TechRadar Reviews

"I just can't watch it... I don't want them to ruin what's already been" is a direct quote from my 60-year-old mother when I told her that Netflix was set to re-adapt the Western family drama classic, Little House on the Prairie.

The tales of Laura Ingalls Wilder's real-life childhood have always held a distinct sense of importance in my household. As a child, my mum raced through the original book series — and encouraged me to do the same when I was old enough — and voraciously watched all nine seasons of the 1974 TV show when she was 12.

As with any classic story that's being readapted for the umpteenth time without much in the way of explanation as to why, there was always going to be a valid sense of trepidation around bringing the Ingalls family back to life. But as an initial skeptic, my mind has been changed after watching all eight episodes.

Sure, it resembles the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart a little too much for my liking (and has a lot of underlying issues surrounding how it looks, but more on that later). But watching Laura Ingalls (Alice Halsey) navigate moving to a new town reminded me how important it is to be brought back to the core things that matter in life.

We so often get lost in overhyped marketing, complicated lore, and visual effects that the core components of storytelling no longer have merit on their own. There's no big dramatic narrative in Little House on the Prairie, just family, feelings, and a strained sense of love.

TV is stripped as far back as the Ingalls' bare wooden house, and I think 2026 viewers will really benefit from the show's no-frills style of storytelling. That being said, there's a lot left to be desired in the bigger picture.

Little House on the Prairie still serves purpose in 2026 — even if nothing really happens

Interestingly, Little House on the Prairie neither feels like gripping, unforgettable television, nor does it feel like placid, put-on-in-the-background streaming. Your mind can go blissfully numb while watching, but subconsciously, you're being recalibrated.

It's not perfect, but empathy, understanding, and a childlike sense of wonder are bursting from the seams here. Seeing life through Laura's eyes automatically realigns us to what's important in life — respect, understanding and a willingness to grow. Halsey is a knockout in the role, and you want to strive to be a better person just by watching her open heart expand even further.

Frankly, our child actors are running rings around the adult cast in general. Together, they carry the weight and heart of the show and have more chemistry between them than any of the parental figures, including dad Charles (Luke Bracey) and mum Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald).

Youngest Osage member Good Eagle (Wren Zhawenim Gotts) is another standout and a testament to the suitable level of sensitivity when it comes to navigating Native American history. This could have so easily backfired or been grossly overlooked, but instead feels evenly tempered.

You couldn't pay me $1000 to pick Little House on the Prairie episodes out of a Netflix lineup

(Image credit: Netflix)

I'm honestly sick of complaining about this, but the biggest drawback of Little House on the Prairie is undoubtedly its look. This means that episodes look exactly like any other period drama or Western content that Netflix has ever made. But who is surprised?

Once again, this takes me back to my ongoing argument that the streamer uses the same lighting, visual style, and effects to mold its content into one, homogenised, cookie-cutter preset. Why? I still haven't figured that out. But if it's to brand Netflix content into a signature style, the result falls flat.

Netflix likens the new series to pre-existing hits such as Virgin River and Ransom Canyon, and if you took away the bonnets, you'd have a difficult time knowing which show was which. I yearn for a sense of individual creativity when it comes to this aspect of the streamer's creations, and it looks like I won't be stopping anytime soon.

This is also the closest Netflix has come to straying into Hallmark territory in its original content. What I mean by this is that the drama is often so twee that you'd expect someone to randomly burst into song like it's a production of Oklahoma!

It can be grating, but if you look past the form, the content is meaningful. Season 2 has already been renewed, and unexpectedly, I'm already looking forward to it.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7 review

I’m not going to sugar-coat this. I’ve been a big fan of Sony’s soundbars, but its latest generation can feel like a step backward, and that includes the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7.

I genuinely like some of the choices Sony has made: these new speakers are simple and elegant, becoming one with your room. They’ve also got a much smaller footprint, making placement (both in front of a TV and on a wall) much easier.

The included remote has fewer buttons, giving it a friendlier feel than the previous models. And Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping might be the easiest room correction feature ever baked into a soundbar.

(Image credit: Future)

You get an HDMI input for passthrough as well as the HDMI eARC connection to the TV, which is a soundbar feature that’s becoming harder to find; it comes with every cable you need, plus a wallmount kit; and you no longer need to spend $1,000 to get up-firing drivers (an essential ingredient for convincing Dolby Atmos sound). They’re included in the $869 / £699 / AU$1,199 Bravia Theater Bar 7.

And yet despite these benefits, the Bravia Theater Bar 7 (AKA model HT-A7100) nixes some of my favorite features from the previous generation.

There’s no built-in subwoofer, no on-screen setup menus, no alphanumeric front display, no hi-res Bluetooth codecs, no ability to connect wireless headphones, no Chromecast support, no Google Assistant/Amazon Alexa compatibility, and no playback via USB storage or UPnP (for streaming music from a networked server).

(Image credit: Future)

Of these omissions, the one I noticed most is the lack of a built-in subwoofer. While it’s true that too much low-frequency sound can be, at times, unwanted — for instance, if you’re a condo-dweller with thin walls between units — I believe that’s a good problem to have. You can always dial the bass down if the neighbors complain. But not having enough bass to start with? That’s tough to accept, especially at this price.

It’s not that the Bar 7 has no low-end; it does. It’s just that it doesn’t get low or loud enough to provide what I think of as a truly cinematic experience, even with the available bass adjustment set to ‘max’.

The obvious and easy way to overcome this limitation is to buy the Bar 7 with Sony’s Bravia Theater Sub 7 wireless subwoofer, a combo that only costs $230 / £100 more. If you buy the Theater Sub 7 after the fact, it will cost you $329 / £249 / AU$299. Sony sent me a Sub 7 to test, and it does the trick, restoring the weight and punch that the Bar 7 lacks.

Still, if bass isn’t your thing, the Theater Bar 7 delivers crystal-clear mids and highs, and can do so at volume levels that are shockingly loud. Dialogue is crisp and well separated from the rest of the soundtrack. Sony deserves top marks for this — poor dialogue clarity has become something of an epidemic in the last decade, and the Theater Bar 7 really helps.

With dedicated up-firing drivers for height channels and side-firing units designed to bounce rear channel sound to your listening position, the Theater Bar 7 should deliver a compelling, immersive experience, especially when playing Dolby Atmos or DTS:X content.

(Image credit: Future)

I don’t want to be too harsh in my analysis; the Theater Bar 7 definitely creates a soundstage that is taller, wider, and deeper than non-Dolby Atmos speakers, but given its price, I expected more.

I use a number of different test clips when evaluating spatial immersion, such as the Aston Martin chase scene from No Time To Die, the opening of Mad Max: Fury Road, and the first sandworm reveal from Dune.

The Theater Bar 7’s strengths (its clarity and power) created a strong sense of energy and immediacy — both vital elements for enjoying cinematic sound — but these couldn’t overcome the soundbar’s struggles to place key effects like bullet impacts or whispery voices accurately in my space.

Normally, when a soundbar underperforms my expectations, I reach for the settings menus, where you can usually tweak everything from bass and treble to the levels of individual channels.

Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t provide any way to tweak the Bar 7’s tuning. There’s no equalizer, no set of bass/treble adjustments, and no EQ presets. If you find the sound signature too emphatic when it comes to the high frequencies (as I definitely do), there’s not much you can do about it.

(Image credit: Future)

All of this adds up to a soundbar that finds itself in the anti-Goldilocks zone. The less expensive Sony Bravia Theater Bar 6 may not be expandable, but out of the box it can deliver more cinematic punch thanks to the included wireless sub.

By the same token, if you spend just a little more than the price of the Theater Bar 7, you can get the Bravia Theater Bar 8. With its built-in sub, you get all of the sleek, single-speaker appeal of the Bar 7, with genuinely good low-end bass (and lots of expansion options).

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7 review: Price & release date

• Released April 2026 (US), May 2026 (UK), July 2026 (Australia)
• $869.99 / £699 / AU$1,199

As the name suggests, Sony has priced the Bravia Theater Bar 7 to sit between the existing Theater Bar 6 ($699.99) and the Theater Bar 8 ($999.99).

While the Theater Bar 6 comes with its own subwoofer, it can’t be expanded later with optional surround speakers. If you want that, you’ll have to buy the more expensive Bravia Theater System 6, which comes with a sub and surrounds.

Both the Bravia Theater Bar 7 and Theater Bar 8 can be expanded with subs and/or surrounds, however the Theater Bar 8 has a built-in sub, which may provide enough low-end for some people (especially for those in apartments or other small spaces).

(Image credit: Future)Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7 review: Specs

Dimensions

37.5 x 2.6 x 5 inches

Speaker channels

5.0.2

Connections

1x HDMI eARC, 1x HDMI input, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Dolby Atmos / DTS:X

Yes / Yes

Sub included

No

Rear speakers included

No

Should I buy Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Excellent spatial audio format support plus HDMI passthrough. But a severe lack of settings and some hi-res options holds it back.

3.5 / 5

Performance

Top marks for dialogue, but bass isn't cinematic and spatial immersion is lacking.

3 / 5

Design

Low-profile, with clean lines, it blends into the base of any TV.

4 / 5

Setup and usability

Easy, app-based setup, but no on-screen menus, no front display, and no controls on the speaker itself.

3.5 / 5

Value

It needs Sony’s subs and surrounds to reach its potential, making it average value on its own.

3 / 5

(Image credit: Future)Buy it if...

You have thin walls
The Bravia Theater Bar 7’s lack of deep low-end means noise complaints from neighbors should be less of an issue, even if you’re listening at relatively loud levels.

Dialogue clarity is a top consideration
The Theater Bar 7’s center channel is crystal clear. If you still can’t understand what people are saying with this speaker, your speaker may not be the problem.

You want expansion options
With its HDMI input and the ability to add a variety of Sony’s wireless subs and surround speakers, you can easily extend the Theater Bar 7’s capabilities as your needs, budget, and space allow.

Don't buy it if...

You want versatile hi-res streaming music options
With no support for Google Cast, DLNA, or Tidal Connect, there aren’t many ways to get the Theater Bar 7 to deliver top-notch music performance without the use of third-party devices like an Apple TV 4K or Nvidia Shield TV.

You want full cinematic immersion from a single speaker
It’s possible to get fabulous Dolby Atmos from just a soundbar, but with its poor bass performance and underwhelming spatial rendering, the Theater Bar 7 isn’t the way to go.

You like to take control of your sound
Sony has always taken a less-is-more approach to its soundbar settings, but the Theater Bar 7 has almost no adjustments to let you tailor the sound to your liking.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7 review: Also consider

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8
It’s a little more expensive, and it adds exactly zero features on the Theater Bar 7’s list of capabilities, except in one area: bass. But since low-end is so critical to delivering cinematic immersion, that one area matters a lot. Alternatively, you can buy the Theater Bar 7 with a wireless sub, but you lose the appeal of a single-speaker system.
Read our full Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review

Klipsch Flexus Core 200
In the opposite direction, price-wise, is the Klipsch Flexus Core 200. It doesn’t have Wi-Fi (so no AirPlay or Spotify Connect), but I can’t say enough about how fabulous it sounds. Its power and immersion is truly impressive for a single unit, and the low end that I find so absent on the Theater Bar 7 is served up in heaping piles here. If you ever want more, it’s expandable via Klipsch’s optional wireless subwoofers and surrounds, or you can plug in your own wired subwoofer — a great option for anyone who has one of these units kicking around.
Read our full Klipsch Flexus Core 200 review

How I tested Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7

(Image credit: Future)

• Used the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7 as my main audio system for one week
• Tested in my basement media room
• Sources: Apple TV 4K, Nvidia Shield 2019, and streamed music from various apps

After setting up the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 7, I used it as my main audio system for watching movies, TV shows, and music in my basement media room. Over the course of a week, I played a variety of Dolby Atmos test clips from movies such as No Time To Die, Ford v Ferrari, Mad Max: Fury Road, Dune, and Unbroken. I took careful note of details like dialogue clarity, surround sound, and height channel immersion.

I streamed most content from an Apple TV 4K connected via an LG OLED TV, which fed the Theater Bar 7 from its ARC output. However, I also connected an Nvidia Shield TV to the soundbar’s HDMI input to test Dolby Atmos in Dolby TrueHD, and see what, if any video passthrough issues came up.

I evaluated the effect of Sony’s limited sound modes as well as its 360 Spatial Sound Mapping room correction feature.

For music, I used a variety of apps, including Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and Amazon Music, listening to a wide range of genres and formats, like Dolby Atmos Music. Some were played from apps on the Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Shield, while others were streamed wirelessly using AirPlay and Bluetooth.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026

After almost 30 hours sailing the high seas in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, one of the series’ best games has its hooks in me all over again, and I can’t wait to play another 30 (or more) and complete every single activity a second time.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 (on PS5 Pro)
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: July 9, 2026

Embarking on a journey to remake one of the series’ finest entries and to ensure the story of one of the best protagonists stays true to its original, Ubisoft has largely succeeded with Resynced. The experience feels fresh and modern, but also has me feeling the same pirate-y feels that only the original ever could.

It’s not without flaws, though. Some particular bits of Black Flag remain that inject some unwanted repetition; some of the cut content is a little disappointing, and there are some rogue bits of oddness in the new additions, as well as overall balances of features.

But those are not huge complaints, and only apparent with close comparison to the original. Zoom out just a tiny bit, and it’s easy to appreciate what Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is: a fantastically fun version of a brilliant game.

One of the best to ever do it

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Revisiting the story of Edward Kenway, chancer and dreamer turned privateer and then assassin — perhaps the only protagonist who can hold a candle to series legend Ezio Auditore da Firenze — Resynced has largely kept the core narrative, characters, and experience as it was with the original. Which is the right approach, as all were excellent.

Bouncing from Caribbean island to Caribbean island with Kenway and his crew on the Jackdaw is the backdrop for a time-enduring Assassin’s Creed story that still holds up today and makes for a great swashbuckling adventure. There’s a certain satisfying way that the game’s narrative weaves living in the golden age of piracy and core characters within that with its own lore of the enduring Assassin’s vs Templar battle.

Exploring mysterious, overgrown islands searching for hidden treasures or hunting down stashes from messages in a bottle, traversing the high seas in the Jackdaw ship, and taking on huge ships from the Spanish and British navies, and following Kenway’s desire for fortune and experiencing him tracking down age-old secrets is all still fantastically fun and ensures the core experience remains exquisite.

The most tangible and clearest way that this core experience has been elevated is naturally the visuals. I said that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the best-looking game in the series when I reviewed it last year, but now there's a new kid on the block. Resynced is simply wondrous, verdant, gorgeous, and incredibly detailed in its presentation of the Caribbean, and my eyes can’t get enough of it.

Being a new version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, it’s still an absolutely fantastic video game and is the same brilliant original under the surface. But “not all treasure is silver and gold, mate”: it’s not just the impressive visual upgrade which makes the remake a success, as there have been loads of improvements, and a few notable changes or omissions which really make up the meat and potatoes of the differences Resynced offers over its original.

A modern assassin

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Each change itself isn’t huge, but when you factor them all in, there’s a huge collection of improvements that paint a bigger, better picture are aesthetic or functional changes, whereas others are much-needed modernizations that bring the game forward a decade and a half.

At their most basic, the changes to menus, controls, and the inventory screen are almost all welcome alterations and bring the game up to speed with the likes of Mirage and Shadows in the modern Assassin’s Creed pantheon. Everything is slick and smooth. The use of the newer Anvil engine and what that allows, such as dynamic weather, a day-night cycle, and so on, is also put to great effect.

In-game minigames like Kenway’s fleet have been overhauled too, and even with the removal of that fun and cartoon-y one in the original, these changes are largely slick and well done. There are also dedicated locations to interact with such things in Kenway’s manor and base of operations on Great Inagua, which has been expanded to include dedicated spots for upgrading the manor or interacting with the fleet.

The island’s upgrades — your Harbourmaster, general store, etc — all have more depth and levels of upgrade to invest in. It’s not as comprehensive as the base-building systems in Shadows, but it’s still very satisfying and drives you to plunder more to unlock the best for your island and ship.

Best Bit

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Taking on a powerful enemy ship with the Jackdaw and planning your attacks while simultaneously navigating the open waters is an absolute thrill — and the sense of satisfaction and relief in pulling off a difficult encounter with a fraction of health left is mighty.

Combat and parkour are both areas with substantial changes as well. Parkour doesn’t look or appear brand new — and once again not as transformative as the change that came after Black Flag with Unity, sadly — but it does genuinely feel smoother and more fluid than before; where there once would have been brief pauses or stutters mid-run, there now aren't.

Combat has definitely taken inspiration from Mirage and largely works as a new style for Kenway. It’s a shame to see some omissions, as Kenway sticks only to cutlass weapons (which sometimes feel a bit messy and button-mashy) but the heavy and light attacks and parries combine to make something more engaging than the parry and finish of the original games. Even so, after a while, it can drag a bit and get repetitive — especially when you’re having to board and take ship after ship after ship to farm upgrade material — and lacks the dynamism of the original at times.

Opening up more of the world has been a success in Resynced, at least. The ability to dive anywhere and swim everywhere in the ocean opens up more areas for discovery and exploration, and the simple addition of a crouch button means that you can explore enemy compounds and warehouse locations rather than just murder your way through them.

A balancing act

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

More substantial changes to content are more mixed, though, and in the face of so many great updates, upgrades, and enhancements, Resynced has to walk a tightrope of new additions and working with — or avoiding — the original source material.

I really enjoy the new endings that some of the best characters in the game get through new side quests, for example — and there are even new lines, scenes, and actions back at Kenway’s headquarters after those too, which is a nice touch.

The new officer recruitment missions are also good fun; as well as offering a tangible benefit for new ship features or weapons, these are some quite good contained missions. However, the pacing sometimes feels a little odd as you successfully recruit the new officer, midway through their story, and even when they seem unconvinced about joining you.

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The most noticeable change to content, however, has been unsuccessful, in my view: entirely removing the modern-day sections is a shame and a missed opportunity. I find myself longing for these bits where you are deep-diving into Desmond’s DNA and scoping out the modern-day Templar offices; the change of pace worked with the original game and played its own robust part in the lore and narrative of the series. While removing tube content was largely welcomed by many and may have seemed like a good idea, in the context of playing the game, it feels a bit of a shame. With Resynced being positioned by Ubisoft as a remake that semi-reinterprets but also modernises and improves parts of the original, it’s a wasted opportunity not to give the modern-day segments the same treatment as other areas of the game and to instead jettison it entirely.

This remake is a blast, and I cannot wait to seek out every corner of the Caribbean and solve every mystery all over again

Some 2013-isms remain in this 2026 game, too. Notably, the AI and enemies are as dumb as ever. Being able to whistle and attract a whole heap of guards to a single stalking location and murder all of them in one big bloody pile is still too easy. And while the tailing missions have been changed to be less punishing, you can now just murder your target, loot the info, and scarper just like any other objective in the game.

Despite the drawbacks, though, as a long-time Assassin’s Creed fan, this remake is a blast, and I cannot wait to seek out every corner of the Caribbean and solve every mystery all over again. Those of us who yearn for more from the stories of the Assassins in every game will be extremely happy, I’d wager, with Resynced’s re-look at one of the best games in the series, with the extra story beats for some of the best characters being such examples.

