IdentityForce vs Complete ID: Are Budget Options Good?

Lauren Sakiyama
Writer
Brandon King
Editor
Last Updated February 9, 2024

Three months of tests later and I can say IdentityForce wins over Complete ID. But if you want the best value in identity protection, you don’t want either of these services – you want Aura. 

Aura remains my top pick for identity protection, namely because it offers the best monitoring services. With Aura’s threat detection capabilities, you can proactively catch and fix vulnerabilities before a thief exploits them

You can lock in our OFF discount on Aura, they won’t increase your price next year.

Why You Should Get Aura:

60 Day Money Back Guarantee
  • You want to catch identity threats before damage is done, if possible, using Aura’s first-rate monitoring capabilities.
  • You have adult children, a spouse, and other adult family members you want to protect using Aura’s generous family coverage.
  • You want a full suite of identity protection services, including a VPN, password manager, and antivirus software, included with your plan.
  • You want the best value in the industry (especially when you use our discount code, locking in an amazingly low rate for life!).
You should get IdentityForce if:
You should get Complete ID if:
  • You want lightning-fast monitoring, even if it’s not quite as accurate as other services.
  • Having a live chat customer service feature is important to you.
  • You’re okay with a difficult cancellation process.
  • You’re already a Costco executive member, so adding this service to your membership is convenient and affordable.
  • You’re okay with slow threat detection, even if it makes a proactive approach to identity health less feasible.
  • You don’t need additional services to protect young children, like parental controls or cyberbullying monitoring.

Home Security Heroes independently tests and reviews every product. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. Read more here.

Aura also offers the best family protection, allowing you to include more than two adults and increasing your theft insurance coverage by $1 million for each adult you add (up to $5 million total). 

Plus, Aura comes with a broad range of extra services to help you keep good identity hygiene, like a VPN, password manager, and antivirus software. 

Neither IdentityForce nor Complete ID can offer what Aura can, but if you’re still curious about them, read on. I’ll explain the ins and outs of both these services.

IdentityForce Vs. Complete ID: Head-to-Head Comparison

IdentityForce is a smaller service that lacks the corporate backing Complete ID brings to the table. However, in this case, the underdog wins. 

IdentityForce’s monitoring capabilities are much more powerful than Complete ID’s, and it has a few other stand-out features – like its ChildWatch add-on. Plus, if you’re not already a Costco member, IdentityForce’s pricing makes a lot more sense. 

If you are a member, Complete ID is much more tempting. Unfortunately, it fails to detect threats the way it should. And, it’s not as easy to use as it could be.

As I’ve said, I think Aura beats both of these services by far. Still, if you’re interested in how I came to my conclusions, I’ll explain everything below.

Editor’s Ranking Table

aura
identityForce
Costco Complete ID

Overall Score

Monitoring & Alerts

  • Aura found 15 unique dark web alerts, the maximum in our test

  • Found 7 unique dark web alerts

  • Found 27 unique dark web alerts

Threat Resolution

  • White Glove support standard on all plans

  • Excellent customer service

  • Good customer service

Theft Insurance Per Adult

  • $5M Theft Insurance total on the Family plan with 5 adults

  • $1M per adult on all plans

  • $1M total Theft Insurance on all plans

  • $1M total Theft Insurance on all plans

Customer Support

  • Aura wins with their US-based 24/7 support

  • IdentityForce matches Aura with their excellent US-based 24/7 support

  • US-based 24/7 support

Additional Services

  • VPN

  • Antivirus

  • Parental Controls

  • Password Manager

  • VPN

  • Password Manager

  • Credit Simulator

  • ChildWatch Suite

  • VPN

  • Password Manager

  • Safe Browser

  • Antivirus

Cost

  • Aura offers an incredibly low price and highest bang for your buck

  • More affordable than Complete ID

  • Prices are extremely good but only available for Costco member

Renewal Price Increased After 1st Year?

  • No. You lock in the price for life

  • No

  • No

Promo Code



Monitoring and Alerts: Winner – IdentityForce

IdentityForce and Complete ID are neck and neck in terms of monitoring capabilities. Both offer:

  • Dark web surveillance
  • Social Security number monitoring
  • Criminal record monitoring
  • USPS address change alerts
  • Financial account monitoring
  • Sex offender monitoring
  • Payday loan monitoring

The only differences are in the names. Complete ID calls their sex offender monitoring “Neighborhood Watch” and their payday loan monitoring “Alternative loan monitoring.” Notably, their Alternative Loan Monitoring also includes title loans, lines of credit, auto loans, and credit card monitoring. 

