The identity theft protection market is getting shaken up, so I re-tested the landscape to answer one question: what’s the best credit monitoring service now that NordProtect, LifeLock, and Surfshark have all made big moves? LifeLock overhauled their plans into Core, Advanced, and Total, and added scam insurance plus higher coverage limits. NordProtect jumped in with full three-bureau monitoring and the fastest dark web scan I’ve seen. Surfshark still owns the budget lane. But here’s why my recommendation didn’t change: faster and cheaper don’t matter if the fundamentals aren’t there. In my testing, Aura still nails the basics better than anyone—three-bureau monitoring from day one (no upgrades), lightning-fast alerts (often under the “3 minutes” claim), and a data broker removal program that’s grown from about 30 sites to 200+. The difference-maker, though, is support: when things go sideways, I want 24/7 US-based phone support that gets me to an expert fast—not a chatbot-first maze or scripted transfers. The market is more competitive, which is great for consumers, but as of today, Aura still wins for most people.