Despite a few creases here and there that raise the eyebrow, this is a solid remake and a wonderful game, and could offer an interesting insight into Ubisoft’s future approach to its older games, which is very exciting.

Should you play Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced?Play it if...

You want an enhanced and modern version of a classic AC game
Resynced is a fantastic new experience for a classic and top-tier entry in the series and will provide an engaging and satisfying modern way to play the game for new and returning fans.

You’re looking for a fantastic pirate action-adventure game
Complete with the same excellent naval combat from the original, Edward Kenway’s assassin-pirate all-action adventure is still swashbucklingly excellent in Resynced — remake or not — so it's a brilliant game in its own right in 2026.

You’ve enjoyed the modern feel of the most recent AC games
If you’ve liked the overhauls to combat and traversal in particular that the more modern games have offered in the Assassin’s Creed series, then you’ll likely find a lot to love in both ways in Resynced.

Don't play it if...

You really disliked the repetition in earlier games in the series
Sadly, you’ll still be seeing a lot of the same activities and engaging in repeated encounters in Resynced despite all the modernizations and improvements. If these are a big turn-off for you (such as the same fights when boarding enemy ships), then Resynced won’t win you over.

You know you’ll miss the modern-day content
While some hated it, a lot of people loved and were invested in the modern-day sections in Black Flag’s era of Assassin’s Creed games, and to have it totally and utterly removed may well disappoint many fans — especially in the face of so many other improvements in the game.

Accessibility features

Ubisoft has done another great job of offering a whole host of accessibility options in its latest flagship game. You can easily alter difficulty settings with a number of sliders affecting different factors such as stealth, naval combat, and activities, and a number of playstyle assists are also present, such as aim assist, parkour assists, camera settings, and even unlimited oxygen to make swimming in the game easier.

The dedicated accessibility menu is broken down into five categories of accessibility presets: Motor (affecting number of actions or precision and timing), Motion & Camera (to reduce motion and camera effects like screen shake), Colors (text colors and so on, but also setting for Red-Green color blindness and Blue-Yellow color blindness), Vision (for changes to the HUD, and subtitles etc), and Hearing (volume, speaker names, etc). All offer substantial options, and accessibility needs are very well served indeed.

How I reviewed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

I played nearly 30 hours (and counting) of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced on a PS5 Pro teamed with an Acer X32QFS gaming monitor and SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni headset for this review. I used a standard DualSense Wireless controller, and I also spent many hours playing the game on my PlayStation Portal.

I tested the game thoroughly in all its graphics modes and found that the balanced mode (offering high graphical fidelity and a targeted 40 frames per second) was by far the most enjoyable and my personal preference.

Having followed the Assassin’s Creed series for years and years, and playing a whole heap of them straight for a year a short while ago, I am very familiar with the games and what makes a good one, a great one, and a less good one, so I am well placed to cast an opinion over Resynced.

First reviewed July 2026

ExpressVPN, one of the best VPNs around today, is a highly trusted brand in the online privacy and security space.

Naturally, then, it’s worth digging into its dedicated password management solution to see whether it works only as an extra integrated feature bundled with the VPN subscription or if it can hold its own against the best password managers around – especially now that ExpressKeys is available as a dedicated app for iOS and Android devices, along with browser extensions.

It offers unlimited password storage with security and encryption protocols in line with modern market standards. You can autofill credentials, generate strong passwords, and even generate 2FA codes, all from within its dedicated app.

ExpressKeys: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Right off the bat, you should note that ExpressKeys is not available as a standalone product – there’s a standalone app, yes. But you will have to get a full bundle of security products from ExpressVPN, which includes ExpressKeys. The bundle starts at $4.49 per month (Advanced plan) for a 24-month commitment, and you get four additional months free.

Along with access to all ExpressKeys features, you also get ExpressVPN, with 12 simultaneous connections and thousands of servers in 105 countries. There's also ExpressMailGuard with six email domains and five dedicated subdomains, as well as three days of unlimited daily data with holiday.com eSIM access.

Agreed, the price may seem a bit steep when compared with alternatives like Keeper, which costs $3.58/month, or Bitwarden at $1.65/month. However, those prices only include a password manager. ExpressVPN, on the other hand, offers a full suite of security products, including a VPN, password manager, and a secure email provider.

You can also upgrade to its Pro plan, starting at $7.49 per month for 28 months, with expanded ExpressMail Guard features and additional ExpressAI access with 500 credits per day.

ExpressKeys: Features

ExpressKeys packs all the basics and, simply put, gets the job done for most users. You can store an unlimited number of passwords, credit cards, and secure notes in your vault, with the option to import passwords from other password managers you may have used previously.

There’s also a handy temporary one-time password generator (TOTP), which removes the need for multiple authenticator apps. You can securely generate temporary codes for services such as social media logins or banking applications.

Once you have added or imported your passwords, you’ll also find ExpressKeys’ password health feature quite useful. It can quickly assess your vault to identify weak, reused, or exposed passwords, then alert you to update them before they become a security risk.

ExpressKeys also follows a zero-knowledge architecture, meaning your data is encrypted on your device before being stored on the provider’s servers. As a result, not even ExpressKeys can read or decrypt your information, which can only be accessed using your master password.

However, ExpressKeys still does not support password sharing, which may be a deal breaker for users who regularly need to share credentials securely. Similarly, there is no passkey support yet.

ExpressKeys: Interface and in use

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Up until recently, ExpressKeys functionalities were bundled with the ExpressVPN app on mobile devices. However, a dedicated ExpressKeys app is now available for Android and iOS, making the initial setup process much easier than before.

Once you download the application, you need to log in with your email account and enter the six-digit verification code sent to your email.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Next, you have to set a primary password. It should be strong yet something you can remember easily. That’s because if you lose the master password, you could lose access to all the passwords stored in your ExpressKeys Vault. Note that you will also receive a recovery code, which you should store securely offline.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Once the initial setup is complete, you can start adding passwords by clicking the plus icon in the top-right corner and creating new logins. If you want to use ExpressKeys on desktop, you’ll need to rely on the official browser extensions available for Edge, Chrome, and Safari. Unfortunately, there is still no Firefox extension.

The setup process for the browser extensions is fairly similar. After installing the extension, click on it to open ExpressKeys in a new tab.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Click “Set up ExpressKeys,” choose a primary password, and save your recovery code. After that, you will be required to verify your account using the six-digit code sent to your email.

I also found it quite easy to add passwords within the ExpressKeys app. All you have to do is click the plus icon in the bottom-left corner and enter your login details. If you need a new password, you can select the “Need a new password” option, and ExpressKeys will automatically generate a strong one for you.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Once your passwords are saved in the vault, you can use ExpressKeys’ autofill feature to automatically populate usernames and passwords on supported websites. A small ExpressKeys icon appears on login pages – simply click it and choose the account you want to use.

(Image credit: ExpressVPN)

Overall, I found ExpressKeys easy to set up and use. The interface closely resembles the ExpressVPN app, with minimal lag or delays. Most features are easily accessible from a single menu across both the mobile app and browser extensions, making it a beginner-friendly option.

ExpressKeys: Support

ExpressVPN offers a vast library of how-to and help articles, with detailed step-by-step guides for tasks like setting up your account, saving passwords, or importing them from other password managers. I found this especially useful, as it can quickly resolve common queries without the need to contact a support representative.

However, if you run into an issue not covered by these articles, you can contact customer support through the 24/7 live chat feature. Although the platform lacks direct email or phone support, the knowledge base and live chat should be sufficient for most users.

ExpressKeys: The competition

Since ExpressKeys isn't a standalone password manager, it lacks some of the advanced features you'll find in high-end password managers like Dashlane or Bitwarden.

For instance, Dashlane allows users to create passkeys on websites that support the technology. Passkeys work by creating two cryptographic keys for each account: a private key stored in your password manager and a public key stored on the website. Whenever you log in, the password manager authenticates your account using these keys instead of traditional usernames and passwords. ExpressKeys currently lacks this feature.

That said, Dashlane is on the more expensive side, with plans starting at $4 per month. In comparison, ExpressVPN gives you a password manager, VPN, and secure email service for just $4.49/month (2-year plan), which makes it a compelling overall package.

ExpressKeys also lacks shared vaults, a fairly standard feature offered by many competitors. For example, Bitwarden provides shared vaults for teams, allowing multiple users to securely store, manage, and share credentials collaboratively. It is also highly affordable, with plans starting at just $1.65 per month.

ExpressKeys: Final verdict

ExpressKeys is a solid basic password manager aimed at users looking for an all-in-one security bundle. It includes essential features like password generation, autofill, unlimited vault storage, zero-knowledge architecture, and 256-bit AES encryption to keep your credentials secure. However, these are features you can expect from most modern password managers today.

Where ExpressKeys falls short is in more advanced functionality, particularly secure password sharing and passkey support. Still, many individual users may never feel the absence of these features in day-to-day use.

To put it simply, if you’re looking for both a VPN and a password manager, ExpressKeys is easily out as one of the better bundled offerings available. But if you already use a VPN and simply want a feature-rich standalone password manager, alternatives like Dashlane, Bitwarden, or Keeper Security may be a better fit.

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Coveron may seem like a new identity theft protection platform. However, that's not the case. NordProtect rebranded itself as Coveron in May 2026 to build a brand identity distinct from its other products.

Nord Security, the company behind one of the best VPNs, NordVPN, first introduced NordProtect in late 2023. At the time, it was only offered as part of NordVPN's Prime plan in the U.S. In early 2025, however, the company expanded its availability, and NordProtect became available as a standalone product. It has now been rebranded as Coveron.

In this article, we'll go into the details of the newly rebranded Coveron identity theft protection service, covering its plans and pricing, key features, and interface while comparing it with other seasoned providers in the market.

Coveron: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Coveron)

Coveron offers monthly, yearly, and two-year plans, allowing users to stay flexible with their subscriptions. However, we'll be talking about the pricing of the one-year plans, as we have done in all our identity theft protection reviews.

Coveron has one of the cheapest entry-level plans, with its Starter plan costing $0.99 per month ($23.76 for the first 24 months). With this plan, you get $10k in identity theft insurance and dark web monitoring, where Coveron scans illegal online marketplaces to look for any of your personal data that may have been breached.

However, Coveron's best value-for-money offering is its Silver plan, costing $4.99 per month ($119.76 for the first 24 months). Along with dark web monitoring, you also get credit monitoring from one bureau and monthly credit scores. There's also credit freeze assistance, where Coveron experts guide you on how to freeze your credit with the bureau. The best part about this plan is its extensive insurance coverage, including up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, $50k in cyber extortion insurance, and $10k in online fraud insurance.

If you're looking for a bundled plan, your best bet is Coveron's Gold plan, which costs $7.49 per month ($179.76 for the first 24 months). Besides everything included in the Silver plan, you also get an additional credit lock feature that allows you to lock your TransUnion credit to prevent unauthorized access, along with $10k worth of cyberattack insurance. Additonally, you get access to a high-speed, secure VPN with 7,400+ servers across 118+ countries, along with Nord's Threat Protection Pro, which can block dangerous websites, detect phishing scams, scan your downloads for malware, and block ads and trackers.

Lastly, there's the Platinum plan, costing $9.99 per month ($239.76 for the first 24 months), which offers credit monitoring from all three bureaus. This is also the first plan where you get detailed credit reports, along with short-term loan monitoring and financial account monitoring. Additional features include malware breach alerts and criminal record monitoring.

Coveron: Key features and offerings

Coveron offers a big bag of identity and credit monitoring features. For starters, there’s dark web monitoring which continuously  scans illegal online  marketplaces as well as forums and  underground communities to detect  any leaked personal  data, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and  Social Security numbers. 

You would receive immediate notifications when your information is compromised, allowing you to react promptly and reduce potential security threats. Then there’s credit monitoring that detects financial identity threats, including unauthorized account inquiries and new accounts opened using your personal information.

(Image credit: Coveron)

One of the standout features of Coveron is that it allows you to lock your TransUnion credit directly from its dashboard with the toggle of a button. You don't need to visit the TransUnion website separately to request a credit lock. Coveron's strategic partnership with TransUnion facilitates seamless credit locking.

Other features included in the highest-tier plans are short-term loan monitoring, which tracks any payday loans opened in your name, and financial account monitoring, which alerts you to new account applications or credit inquiries made using your identity. You also get the Incogni feature on the Platinum plan, which scans top data broker sites and submits personal data removal requests on your behalf.

(Image credit: NordVPN)

Besides this, Coveron offers the standard $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage. This coverage extends to eligible expenses, including legal fees, lost wages due to identity theft, and mental health counseling costs. The identity restoration process is supported by dedicated case managers who provide personalized assistance throughout your recovery journey. The service guides you in freezing your credit and helps you navigate the complex task of restoring your credit score.

The identity protection insurance cover from Coveron also includes a couple of add-ons. The first is cyber extortion protection, which covers up to $50k for cyber extortion incidents such as ransomware attacks. The second is online fraud insurance of up to $10k, which reimburses you if you end up losing money due to incidents like phishing, stolen funds, or other forms of online fraud.

Coveron: Interface and in use

Coveron's features are currently accessible through its web-based dashboard, which means you get a similar browsing and usage experience across platforms including Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.

Once you log in to your dashboard, you'll see the features laid out in a menu on the left-hand side, divided into five headings: Monitored Assets, Alerts and Notifications, Dark Web Monitoring, ID Protection Benefits, and Credit Monitoring Services.

(Image credit: NordVPN)

Upon clicking each of these tabs, you are taken to a dedicated dashboard showing information related to those specific sections. For instance, when you click on Alerts and Notifications, you'll see all current instances of security breaches or suggestions that Coveron considers important. The alerts are divided into two main categories: security alerts and warnings.

Similarly, the Monitored Assets tab shows you the information being monitored across the dark web. Overall, Coveron's layout is pretty simple and easy to use without much of a learning curve. You can also get assistance in English by phone by dialing +1 (833) 439-5214 between 10 AM and 6 PM EDT.

Coveron: Support

Coveron offers comprehensive customer support primarily through its robust online Help Center, which features extensive FAQs, tutorials, and troubleshooting guides covering various topics, including account management, billing, connectivity, and app usage. For more personalized assistance, customers can readily access 24/7 live chat support, which is recommended for urgent issues due to its typically quick response times.

You can also get assistance in English on phone by dialing +1 (833) 439-5214 between 10AM to 6PM EDT. Alternatively, for more complex inquiries or when immediate assistance isn't critical, customers can opt for email support, with responses usually provided within a few hours. Overall, Coveron's combination of self-help resources and direct messaging options aims to provide thorough and accessible support for its diverse customer base.

Coveron: The competition

At first glance, Coveron may seem pretty bare-bones when it comes to identity protection features. It certainly lacks some useful functions, such as social media monitoring, which is a standard offering with many other providers. Besides this, you only get up to $1 million in insurance coverage, whereas providers like IDShield offer up to $3 million and Aura offers up to $5 million.

Similarly, the three-bureau credit scores on the highest Platinum plan are updated only once a year, which defeats the purpose of regular financial monitoring. Almost all other providers, such as McAfee+, update scores at least monthly (and even daily on some plans) so that you can keep a constant check on your credit standing.

However, one thing to keep in mind while comparing various identity protection platforms is that Coveron comes at a pretty affordable price. Even its highest-tier plan costs only $9.99 per month, which is often the starting price of other platforms. For instance, Aura's individual plan starts at $12 per month, whereas IDShield's individual plans start at around $14.95 per month. Sure, you might get additional features with other providers, but they often cost more than Coveron.

Coveron: Final verdict

If you’re on a budget and looking for a reliable identity theft protection solution, then Coveron from Nord Security is a pretty good choice. Even its highest-tier plan is more affordable than the starting plans of some other platforms. Not only do you get comprehensive dark web monitoring, but you also benefit from three-bureau credit monitoring and the ability to lock your TransUnion credit directly from the Coveron dashboard.

Of course, there's also award-winning VPN protection and comprehensive online protection through Nord's Threat Protection Pro. However, if you're looking for higher insurance coverage or advanced features like social media monitoring, more frequent credit monitoring, credit score simulators, home and auto title monitoring, or medical ID tracking, you'll need to consider alternatives such as IDShield, Aura, or McAfee+.

Why is identity theft protection important?

For many, much of our day-to-day life is now handled online, including financial management, shopping, family connections, work collaboration, and more. While digital technology offers numerous advantages, it also poses multiple security risks that threaten users both financially and personally.

Today's cybercriminals are constantly refining their tactics, deploying increasingly sophisticated attacks, including phishing scams, data breaches, and ransomware threats. These menacing strategies aim not only at financial theft but also often target our most sensitive data, leading to a cascade of complications that can significantly disrupt our lives.

This is where a dedicated identity theft protection service, like Coveron, becomes invaluable. Acting as a real-time shield against potential threats, it provides proactive monitoring that continually watches over your personal information around the clock. Picture receiving rapid alerts at the first hint of suspicious activity; this timely response can make all the difference in mitigating damage before it spirals out of control.

But it doesn't end there. Comprehensive recovery assistance provided by these services ensures that if the worst does happen, you're not navigating the aftermath alone. Specialists work with you to recover compromised accounts, restore your credit, and rebuild your digital identity, guiding you through each step with expertise and support.

The FICO score is a type of credit score developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). This is the score most lenders look at when evaluating your credit file. Composed of various components such as payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, credit mix, and new credit, the FICO score can range between 300 and 850. The higher the score, the better.

While there are various platforms and credit monitoring institutions you can use to keep an eye on your credit score, there's arguably very few better than using the platform developed by FICO itself, MyFICO. MyFICO is a credit and identity monitoring solution that gives you a bird's-eye view of all your important credit accounts, along with identity theft alerts.

In this article, we'll dive into MyFICO's features, pricing, and in-use experience in detail so that you can make an informed decision about whether it’s worth your attention and money.

MyFico: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: MyFICO)

MyFICO offers a range of plans to help consumers monitor their credit and identity, with pricing structured across different tiers. The free plan provides basic coverage, including a FICO Score 8 based on Equifax data, monthly Equifax credit reports, and 24/7 credit monitoring.

For more comprehensive coverage, MyFICO has three paid subscription tiers that automatically renew each month:

Advanced Plan: Priced at $29.95 per month, this plan offers three-bureau coverage (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) with credit reports and FICO Score updates every three months. It includes comprehensive credit monitoring, FICO Score monitoring with alerts, and identity monitoring. Additionally, it provides $1 million in identity theft insurance and 24/7 identity restoration. Features like the FICO Score Simulator and "How Lenders View You" analysis are also included.

Premier Plan: This top-tier plan costs $39.95 per month and offers a few additional benefits over the Advanced plan. Firstly, your credit scores and reports are updated every month instead of every three months. Secondly, you get an additional simulator for your FICO mortgage score. This lets you see how different financial actions can impact your FICO Scores 2 and 4, which are used by mortgage lenders. Besides this, all other benefits remain the same as the Advanced plan.

MyFico: Features

MyFICO offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to empower you with knowledge and protection over your credit and identity. With MyFICO, you receive FICO Scores and credit reports from all three major credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. This is essential because 90% of top lenders rely on FICO Scores. By reviewing your reports from all three bureaus, you can identify discrepancies and errors that may be negatively impacting your scores.