IdentityForce doesn’t offer title loan monitoring, which is a nice feature for homeowners, but it does come with investment account monitoring. So, it will monitor your 401(k) and other investment-type accounts. 

Where these services really differ, though, is in how accurate their monitoring services are. When I put them each to the test, I uncovered stark differences that pushed me to name IdentityForce the winner in this category

Dark Web Monitoring

Dark web monitoring is one of the more important features an identity protection service can offer. Keeping track of information that’s available to criminals on the dark web helps you proactively protect your assets. 

Every service I test claims through dark web monitoring capabilities, but few of them actually excel. Aura has been the best at finding threats to my identity, but IdentityForce isn’t bad

IdentityForce found seven unique dark web alerts. And its initial scan was lightning fast – complete in under ten minutes! 

Complete ID was slow but accurate. 

It took over two days to run an initial scan. While that scan found many alerts (27 unique dark web alerts, to be exact), the speed renders alerts less useful. It’s hard to take a proactive approach to identity protection when you’re starting behind the eight ball. 

Alerts Dashboard

How a service presents its alerts plays a large part in determining how useful said alerts are. Ideally, the alerts dashboard will provide at-a-glance information that you can act on quickly and easily. 

Both IdentityForce and Complete ID offer this with their alerts. Each alert is easy to access, provides the details you need, and gives you information on what to do next. 

However, Complete ID comes out slightly ahead here because of its alert categories. Each alert is categorized by severity using an intuitive color coding system. This allows you to quickly determine how imperative it is to take action.

Credit and Financial Monitoring

When it comes to credit monitoring, Complete ID excels. It’s powered by Experian, one of the major three credit bureaus, so this makes sense. Complete ID comes with a full suite of credit monitoring tools, including credit alerts, Experian CreditLock, annual reports, and monthly VantageScore updates. 

However, Complete ID isn’t as good at the financial side of things. They don’t monitor investment accounts, which I consider to be important, given that retirement savings are a major asset for most of us. 

IdentityForce offers investment account monitoring. However, their credit monitoring tools only come with their top-tier plan (UltraSecure + Credit). 

All of that said, many credit monitoring tools are available for free from services like CreditKarma. So, I think offering comprehensive financial monitoring is more important – pushing IdentityForce further ahead. 

Public Records Monitoring

Complete ID boasts its “Neighborhood Watch” service, and perhaps rightfully so. It’s very good at alerting you to sex offenders in the area. 

Complete ID also offers thorough criminal records monitoring. And, with its alternative loan monitoring, you can rest assured that your home and car are safe from title thieves. 

IdentityForce offers criminal records and sex offender monitoring, but it doesn’t have alternative loan monitoring capabilities. If you own a home or car, that’s a problem.

Of course, if you want all of the above in one service, you could look at Aura instead. It offers monitoring for sex offenders, criminal records, your auto title, and your home title, thereby protecting your family, your reputation, and your biggest assets.

Threat Resolution: Winner – IdentityForce

aura
identityforce
completeid

Expertise

  • Aura's knowdlegeable support experts answered my call within 1-2 minutes

  • Excellent, knowledgeable support experience

  • Good customer service experience

US Based Support?

  • Yes

  • Yes

  • Yes

Customer Hours

  • 24/7/365 Support

  • 24/7/365 Support

  • 24/7/365 Support

Concierge Resolution

  • Available on ALL plans

  • Available

  • Available

Lost Wallet Protection

  • Available

  • Available

  • Available

When I’m evaluating an identity protection service’s threat resolution capabilities, I put a lot of emphasis on how good their customer service team is. I also look at how trained their resolution specialists are and whether they offer lost wallet protection or not. 

After calling both services, I came to the conclusion that IdentityForce is a hair better at threat resolution. 

That’s not to say that Complete ID struggles here, though. Truth be told, I thought both services did a great job in this category, even rivaling my favorite protection service, Aura. 

Customer Service

Complete ID offers 24/7/365 customer service. I called them on a Friday at 4 pm EST and reached a helpful, U.S.-based representative within two minutes. He answered all of my questions and ensured I didn’t need anything else. Overall, it was a great experience. 

