Our study found ERGO NEXT, Thimble, The Hartford, biBERK and Nationwide are the cheapest small business insurance companies overall. Our list is based on aggregated rates from the six most common types of small business insurance across 400+ industries, all states (including D.C.), employee counts from 0 to 49 and 16 vehicle types (for commercial auto pricing). These are the five most affordable small business insurers overall, but your cheapest fit will depend heavily on your industry, state, and headcount.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance
MoneyGeek can get you cheap small business insurance starting at $45/mo from the most affordable providers like ERGO NEXT, The Hartford and Thimble.
ERGO NEXT is the cheapest small business insurer overall at an average cost of $99/mo, but your low-cost fit will depend on your desired coverage type, industry, state, company size and vehicles you're insuring (if buying commercial auto).
Need proof of insurance fast? Save up to 24% with your cheapest small business insurer match below.
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Updated: May 13, 2026
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DON'T KNOW AVERAGE COSTS FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
If you'd like a measuring stick to understand exactly what you're saving when comparing business insurance quotes, you need to understand average costs. Check out my small business insurance cost report, which breaks down everything you need to know about pricing and what moves it.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance Companies
| ERGO NEXT | $99 | $1,182 |
| Thimble | $105 | $1,260 |
| The Hartford | $109 | $1,302 |
| biBERK | $110 | $1,319 |
| Nationwide | $112 | $1,345 |
To account for the gaps that this top five cheapest list doesn't account for, I've summarized my overall findings for where each of these providers perform best in terms of price.
Find Your Cheapest Small Business Provider By Industry and State
What you pay for small business insurance is almost entirely a function of who you are, not which insurer you pick. Industry and state interact to shift the affordability ranking dramatically from one combination to the next, and the cheapest carrier for a landscaping company in Texas is often not the cheapest carrier for a photographer in Vermont. For example, in the current table's filter for an Arts Media and Entertainment business in Alabama, a provider that never shows up on the main cheapest overall, Hiscox is the price leader for this profile.
Use the filters in the table to find your cheapest small business insurance provider for your specific industry area and state.
Data filtered by:
Arts, Media & Entertainment
Alabama
| Arts, Media & Entertainment | Alabama | Hiscox | $56 | $670 |
Premium estimates reflect modeled average business profiles for each industry-state combination and represent indicative pricing, not carrier-issued quotes. Actual premiums will vary based on your business's specific risk characteristics.
Want to see what your premium might actually look like? Use our small business insurance cost calculator below to get a personalized estimate based on your specific industry and state and get quotes from your cheapest provider.
Get a Cheapest Small Business Insurance Estimate
Select your state and industry to see your personalized lowest rate estimate for your lowest cost provider. Rates are aggregated across 6 of the most commonly needed coverage types for a 1 to 4 person business, so that rate you receive may be different. Once you click Get Quotes, you'll be directed to your cheapest provider match's website to get pricing based on my research.
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Cheapest Small Business Insurance By Industry
Industry is one of the strongest predictors of which carrier leads on affordability for your profile. Find the full breakdown for your industry below, including sub-industry detail, coverage requirements, and carrier-specific notes.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance By State
Premiums shift meaningfully from state to state, driven by differences in workers' compensation structures, litigation exposure, state-mandated coverage requirements, and local market competition. The affordability rankings above may look different when you filter to your specific state. Find the full breakdown for your market below.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance By Coverage Type
At the coverage type level, the cheapest small business insurers vary widely. The Hartford, Thimble and ERGO NEXT dominate traditional commercial coverages like general liability, professional liability, commercial property and workers' comp. However, providers that are not included on our overall cheapest small business insurers list like Chubb and Progressive are first in affordability for cyber insurance and commercial auto insurance respectively.
The Hartford | $45 | $537 | 20% | |
Chubb | $69 | $822 | 18% | |
ERGO NEXT | $86 | $1,030 | 24% | |
The Hartford | $102 | $1,227 | 17% | |
Thimble | $111 | $1,330 | 11% | |
Progressive Commercial | $143 | $1,713 | 13% |
Learn more about the cheapest business insurers by coverage type below in our dedicated guides.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance By Company Size
At the company size level, specializations in scale are much clearer. The Hartford while 3rd overall for affordability is the cheapest small business insurance provider for companies with five or more employee while NEXT is the winner when employees are 4 and under.
| 0 | ERGO NEXT | $46 | $556 |
| 1 to 4 | ERGO NEXT | $90 | $1,076 |
| 5 to 9 | The Hartford | $151 | $1,817 |
| 10 to 19 | The Hartford | $258 | $3,101 |
| 20 to 49 | The Hartford | $532 | $6,389 |
Ways To Get The Cheapest Small Business Insurance Without Sacrificing Coverage
Here are some tips you should take into account to get the cheapest insurance for your small business.
Get quotes before you talk to a broker, not after
Independent brokers are useful but they work with a limited carrier panel. The carriers with the strongest affordability performance in our data, particularly ERGO NEXT and biBERK, sell direct and aren't always represented by brokers. If you get a broker quote first and use it as your baseline, you may be comparing against an incomplete market. Start with direct quotes from the carriers that lead for your industry profile, then use a broker to fill gaps.
Ensure your business classification is correct
Insurers price by NAICS code or their own internal classification system, and small differences in how your business is categorized can produce large premium differences. A marketing consultant classified under "advertising agencies" will pay more than one classified under "management consulting" for the same coverage. Before accepting a quote, ask the carrier what classification code they've assigned you and whether an alternative classification is available for your business type. This is worth doing on every quote, not just the most expensive one.