Additionally, MyFICO provides credit monitoring and alerts, continuously tracking significant changes such as new accounts or inquiries. This allows you to quickly detect potential identity theft or fraudulent activity and take immediate action if necessary. You will also benefit from FICO Score monitoring and a history graph, which visually displays your score's progression over time, helping you understand how your financial decisions impact it.

(Image credit: MyFICO)

One particularly helpful tool is the FICO Score Simulator, which enables you to explore "what if" scenarios, such as how paying down debt or applying for a new loan could affect your score. This feature empowers you to make informed financial choices before taking action.

(Image credit: MyFICO)

Beyond credit monitoring, MyFICO offers identity monitoring by scanning the dark web and public records for your personal information. If your information is compromised, you will receive alerts. In the unfortunate event of identity theft, you are protected by identity restoration services and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. This coverage includes 24/7 access to specialists who can assist you in recovery and provide financial protection for related expenses.

Finally, MyFICO provides valuable credit education and customer support to help you understand the complexities of credit and offer assistance whenever needed. Together, these features give you a complete picture of your financial health, proactive protection, and the tools to confidently manage your credit and identity.

MyFico: Interface

MyFico truly stands out in the realm of identity theft prevention software, especially when compared to many other programs that often resemble outdated tax software from a decade ago.

Once you log into your main MyFICO dashboard, you'll see three gauge charts showing your credit scores from all three credit bureaus. On the side panel, you'll find various options to drill down into your scores, such as General Credit, Credit Cards, Mortgages, and Other Loans, which show how each of these factors is impacting your current credit scores.

(Image credit: MyFICO)

On the top bar, you'll find four options: Scores, Alerts, Reports, and Simulator. The mobile app is also pretty simple to use, with the same gauge chart at the top, followed by the various loan types and insights below.

The app boasts an intuitive layout, allowing users to easily navigate and access key features. Checking your credit score is a swift and straightforward process, while delving into potential credit issues or assessing identity theft notifications is just as seamless.

MyFico: Support

Users who are facing problems can get assistance from the MyFico support team. A direct toll-free number is provided, along with what appears to be an email address but, upon selecting it, directs the user to a support portal. The business is open Monday through Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM and on Saturday from 7 AM to 4 PM PST. However, we didn’t find any live chat option.

Additionally, MyFICO offers a knowledge hub where you can search for frequently asked questions on topics such as payments and billing, FICO scores, credit reports, and more. Overall, the support options are decent, given the platform's relative ease of use. You're unlikely to encounter any unusual technical hurdles while using it.

MyFico: The competition

While MyFICO is the official consumer division of FICO and offers direct access to the widely used FICO Scores, several strong competitors provide comprehensive credit monitoring services, often with different focuses.

One of the most prominent competitors is Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus. Experian offers its own free credit monitoring service, providing access to your Experian credit report and FICO® Score. They also have a unique feature called Experian Boost, which allows users to potentially increase their FICO Score by including on-time payments for utilities, phone bills, and streaming services. While MyFICO also offers FICO scores, Experian's direct connection to one of the bureaus and its Boost feature offer a distinct advantage for some consumers.

However, both MyFICO and Experian are primarily credit monitoring tools rather than identity theft protection platforms. Sure, MyFICO does offer some identity theft features, but they are more ancillary in nature. Other platforms like IDShield and IdentityForce are more focused on identity theft protection.

For instance, both platforms offer comprehensive real-time identity breach alerts coupled with deep dark web and social media scans. There's also a smart SSN tracker that sends you instant alerts if any suspicious names or addresses are associated with your Social Security number. Lastly, some platforms like Norton LifeLock can also scan various data broker websites for your information and submit removal requests on your behalf.

MyFico: Final verdict

If you’re someone with a lot of investments, financial accounts, or lines of credit and want to monitor your finances closely at all times, then MyFICO is one of the best choices for you. You get detailed reports and scores from all three credit bureaus, along with instant alerts for any changes or new accounts. You can view your FICO scores and score history graph, along with a FICO score simulator that helps you plan your future finances.

However, MyFICO is a bit on the expensive side, with plans starting at $29.95 per month. It also isn't a dedicated identity theft protection platform and offers only limited features in that regard. If you're looking for a full suite of identity protection features, such as deep dark web scanning, SSN tracking, address and phone monitoring, as well as identity restoration services, you'll have to consider other platforms such as Norton LifeLock, Aura, or Bitdefender.

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Bitdefender is a popular name in the online security market, primarily known for its robust antivirus solution. However, it also offers an all-around digital identity protection service called Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection.

If you’re an individual (especially a beginner) looking for an easy-to-use, affordable platform, Bitdefender could be the one for you. It helps you actively monitor your online identity, check for known breaches, and manage your financial accounts.

In this article, we will drill down into the various features of Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection, compare it with other products on the market, and examine its user experience. Read on to find out whether Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection is for you.

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection and Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection are two separate products. This review will examine Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection. For our review of Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, please click here.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection: Plans and pricing

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection offers two plans: Standard and Premium. The Standard plan costs $69.99 for a yearly subscription, which boils down to $5.83 per month, making it one of the cheapest identity theft protection solutions on the market. This is also cheaper than Norton LifeLock's entry-level plan, which costs $10.46 per month.

With this plan, you get basic features like breach monitoring, credit reports and score, lost wallet protection, and identity theft insurance up to $1 million, along with one-bureau credit reports and monitoring.

The Premium plan costs $99.99 ($8.33/month). In addition to everything in the Standard plan, you get sex offender registry monitoring, bank, credit card, and investment account monitoring, and an additional $50,000 in ransomware protection and social engineering scams. Along with this, the plan also offers three-bureau credit record monitoring.

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection: Features

Bitdefender offers a bundled collection of features, ideal for anyone looking for all-around identity monitoring and protection. For starters, there’s a smart SSN tracker, which alerts you if an unfamiliar name or address is associated with your Social Security number.

Then there’s dark web monitoring, which scours thousands of websites, black market chat rooms, and other sources to alert you to any sale of your personal information. You can also access your credit reports and scores from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

There’s also a pretty handy credit score simulator, which helps you plan your finances and see how your future financial decisions may impact your credit score. You are also promptly notified if your personal details are used to apply for new credit, utility payments, or loans.

Much like other platforms, even if you’re unlucky and end up getting your identity compromised, Bitdefender offers restoration services from certified protection experts around the clock. These experts help you with paperwork and legal procedures while actively assisting you through the challenging process of identity restoration.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

With Bitdefender, you also get up to $2 million in identity theft insurance and an additional $25,000 for ransomware resolution and reimbursement in case you end up losing money due to ransomware attacks during your Bitdefender subscription.

Similarly, there’s a $25,000 social engineering resolution and reimbursement provision, which comes in handy if you fall prey to social engineering scams like phishing and end up incurring financial losses.

The Bitdefender website also lists credit freeze as one of its features. However, I found this to be a bit misleading, since Bitdefender only offers expert assistance with credit freezes. To actually place a credit freeze, you will have to contact the various agencies yourself. In comparison, platforms like Norton LifeLock allow you to instantly freeze your credit from the dashboard itself with a simple toggle button.

Bitdefender also offers a separate Digital Identity Protection product that gives you a 360-degree view of all your personal data. Much like its identity theft protection platform, digital identity protection also scans the public web and dark web for your personal data and sends you instant alerts if it finds any.

Besides this, there are simple one-click actions that help you close gaps in your digital footprint. You also get a graphic digital identity protection score, which tells you how well you are protected against common cybersecurity and identity theft threats.

We would have liked to see these features in the primary identity theft protection suite as well. But sadly, these essential features are missing. If you need them, you’ll have to get both products, but that would increase your total monthly cost to $9.16. Sure, that’s still pretty affordable, but managing two different subscriptions can be inconvenient in practice.

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection: Interface and in use

In addition to being affordable, it’s nice that Bitdefender is also easy to set up and use. Once you have logged into your account, you will see a sleek and intuitive dashboard with all features suites listed on the left-hand side panel. You need to click on Identity Theft Protection to access all its functions.

Inside that, you'll find options such as Identity Vault, Breach IQ, Alerts, Credits, and Help listed on the top panel. Simply click on any of these options to access your data.

The Bitdefender interface enables you to quickly visualize data and view suggested actions (Image credit: Bitdefender)

For instance, if you click on Credits, you will be able to see your credit score in the center of your dashboard, along with detailed credit summaries including open accounts, credit utilized, and hard inquiries made.

However, the in-use experience is pretty smooth. There are hardly any lags or complicated hidden menus, making the platform very beginner-friendly.

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection: The competition

Identity Theft Protection’s biggest advantage is its affordable pricing, with plans starting at just $69.99 per year. Even if you’re looking for three-bureau data credit monitoring, you effectively pay only $8.33/month with its annual plan, compared to IdentityForce's $34.90/month or Norton LifeLock's $29.17/month.

That said, I found Bitdefender a bit barebones when it comes to its feature set. Sure, it has everything you need to protect your identity, but it does lack certain advanced features offered by competitors. For instance, Norton LifeLock comes with an automatic data broker removal service, where the platform scans top data brokers and submits periodic opt-out requests so your data is not shared or sold on third-party websites.

Also, while Bitdefender’s identity insurance coverage of $2 million is certainly nothing to sniff at, Norton LifeLock gives you up to $3 million whereas Aura up to $5 million.

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection: Final verdict

Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection is an ideal choice if you're an individual looking for basic identity protection services. The platform offers everything from social media monitoring, dark web monitoring, and identity breach alerts to credit monitoring and three-bureau credit reports. You also get identity theft protection of up to $1 million with the higher-end plan.

That said, if you're looking for identity theft protection for families, Bitdefender might not be the perfect pick, since it only offers individual plans. In that case, you'll have to look at other alternatives such as Aura or Norton LifeLock. Bitdefender also lacks certain advanced features, such as the ability to manage credit freezes from the dashboard and data broker removal services.

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Allstate Identity Protection is offered and serviced by InfoArmor, Inc. – a subsidiary of The Allstate Corporation – and provides a comprehensive suite of identity protection plans designed to safeguard your personal information and assist in the recovery in the event of identity theft.

It stands out with its proactive approach, providing you with real-time alerts for social media monitoring. If your account is hacked, you receive an immediate notification, enabling you to act swiftly before a small breach becomes a full-blown crisis. But is it the right choice for you? Read on to find out.

Allstate Identity Protection: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

With an understanding that each individual and family has unique needs, Allstate Identity Protection offers both individual and family plans available across several tiers, each tailored with distinct features and pricing to cater to a variety of requirements.

Among the options available, the Essentials Plan is an excellent starting point for individuals and families looking to secure their identities. Typically priced at about $9.99 per month for individuals and $18.99 per month for families, this plan features essential identity monitoring services along with financial fraud protection.

Customers benefit from one-bureau credit monitoring and access to 24/7 full-service remediation support, ensuring help is always available when needed. Additionally, the plan includes lost wallet assistance and significant reimbursement coverage, offering up to $1 million in identity theft expense reimbursement and up to $50,000 in stolen funds reimbursement.

For those seeking enhanced protection, the Premier Plan offers a step up with a monthly cost of around $17.99 for individuals and $34.99 for families. This tier builds upon the Essentials Plan by adding features such as financial account transaction monitoring and social media monitoring, which are crucial in today’s digital landscape. Furthermore, users benefit from stolen tax refund advances and increased coverage for stolen funds reimbursement, which can go up to $500,000, giving families added peace of mind.

The most complete option available is the Blue Plan, usually priced around $19 per month for individuals and $36 per month for families. This comprehensive plan includes family digital safety tools and a cybersecurity toolkit featuring antivirus software and a virtual private network (VPN).

Additional benefits include robocall and ad blockers, three-bureau credit monitoring with credit lock/freeze assistance, and an amplified stolen funds reimbursement of up to $1 million, as well as up to $1 million coverage for stolen 401(k) funds.

All plans share common features designed to provide proactive monitoring and support. Customers receive dedicated 24/7 remediation specialists who can assist with identity theft issues, along with identity theft expense reimbursement and privacy management tools to help individuals maintain control over their personal information.

Besides these tiered plans, there’s a special monthly plan called Identity Restoration, costing $3 per month for individuals and $6 per month for families, designed specifically to help users through the identity restoration process. While this plan does not include any protection or monitoring features, it can assist you with full-service identity restoration if you experience an identity breach. You also get $25k in identity theft coverage with this plan.

One impressive thing about Allstate is that its family plans can cover up to 11 members, including yourself. This means the per-member cost can go as low as $32.73 per year per person, even on its highest-tier plan. Moreover, all the plans except the monthly-only one come with a 30-day free trial, letting you trial the service risk-free before committing.

Allstate Identity Protection: Features

Allstate offers one of the most jaw-dropping collections of features we have seen across the industry. Of course, you get excellent identity monitoring, which thoroughly examines multiple sources across the dark web along with public databases for your Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and financial account information.

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

Additionally, Allstate's wide range of restoration features and insurance offerings reflects the confidence the company has in its own capabilities. While most platforms offer home title and auto title fraud reimbursement, Allstate goes above and beyond by offering stolen tax refund reimbursement, which compensates you if someone files a tax return in your name and claims a refund.

You also get up to $1 million in insurance coverage if funds are stolen from your 401(k) or HSA accounts, as well as reimbursement for fraud involving deceased family members.

In case your identity is breached or you become a victim of a scams, you get full support from Allstate Identity Protection through its Full-Service Identity Restoration service. If identity theft strikes you the company provides a dedicated Privacy Advocate to oversee the complete restoration process. The process involves working with creditors to freeze your credit and resolve any fraudulent accounts that have been opened.

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

Allstate also offers pretty robust credit monitoring features, including three-bureau credit monitoring on its highest-tier plan. You can access reports from all three bureaus and view your credit scores and trackers directly from the Allstate dashboard.

One particularly impressive feature is the ability to lock your TransUnion credit report with just the click of a button through Allstate. Besides this, you can set transaction alerts on your credit cards and bank accounts, and Allstate will send you a notification every time a transaction exceeding a specified threshold (say, $1,000) is made on your account.

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

Another impressive Allstate feature is its Digital Footprint, which provides a complete record of your online activity, including the sites you've shopped at and online accounts you've created or forgotten about. This enables you to see where your personal data exists across the web and how different companies use this information. Higher-tier plans also provide as essential features that include Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), password managers, antivirus protection, and browsing safety tools.

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

Lastly, there's the Family Digital Safety suite, which is included in the Blue plan and offers features like web filtering, screen-time management, and location tracking for family protection. Parents can use these features to detect cyberbullying and block inappropriate content and websites. They can also set screen-time limits for their children and monitor their location in real time.

Allstate Identity Protection: Interface

(Image credit: Allstate Identity Protection)

We hope you have a strong appreciation for the color blue, as Allstate Identity Protection prominently features a deep, calming shade of blue on both their website and mobile app.

The interface adopts a no-frills approach, reminiscent of TurboTax, prioritizing straightforward navigation over elaborate design. Users will find essential categories such as Digital Footprint, Credit Monitoring, Dark Web Monitoring, Financial Transactions, and Social Media Monitoring are clearly laid out on the left panel of the dashboard, making the platform easy to navigate and the most important features easy to access.

Allstate also offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS. While they are great for quickly accessing the dashboard and checking various alerts, these apps offer limited options for editing information within Allstate. We also noticed that updates for these apps are not very frequent, which may raise some security concerns.

For this reason, we recommend primarily using Allstate's web interface to manage your identity monitoring needs. Overall, while Allstate Identity Protection has a solid foundation, enhancing the user experience with more intuitive design elements and interactive tutorials could make it an even more valuable tool for safeguarding personal identity.

Allstate Identity Protection: The competition

Allstate offers one of the most affordable identity protection plans considering the vast range of features included. Even its highest-tier plan costs only $190 per year, which comes to around $15.83 per month.

Its most direct competitor would be Aura, which offers similar parental control features such as content filtering and screen-time limits, along with identity theft and credit monitoring features. Aura's bundled plans start at $12 per month and offer features comparable to Allstate.

One advantage of Allstate, however, is that it allows up to 11 individuals on its family plan, whereas Aura only allows up to five adults along with unlimited children. Aura does, however, provide a more comprehensive data removal service, scanning more than 200 data broker sites and submitting removal requests on your behalf. Additionally, its identity theft insurance goes up to $5 million, one of the highest coverage amounts in the industry.

Just as Allstate allows you to lock your credit directly with TransUnion, IdentityWorks allows you to do the same with Experian. The latter also offers comprehensive credit monitoring features such as a daily Experian FICO score tracker and quarterly three-bureau credit reports and FICO scores. That said, IdentityWorks is slightly on the expensive side, with plans starting at $24.99 per month.

If you're looking for something more affordable, you could consider Norton LifeLock, where plans start as low as $10.42 per month for individuals. It offers a good mix of two-bureau credit monitoring, one-bureau monthly credit reports and scores, along with direct assistance from identity restoration specialists.

Allstate Identity Protection: Final verdict

If you're someone who needs a comprehensive security suite instead of just an identity theft protection platform and also doesn't want to burn a hole in your pocket, Allstate is one of the best options you can choose. Its highest-tier individual plan costs only $190 per year, which comes to less than $16 per month. If you want to protect more than one family member, its highest-tier family plan costs only $360 per year and allows you to add up to 11 members. This brings the per-member cost down to around $32.73 per year.

At this price, you get comprehensive credit monitoring, identity monitoring, full-service identity restoration, up to $1 million in identity theft coverage, along with an additional $1 million in stolen funds reimbursement and 401(k)/HSA reimbursement. Additionally, there are several useful privacy management features such as Digital Footprint monitoring, ad blockers, scam alerts, and cybersecurity tools such as a VPN, password manager, antivirus protection, firewall, and webcam protection.

The list doesn't end there. There are also family digital safety tools that allow you to block malicious or harmful websites for your children and manage their screen time. All in all, Allstate offers one of the densest collections of features we have seen in the industry. However, if you're looking for something lighter and not as feature-packed as Allstate, platforms like Norton LifeLock and McAfee+ may offer better value for money.

We've also highlighted the best identity theft protection

The dangers of identity theft are no longer a distant worry; they have become a salient threat that looms over individuals and families as digital footprints continue to grow. This is why you need a dedicated identity theft protection platform to safeguard your identity online.

One such popular provider is IDShield, offering capable identity protection through active breach alerts, as well as comprehensive social media and dark web monitoring. It even offers plans bundled with a VPN and password manager. In this article, we put IDShield to the test and examine its features, pricing, and interface while also comparing it with other similar tools on the market.

Read on till the end to find out whether IDShield is the ideal identity theft protection solution for your needs.

IDShield: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: IDShield)

IDShield pricing varies primarily based on whether you opt for one-bureau or three-bureau credit monitoring.

For individuals, plans typically start around $14.95 per month for one-bureau credit monitoring (usually Experian). If you want more comprehensive credit oversight, the three-bureau option (monitoring Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) is available for approximately $19.95 per month.

For families, IDShield provides coverage for two adults and eligible dependent children under 18 living in the same household. A one-bureau family plan typically costs around $29.95 per month, while the three-bureau family plan is approximately $34.95 per month.

