest part and reviewers say so. Complaints about difficult cancellation and unexpected auto-renewal recur across Trustpilot and the BBB. And Aura disclosed a 2026 data breach caused by a phishing attack on an employee, exposing names, emails and phone numbers for current and former users, which is worth weighing carefully from a company whose product is protecting exactly that. Its founder also previously settled SEC charges, reported around 1.38 million dollars, relating to overstating subscriber numbers at a prior company.
Cloaked
From 9.99 dollars a month, covering removal across 1,000 plus sites plus unlimited masked email addresses and phone numbers, a password manager, a VPN and identity theft insurance. Founded 2020, out of beta October 2023, more than 400,000 users, with a 375 million dollar round in March 2026 per TechCrunch. Trustpilot around 4.1 across roughly 300 reviews.
This is the only service here that reduces future exposure rather than only cleaning up past exposure. Every masked detail you give a retailer is one fewer real detail in the next data sale. Over several years that changes what a thief can assemble more than any amount of monitoring does.
Recurring refund complaints, including customers charged a full annual term after cancelling within days. Masked phone numbers are rejected by some banks, so never use one where it matters financially. Some advertised features including virtual cards are invite only.
Reduction without the bundle
Privacy Bee
From 8 dollars a month billed annually with a free scan, claiming up to 1,121 brokers on higher tiers with analyst-assisted removals. Users regularly report fewer spam calls, which is the observable proxy for reduced exposure. Independent testing found removals short of the advertised count, and cancellation is reported as difficult.
DeleteMe
129 dollars a year, since 2010, 950 plus sites with quarterly reports and human advisors for cases automation cannot handle. Explicitly serves executives concerned about doxxing and post-breach cleanup, which is the identity-adjacent use case. No free trial, seven day refund window.
Optery
From 3.99 dollars a month with a free scan and screenshot proof of every removal, plus SOC 2 Type II certification. The certification matters more here than in general privacy work, because you are handing over the exact personal data an identity thief would want in order to process opt-outs.
Incogni
7.99 dollars a month annually from Surfshark under Nord Security, 420 plus brokers with continuous monitoring and 24/7 live chat. GDPR-compliant handling under an established security parent. No free trial.
Free, and the one everybody should run
Mozilla Monitor
Free breach monitoring from the Firefox nonprofit, checking known breaches for exposed emails, passwords, card numbers and bank account numbers, with ongoing alerts and guided steps to fix each exposure.
Breach exposure is the layer that leads most directly to identity theft, and this covers it for nothing. It removes no data and never will; the paid tier that did was discontinued in December 2025.
What to do, in order
- Freeze your credit at all three bureaus. Free, permanent until you lift it, and the only step here that actually blocks a new account from being opened. Nothing in this table replaces it.
- Run Mozilla Monitor. Free, and tells you which credentials are already circulating.
- Change reused passwords on anything the breach check flags. Also free.
- Then buy reduction, from the middle group, to shrink what is available going forward.
- Add a bundle only if you want credit monitoring and insurance in the same place, and read the cancellation terms before you do.
Steps one to three cost nothing and prevent more than steps four and five combined. Anyone selling you step five without mentioning step one is selling monitoring at protection prices. The guides cover the freeze process, and a free look at your name will tell you whether your exposure is a privacy problem or a reputation one.
Last updated on July 29, 2026