Pay for your policy annually
Paying annually rather than monthly saves around 5% on average across carriers in our data. The less obvious point: if your business is seasonal, paying annually on a policy you'll cancel or reduce mid-term can cost more than the discount saves. Confirm the carrier's mid-term adjustment and refund policy before committing to annual payment.
Bundling saves money but only within the right carrier
The standard advice to bundle policies assumes the same carrier is competitive across all the coverage types you need. That's often not true. In our data, The Hartford leads on general liability and professional liability pricing, ERGO NEXT leads on workers' comp, and Thimble leads on commercial property.
A bundle with a single carrier may beat individual policies from the same carrier, but it won't necessarily beat the best individual pricing available across carriers. Run the comparison both ways before deciding.
Raising deductibles if you can afford it
Raising deductibles reduces premiums across most coverage types, with our data showing savings of up to 18%. The coverage type where this makes the most sense is commercial property, where deductibles are straightforward and claims are discrete events.
It makes less sense on general liability, where a single claim can be large enough that a higher deductible becomes material. If you're going to raise deductibles to reduce premium, commercial property is where the math tends to work best for small businesses.
Review your coverage limits, not just your carrier, every year
Most small businesses that are overinsured don't know it. Revenue growth, payroll changes, and new equipment all affect what coverage limits you actually need, and insurers don't automatically adjust downward when your risk profile shrinks. An annual review focused specifically on whether your limits still match your current business size typically costs nothing and can produce meaningful savings without changing carriers.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance: Bottom Line
Based on MoneyGeek's 2026 nationwide analysis, the most affordable business insurance providers are ERGO NEXT, Thimble, The Hartford, biBERk and Nationwide. The cheapest for your business depends on the number of employees, preferred coverage, industry, location and other business characteristics. To get the best cheap business insurance for you, compare plenty of quotes and companies, bundle policies, and coverage options.
Cheapest Small Business Insurance: Next Steps
We recommend that your next steps involve comparing top small business insurance providers rather than isolating who is the price leader. This makes sure that not only you are getting a good rate, but you are getting the coverage and customer support you need along with it. Our team also recommends that you re-verify how much business insurance coverage you need before you start comparing quotes.
We've also broken down some advice that will depend on where you are at in your decision making process.
You just need to meet a contract requirement
If a client or contract is driving your search, you likely need general liability and possibly to add them as an "additional insured" on your policy. This is one of the most affordable insurance situations for small businesses. Check your business insurance requirements specific to state law and any contracts you are involved with for clarity before buying.
I want to know what coverage I need and what I can skip
The most common reason small businesses overpay is buying coverage they don't actually need. The right answer to “do I need business insurance?” depends on whether you have employees, a physical location, and what kind of work you do.
- Almost always worth it: General liability. It covers third-party injury and property damage claims and is required by most clients, landlords, and licensing boards.
- Worth it if you give advice or provide a service: Professional liability (E&O) covers mistakes in your work. Freelancers, consultants, and service businesses need this more than product-based ones.
- Skip until you need it: Commercial umbrella, cyber liability, and inland marine are real policies, but not the right first purchase for most very small businesses just starting out.
- Required by law, not optional: Workers' comp is legally required in almost every state the moment you hire your first W-2 employee, regardless of business size. Commercial auto is also required in some form if you use vehicles for business.
I have business insurance, but I think I'm overpaying
If you haven't shopped your policy in the last 12–18 months, there's a good chance you're paying more than you need to. The online insurance market for small businesses has gotten significantly more competitive, and switching is easier than most people expect.
- Pull your current declarations page. It shows your exact coverage limits and annual premium. You need this to compare apples-to-apples.
- Get business insurance quotes from at least two online competitors using the same limits you currently have. The process takes 10 minutes or less per quote.
- Check whether you're paying for a BOP when you could use standalone GL.f you don't have significant business property or inventory, you may not need the property portion.
- Ask your current insurer to match or beat any lower quote before you cancel, they may do so, especially if you've been claims-free or have been a long time customer.
Get Cheap Small Business Insurance Quotes
Based on your industry and state, we can match you to the carrier that leads on affordability for your profile. You'll be taken directly to their site to complete your quote.
About Connor Bolton
Connor Bolton is Senior SEO and Content Manager at MoneyGeek, where he leads the business and pet insurance editorial teams. As editorial lead for both verticals, Connor sets the research framework, data standards, and content structure that his writers execute, directly authoring in-depth guides himself and reviewing all team content for accuracy and practical value before it goes live. With over four years evaluating insurance products across personal, commercial, and specialty lines, he brings cross-vertical knowledge to every guide the team produces.
Connor architected MoneyGeek's insurance research infrastructure across all major verticals including auto, home, renters, life, health, business, and pet, building systems for pricing analysis, provider-level research, customer experience evaluation, and coverage analysis with AI support. The infrastructure includes over 6 million data points for business insurance across 408 industry areas, all 50 states, and 16 vehicle types, and over 5 million pet insurance profiles across 18 major providers and hundreds of breed and age combinations. Connor's insurance cost research and his team's work has been cited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, CBS News, Forbes and LegalZoom.
Beyond the data, Connor stays connected to how the market actually operates, drawing on direct conversations with underwriters and carrier liaisons at Ethos, The Hartford, NEXT Insurance, Nationwide, and State Farm, and monitoring business and pet owner communities including Reddit, to inform how he interprets findings and frames guidance for real buyers.
He is the direct editorial contact for methodology questions at connor@moneygeek.com and can be found on LinkedIn.