What we like most about this pricing structure is that you get all the features IDShield has to offer, even with its basic Individual and Family plans. The only point of difference is the number of credit bureaus that track your credit score and financial accounts. So, if you’re someone with limited financial exposure but need a feature-rich identity protection plan, IDShield is a good choice.

This is much cheaper than Identity Force, where you have to pay $34.90/month for credit monitoring. That said, IDShield’s three-bureau credit monitoring is still more expensive than Bitdefender’s Identity Theft Protection plan, which effectively costs only $8.33/month.

IDShield: Features

IDShield has one of the most comprehensive feature sets we have seen across identity theft protection platforms. For starters, you get all the usual protection features, such as Social Security number monitoring, dark web monitoring, and social media monitoring.

Along with this, there are some niche features such as court record monitoring, which scans legal databases to alert you to any criminal identity theft, and address change monitoring, which scans the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) National Change of Address database and alerts you if any change-of-address request is filed in your name.

Besides monitoring your identity, IDShield also does a good job of keeping tabs on your finances with continuous credit monitoring and a monthly updated credit score tracker. IDShield also instantly alerts you whenever a financial institution makes a hard credit inquiry.

(Image credit: IDShield)

The platform also offers a pretty interesting financial threshold monitoring feature, which lets you set alerts on a financial account for large credit card purchases, low account balances, and unusually large withdrawals. There's also a pretty nifty payday loan monitoring feature, which tells you if a scammer tries to secure a payday loan using your identity.

(Image credit: IDShield)

One of the best features of IDShield is its 24/7 emergency assistance from dedicated licensed private investigators who work closely with you to help restore your identity in the event of identity theft. Additionally, there's also $3 million in reimbursement for unrecovered costs and losses incurred due to any identity theft that takes place during your subscription period.

The kicker is the complementary cybersecurity and device protection features that IDShield offers. This includes a VPN, password manager, and malware and antivirus protection. All these features are offered in partnership with Trend Micro. However, we found these add-ons to be quite limited during our testing.

For instance, you can only connect to 30+ VPN locations using the VPN, which also lacks essential features like a kill switch. The password manager lacks password inheritance and secure sharing, and it marked weak passwords as strong in some instances. Competitors like Norton LifeLock and Bitdefender also offer such bundled packages and perform better than IDShield.

IDShield also offers a pretty unique reputation management dashboard, which lets you improve your online reputation by cleaning up social media posts and comments and improving your Google search results. For starters, you'll see a reputation score on a color-coded semicircle graph out of 1,000. Below this, you'll see various suggested actions you can take to improve this score.

(Image credit: IDShield)

You can review each of the scanned results and mark them as positive or negative. Of course, you'll need to connect your various social media accounts, such as X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Although a niche feature, this might come in handy for influencers or public figures who are trying to build a personal brand.

IDShield: Interface and in-use

IDShield’s dashboard is pretty simple and easy to navigate. You'll see a list of options on the left: Home, Credit Security, Inbox, and Accounts. The Home dashboard displays your credit score at the top on a color-coded scale, followed by all your recent identity and credit monitoring alerts.

If you want to use the security suite that comes with IDShield, you’ll have to go through a separate installation and setup process for Trend Micro Maximum Security. You only get the license key with IDShield’s subscription. The same is true for the included VPN and password manager tools.

IDShield: Support

IDShield offers multiple support channels to ensure timely and convenient assistance.

For immediate assistance, customers can call IDShield's dedicated phone support line at 1-888-494-8519, available from Monday through Friday, from 7 AM to 7 PM Central Standard Time (CST). IDShield also offers email support along with a live chat option for customers who prefer real-time assistance.

In addition to these support channels, IDShield also provides a comprehensive knowledge base and frequently asked questions (FAQs) section on their website. Customers can find answers to common questions, troubleshooting tips, and other resources without contacting support directly.

IDShield: The competition

IDShield is a pretty attractive identity theft protection platform, even given its affordable starting price of $14.95 per month. That said, it does not offer the best value for money, even at this price point.

Take Norton LifeLock, for example. While you have to pay $19.95 per month with IDShield for three-bureau credit reports, the same is available for just $16.67 per month with LifeLock. Besides this, you also get new AI protection features such as Card Exposure Control and Suspicious Charge Alerts.

While IDShield promotes its bundled security suite, VPN, and password manager, they don’t perform as well as some other bundles on the market. LifeLock, for instance, offers protection and a VPN for five devices, along with identity insurance and breach alerts, for just $8.33/month, offering better value for money.

Similarly, Bitdefender’s bundled plans start at $89.99/year ($7.50/month), offering a VPN with 3,000+ servers, a password manager, an ad blocker, and essential identity theft protection.

IDShield: Final verdict

You should choose IDShield if you're looking purely for an identity theft protection platform. It has all the important features, such as breach alerts, dark web and social media protection, along with identity restoration services. At just $19.95 per month, you can get three-bureau credit monitoring along with everything the platform has to offer, with nothing hidden behind paywalls.

That said, if you're tempted by IDShield's bundled offering of a VPN, password manager, and security features, there are better value-for-money options available. You could look at Norton LifeLock or Bitdefender's bundled plans for all-round protection, both of which cost less than IDShield.

Take a look at our full guide to the best identity theft protection

Protecting your digital identity has become increasingly important. With the rise of sophisticated cyber threats, such as phishing scams, identity theft, and data breaches, choosing a robust identity protection service is essential for safeguarding your personal information.

One such popular tool is McAfee identity protection, offering real-time identity breach alerts, recovery support, and a user-friendly interface. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the platform, examining its key features, effectiveness in preventing identity theft, and overall value for consumers.

Additionally, we'll explore how McAfee+ compares with other identity protection services on the market. By the end of this review, you'll have a clearer understanding of whether McAfee Identity Protection is the right solution for securing your sensitive personal information.

McAfee+: Plans and pricing

McAfee does not offer a separate identity theft monitoring plan. Instead, you get a complete suite of protection and security tools. Plans start at $29.99 for the first year for the Basic plan, which covers protection for one device.

From an identity protection point of view, this plan only includes identity monitoring and alert features, which scan for your personal information on the dark web and send you real-time alerts. Additionally, you get a Scam Detector, an award-winning antivirus, a secure VPN, and comprehensive web protection. It's worth noting that these features are available with all of McAfee’s bundled plans.

(Image credit: McAfee)

The identity monitoring features remain fairly limited even in the Premium plan, which costs $49.99 for the first year for individuals and $69.99 for the first year for families covering up to six members. In addition to identity monitoring and alerts, this plan also helps you identify websites that sell your personal information and alerts you so that you can request its removal.

However, we found McAfee’s Advanced plan to offer the best value for money if you are looking purely for identity protection features. It's priced at $89.99 for individuals and $119.99 for the first year for families (up to six members). This is the first plan that offers credit monitoring from one bureau, along with monthly credit scores and reports. You also get up to $1 million in identity theft coverage and identity restoration support. Preventive features such as Security Freeze and Credit Lock are also included in the plan.

(Image credit: McAfee)

Lastly, there’s the Ultimate plan, priced at $199.99 for the first year for individuals and $249.99 for the first year for families (up to six members). In addition to every identity monitoring feature included in the Advanced plan, you also get bank account takeover monitoring, payday loan monitoring, and ransomware coverage of up to $25,000.

Credit monitoring is also more comprehensive in this plan, covering all three bureaus along with daily credit scores and reports, as well as increased identity theft coverage of up to $2 million.

McAfee+: Features

Let’s first talk about McAfee’s Identity Protection solutions, since that’s what you’re here for. For starters, you get identity monitoring and alerts, which cover more than 60 types of personal information across all of its plans, which is a big plus. Besides this, I found McAfee’s identity protection features limited but sufficient for personal and family needs.

(Image credit: McAfee)

In addition to alerts, McAfee offers credit monitoring from all three bureaus and daily credit reports, depending on the plan you choose. You can also get identity theft coverage of up to $2 million, along with dedicated restoration support from licensed experts in case your personal data or identity gets stolen. Real-time alerts for credit card and bank account transactions, along with active bank account takeover monitoring, are also included.

(Image credit: McAfee)

Now, besides identity protection features, McAfee also offers a pretty handy Protection Score, which gives you a numeric score out of 1,000 reflecting how protected you are against online security and cybersecurity threats. This score takes into account various factors such as viruses or malware on your devices, web protection in your browser, Wi-Fi threats, leaked personal data found in data breaches, and more. The higher the score, the better your online security posture.

(Image credit: McAfee)

Some other handy McAfee+ features include:

Antivirus and Antimalware: McAfee+ provides real-time protection against viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware, and other malicious threats. It scans your system to detect potential threats, preventing them from causing harm. Unlike many online identity protection suites, this feature is essential for personal security.

Firewall Protection: A built-in firewall monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic, protecting your device from unauthorized access and blocking suspicious connections.

Web Protection: This feature helps safeguard your online activities by blocking malicious websites, phishing attempts, and dangerous downloads. It also scans email attachments and instant messages for potential threats, making it especially useful for children online.

Identity Theft Protection: McAfee+ helps protect your personal information from being compromised by monitoring potential identity theft risks. This may include features like credit monitoring, social security number tracking, and alerts for suspicious activity. McAfee’s Identity Theft Protection service monitors over 40 data broker sites to identify whether your personal information has been compromised.

Safe Browsing: McAfee+ provides secure browsing extensions or plugins for popular web browsers. These tools warn you about unsafe websites in search results and block harmful ads or pop-ups.

Credit Monitoring: Depending on the selected plan, credit bureau monitoring looks for threats to your identity and monitors the Dark Web for associated risks.

Password Manager: This unique tool securely stores your login credentials and assists in creating strong, unique passwords for each website or application you use.

Secure VPN: McAfee+ includes a virtual private network (VPN) feature that encrypts your internet connection and anonymizes your online activities, adding an extra layer of privacy and security.

System Optimization Tools: McAfee+ also offers system optimization tools to improve your device’s performance by cleaning up unnecessary files, managing startup programs, and optimizing system settings.

Parental Controls: McAfee+ products include parental control features that allow you to monitor and restrict your child's online activities, block inappropriate content, and set usage time limits.

McAfee+: Interface and in-use

(Image credit: McAfee)

The McAfee+ interface is pretty similar to McAfee’s other programs. You’ll first need to activate your registration code and sign in to your McAfee online account. On the main dashboard, you will see various shortcuts such as Scam Detector, a Secure VPN button that you can toggle on or off directly from the dashboard, Identity Monitoring, and Personal Data Cleanup.

On the left-hand side, there’s a rail menu listing all the features available with McAfee+, divided into five categories: Scam Detector, Identity, Privacy, Web, and Device. Upon clicking any of the features in this section, you’ll see a dedicated dashboard for that feature. For instance, if you click on Credit Monitoring, you will see your credit score on a color-coded semicircle graph along with your credit reports.

Overall, the platform is pretty easy to use. You’ll need to play around with the options for a few hours to get the hang of it, but there’s no steep learning curve or anything overly technical about using McAfee+.

McAfee+: Support

As would be expected from a veteran provider, McAfee offers numerous methods for support. On the direct side, there's 24/7 phone support along with a 24/7 virtual assistant, and we did find a chat to a real person available for English speaking countries (and 9am to 6 pm on business days for the rest of the world).

There’s also a dedicated Countries and Phone Numbers button, which, when clicked, shows you a detailed list of phone numbers in various countries along with their operating hours. However, we did not find an email address or a support portal as alternative methods for direct contact.

There are some options on the self support as well. I found a Support Home page, with a search bar, which had jump offs to YouTube videos, a FAQ, and related articles. There are also links to McAfee social media sites, including a Twitter feed that is active with recent updates.

McAfee+: Competition

Since McAfee+ isn’t a standalone identity theft protection platform, we’ll need to compare it with similar providers offering bundled plans. Two of the main competitors are Bitdefender and Norton LifeLock.

Bitdefender also offers Ultimate Security plans, which start at $89.99 per year. Much like McAfee+, these plans include device security features such as antivirus and scam protection, along with privacy features such as a password manager and unlimited VPN traffic.

However, we found McAfee+ to deliver better value when it comes to identity protection features. For instance, at the same price of $89.99 per year, you get McAfee’s Advanced plan, which includes credit monitoring from one bureau along with monthly reports. You’ll need to spend at least $119.99 per year with Bitdefender to get single-bureau credit monitoring.

Norton, however, is more comparable to McAfee+ when it comes to features. You get protection for up to 10 PCs, Macs, tablets, or phones across all plans. Even with the base plan, you get up to $25,000 in reimbursement for stolen funds, along with other identity management features such as real-time alerts, dark web monitoring, and stolen wallet protection. Of course, there’s also a VPN, password manager, and antivirus included.

That said, Norton’s packages are quite expensive compared to McAfee+, with its base plan starting at $99.99 for the first year. The Advantage plan costs $199.99 for the first year and adds features such as Identity Lock and bank and credit card alerts. Although the features are robust, the cost outweighs the benefits for many users.

McAfee+: Final verdict

To put it in a nutshell, if you’re looking for a packaged, all-around online security solution that also includes identity theft protection, then there’s hardly any looking past McAfee+.

The platform offers some of the best value for money when it comes to bundling identity theft features with a robust antivirus, secure VPN, and password manager. You get up to $2 million in identity theft insurance, along with real-time transaction alerts and access to McAfee’s proprietary Protection Score, which tells you how well protected you are against online cybersecurity threats.

That said, if you are looking only for identity theft protection features without the bundled security suite, you’ll need to consider other platforms such as Norton LifeLock, Aura, IDShield, or IdentityForce.

We've featured the best internet security suites

You might want to be sitting down for this. The Asus ProArt PA32KCX clocks in at just under $8,800. Undoubtedly, this 32-inch monitor is a technical tour de force. But $8,800? Really?

The highlights among a long list of impressive specifications that go at least some way to justifying that staggering sticker price are 8K native resolution, an IPS panel with 4,032 dimming zones, 1,200 nits of peak HDR brightness, a motorised colorimeter for automated calibration and utterly comprehensive connectivity.

No question, then, this is one of the most highly specified displays on the market today. By some metrics, for instance, it positively blows away the likes of the Apple Pro Display XDR, which offers a mere 6K resolution and 576 dimming zones.

Speaking of 6K monitors, some models make for a rather uncomfortable comparison with the Asus ProArt PA32KCX. Take Asus's own ProArt PA32QCV. That's a 6K monitor that can be had for literally one eighth the price of this 8K monster. Can the jump from 6K to 8K really be worth that much?

And, more generally, how can this megabucks monitor justify itself against the best business monitors we've tested, all of which are far cheaper? Time to find out.

Asus ProArt PA32KCX: Design and featuresFutureFutureFuture

• Utterly comprehensive connectivity
• Automated calibration
• Underwhelming build quality

Specs

Panel size: 32-inch

Panel type: IPS

Resolution: 7,680 x 4,320

Brightness: 1,200 nits

Contrast: 1,000:1 (static)

Pixel response: 5ms

Refresh rate: 60Hz

Color coverage: 97% DCI-P3, 95% Adobe RGB

HDR: Display HDR 1000

VESA: 100mm x 100mm

Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 x2, DisplayPort 2.1 x1, Thunderbolt 4 x2 with 96W PD, USB hub with USB-C x1 and USB-A x3

When you're charging the thick end of $10,000 for a PC monitor, that does rather raise expectations. And the Asus ProArt PA32KCX doesn't meet them in every regard.

The main problem is distinctly underwhelming build quality. Compared to any given mainstream monitor, the plastic chassis is perfectly functional. But at this price point, it feels thoroughly low rent.

The I/O panel on the rear looks particularly cheap for such an expensive display and the usual plastic creaks and groans as you adjust the height, tilt or swivel of the display really stand out. Again, all of this is normal for, say, a $500 monitor, or even a $1,000 panel. But at $8,800, you might expect better.

No question, the Asus ProArt PA32KCX isn't even in the same galactic super cluster for build and engineering as Apple's Pro Display XDR and its lush all-alloy materials. That said, in terms of features, the ProArt has any Apple display comprehensively beaten.

Connectivity is a particular strong point with HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, Thunderbolt and more all included. There's also a KVM switch, display daisy chaining support and a USB hub. So, pretty much every eventuality is covered.

The motorised colorimeter is pretty nifty, too. It swings out from the bottom left of the display, allowing the ProArt PA32KCX to self-calibrate any among the long list of colour spaces it supports. What's more, that calibration can be scheduled to take place automatically at regular intervals.

You also get proper Mac support including brightness controls directly in MacOS when enabling HDR. In short, this is a very highly specced monitor, it's just not a beautifully engineered monitor.

Asus ProArt PA32KCX: PerformanceFutureFutureFutureFuture

• Incredible pixel density
• Local dimming is hit and miss
• Noticeable fan noise

For a lot of applications, 8K native resolution is overkill. Just to clarify, that's 7,680 by 4,320, over 33 million pixels or four full 4K grids crammed into this 32-inch display. The pixel density works out to a staggering 275 DPI. That's smartphone territory and double the density of a 32-inch 4K monitor.

In many ways, the most apt comparison is with 6K 32-inch displays, which come in a little over 200 DPI. In terms of aspects like text rendering, the benefit of 8K over 6K in daily use is marginal.

Likewise, you're not really getting any extra usable screen space. You'll likely use similar scaling settings whether you go for 6K or 8K. And, you can get 6K monitors for as little as around $1,000. So, where does the benefit of 8K come in?

That'll be professional video and image editing. Broadly, there are two upsides. For video, the 8K resolution allows you to view and edit content in full 4K while leaving oodles of space for toolbars, timelines and the rest. 4K video pixel-for-pixel at full resolution occupies just a quarter of the screen. Remarkable.

As for image editing, well, high resolution images look absolutely stupendous on this monitor. The detail really is breathtaking. There's a practical benefit, too, in the sense of more easily assessing image detail, less need for zooming in and so on. Frankly, once you've edited images on this thing, a 4K monitor feels a bit clunky.

The other really significant feature is the local dimming. This is an LCD panel with full-array backlighting rather than an OLED panel. Asus has configured it with 4,032 zones, which is very high by the standards of this type of mini-LED backlight. But it still isn't anything like per-pixel lighting.

The results are fairly mixed. I've certainly seen worse local dimming implementations. But you can still detect plenty of evidence of the backlight at work. There are lots of tell tale signs, even flaws, like the mouse pointer going dim over dark backgrounds, visible brightness gradients across the screen. In the right circumstances you can even see lighting zones popping on and off.

All of this is somewhat inevitable with mini-LED backlight tech. But it has to be said that Apple's backlight algorithms are definitely better. It's very notable when, for instance, you have a MacBook Pro with similar backlight technology next to this display, just how much more consistent and refined its backlight algorithm is.

Admittedly, the backlight mostly works really well for HDR video. This panel has some serious pop and with over 4,000 dimming zones and up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness, much of the time there's enough precision to do real justice to HDR content.

But, day-to-day, the shortcomings are obvious enough that you may actually want to turn local dimming off, at which point you are looking at an awfully expensive IPS panel with very limited contrast compared to an OLED panel.