IdentityForce’s customer service team was knowledgeable too. I called them right after calling Complete ID and managed to reach a representative in under two minutes as well. 

What sets IdentityForce slightly ahead is its live chat feature. Not only does IdentityForce offer 24/7 support by phone, but it also has a 24/7 live chat option. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to call someone with questions, so I really like it when services provide this feature. 

Concierge Restoration Service

Complete ID and IdentityForce both offer full restoration services and given how good their customer service representatives are, I have no doubt they both excel here. 

Should you end up the victim of identity theft, both services provide a designated representative to walk you through the restoration process. This rep will take care of things like paperwork, arrange conference calls with financial institutions, and help you monitor your credit score for signs of fraud. 

IdentityForce calls their restoration service “white-glove,” which might make it seem like they’re doing more, but both companies are offering essentially the same thing. And both seem to be equally good at it. 

Lost Wallet Protection

Complete ID and IdentityForce are also equal in terms of their lost wallet protection offerings. Both will help you cancel your bank cards, replace your ID, and replace your health insurance cards should you lose your wallet.

Theft Insurance: Winner – Tie

Theft Insurance Score

Theft Insurance 

  • Up to $5M Theft Insurance on the family plan  ($1M per adult)

  • $1M Theft Insurance per Adult on Individual & Couple plans

  • Maximum $1M Theft Insurance total on all plans

  • Maximum $1M Theft Insurance total on all plans

$1 million is the industry standard in theft insurance. IdentityForce and CompleteID both offer it. 

IdentityForce is slightly more transparent about the breakdown of its coverage, though. They post the following on their website for anyone to find. 

identityforce insurace coverage

CompleteID provides a vague summary of benefits which says the policy covers:

  • Lost wages or income
  • Attorney and legal fees
  • Expenses incurred for refiling loans, grants, and other lines of credit
  • Costs of childcare and/or elderly care

Though $1 million is the industry standard, it’s not THE BEST available. 

Aura offers $1 million per adult and allows you to add up to five adults to your plan (that’s a total of $5 million). That means you can easily cover the costs of identity loss for your spouse, your adult children, your parents, or your in-laws. 

With CompleteID and IdentityForce, even if there’s more than one adult on your plan, the insurance coverage stays static. Of course, if you’re trying to protect your family, you don’t want IdentityForce or Complete ID anyway…

Family Plans: Winner — Complete ID

While identity protection is important for everyone, it becomes even more crucial when you have a family to take care of. However, most families can’t afford to spend much on identity protection. So, the best family plans need to provide comprehensive coverage at an affordable rate. 

They should also be simple to sign up for and use – if you’re taking care of a family, you probably don’t have a ton of time to spare. 

From that perspective, CompleteID beats IdentityForce. 

They offer flexible family plans, so you can sign up as a single adult with children, as a couple, or as a couple with up to five kids. You can easily sign up for the plans online, and they’re relatively inexpensive (assuming you’re already a Costco member.)

IdentityForce makes things a little harder for families. Though they offer family plans, they don’t make it easy to sign up for them. You have to call and talk to a sales rep. 

If you have small children at home, are shuttling school-aged kids to practices and games, or are taking care of your elderly parents, you might not have time for a lengthy phone call with a sales rep. 

That said, IdentityForce’s ChildWatch add-on is available with all their plans, and you can sign up for it online. ChildWatch isn’t going to protect your spouse, but it will help you monitor your children’s online identities. It even watches their social media accounts for signs of bullying. 

If you want the best in family protection, though, Aura is my top pick. 

Aura allows you to protect up to five adults and unlimited children under 18 on its family plans. So you get coverage for your parents, your college-aged kids, and your spouse if you need it. They also offer couples’ plans if you only need to protect yourself and your spouse. 

For those with younger children, Aura’s suite of services comes with parental controls and cyberbullying monitoring, so you can help keep your kids safe online.

Plus, as I mentioned above, Aura’s identity theft insurance coverage increases by $1 million with each adult you add to your plan. So, it’s hands-down the better protection choice if you’re trying to cover those you love.

Ease of Use: Winner – IdentityForce

IdentityForce doesn’t have the corporate backing that CompleteID has. It’s a smaller service, which is why I’m surprised I like its interface better than Complete IDs. 