Of course, it's a really lovely IPS monitor, with full 10-bit-per-channel and all that good stuff. But, wow, is it pricey. And, of course, it only runs at 60 Hz, which is another example of the ways in which you have to compromise to have that 8K resolution. As is the, on occasion, very noticeable and quite distracting noise from the cooling fans.

Asus ProArt PA32KCX: Final verdictFutureFutureFuture

The Asus ProArt PA32KCX has some pretty obvious shortcomings. The build quality is ordinary and its local dimming algorithm could do with some work. For $8,800, those issues are pretty hard to stomach. Indeed, by several metrics including lighting control, speed, viewing angles and more, the latest 4K 32-inch OLED monitors comprehensively wallop this IPS monitor and its mini-LED backlight.

But here's the thing. If you want 8K, you simply can't have that with OLED technology. Indeed, there are very few options, period. And there are undoubtedly benefits to 8K in a content creation context. Once you've seen high resolution images on this panel, going back to 4K really does feel like a major step backwards.

So, the value proposition offered by the Asus ProArt PA32KCX won't make sense for most users, even most creative professionals. That's especially true when even the likes of Asus itself, not known for its sharp pricing, will do you a similarly sized 6K monitor for about an eighth the price.

Admittedly, this monitor is incredibly well specified when it comes to connectivity. Some creative professionals will also really appreciate features like automated self calibration. And if you have the kind of very particular workflows that will benefit from 8K specifically, well, you may just be able to make the numbers add up. But for everyone else, a 6K monitor for way less money such as Asus's own ProArt PA32QCV model almost certainly makes more sense.

FutureFutureFutureFuture

For more ultra-high-resolution displays, we've reviewed the best 5K and 8K monitors.

Norton has been synonymous with consumer cybersecurity since 1982, thanks to its flagship antivirus product. However, there’s another Norton offering that is quite popular among security-conscious users: Norton LifeLock.

This identity protection and restoration platform not only monitors your identity for breaches in real time across the wider internet, dark web, and social media, but also helps restore your identity in the event of an incident. With one of the most comprehensive insurance coverages in the industry (up to $3 million), Norton LifeLock has earned a reputation of its own.

In this article, we put Norton LifeLock to the ultimate test, examining its features, interface, user experience, and overall value for money. We also compare it with similar products to determine whether it's worth the investment.

Norton LifeLock: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Norton)

LifeLock's pricing structure can be confusing at first glance. However, it offers three primary plans to choose from: Core, Advanced, and Total.

The Core plan is the basic option, costing $10.42/month and offering up to $1.05 million in identity theft reimbursement and $25,000 for stolen funds. Besides this, you get identity verification alerts, dark web monitoring, data breach alerts, and social media monitoring, along with its all-new feature, automatic data broker removal. You also get two-bureau credit monitoring, along with one monthly credit report and score, making it ideal for individuals looking for all-around protection.

Next is the Advanced plan, which costs $16.67/month. Along with everything included in the Core plan, you get an additional $5,000 in scam reimbursement and scam support. Besides this, you get three-bureau credit monitoring, along with annual three-bureau credit reports and scores. For an additional cost of around $5, this is a good option for those who need more comprehensive credit monitoring.

Advanced plans are also available for families, allowing you to protect up to two adults for $30/month, or two adults and 10 children for $40/month.

However, just like IdentityForce, there is no option to cover more than two adults, for which you’ll have to look at alternatives such as Aura, which gives you the option to protect up to five adults at a cost of $32/month.

Lastly, there is the Total plan, which costs $29.17/month and offers $3 million in identity theft reimbursement and up to $1 million for stolen funds. This plan also includes features like home title monitoring and phone takeover monitoring, along with 401(k) investment account alerts and bank account takeover alerts.

Besides all this, Norton also offers all-in-one plans where you can get LifeLock bundled with Norton 360 for $8.33/month (Select Plan), which includes security for up to five devices, along with one of the best VPNs we have tested. There is also an Ultimate Plus plan at $25/month with more comprehensive coverage.

Lastly, Norton LifeLock offers a 30-day free trial, as well as a 60-day money-back guarantee, essentially letting you test the service for up to 90 days before you have to commit to it.

Norton LifeLock: Features

LifeLock offers all the basic identity and privacy protection tools you would expect, such as identity verification alerts, dark web monitoring, which scans the dark web for your stolen information, data breach alerts, which instantly notify you if any of your information is found online, and comprehensive social media monitoring.

LifeLock is also known for its robust credit and financial protection, which includes daily, monthly, and annual credit reports and scores (depending on your plan), along with comprehensive three-bureau credit monitoring.

(Image credit: Norton LifeLock)

A rather unique feature of LifeLock is its automatic data broker removal service, which scans top data brokers for your information and submits automatic opt-out requests every 90 days. This way, you don't have to manually look for your data on these broker sites, making it easier to manage publicly available information about you.

(Image credit: Norton LifeLock)

LifeLock offers one of the most comprehensive insurance and reimbursement packages in the industry. You can get up to $3 million in reimbursement for identity theft incidents, including reimbursement for funds stolen from your bank, investment, and credit accounts, reimbursement for legal costs incurred while recovering your identity, and reimbursement for personal expenses such as lost wages or childcare costs following an identity theft incident.

Besides all this, there is also additional scam reimbursement of up to $10,000, which covers losses incurred due to online scams such as phishing, fake investment portals, and fake shopping sites that result in financial loss.

(Image credit: Norton LifeLock)

LifeLock also features a handy Credit Lock feature, which allows you to lock and unlock your credit file with TransUnion directly from its dashboard with just a single click. When you lock your credit, no one can open a new line of credit or an account in your name without your approval.

A good practice is to keep Credit Lock enabled when you're not actively looking for loans and unlock it only when needed. You also get dedicated identity restoration specialists on all LifeLock plans to assist you in the event of identity theft.

Norton LifeLock: Interface

One key aspect of LifeLock's interface is its simplicity. The layout is clean and uncluttered, with each feature clearly labeled and easy to find. This simplicity makes it easy for users, especially beginners, to navigate.

(Image credit: Norton LifeLock)

As soon as you log in to your dashboard, you'll see all the feature options listed on a sleek panel on the left-hand side, while the main dashboard contains information cards highlighting your key identity details. At the top is the Alerts section, where you can find any new identity breaches detected by LifeLock.

You can also view your credit scores and manage your Identity Locker directly from the main dashboard. The interface is also pretty visually appealing, and the platform features a modern, minimalist design that's both attractive and professional.

Norton LifeLock: The competition

Norton LifeLock is one of the most affordable identity protection tools available, starting at just $10.42/month. That said, it still might not be the most cost-effective choice if your main concern is credit monitoring. For instance, you'll have to pay $29.17/month for three-bureau credit monitoring with Norton LifeLock, whereas the same service is available for just $19.95/month with IDShield.

Other features are also quite similar across both platforms, with a few exceptions. For example, you do not get data broker removal with IDShield, but you do benefit from a VPN, password manager, and malware and ransomware protection.

Similarly, if you're looking to protect a family of more than two adults, LifeLock might not be the ideal choice. In that case, a provider like Aura may offer better value for money, with its family plan costing $32/month. You also get $5 million in identity theft insurance with Aura, compared to Norton's $3 million, along with AI-powered spam call and message protection, advanced parental controls, and digital account cleanup.

Norton LifeLock: Support

All LifeLock plans provide round-the-clock live support with a virtual advisor and phone support.

While there's no chat, email, or support portal, the top-tier plan offers special identity consultations, which offer expert advice and guidance to users dealing with potential identity theft, fraud, and cyberthreats.

While there are plenty of blog articles and answers to frequently asked questions, we would’ve definitely loved to see some explainer videos, whitepapers and webinars as well.

Norton LifeLock: Final verdict

Norton LifeLock is one of the best identity protection tools available, especially if you're an individual looking for all-around protection that includes monthly credit monitoring. Along with essentials such as social media monitoring, identity verification alerts, data breach alerts, and dark web monitoring, it also offers standout features like automatic data broker removal, which automatically submits opt-out requests to popular data brokers on your behalf.

Besides this, LifeLock offers one of the most comprehensive identity theft insurance packages, with reimbursement amounts going as high as $3 million, along with an additional $10,000 in scam reimbursement.

That said, LifeLock may not be ideal for family protection, as it can only cover up to two adults. For coverage beyond this, you would need to consider other options such as Aura. Additionally, three-bureau credit monitoring can be expensive, as it is only available on the Total plan starting at $29.17/month. Cheaper options, such as IDShield, offer comparable services at a lower cost.

We've also featured the best identity theft protection, best antivirus and best VPN

IdentityWorks is one of the most trusted identity theft protection platforms from Experian. In addition to robust credit monitoring and credit score insights, it also offers several identity protection features, such as dark web and social media scanning, along with a handy privacy scan that removes your data from data broker websites.

But let's address the elephant in the room: Experian faced major criticism after a 2015 data breach that exposed more than 15 million customer records. So, as a potential buyer of its identity protection service, you'd be curious to know if the provider has tidied up? Well, we believe it has. Since the incident, Experian has spent significant time, money, and resources strengthening its data security.

In this article, we'll drill down into the various functions of Experian IdentityWorks, along with its pricing, interface, and customer support. We'll also compare it with other platforms to help you choose the best service for your needs.

Experian IdentityWorks: Plans and pricing

Experian offers a number of plans to choose from depending on how many adults and children there are in your household (Image credit: Experian)

IdentityWorks is one of the few identity theft monitoring platforms that offers a free plan. You can view your Experian credit report and FICO score, along with a free dark web surveillance report and personal privacy scan. However, you cannot take any actions from the dashboard based on the report or scan to improve your online security.

Next, Experian offers two paid plans: Premium and Family. The Premium plan, priced at $24.99 per month, includes everything that IdentityWorks has to offer, with no features hidden behind additional paywalls. This means you get advanced identity theft monitoring, three-bureau credit monitoring and alerts, along with other identity theft features such as change-of-address alerts, SSN tracking, sex offender registry alerts, and lost wallet assistance.

You also get up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, which is what we've come to expect from the industry's top services. The Family plan costs $34.99 per month and includes the same features as the Premium plan but allows you to add up to two adults and 10 children.

Users will appreciate that IdentityWorks offers a 7-day free trial with both paid plans, although you'll need to provide your credit card information. If you don't like what you see within the first week, you can cancel your membership without incurring any additional charges.

Experian IdentityWorks: Features

Experian does not offer a standalone app for IdentityWorks and instead the service is baked into its credit report app. (Image credit: Experian)

One of the key features of the Premium plan is full access to credit monitoring. This service monitors your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – and notifies you of any changes or suspicious activity.

You also get quarterly reports from all three credit bureaus, along with FICO scores. However, since IdentityWorks is owned directly by Experian, one of the leading credit bureaus, you can track your Experian FICO score on a daily basis. Additionally, if you wish to freeze your credit with Experian, you can do so directly from the IdentityWorks dashboard with the toggle of a button.

Not only does Experian allow you to view your credit score, but it also helps you plan your future finances. For instance, there's a FICO Score Planner, which lets you choose a target FICO score for the next 3 to 12 months. After that, it suggests actions you can take to achieve that score, such as lowering account balances or closing certain loans. There's also a score simulator, which lets you see how various financial decisions may impact your future credit score.

In the unfortunate event that your identity is stolen, you get dedicated fraud resolution support from IdentityWorks, where professionals work closely with you to help restore your identity, backed by up to $1 million in identity theft insurance.

(Image credit: Experian)

There's also dark web monitoring, which combs the dark web to determine whether any of your personally identifiable information, such as your email address, phone number, home address, login credentials, or even your Social Security number, has been leaked.

Next, you get a handy privacy scan feature that looks for your personal information on people-finder sites. These are data broker websites that buy and sell personal information. IdentityWorks can submit removal requests to these sites on your behalf.

To enhance account security, the plan offers financial account takeover alerts. These alerts vigilantly monitor your financial accounts for any unauthorized transactions or changes, safeguarding your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts against potential compromises.

In addition to its monitoring features, the Premium plan provides social network monitoring alerts. This service vigilantly scans social media platforms for any unauthorized use of your name, photos, or personal information.

Experian IdentityWorks: Interface

IdentityWorks' dashboard exemplifies minimalist design, featuring a sleek layout with intuitive tabs at the top that simplify navigation. Users can effortlessly find the information they need without unnecessary distractions. Although the interface might seem a bit old-fashioned, it gets the job done. The main dashboard is divided into six sections on the top bar: Credit, Finances, Protection, Credit Cards, Loans, and Auto. Each of these options opens a dedicated dashboard when clicked.

That said, IdentityWorks is, unfortunately, not among the easiest platforms to use. You may need a bit of time to get the hang of navigating the various options on its dashboard. On the bright side, however, the browsing experience is seamless, with no unusual lags, buffering, or screen freezes, which is always a big positive.

The provider has recently revamped its user interface and now logs you out automatically after 15 to 20 minutes of inactivity, which is an impressive security-focused addition. There's also an iOS and Android mobile app with millions of downloads. Although you don't get a ton of features with these apps, the design is simple and straightforward, allowing you to keep tabs on your identity and credit details on the go.

Experian IdentityWorks: Support

Experian doesn't provide a specific phone number or email address for direct contact regarding issues. Instead, clicking on "Contact us" directs users to a help center with various articles. For immediate assistance, Experian recommends obtaining an Experian credit report and calling the phone number provided on the report.

To enhance user satisfaction, we would suggest more streamlined and accessible communication channels for users to reach out to Experian.

Experian IdentityWorks: The competition

Although IdentityWorks is a pretty complete identity theft protection platform, it’s a bit on the expensive side, which is why you might consider alternatives such as IdentityForce. IdentityForce is offered by TransUnion, another prominent credit bureau, with plans starting at $19.90 per month or $199.90 per year.

This entry-level plan offers several identity monitoring features, such as dark web monitoring, fraud monitoring, risk scores, and personalized action plans to improve your credit standing, but it does not provide detailed credit monitoring. For that, you'll need to upgrade to the next tier, which costs $34.90 per month and is even more expensive than Experian IdentityWorks. That said, you do get up to $2 million in identity theft insurance, along with a VPN and online PC protection.

There's also MyFICO, offered by the Fair Isaac Corporation, the organization behind FICO credit scores. Plans start at $29.95 per month and include three-bureau credit coverage, along with credit reports and quarterly updated FICO scores. Much like IdentityWorks, there's also a FICO score simulator, which allows you to see how your financial decisions may impact your credit scores. That said, MyFICO focuses more heavily on credit monitoring and lacks several advanced identity monitoring features.

If credit monitoring isn't what you're primarily looking for, you could consider alternatives such as Norton LifeLock, with plans starting at $10.42 per month, or McAfee+, starting at $29.99 for the first year. These providers focus more on identity protection features such as dark web monitoring, social media monitoring, and real-time identity breach alerts.

Experian IdentityWorks: Final verdict

Since IdentityWorks is offered directly by Experian, it provides some of the best credit monitoring features we've seen. You can view your Experian FICO score daily and access credit reports from all three bureaus on a quarterly basis. Besides helping you view your scores, IdentityWorks also allows you to lock your Experian credit directly from its dashboard with the toggle of a button. Additionally, it lets you set a target FICO score and suggests actions you should take to achieve it in the near future.

Moreover, IdentityWorks offers several useful identity protection features, such as Social Security number monitoring, dark web surveillance that scans up to 600,000 web pages, sex offender registry alerts, social network monitoring, and dedicated fraud resolution support.

All in all, IdentityWorks is one of the best identity theft protection platforms you can opt for. That said, it's a bit on the expensive side, with paid plans starting at $24.99 per month and no option for an annual subscription. This could easily burn a hole in your pocket, which is why you may want to consider more affordable alternatives such as Norton LifeLock or Aura.

FAQsWhy is identity theft protection important?

Safeguarding your personal identity stands as an absolute necessity in the current digitally connected world. Our personal information exists in the digital atmosphere to a greater extent than ever because of online transactions and social media posts, along with connected devices. The defense mechanisms provided by credit protection cover only a limited segment of identity theft risks that continue to evolve.

Identity theft is a broad and damaging criminal activity that encompasses multiple types of fraudulent actions, resulting in severe harm to victims. A person who steals your personal details can perform multiple illegal actions, such as establishing unauthorized credit accounts using your name while taking loans you will need to pay, filing false tax returns, and committing crimes, which will appear on your criminal record.

The consequences of identity theft go beyond financial damage because they cause severe credit score deterioration along with damaged reputation and both emotional suffering and time-consuming identity recovery procedures.

We've also highlighted the best identity theft protection

Identity theft has been growing at an alarming rate. The FTC received 1.1 million identity theft reports in 2023 alone, and according to reports, someone becomes a victim of identity theft every 4.9 seconds in the U.S. This not only calls for personal vigilance and financial hygiene but also makes identity theft protection tools an absolute necessity.

IdentityForce is one such tool. A TransUnion offering, it comes with features like instant breach alerts, dark web monitoring, credit monitoring, and remediation services. In this article, we dissect each of IdentityForce's features while also comparing it with other tools on the market. Read on to find out if IdentityForce is the right tool for your needs.

IdentityForce: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: IdentityForce)

IdentityForce offers two plans: UltraSecure and UltraSecure Plus Credit, for both individuals and families. The base UltraSecure plan costs $19.90 for individuals and $24.90 for families, covering two adults and unlimited children. You get features like dark web monitoring, advanced fraud monitoring, and credit card and bank activity alerts, along with $1 million in identity theft insurance.

However, one of IdentityForce's biggest drawbacks is that this base plan doesn't include any credit monitoring features, for which you'll have to upgrade to its UltraSecure Plus Credit plan, starting at $34.90/month for individuals and $39.90/month for families.

Along with everything in the base plan, this plan provides three-bureau credit monitoring and alerts, as well as daily TransUnion credit reports and scores. The identity theft insurance also increases to $2 million under this plan.

As evident, IdentityForce isn't the cheapest option out there. In comparison, LifeLock by Norton starts at just $10.42 per month, offering features like dark web monitoring, social media monitoring, and automatic data broker removal. Similarly, Aura's individual plans start at $12 per month, providing financial transaction alerts and identity theft protection.

While the plans across these providers may not be directly comparable, if you're on a tight budget, there are definitely cheaper options than IdentityForce available on the market.

(Image credit: IdentityForce)IdentityForce: Features

Alerts, protection and credit monitoring are all easy to find in IdentityForce's mobileapp (Image credit: IdentityForce)

IdentityForce offers all the features you'd expect from an identity theft protection and detection platform. For starters, its advanced fraud monitoring sends you real-time alerts whenever financial institutions open a new line of credit or account in your name. This helps you track unauthorized use of your identity information early.

Similarly, the platform also monitors thousands of websites on the dark web and black market for instances of identity theft or data breaches. Additionally, there's an active social media identity monitoring feature, which keeps an eye on your Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube accounts for any unauthorized or suspicious posts.

There’s also a smart SSN tracker, which flags any unfamiliar names or addresses associated with a Social Security number. Additionally, there is a proactive investment account alert, which notifies you of any possible fraudulent withdrawals, deposits, or transfers related to your financial accounts or 401(k).

However, IdentityForce's credit monitoring is one of its strongest features, although it's only available on its most expensive plan. You can get a quarterly credit report summary from all three credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, along with a daily credit score from TransUnion.

This summary consolidates all of your financial information, such as total accounts, open accounts, and total balances, into one quick snapshot view. You can also view each report in detail and even dispute incorrect data directly from your IdentityForce dashboard. There’s also a pretty handy credit score tracker where you can view your credit score history.

(Image credit: IdentityForce)

A rather unique feature of IdentityForce is its personalized Identity Safety Score, which indicates how susceptible you are to identity theft based on your past data breach history and top risks. This feature is best used with IdentityForce's customized action plan, which suggests steps you can take to strengthen your identity protection. For instance, the action plan might suggest setting up two-factor authentication or changing your credit card PINs.

(Image credit: IdentityForce)

Much like peers such as LifeLock, IdentityForce also offers a dedicated restoration specialist on all of its paid plans. If you believe you have become a victim of identity theft, you can reach out to your dedicated resolution specialist through your IdentityForce dashboard, who will then open and investigate your case. What I like most about IdentityForce's resolution specialist feature is that they won't close the case until you agree that a full and final resolution has been reached.

Even after the case is mutually closed, IdentityForce will reopen and re-investigate it in the event of any future incidents. This kind of transparency shows the provider’s commitment to accountability and thoroughness by offering you complete control over the resolution process.

Besides this, IdentityForce also includes a few ancillary security tools in its subscription plans, making them more comprehensive. For instance, there's a virtual private network (VPN) for mobile devices (but it only works with mobile and tablets), PC protection tools such as anti-phishing and anti-keylogging functions, and a handy password manager.

IdentityForce: Interface and in-use experience

The centerpiece of IdentityForce's offering is its intuitive dashboard, which ensures that all vital information, such as alerts, credit scores, transactions, and identity vaults, is visible as soon as you log in. If you don’t see a feature or information, simply click on the three-bar hamburger icon and everything will pop up right away.

IdentityForce's mobile apps are equally good, with each piece of information stacked into small rectangles. You can tap on these rectangles to expand information such as alerts or credit scores. That said, both the desktop and mobile versions feel a bit stuck in the past compared to modern UI platforms like Aura. However, IdentityForce is definitely easy to use and beginner-friendly.

IdentityForce: The competition

As we already highlighted, the biggest thing that holds IdentityForce back is the lack of credit monitoring on its basic UltraSecure plan, which is already quite expensive compared to peers like LifeLock or Aura.

If you choose IdentityForce and also require credit monitoring, you'll have to pay at least $34.90 per month. However, with Aura, you only need to pay $12 per month for the same three-bureau credit monitoring. With LifeLock, you pay only $10.42 per month for one-bureau credit monitoring.

The identity theft protection insurance is also higher with LifeLock and Aura. While the coverage goes up to $3 million with LifeLock, Aura offers $5 million in protection on its family plan.

That said, IdentityForce is owned by TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus in the country. This means you get access to bureau-level data instead of relying on third-party aggregators. This likely contributes to why IdentityForce's ID monitoring, credit scores, and action plans are among the best in the industry, which also explains its premium price.

IdentityForce: Final verdict

To put it in a nutshell, IdentityForce's basic plan may not meet your requirements since it does not include credit monitoring services. You'll need to get its UltraSecure Plus Credit plan, starting at $34.90 per month.

While it includes all key identity theft protection features such as dark web monitoring, advanced fraud monitoring, real-time detections, a sleek dashboard, personalized action plans, and an Identity Safety Score, its pricing is on the higher side. There are cheaper options, such as LifeLock or Aura, starting at $10.42 per month and $12 per month, respectively.

That said, IdentityForce is one of the few identity theft protection platforms offered by a credit bureau itself – TransUnion. This means you get direct access to credit reports, scores, and financial information without relying on third-party aggregators, making IdentityForce one of the best credit monitoring tools on the market.

So, if you are someone who juggles a lot of financial accounts, investments, and credit and needs a reliable credit monitoring and identity theft protection tool, IdentityForce is a strong option. However, if credit monitoring isn't your main concern and you are on a tighter budget, you might consider other options such as Aura or LifeLock.

We've also highlighted the best identity theft protection services.

Boomerang is a popular name that comes up when discussing the best parental control apps. This Android-first application offers several features you’d come to expect when looking to monitor your child’s online activities. However, it does one better by offering its proprietary SPIN browser, which automatically filters a lot of harmful content without you having to do the heavy lifting.

Beyond that, this app promises 24/7 location tracking, message monitoring and a more positive approach to app control, although there are vast differences between the experience you get on Android when compared to iOS.

Read on as we dissect Boomerang, exploring its features, pricing, and in-use experience, to help you find out whether it's the right choice for your household.

Boomerang review: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Boomerang)

Boomerang is, hands down, one of the cheapest parental control applications you can find on the market. Its single-device license costs only $19.99 per year, which boils down to around $1.67 per month. That’s significantly cheaper than Mobicip’s Lite plan, which costs around $3 per month.

If you want to protect more than one child, you can opt for Boomerang’s family plan, which costs only $40 per year and covers up to 10 devices. That's around $0.33 per device per month. It’s safe to say that you won’t find a more affordable parental control application on the market.

To add to this, Boomerang also offers a limited free plan (read: 14-day free trial) that lets you try everything the platform has to offer without any limitations. You get access to all its Android & iOS protection features along with customer support during this trial period.

Another handy feature is that none of the plans auto-renew when the subscription period ends, giving you enough time to review your subscription and decide for yourself whether you want to continue with Boomerang.

Boomerang review: Features

With Boomerang, there’s a lot of disparity between the features available on Android and iOS, with the latter missing out on many of the features Boomerang has to offer.

For instance, when it comes to screen time limits, Android devices allow you to allocate screen time (for example, one hour per day) or schedule screen time, such as from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can also inform the child of how much screen time they have left for the day. However, on iOS, you can only schedule screen time, and none of these additional features are available.

(Image credit: Boomerang)

Similarly, app control is much better on Android. Boomerang lets you set per-app schedules, add daily time limits to individual apps, and block apps entirely. However, none of these features are available on iOS, where you can only hide user-installed apps based on age ratings.

In a similar vein, Android offers a lot of call safety features. Parents can view who called, how long the call lasted, and when the conversation took place. They also have the ability to block specific numbers from calling in or out and allow only specific numbers to contact their children’s devices. However, all of these features are missing from the iOS version.

The same goes for text messaging and safety features. While parents can view text message logs and even read their contents on Android, this is simply not possible on iOS devices. Boomerang does a good job of notifying parents about texts from unknown numbers or those containing inappropriate words. You can also add specific words to your family group’s dictionary to detect them in text messages.

(Image credit: Boomerang)

However, there are certain features that work equally well on both Android and iOS. For instance, location tracking works across both platforms, you can access location histories and automatic location reporting, and parents can set up impressive geofenced radii on both, too.

And no matter what platform you use, you’ll get access to a family messaging group, one-on-one chatting and activity reporting. On both platforms you’ll get to see your child’s web history and block certain websites you do not approve of. The SPIN safe browser works on both platforms, and you can block specific websites on both, too.

However, Android’s reporting is much stronger thanks to detailed email summaries, daily reports, lists of installed apps, and per-app usage reporting. Android is also the only platform where you can control installed apps and use a “find my device”-style feature on your children’s phones.

You can also pair family devices with your email address, so you don’t have to create new email accounts for your children, and you can block new app installs or allow for parental approval.

Elsewhere, Boomerang monitors YouTube history and searches on Android, and it’s one of the only parental control apps to use Samsung Knox security if you’re using Samsung devices.

(Image credit: Boomerang)

The SPIN browser impresses, too: searches in browsers like Bing, Google and Yahoo are automatically filtered and the browser has strict built-in filtering. It doesn’t have a private browsing mode, those content filters can be customized, and its filter watches out for 20 different categories of potentially inappropriate content.

(Image credit: Boomerang)

Less impressive is Boomerang’s social media functionality. It doesn’t natively monitor social media apps or emails in the same way as Bark, for instance. The app will pick up certain things by tracking messaging and typing, and you can add social media sites to its web filters – but it’s not as good as Bark or Qustodio here.

At least, because you’ve got control over what apps are installed, you can prevent your children from installing social media tools in the first place.

Boomerang review: Interface and in-use

It’s not unusual for the installation and setup of parental control apps to be a bit fiddly, and that’s certainly the case with Boomerang.

To get call and SMS monitoring, you’ll have to install Android apps on your children’s devices via the Boomerang website, rather than the Google Play Store. You may also have to delve into the settings on the device to allow for non-store installations.

Thankfully, the parent apps can just be downloaded from Google Play or the App Store, and it’s far easier. And when everything is set up, the interface is a mixed bag: the phone app is relatively slick, but the web dashboard is archaic and harder to use when compared to the web interfaces offered by most rivals.

(Image credit: Boomerang)Boomerang review: Support

Boomerang has certainly improved its support over the years. At the time of writing, you'll find a neat help button in the bottom-right corner of the website. At first glance, it looks like a chatbot, but it's actually a search tool that lets you type in your query and returns a list of relevant help articles from Boomerang's extensive online knowledge base.

(Image credit: Boomerang)

We tried it with a couple of search queries and found the results to be accurate. You can then click on a search result to open the relevant help article. If that doesn't solve your issue, you can select Contact Us from the same dialog box and submit a support ticket. However, Boomerang doesn't clearly state how long it will take to receive a response.

Boomerang review: The competition

We’ve already established that it is pretty difficult to beat Boomerang when it comes to pricing. With prices as low as $0.33 per month per device on the family plan, Boomerang is definitely one of the cheapest parental control software options you can get.

However, it does have a few competitors that might beat it when it comes to overall value for money and features. Mobicip is one such application, with plans starting at just $2.99 per month and allowing you to manage up to five devices. While it is a tad costlier than Boomerang, it is well known for its robust screen time limits and schedule management.

That said, you cannot set app limits with Mobicip until you upgrade to its premium plan, which costs $7.99 per month.

While Boomerang does offer geofencing and location tracking, these features are still in the experimental stage, and the geofencing radius is not particularly wide. Norton Family, on the other hand, offers a much larger geofencing radius of up to 3,200 meters.

Besides that, applications like Bark and Qustodio offer better features on the iOS platform, whereas Boomerang falls far behind when it comes to iOS functionality.

Boomerang review: Final verdict

Whether you should opt for Boomerang depends entirely on the type of device your child is using. If they are using Android, Boomerang is still one of the more capable parental control software options you can get. It offers a wide range of features on Android, including the ability to set dedicated screen time limits along with per-app daily limits and scheduling.

You also get detailed text message and call safety features, including the ability to allow only specific contacts to call or message your child. The location tracking is fairly decent, showing recent device locations and location history, along with the ability to request your child’s location at any time.

Best of all, this comes at one of the most affordable prices you’ll find on the market, costing just $20 per year for a single child and $40 per year for a family plan, which covers 10 devices.

That said, Boomerang lacks dedicated social media monitoring. Another major drawback is its limited iOS feature set. For instance, there’s no call or text monitoring on iOS, and important features like app controls and screen time management features are also significantly more limited. In that case, you may want to look at other options such as Bark or Qustodio, which offer a broader range of features on iOS.

• We've picked out the best parental control software

Mobicip is positioned as one of the best parental control app for busy parents who want to restrict the impact of Big Tech on their children’s lives.

The company claims that “more than 2 million parents” love its app, and that it can protect kids from social media, apps, websites and excessive screen time. And it's also got Family Voice and Mom’s Choice Awards, which prove its mettle.

We put Mobicip to the test to see whether it lives up to the hype and expectations. In this article, we discuss its pricing, features, interface, and overall user experience. We also compare it with other parental control software available to see where it stands in a crowded market.

Mobicip: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Mobicip’s pricing structure has its highs and lows. The biggest advantage is its affordable entry-level plan (Lite), which costs just $2.99 per month and allows you to manage up to five devices. It includes almost all the parental control features you’d need, such as screen time limits, website blocking, and detailed activity reports.

However, this plan lacks social media monitoring and app timers, both of which are key features of parental control applications. The Standard plan costs $4.99 per month and allows you to manage up to 10 devices, but it does not offer any additional features.

If you need social media monitoring and app limits, you’ll need Mobicip’s Premium plan, which costs $7.99 per month, or around $96 per year. This plan includes protection for up to 20 devices and every feature that Mobicip offers. And if you need to monitor more than 20 devices, you can request a custom quote from Mobicip’s sales team by filling out an online form.

Qustodio, meanwhile, costs $9.16 per month if billed annually and that includes support for unlimited devices, and Norton Family is even cheaper ($49.99 for the entire year). Bark is more expensive, though, but does go further than almost anything else when it comes to social media monitoring.

Overall, Mobicip is on the affordable end of the spectrum when it comes to parental control applications. Its Premium package is still the best value by some way thanks to its features. And, pleasingly, there’s a 7-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee.

Mobicip: Features

Mobicip’s screen time scheduling is immediately impressive. Parents can create specific schedules for homework, sleeping or school time.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Daily screen time limits are available and, in an innovative twist on screen time features, parents can call for “family time” by locking all managed devices instantly – perfect for grabbing people’s attention.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

You can create an unlimited number of custom filters, build schedules with five-minute increments, and allow or restrict apps or websites based on categories, too. There’s also a Vacation Mode feature that parents can deploy to allow more leniency.

This is comfortably one of the best scheduling tools on the market thanks to its great set of features – the only thing missing is the ability to set time limits for individual apps.

If you want to ensure that phones don’t capture attention, Mobicip allows parents to limit time spent on apps that hit certain categories, like social media or games, and particular apps can also be blocked entirely – while others can be put on a safe list.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Mobicip’s web filtering comes with 20 different categories of inappropriate content alongside the ability to block adult content, block specific words and block specific websites. Parents can also use a “whitelist-only” mode that allows children to only browse a list of pre-approved sites.

GPS functionality extends to a family locator tool, location sharing and geofencing – an ideal slate of location-specific options, even if Mobicip doesn’t have the innovative driving abilities found in some rival tools.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Its geofencing includes a 1,000m radius, which is more generous than many other apps – even if Norton is wider still. However, Mobicip doesn't offer live driving tracking or driving statistics, which are features available with providers like Net Nanny.

When it comes to reporting, parents can access a slick dashboard that provides browsing histories, location histories, your children’s access requests and a graphical representation of screen time usage displaying the categories of content your kids use the most – like social media apps, games or browsers.

Children also have access to a dashboard where they can request more screen time or ask to access blocked apps. And if you want multiple people to be able to manage the app, parents can add trusted guardians or contacts using a straightforward and secure invitation system.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

We found this to be a unique feature that is not offered by many parental control apps and is especially useful for families with grandparents or co-parenting households.

Elsewhere, Mobicip monitors Facebook and Snapchat for harmful content, but that’s it for social media monitoring – a poor showing compared to most rivals and, notably, Bark.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Bark monitors more than 30 platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp, all of which Mobicip misses out on. Additionally, these apps can only be monitored on Android devices and still lack iOS support, which is a bit of a letdown.

You can’t set time limits for individual apps on Mobicip, only categories of apps, and Mobicip doesn’t monitor text messages or calls.

Mobicip: Interface and in-use

It’s very easy to get started with Mobicip: download the app, allow permissions, and off you go. And, impressively, Mobicip works across loads of platforms, from Android and iOS to Windows, macOS, Chromebook and even Kindle.

One thing we liked about Mobicip is that it preconfigures many settings and filters based on your child’s age when you set up their profile. This is particularly useful for busy parents who don’t want to spend hours configuring everything from scratch.

In-depth guides make setup and configuration even easier, and parents can duplicate settings across multiple child devices – ideal for families with more than one child.

(Image credit: Mobicip)

Mobicip’s web interfaces and apps are clean, intuitive and easy to use, too: for kids, it’s easy to check their screen time allowances and schedules. For parents, it’s simple to find every setting required and to access activity reports and analytics.

Mobicip: Support

This is another area where Mobicip goes above and beyond many rivals. As well as submitting a support ticket, parents can schedule a call with Mobicip’s customer service teams – ideal if you want to speak to a human.

An AI-powered chatbot provides answers to simpler questions, and there are loads of guides with useful imagery on Mobicip’s website. It’s a good support option, with callbacks available alongside more conventional email support and loads of comprehensive articles.

Mobicip: The competition

Mobicip is a strong contender when it comes to parental control, but it still has rivals that are better in some areas.

For instance, Norton Family costs $49.99 per year, which is cheaper than Mobicip’s Standard plan. It offers comprehensive social media monitoring across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Mobicip, on the other hand, can monitor only Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Additionally, Bark is a much better option for social media monitoring, covering more than 30 applications. That said, Bark is a more expensive option, costing around $14 per month for its full feature set.

Then there’s Qustodio, which is only slightly more expensive than Mobicip, with an effective monthly cost of $9.16. However, this plan allows you to add unlimited devices and monitor your child’s calls and messages – something that Mobicip cannot do.

Mobicip: Final verdict

Mobicip impresses in loads of departments. Its filtering is effective, and its screen time and scheduling options are among the best you’ll find anywhere. Its location-tracking features are strong, too, and this app is attractive and easy to use for parents and children.

Customer support is excellent, its activity reporting is comprehensive, and it does some innovative things with scheduling and screen time that some rivals simply don’t offer – like its Vacation Mode or Family Time settings.

You get all of these features at fairly affordable prices, starting at just $2.99 per month with Mobicip’s Lite plan. If you want to unlock the full range of features, you’ll need to spend around $7.99 per month, which is comparable to other social media monitoring applications.

However, Mobicip’s biggest drawback is its lack of message and call monitoring, along with its limited social media monitoring capabilities. If those features are important to you, you may need to look elsewhere and consider alternatives such as Bark or Qustodio.

• We've also featured the best free parental control software

There are few more prominent names in cybersecurity than Norton. Norton Family tries to leverage that recognition and trust into one of the best parental control apps that protects your children when they’re using the internet.

With a wide feature set that includes screen time controls, inappropriate content filters, app restrictions, and location checkers, it’s clear that Norton Family provides many of the options that busy families with digitally savvy children need.

Some of the features have more depth than you’ll find on other parental control apps, too, but there are questions about how effective Norton Family is on Apple’s iOS platform. So, let’s find out if Norton’s product is the right option for protecting your children.

Norton Family: Plans and pricing

Norton Family gets off to an impressive start: it costs just $49.99/£29.99 per year. That stellar price undercuts many rivals – top tools like Qustodio and Bark cost $89.36/£69.95 and $99 for a year of access to their upper-tier products.

Because Norton offers so many consumer cybersecurity products, it’s easy to get Norton Family included in other products. Norton 360 Deluxe, for instance, includes Norton’s parental control features alongside a secure VPN, dark web monitoring, and scam protection. It costs $49.99/£29.99 for the first year, with a renewal price of $119.99/£89.99.

And if you want to add even more features, such as Norton’s identity theft protection and credit monitoring, Norton 360 Premium or Select Plus costs $99.99/£99.99.

Those prices may look high, but remember that they’re for broader security products that happen to include Norton Family features, so they still represent excellent value.

If you’re still unsure if Norton Family is right for you, there’s a 30-day free trial – a generous offer that’s longer than many other free trials. Bear in mind, though, that there’s no unrestricted free version of Norton Family, as is the case with tools like Boomerang.