Here’s what I mean.

CompleteID isn’t hard to use, but it could be a lot better. The font and graphics are relatively small, leaving a ton of white space. While white space isn’t bad – the right amount of it can make things easier to read, but in this case, it forces you to squint and scroll, making the interface unnecessarily difficult to use. 

IdentityForce’s interface is a little clunky. It’s not the gorgeous, streamlined design that you get with some other services, but it’s better than Complete IDs. Everything is functional, and all of the graphics load quickly.

My only gripe with IdentityForce is in the cancellation process.
If you decide to stop their services, IdentityForce forces you to call in. Unfortunately, their service reps are a little aggressive in trying to keep you using their service. And, once you leave, they keep reaching out, hoping you’ll change your mind. Speaking from experience, this gets annoying over time.

Additional Services: Winner – IdentityForce

Additional Services

  • VPN

  • Antivirus

  • Parental Controls

  • Password Manager

  • VPN

  • Password Manager

  • Credit Simulator

  • ChildWatch Suite

  • VPN

  • Password Manager

  • Safe Browser

  • Antivirus

This was a close one to call. 

Previously, CompleteID didn’t offer any additional services, but they recently released a “Digital Privacy Suite,” which includes a VPN, password manager, and a safe browser. 

The privacy suite is a great add-on, but IdentityForce still wins this category. They offer a VPN, password manager, and credit simulator with their top-tier plan. They also have their ChildWatch suite of services which has won awards from parent groups.

Overall, though, if you’re looking for a full digital health suite attached to your identity protection service, Aura is the best choice. Aura offers a VPN, password manager, parental controls, cyberbullying alerts, and antivirus software. It doesn’t get much more thorough than that.

Cost: Winner – IdentityForce

Promo Code

Individual Plan Cost

  • $9/month 

  • $17.99/mo or $179.90/yr - UltraSecure

  • $23.99/mo or $239.90/yr - UltraSecure+Credit (the only one now available)

  • $8.99/m for Executive Members

  • $13.99/m for Business + Gold Star Members

Couple Plan Cost

  • $17/month 

Covers 2 Adults

  • No Couples plan

  • $15.99/m for Executive Members

  • $25.99/m for Business + Gold Star Members

Family Plan Cost

  • $25/month 

Covers 5 adults & unlimited kids

  • Covers 2 adults & unlimited amount of kids

  • All family plans include Childwatch ID Protection

  • $11.98/m | One Adult + Children (up to 5 children) for Executive Members

  • $17.98/m | One Adult + Children (up to 5 children) for Business + Gold Star Members

---

  • $18.99/m | Two Adults1 + Children (up to 5 children) for Executive Members

  • $29.99/m | Two Adults1 + Children (up to 5 children) for Business + Gold Star Members

Renewal Price Increased After 1st Year?

  • No. You lock in the price for life

  • No

  • No

Promo Code



At first glance, you might think I’m crazy for choosing IdentityForce as the winner in this category. 

When you look at the prices side-by-side, it seems like CompleteID should pull ahead here. After all, $8.99 per month for an individual plan is a fantastic deal! 

But there’s a catch – CompleteID is $8.99 per month with an executive Costco membership. Executive memberships cost $120 per year. When you factor that in, the plan no longer seems as cost-effective. 

Now, if you’re already paying for the membership, it might make sense to go with CompleteID. But, if you’re not, IdentityForce becomes the more affordable option

That said, Aura is even more budget-friendly (especially when you use our discount code), and it offers a lot more – including more comprehensive monitoring, more family insurance coverage, and more additional services.

Conclusion: Winner – IdentityForce

identifyforce

IdentityForce wins the CompleteID vs. IdentityForce battle, but it’s not the best service available. 

IdentityForce offers faster monitoring than CompleteID. It also features a convenient 24/7 live chat function and a better fleet of additional services. 

But if you want the best value in identity protection services, you want Aura. 

Aura offers more comprehensive and accurate monitoring than any other service I’ve tested. It also has top-notch customer service and incredible family coverage. 

So, if you want to protect your reputation, your credit score, and your family from online threats. Aura is the best choice – far better than CompleteID or IdentityForce.

Read More Comparison:

Citations:

1. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/data-breach-response-guide-business

2. https://www.usa.gov/identity-theft