Norton Family: Features

Web filtering is one of Norton Family’s strongest areas. Parents can block websites using 45 pre-defined categories of inappropriate content, including porn, violence, gambling, and alcohol, which is more than many rivals.

What we like most about Norton Family is the ability to set restriction levels for websites instead of blocking them outright. Parents can choose from four restriction levels: Very High, High, Moderate, and Low, depending on the age of the child. For instance, the High restriction level is ideal for children under 10 years of age.

Alternatively, Moderate and Low restriction levels are meant for older teenagers, who’ll see a warning before accessing restricted content but can still choose to visit the website. You can also create custom restrictions in case you want your child to be able to visit a particular website but receive a notification every time they do.

The impressive filtering extends to apps, too. Parents are presented with a list of apps installed on child devices, blocking is simple, and each app has an activity report for parents to see when the app was installed and how much it’s used. Newly-installed apps are even given a special highlight on Android devices.

(Image credit: Norton)

The only thing missing here is the ability to set app time limits – a feature you’ll find on many rivals, including Qustodio.

Norton also monitors the terms and phrases your child searches on popular search engines such as Google, Bing, YouTube, Ask, and Yahoo. There's also an option to always enable safe searching across various browsers on Android – but on iOS, this only works using Norton’s own browser. Also note that Norton Family doesn’t work on child Mac OS devices at all.

Norton’s screen time schedules can be built in thirty-minute increments – that’s fine, but apps like Mobicip allow more granular control. Parents can set screen time limits on different days or just restrict devices at night, and it also has a selection of effective pre-defined schedules for children of different ages.

There’s also a specific module for setting more restrictive limits during school hours – that education option includes additional web filtering to further restrict the content children can access. Kids can request more screen time – a feature you’ll find in Mobicip but not in Qustodio – and screen time reports are displayed easily, with clear graphs showing usage.

(Image credit: Norton)

Norton Family includes the usual array of location-based features. There’s real-time tracking, and the geofencing tool includes a generous radius of 3,200m (2 miles) – the largest we’ve seen on any parental control app.

Parents can set up alerts to find out where kids are located at particular times of day. Norton’s emphasis on trusting children also extends to an option where kids can perform check-ins and choose to share their location – rather than parents automatically viewing the location.

We particularly liked Norton’s detailed Family Activity reports, which give you a quick snapshot of all your child’s activity. This includes your child’s device usage time, allowing you to check the total number of hours they have spent on their phone.

There’s also a pretty handy video summary that lets you know about the videos your child has been watching, including details such as the date and time, title of the video, and its category. Besides this, you get a comprehensive web summary that provides information on the websites your child has visited, as well as an app summary.

(Image credit: Norton)

Elsewhere, Norton allows parents to instantly lock child devices and prevent app uninstallation with additional security features. However, Norton doesn’t support certain features on iOS. For instance, web content filtering and Safe Search enforcement only work through the Norton Browser on iOS. Similarly, search supervision and video supervision also work only on the Norton Browser on both Android and iOS, while app supervision is not available on iOS at all.

Norton Family also lacks in certain other areas, which prevents it from becoming an automatic first choice. For starters, there’s no dedicated social media monitoring. Parents have to rely on app limitations and keyword alerts if they want to monitor their child’s activity on social media platforms. Norton Family cannot directly read your child’s conversations on various social messaging apps.

Additionally, Norton cannot monitor calls or text messages either. If these are important features for you, you may want to consider other options such as Bark or Qustodio.

Norton Family: Interface and in-use

Norton’s parental control apps are available on Android, iOS and the Edge, Chrome and Firefox browsers, while child apps can be installed on Android, Windows and iOS devices.

No matter what platform you’re using, Norton Family is very easy to set up with a familiar process that requires account registration and allowing the typical range of app permissions on child devices.

(Image credit: Norton)

The kids apps allow children to browse the web using the Norton Family Browser and it’s easy for children to find the option to send a check-in to parents, see the rules they’ve been set, or ask for a time extension.

Parent apps are similarly well designed, with clean design and options in sensible places. Altering settings is simple, and the app's web version is just as straightforward to use.

Norton Family: Support

Norton Family’s entry-level support module includes loads of helpful, well-produced guides and a busy forum for asking questions. If you need to contact Norton support, there are phone and live chat options that are open 24/7 – the benefit of dealing with a large business like Norton rather than a smaller organization that can’t provide that level of access.

If you’d like more support, including faster access to experts, then you can also pay for Norton Ultimate Help Desk. This provides quicker and more comprehensive support, but it costs $99.99/£99.99 annually.

Also note that Norton’s array of support options doesn’t always mean you’ll get a good answer.

The sheer size of Norton means that some users report that some of Norton’s customer support representatives are not particularly helpful with queries about Norton Family features – if you’ve got a specific query then you’ll need to get lucky and land a knowledgeable support representative if you don’t want to get generic and vague answers.

Norton Family: The competition

If we break down Norton Family’s annual pricing, it comes to just around $4.16 per month, making it more affordable than most other parental control providers out there. For instance, Bark, one of the leading players in this field, charges around $14 per month for its full suite of features. But that includes the ability to monitor your child’s texts, along with more comprehensive app controls covering 30+ apps.

If you want something cheaper than Norton Family, you can go with Mobicip, whose Lite plan costs only $2.99 per month and offers great scheduling and screen time management. Elsewhere, the features are very similar to what you get with Norton Family, but keep in mind that you'll have to deal with a lack of social media monitoring and app limits with this budget Mobicip plan.

In our research, we found that Norton Family is still better than Qustodio’s basic plan (cost similar to Norton Family at $59.95/year), which only offers web filtering, location monitoring, app blocking, and daily time limits. To unlock more advanced features, such as social media monitoring, call and message monitoring, and application insights, you’ll need to get a higher-priced plan that costs almost twice as much as Norton Family.

Norton Family: Final verdict

Norton Family, then, sits in a tricky spot. It’s a good pick if you’re looking for a good, well-rounded parental control app, plus it helps that it’s included with many other Norton apps too. It offers an excellent range of features, including web content filtering, Safe Search, app supervision, screen time schedules, and real-time location tracking.

In addition to offering one of the widest geofencing ranges (2 miles), Norton Family is also on the affordable end of the spectrum, costing just $49.99 for the entire year. However, it comes with its fair share of compromises.

Norton Family doesn't offer dedicated social media monitoring and cannot monitor calls or text messages. It also lacks per-app time limits, and certain features, such as web filtering and search supervision, are quite limited on iOS devices. If these limitations break the deal for you, consider alternatives such as Bark, Qustodio, or Mobicip.

• We've also featured the best free parental control software

Net Nanny may be one of the oldest names in the parental control software business, but it's kept adding new features, and the latest edition includes tools you won't always see in the younger competition.

The app's web content filtering doesn't rely on simple blacklists and site categories, for instance - it uses real-time content analysis to detect issues on every web page your child tries to access. There's smarter YouTube monitoring, too, with search and viewing histories.

The company hasn't forgotten the basics, and you can also block or restrict app usage, limit screen time, and view detailed reports on your child's recent activities.

Tracking tools include the ability to view the location (and location history) of all your children on a single map. Net Nanny has added geofencing support, too, allowing you to define important locations (home, school, grandma's, whatever you need) and get alerts when a child leaves or arrives.

Read on for a detailed look into Net Nanny's offerings and whether it's the right fit for your needs.

• Interested in Net Nanny? Check out the website here

Net Nanny: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Net Nanny)

Net Nanny's pricing is a little more complicated than usual, with three plans on offer.

The first protects a single desktop for $40 a year. This boils down to a super-affordable $3.33 per month, making it one of the cheapest parental control monitoring apps around. Sure, Mobicip does have a Lite plan that costs only $2.99 per month, but it does not come with the full range of features offered by Net Nanny.

The second covers up to five desktop or mobile devices for $55, and the third protects up to 20 devices for an annual $90.

(As we write, the company says these prices are discounted, with '30% off for a limited time.' A quick visit to the Wayback Machine showed Net Nanny offering the same prices six months ago, though, so it doesn't seem that limited. Still, it's possible the prices will be significantly higher by the time you read this.)

There are significantly cheaper apps around, though. For instance, Mobicip plans start at just $2.99/month and allow you to monitor up to five devices.Now, Net Nanny used to offer a 14-day free trial with its Android app. However, it has now done away with any free trial, and you’ll need to purchase a subscription right away to use the application. This is a bit of a letdown, since competitors like Bark offer a 7-day free trial.

Net Nanny: Supported platforms

When we last tested Net Nanny, it still supported Android devices. However, since the beginning of 2024, the provider has stated that it no longer supports Android, Kindle Fire, and Chromebook devices. As of now, Net Nanny works only on devices running Windows (10 and above), macOS 10.13 to macOS 11.x, and iOS 11 and higher.

Now, while you may still be able to operate Net Nanny on Windows and iOS devices, its macOS support is pretty outdated. For context, macOS 11 Big Sur was launched back in November 2020, with the current version being macOS 26 Tahoe, released in September 2025. This means Net Nanny’s Mac support is five major versions behind the current macOS version.

Most Mac devices bought in the last four to five years would be running at least macOS 12 Monterey, while the oldest macOS version that still receives Apple security updates is macOS 14 Sonoma. This means that Net Nanny’s macOS support sits entirely outside the range of Apple’s supported and patched operating systems, making its macOS support practically unusable.

Net Nanny: Setup

Net Nanny's setup process began when we installed the parent's app. We entered our email address and chose a password to create an account, selected the free three-day trial, and the app launched a wizard to help us begin.

This can look a little intimidating, but there's a plus in NetNanny's live chat support (Monday to Friday, 10am to 7pm EST.) It's not 24/7, but it beats many smaller companies, which often provide support via email only. It was also good to see the company send us an email with more instructions, so even if we had to give up on our current session, we'd have guidance on what to do next.

We followed Net Nanny's advice, visiting install.netnanny.com on our child's Android app, clicking a link to visit the relevant Google Play page, and installing the app.

This prompted us to log in and create our child's basic profile - name, gender and age - and then walked us through the process of approving various Android permissions (device administrator, location, content checking.) There are a lot, but they're necessary for parental control apps, where you're keeping a very close eye on how a device is being used.

Finally, Net Nanny prompted us to manually enable Safe Search in the Google app. That's good advice, but many apps do this automatically, and some do the same with other search engines (Kaspersky can enforce Safe Search with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex.)

The Safe Search setting isn't protected, either, so your child could simply disable it later. That's not automatically a disaster, as even if your child finds dubious content in a search, it should be blocked by Net Nanny's filter, but it's still a weakness in the system.

Net Nanny: Screen time

Schedule screen time and set daily limits for your child (Image credit: Net Nanny)

Net Nanny gave our test 9-year-old unlimited screen time by default, but that's easy to change. We were able to set separate usage time limits for every day of the week, and with a precise number of minutes each time (many apps support only 15 or 30-minute increments, and Mobicip schedules usage time in one-hour blocks only.)

When screen time is up, you can opt to pause the device, prevent app usage, or just block internet access. That's a handy level of control you won't get with most apps.

(Image credit: Net Nanny)

We couldn't initially find any way to schedule specific times when a device could be used, for example, to block device access from bedtime until the morning. The Help site pointed us in the right direction: for some reason, Net Nanny places time scheduling in an entirely different area of the control panel, doesn't link them, and doesn't highlight the feature later (it's the bottom option of a drop-down list.)

Once you find it, though, the scheduler works more or less as expected, allowing you to allow or deny internet access in one-hour blocks throughout the day. Many apps only support a single range ('8am to 9pm'), but Net Nanny's approach gives you far more control, for example allowing you to deny device use at mealtimes (5-6pm) and restore it for an hour or two afterward.

(Image credit: Net Nanny)Net Nanny: Content filtering

Net nanny allows you to block inappropriate websites on both mobile and desktop (Image credit: Net Nanny)

Most parental control apps filter web content using blacklists and whitelists, but Net Nanny is much smarter. Real-time text analysis looks for dubious content as it's accessed, giving the app a chance of blocking even brand new dangers. And Net Nanny even takes account of context, enabling it to tell the difference between a Wikipedia article that references drugs in a responsible and relevant way, and a site that really, really doesn't.

Net Nanny's content filtering can be customized using 14 categories: Drugs, Porn, Suicide, Weapons and more. Each category has three settings: always block, always allow, or an intermediate 'alert' (the child can access the content, but you'll be warned they've done so.)

You can also block web content by category (Image credit: Net Nanny)

You can also add custom filters that block content including a specific keyword or phrase. That gives you a lot of control but could block some worthwhile sites, as you won't fully benefit from Net Nanny's context-sensitive analysis. Adding 'suicide' or 'self-harm' might prevent access to genuinely dangerous forums, for instance, but may also block access to useful mental health resources.

If you need more control, Net Nanny supports building your own custom lists of sites it'll always allow, or always block. That's particularly handy if your child finds a blocked site she thinks should be available. Tap 'Request Access' in the child's app, the parent app raises an alert, and if it looks reasonable, you can add the site to the child's whitelist with a tap.

A bonus 'Mask Profanity' feature tries to mask swear words, replacing them with hash signs (####.) This didn't quite work 100% of the time but did much better than we expected. After we entered our favorite profanities at Google, for instance, Net Nanny masked our original search term, then hid it in all but one of our search terms, too.

Although this worked as expected, Net Nanny's child app crashed a couple of times during the review, leaving us to access whatever sites we like. That might be an issue relating to our specific device or its setup, but it's an issue we've not seen with other providers, and has to be a concern.

Net Nanny: App management

(Image credit: Net Nanny)

Net Nanny supports viewing the apps on your child's Windows device, getting alerts about newly installed apps, and blocking anything unsuitable.

There's support for blocking iOS apps, too, but only from an approved list. That's not unusual, though - iOS doesn't allow parental control apps as much power as Android - and Net Nanny's list is at least a long one, with around 125 top apps.

Whatever your platform, making this happen is easy - just scroll down the app list and tap Allow or Block as necessary. Social Media is listed as a separate category, allowing you to block all social media apps with a tap.

If that's too extreme, you can selectively block or allow individual platforms as necessary. An intermediate 'Protect' setting allows access but uses Net Nanny's content filters to block dangerous content. It's only available on a few sites, but they're all big names: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube.

We tried this with some custom keywords, and it delivered. If we set our filter to 'Block', Net Nanny didn't display content which contained the test keywords; if we set it to 'Alert', our test device could view the content, but we saw a warning in the Parent's dashboard.

What you don't get is any option to limit app use by time. ESET Parental Controls can set app usage to a set number of minutes, or a scheduled time of day, potentially very useful ('you can play that game, but only for 30 minutes of your three hours, and only in the evenings.')

Net Nanny: Location tracking

See where your kids are on a map on your smartphone or desktop (Image credit: Net Nanny)

Tapping Net Nanny's Location tab displays the location of your child's device on a regular Google map, with nearby stores and businesses highlighted, and we even got access to Street View when accessing our dashboard via a browser. That could be useful if you don't immediately recognize a location, or you're wondering why your child is there, and it's an improvement on the plain street-name-only maps you'll get with some parental control apps.

Net Nanny detected and displayed our location correctly, and it didn't stop with the usual pin icon, either. It also displayed our approximate address, and how long we'd been there.

By default, Net Nanny displays the current location, but a toggle at the bottom of the screen shows location history, instead. That's a useful and unusual extra, although one or two apps deliver even more (Kidslox also displays location history over a week, and adds journeys in the last 24 hours, too.)

Tapping the location marker accesses Net Nanny's basic geofencing support. You can give the location a name (Home, School), though there's no way to edit the address (ours was a few buildings out.) You're able to tell Net Nanny whether you'd like to be alerted when your child arrives at the location, leaves, or both. You can apply the same rules to everyone in your family, too, so you don't have to set them up separately.

This has some major limits. You can only use a place one of your children has visited before, for instance. There's no way to set up a zone in advance, so you're notified when they arrive somewhere they've never been before, which might be one of the key reasons for setting up geofencing in the first place.

There's no option to set zone size, either, so Net Nanny can't reliably be used as a general location monitor, for instance, to raise the alert if your child is more than a quarter of a mile from home.

Plus, location tracking only works for iPhone and not Windows or Mac devices. If you can live with those issues, though, Net Nanny's mapping features are easy to use, and its location history is a welcome plus.

Net Nanny: Monitoring

Family Feed provides activity reports for all of your children (Image credit: Net Nanny)

Net Nanny's web dashboard includes several useful monitoring tools. You can watch your child's remaining screen time count down, for instance, and look at reports of how it's been used in the past week, or month.

A Searches tab shows recent internet history searches, their time, and the device where they were used.

A YouTube panel correctly showed our YouTube searches. A 'Seen' tab should display the videos we'd watched, but it remained blank throughout the review.

There are no tools for monitoring calls and texts, or managing your child's contacts. Check out Qustodio or Boomerang if that's a problem.

You can track your child's location and general activities using Net Nanny's Family Feed (Image credit: Net Nanny)

Net Nanny scores for its reporting, though, with a Family Feed view which not only summarises recent events, it adds useful links to explain common issues, and even points you to articles with useful guidance ('GroupMe & Other Dangerous Apps Parents Should Know'). It's a great way to make sense of what's happening, especially important if you've a lot of kids generating warnings, and a welcome plus for the service.

Net Nanny: The competition

It’s not difficult to point out that Net Nanny is not yet a complete parental monitoring solution and comes with a few drawbacks, the biggest of which is the lack of a message monitoring feature. This is why apps like Bark have consistently had an edge over Net Nanny.

While Bark may be on the expensive side, with its monitoring app costing $14 per month, it comes with all the bells and whistles you require to keep a constant check on your child’s activity. For instance, it supports both Android and iOS devices, making phone and location monitoring easy.

You also get a 7-day free trial with Bark, whereas Net Nanny has done away with its 14-day trial, which is no longer offered. Plus, you can add unlimited devices at this price, whereas Net Nanny can protect a maximum of 20 devices with its highest-tier plan.

While Net Nanny is already pretty affordable, with an effective cost of just $3.33 per month, it can quickly become expensive if you’re trying to monitor more than one device. This is why you could look at options like Mobicip, which offers a Lite plan at just $2.99 per month, allowing you to manage up to five devices.

You get all the basic features, such as website blockers, screen time limits, activity reports, and the ability to remotely lock your child’s device from anywhere.

Final verdict

Net Nanny is a robust parental monitoring application, especially if you’re trying to track your child’s iPhone, Mac, or Windows devices. It offers a solid set of features, such as screen time monitoring, content filtering, and app management, all of which are easy to use and worked pretty well during our testing.

That said, it does have a few drawbacks, such as the lack of proactive geofencing and Android support. Even so, it remains on the cheaper end of the market, costing just $40 per year, which boils down to $3.33 per month. Only a few providers, such as Mobicip, are able to beat this price.

However, Net Nanny does not support the latest versions of macOS, with the last supported version being around five years old, which significantly impacts its usability. If you’re looking for Android tracking, you’ll need to consider other options such as Bark or Qustodio.

• We've also featured the best free parental control software

If you’ve spent any time researching the best parental control apps, then you will have heard of Qustodio – it’s one of the most prominent names in the sector. It’s been around for over a decade, it’s been trusted by over seven million parents, and the app’s systems have averted over three billion threats.

That’s an impressive resume and, on paper, it’s backed by an impressive slate of features, too. But can Qustodio earn your vote ahead of big rivals like Bark, Norton Family or MMGuardian?

Read on as we put Qustodio to the ultimate test, examining its features and in-use experience to see whether it delivers good value for the price it commands.

Plans and Pricing

(Image credit: Qustodio)

The Qustodio experience starts with a refreshingly straightforward look at pricing, with two paid tiers available.

The Basic package offers core functionality and costs $59.95 a year – the equivalent of just $5 per month.

With the Basic package, you get daily time limits, web filtering, location monitoring, game and app blocking and the ability to pause internet access for your children’s phones. It’s a solid core product with a more generous offer than the basic package you’ll find elsewhere.

However, I found this plan to be a tad too restrictive. For instance, Norton Family ($49.99/year) comes with everything the product has to offer, including Search Supervision and Instant Lock, which Qustodio doesn’t offer.

The Complete product, at $109.95 annually, adds AI-powered alerts, social media monitoring, custom routines, app time limits and additional monitoring, and allows parents to add unlimited devices to the account.

It’s a decent offer, especially when many premium products restrict how many devices you can monitor. Bark and MMGuardian are both pricier than Qustodio, but Norton Family is even cheaper.

There’s a free version of Qustodio, too, that offers web filtering, daily time limits, 7-day activity reports and the ability to pause the internet, but it only protects one device, so it’s understandably limited.

That said, not many parental control applications offer a free plan in the first place. Qustodio’s free plan can come in handy if you want a minimum degree of supervision over your child’s activities without being too intrusive.

Features

Qustodio offers good value, then, and it also serves up a good range of features.

It’s possible to filter out inappropriate apps, games and websites easily, and pick categories for whitelisting, alerting or total blocking. Parents can access alternative recommendations to apps that kids aren’t allowed to access, and even deploy conversation starters, approved by child psychologists, to start conversations about web browsing and internet use.

With Qustodio you can block unknown websites, automatically enable safe searches in common browsers, and receive alerts if your child searches for inappropriate content.

Qustodio offers more than 25 web filtering categories, but there’s no option within the app for kids to request access to particular websites – a feature you’ll find on Norton Family.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

Qustodio allows parents to set screen time allowances for every day of the week, and also set time limits for individual apps – and use the in-built app monitoring and detection to automatically sort over 25,000 apps into categories for easier blocking or accessing.

Besides generalized app blocking, Qustodio offers a dedicated YouTube monitoring feature that allows parents to keep an eye on the kind of videos their child has been watching on YouTube.

On iOS and Android devices, Qustodio can monitor both the app and the website. On Mac and Windows, however, the app cannot be monitored, but the YouTube website remains within its monitoring capabilities.

It’s easy to create different routines and switch between them and, if you need to step in quickly, there’s an option to pause internet access on child devices or block the device completely.

And if parents want to reward their children or be a little more lenient, it’s easy to add screen time and see a new limit once that extra time has been granted.

Different rules can be used to govern screen time use between browsers and apps, there are varying “modes” that alter access for bedtime, leisure time and study time, and custom schedules are very easy to build.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

A straightforward map allows parents to track their child’s location. Not only can you view your child’s last known location, but also a detailed location history showing all the places they have visited over the last 30 days.

While Qustodio supports geofencing, we found it to be more limited than its rivals. Qustodio allows you to set up a geofence with a maximum radius of only 200 meters, which is significantly smaller than what other applications offer. Norton Family, for instance, lets you set a maximum radius of 3,200 meters, whereas Mobicip allows a maximum radius of 1,000 meters.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

Call and SMS tracking and reading are supported on both Android and iOS, with full message details available, and parents can block phone numbers on child devices. You’ll get alerts for suspect content.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

When it comes to reporting on all of this, Qustodio is similarly comprehensive. A real-time dashboard provides easy access to each child's digital activity, including an activity timeline, screen time and browsing history, and parents can access more detailed daily or weekly reports.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

Qustodio is also forging ahead with some AI-based content, too, with AI-powered alerts that notify parents of any worrying searches, conversations or social media activity based on chosen topics or categories. That’s great, but it’s worth noting that Qustodio is a little weak on social media monitoring – it monitors messages on WhatsApp, Instagram and LINE, but that’s it.

Qustodio also offers a handy panic button on Android devices, allowing a child to send emergency alerts in times of dire need. Your child simply needs to tap the SOS button on the Kids App home screen to send alerts to all trusted contacts added to their profile.

(Image credit: Qustodio)

The best part is that even if the child’s device has been locked, they can still access the panic button from the app’s lock screen. Once the child activates the SOS bubble, a message stating that the child needs help is sent to all trusted contacts, along with the child’s location details, which are refreshed every 90 seconds.

The SOS alert can be stopped when the child taps the SOS bubble a second time. However, the trusted contacts feature goes far beyond the SOS bubble. Even when a child’s phone is locked down, they can still call these trusted contacts by tapping the emergency call button.

As usual, though, be prepared that not every feature works on every platform. You don’t get WhatsApp alerts on iOS, for instance, and there’s no location, call or SMS monitoring on Mac OS or Windows. Android is the only platform that features a panic button.

Another important feature that Qustodio misses out on is email monitoring. While you might argue that children hardly use email these days, it is still a very important feature to have because many online services and social media platforms use email for account verification, notifications, and password resets. Email is also a common channel for predatory advances, phishing scams, and inappropriate marketing targeting young teenagers.

Interface and in use

Qustodio has one of the best interfaces we’ve seen on any parental control app. As well as having a straightforward layout that places everything where you’d expect, Qustodio packs its apps and web interfaces with helpful tips and explanations about features and how they work.

A selection of Quick Actions provides fast access to common tasks, and the activity summary does a fantastic job of presenting key data in an attractive and intuitive format.

Child apps are simple enough for even the youngest children to understand what’s going on, and if you’re a parent who wants to dive deeper into the settings, you won’t get lost – the effective UI continues here.

It’s typically easy to get started, too: download the app, register an account, set up child profiles and tick all of the permissions, and you’re ready to start building schedules, monitoring devices and protecting your kids.

Customer Support

Qustodio makes a big deal about ensuring that its service is easy to use for busy parents who may not have a deep understanding of technology, and this attitude extends to its support functionality.

There are loads of helpful articles in the FAQ section, many of which have screenshots, and the guides that illustrate how to set up the app, use basic features and manage your account are particularly good.

If you need support and you use the Basic package, it’s managed through a contact form – sadly there’s no phone support, chatbot or live chat available here, but users report that they always receive helpful, polite form responses within 24 hours.

If you’re a Complete user, you get access to Care Plus. This adds phone support, personalized guidance and ongoing check-ins for parents who want more from their parental control app. And, impressively, Care Plus has an average resolution rate of 97% and an average resolution time of 15 minutes.

While it’s included for free with the Complete package, it costs $10.21/£7.99 to add it to the Basic product.

One drawback of this pricing structure is that if you’re on the Basic plan and encounter a technical issue, you’ll have to rely on automated chatbots and email support, which could take a day or two to resolve your problem. If you need immediate support, it would cost you around $13 extra, which might not be worth the additional expense.

The Competition

Qustodio has increased its prices since we last reviewed it and now falls into the same price range as many other parental control applications. There are still cheaper options available, though.

Norton Family, priced at $49.99 per year, can be a good alternative, especially if you already use Norton’s line of security products. Like Qustodio, it also lacks comprehensive social media monitoring. However, Norton allows your kids to request access to blocked sites, which Qustodio doesn’t, while also offering a wider range of website filtering rules. Unlike Qustodio, however, Norton does not support call or SMS monitoring, which can be a significant difference between the two.

Another affordable option is Mobicip, with pricing starting at just $2.99 per month, which comes to around $36 per year. However, at this price, you do not get social media monitoring or the ability to set time limits for specific applications. That said, this could be a fair trade-off if you’re looking for an affordable alternative to Qustodio.

Bark is probably Qustodio’s best competitor, although it costs around $14/month. It’s far better with social media, but is more limited on iOS and doesn’t provide a full web history.

Final Verdict

Those factors leave Qustodio looking like a particularly strong parental control option. It has superb filtering, scheduling and screen time options, AI-based additions, solid location features and excellent design, reporting and platform support.

Its customer support is great if you have the Complete product, the apps are all easy to use, and the pricing is fair, too – either competing or undercutting many rivals.

Plus, it’s one of the very few parental control applications that offers a free forever plan. Sure, it is limited and does not provide the full range of features, but it still lets you add web filters, pause internet access, and enable Safe Search on your children’s devices, along with seven-day activity reports. This is enough if you simply want to be aware of your children’s online activities without being too intrusive.

The only downside is weak social media monitoring and a relatively small geofencing zone. That social media monitoring drawback could be a dealbreaker for many families but, in almost every other area, Qustodio is a winner – it’s one of the best parental control apps on the market.

• We've also featured the best free parental control software

Marshall Acton IV review

Marshall has refreshed its mid-sized home speaker, which promises enhanced bass, dynamic loudness tech and improved tweeters, among other things. Yes, the Marshall Acton IV looks to be quite the improvement over its predecessor, and after testing it for myself, I have to say, it certainly makes good on its promises.

Let’s start by taking a look at the tech specs. The Acton IV features a single 60W woofer alongside two 25W tweeters, helping it to produce powerful and energetic audio. It also has a frequency response of 37Hz-38kHz, meaning it can extend down seriously deep for such a compact speaker — and you can really feel the bass… more on that later.

One standout difference between the Acton IV and its predecessor is its inclusion of RCA connectivity. This makes it a great option for hooking it up to turntables, for instance, and it’s easy to switch between Bluetooth and RCA mode with the built-in source controls. 3.5mm connectivity is back too, if you want to access lossless audio — something I always look out for when testing the best Bluetooth speakers.

Although these connectivity options are all very welcome, it would have been great to see Wi-Fi playback, given that this is a speaker most people will likely keep at home. Streaming using your home's Wi-Fi network is ideal for such speakers because it provides an even more stable, higher-resoltuion quality than Bluetooth can offer, and means that notification sounds on your source device don’t play through your speaker. Still, there is LDAC this time out — something that Marshall has been keen to integrate into its consumer audio products recently, as we saw with the Marshall Milton ANC. This opens up higher-res wireless playback over Bluetooth (provided you've got a source device that supports it), and it works great if you’re streaming on platforms such as Tidal, for instance.

Despite the omission of Wi-Fi, the Acton IV does include Auracast, enabling you to create a multi-room setup with other products from the brand, such as the Marshall Heston 120 soundbar and Marshall Stanmore IV. Some older models, like the Marshall Acton III can also join the Auracast multi-room setup with the Marshall Heddon streaming hub.

I was also interested to find that the Acton IV connects to the newer ‘Marshall’ app, which has so far been restricted to the brand’s TV audio gear. It feels more intuitive and detailed than the standard app, and features a five-band equalizer, which enables you to set three presets of your liking. You can also customize the speaker’s M button to cycle between these. The app also enables you to cycle between different sources, optimize audio with a placement compensation tool, set a standby timer, and adjust the brightness of the speaker’s LED indicators. Good stuff.

One thing that may dissuade some from picking up the Acton IV is that it lacks baked-in voice assistant support. This means that it can’t act like a smart home speaker in the way that a Sonos model would, say.

(Image credit: Future)

But, by now, you must be wondering: just how good does the Marshall Acton IV sound? Well it’s good news, because it sounds pretty great. Something that instantly struck me, is that the speaker has a very exciting sound signature, with attention-grabbing and relatively prominent bass, as well as energetic, forward-sounding treble.

This was great for livelier genres like dance tracks. For instance, in Get It On by Jansons, higher-pitched drums came through with serious bite, hitting with speed and precision. Meanwhile, pumping bass came through with great impact without ever overshadowing vocal chops and synths in the mid-range. Even with some deeper house tracks, I was truly wowed by the Acton IV’s bass extension. It can reach down into deep dark depths with great confidence, and even the sub-bass was full-sounding and seismic.

Luckily, the Acton IV continued to perform well with more laid-back tracks. In Ned Doheny’s Sing To Me, soulful vocals were nicely weighted, and came through with solid clarity. They weren’t separated to the point that they occupied a unique pocket in the mix, although when I bumped things up in the mid-range, they had a little more space to express themselves. Bass definitely remained fairly weighty, and although this gave the tune a pleasantly funky edge, some may prefer to mess around with different EQ settings.

It’s also worth noting that the Acton IV has a stereo sound configuration, rather than the basic mono that a lot of Bluetooth speakers use. While it doesn’t produce the most amazing stereo imaging I’ve ever experienced, this is understandable for a smaller-sized speaker. In All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix, vocals were well-defined in the left channel, and percussion expanded well beyond the Acton IV’s limited confines. With LDAC on, I also appreciated the speakers attention to detail, with small vocal quirks and subtle percussive elements illuminated to impressive effect.

My main critique of the Acton IV’s audio output relates to its control at higher volumes. Despite including the dynamic loudness tech seen on the Marshall Kilburn III, for instance, I found that the speaker could sound a tad harsh at high volumes. At 90% and above, compression was more noticeable, with highs turning slightly shrill and bass lacking the control I’d experienced at mid-volumes. It's pretty standard for speakers to compress towards maximum loudness, though, and if you’re looking for meatier sound, the mightier Stanmore IV is available.

(Image credit: Future)

Moving on to an area where Marshall speakers always excel now: design. The Acton IV looks very similar to its predecessor, but that’s no bad thing. It has enticing faux leather casing, a neat speaker grille, and a gorgeous golden control panel. Its amp-inspired aesthetic makes it feel like just as much of a statement piece as it is a great-sounding speaker.

The buttons and control knobs are also highly responsive and satisfying to use, and there are even onboard EQ controls for the bass and treble if you want to make some changes on the fly.

But it’s time to address the most crucial question of all: is the Marshall Acton IV worth the money? Let’s start by looking at its price. The Acton IV comes in at $299.99 / £259.99 (AU$430). That’s by no means cheap, and puts the speaker in competition with the Wi-Fi equipped Sonos Play and home speakers like the JBL Authentics 200.

I’d argue that the Acton IV certainly sounds up to scratch for this money. It offers mighty yet refined bass, clean and detailed mids, and vivid highs. It's also decently powerful, and would make a great fit for a small or medium-sized space. However, the lack of Wi-Fi playback may prove to be a deal-breaker for some — it’s the connectivity method many will favor for home speaker use, and again offers better quality and seamlessness than Bluetooth.

Still, its brilliant design, solid set of features and, of course, impressive audio capabilities, means this is still a great home speaker. All in all, I’d recommend the Acton IV if you want a powerful and stylish speaker, even if you’re a little limited on space. If you want something more portable, the Marshall Kilburn III is a great alternative, though, coming with a handle, 50-hour battery life, and waterproofing at a very similar cost.

(Image credit: Future)Marshall Acton IV review: price & release date

• $299.99 / £259.99 (AU$430)
• First released July 2026

The Marshall Acton IV was released in July 2026, just short of four years after its predecessor came to market. It launched alongside the Marshall Stanmore IV, which is essentially just a larger variant of the Acton. It comes in at $299.99 / £259.99 (AU$430), representing a slight price bump in the US, but continuity in the UK, if we’re comparing it against the Acton III.

Marshall Acton IV review: specs

Weight

5.8lbs / 2.6kg

Dimensions

10.24 x 6.73 x 5.91 inches / 260 x 171 x 150 mm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm, RCA

Speaker drivers

1x 4-inch 60W woofer, 2x 0.75-inch 25W tweeters

Waterproofing

Not stated

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the Marshall Acton IV?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Features

Nifty app and RCA is a welcome addition, but lacks Wi-Fi playback.

4/5

Performance

Fantastic bass extension and vivid highs with clean mids, some compression at top volumes though.

4.5/5

Design

Brilliant looking speaker with retro, amp-inspired aesthetic.

4.5/5

Value

Not the cheapest, but performance and build help it to earn price.

4/5

Buy it if…

You want a stylish home speaker
Something that stands out with Marshall speakers every time is their design. And the Acton IV is no exception. Its faux leather outer casing, its golden details, its eye-catching grille… it all comes together to make a truly stellar-looking speaker.

You want great sound in a (relatively) compact model
Although the Acton IV is hardly the largest home speaker out there, it really does sound great. It has fantastic bass extension, with clean and hard-hitting low end. Highs are articulate and vibrant too, although mids still get plenty of space to shine. The LDAC codec also helps you access a more detailed listen.

Don’t buy it if…

You want a speaker to take on the road
The Marshall Acton IV is designed for home use. Therefore, it needs to be plugged into the mains to be used, and its lack of a handle, rechargeable battery, or waterproofing, means you’re better off with a model like the Marshall Kilburn III for on-the-go audio.

You want a smart speaker with Wi-Fi
Although the Acton IV is designed for home use, it misses out on some of the properties of a smart speaker, like voice-assistant compatibility and Wi-Fi connectivity for the most seamless playback around.

Marshall Acton IV review: also consider

Marshall Acton IV

Sonos Era 100 SL

WiiM Sound

Price

$299.99 / £259.99 (AU$430)

$189 / £169 / AU$289

$299 / £299 / AU$499

Weight

5.8lbs / 2.6kg

4.3lbs / 2kg

5.5lbs / 2.5kg

Dimensions

10.24 x 6.73 x 5.91 inches / 260 x 171 x 150mm

7.2 x 4.7 x 5.1 inches / 182.5 x 120 x 130.5mm

5.7 x 5.7 x 7.5 inches / 146 x 146 x 193mm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm, RCA

Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm

Speaker drivers

1x 4-inch 60W woofer, 2x 0.75-inch 25W tweeters

2 x angled tweeters, 1 x mid-woofer

2x tweeters, 1x woofer

Sonos Era 100 SL
Want a Sonos home speaker at an easy-to-stomach price? Then the Era 100 SL is an ideal option. It has Wi-Fi playback, precise and detailed sound, and a gorgeous look, making it well worth its modest price tag. Read our full Sonos Era 100 SL review.

WiiM Sound
Another great Wi-Fi equipped speaker is the WiiM sound, and it sits at a very similar price as the Acton IV. The WiiM sound supplies fantastic sound quality, has a unique and intuitive touchscreen, and voice assistant support. Read our full WiiM Sound review.

How I tested the Marshall Acton IV

(Image credit: Future)

• Tested across multiple days
• Used at our dedicated music testing space at Future Labs
• Mainly streamed music over Tidal

I spent days testing the Marshall Acton IV, listening to hours worth of music, testing its various features, and exhausting every option available in its companion app.

For the most part, I tested the Acton IV in our dedicated music testing room at Future Labs, where I mainly streamed tunes via Tidal on my Xiaomi 17. I started by playing tracks in our TechRadar reference playlist — which features songs from a wide variety of genres — but I also bumped a bunch of tunes from my personal library.

More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar. I’ve reviewed all sorts of tech, from premium wireless headphones like the Sony 1000X The Collexion through to Dolby Atmos soundbars such as the JBL Bar 1300MK2. I’ve also tested more than 50 Bluetooth speakers, including lots of Marshall models, such as the Marshall Middleton II and Kilburn III.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• First reviewed: July 2026