Cheap Professional Liability Insurance

For most small businesses, our analysis found The Hartford is the cheapest professional liability insurance provider with rates that are 20% below the national average at $45/mo. The insurer also has close competitors including ERGO NEXT, Hiscox, Simply Business and biBERK for affordable coverage.

However, these companies are cheap for most companies with 1 to 4 employees, and your ideal professional liability insurance fit will depend on your small business's unique profile. So below, we've broken down each of our picks and who they are offer the lowest rates for:

1. The Hartford: Most affordable for office-based, real estate and hospitality-related professional services (consultants, tech developers, financial services, travel agents).
2. ERGO NEXT: Cheapest professional liability policies for high risk professions and B2C focused business areas (lawyers, security companies, construction/contracting, childcare, healthcare)
3. Hiscox: Primarily the lowest cost for beauty and nonprofit services (estheticians, salons, social workers, animal rescues)
4. Simply Business: You'll generally find the lowest professional liability rates if you're in the cleaning industry with Simply Business (janitorial services, carpet cleaning, chimney sweeps, junk removal)
5. biBERK: If you're in a business area surrounding recreation and sports, biBERK is a very affordable provider for most businesses in this area (sports teams, fitness related clubs, dance studios)

Keep in mind that these companies should be used as a starting point rather than a final answer, and they may not have the lowest professional liability insurance costs once you get quotes.

In tech, real estate, media, advertising or financial services? These industries typically refer to this coverage as errors and omissions insurance. Our Cheapest E&O insurance guide covers the same top carriers framed for these industry areas.

Below you can compare each of these cheap insurers at a national level, side by side.

The spread of who offers the cheapest professional liability insurance is wide when examining at the general industry level. The Hartford (24% of wins and up to 46% in savings) and ERGO NEXT (32% of wins and up to 34% in savings) dominate as the most affordable providers for most industries. Other providers compete as specialists with Hiscox being the the cheap rate leader for nonprofits and beauty services, Simply Business for cleaners and Nationwide for those in the education sector.

If you'd like more tailored recommendations for your industry area, we've left dedicated resourced below.

At the location level ERGO NEXT dominates, winning as the cheapest professional liability insurer in 35 out of 51 states or around 69% of the United States. The rest of the country will find better rates with The Hartford in most cases, particularly if you operate in the northeast, particularly businesses in Delaware, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

We've provided more in-depth state level guides below if you want to learn more below.

The cheapest professional liability insurance policy can be a smart choice as long as it still protects your business properly. The lowest-cost option is safest when the following criteria are met:

• Coverage limits match your financial exposure (and any client or licensing requirements)
• Deductibles are affordable, so you can realistically pay them if a claim is filed
• Coverage enhancements and endorsements (if needed) are available at a reasonable cost
• The provider has a strong customer experience reputation, including underwriting responsiveness, policy servicing, and claims handling

Ultimately, the goal isn’t to choose the cheapest policy at all costs, it’s to select the most affordable option that still protects your professional services exposure. However, if your budget only allows for the lowest-cost policy, you may need to accept tradeoffs (such as a higher deductible, a later retroactive date, narrower definitions of covered services, or limited defense cost provisions) and plan to adjust coverage as your business grows.

Is The Cheapest Right For Your Business?

• Yes: Get matched to cheapest providers
• No: How to lower professional liability costs without reducing protection

Position your business for the lowest possible professional liability rates without compromising protection by following these strategies.

While it is not possible for an insurer to be a one size fits all cheap professional liability insurance provider, you can find the right choice for your budget. Take into account mainly your industry area, state and employee count when comparing providers and compare quotes only with 3 to 5 options that you narrow down. We recommend using more than just price as a metric and you should take into account customer experiences and coverage so you find the best fit rather than just a price leader.

If you're ready to get quotes: Get matched

To get the most accurate answer as to who the cheapest insurer is, getting professional liability insurance quotes is the natural next steps. We also recommend that you look into the best providers for your particular profile to narrow your search further. To start your quote process, we've provided a provider matching tool below that needs only your industry and state to find your most cost-effective option.

If you're still unsure if professional liability insurance is sufficient for your coverage needs and want to explore more coverages, we've left resources below.

To identify the cheapest professional liability insurers, we analyzed real pricing data from 10 major providers and modeled a large set of standardized pricing estimates across common U.S. small business professional service profiles. 

Dataset Scope And Assumptions

• Providers analyzed: 10 major professional liability insurance providers
• Industries covered: 151 professional and service-based industries
• Geography: all U.S. states and territories (including Washington, D.C.)
• Employee count bands: 0, 1–4, 5–9, 10–19 and 20–49 employees (95% of market)
• Policy baseline: standard $1 million per claim / $2 million aggregate professional liability policy
• Pricing estimates modeled: just over 1 million total estimates

We also incorporated modeled average revenues and payrolls across professional service business profiles to improve pricing accuracy. 

How We Determined Which Provider Was “Cheapest”

We used this dataset to determine which insurers were most often the lowest-cost option across different professional service business profiles.

Our “cheapest” rankings include both:

• General Recommendation: Provider rankings based on average estimated pricing for a standardized 1–4 employee professional service business across all industries and states in our dataset.
• Factor Combination Recommendations: Provider rankings based on which insurer was most often cheapest within specific business factor combinations. For example:
  • Industry × State: pricing was compared using a standardized 1–4 employee professional service profile
  • Employee count: affordability was derived by comparing aggregated pricing trends across industries and states 

Important Note: These results represent standardized pricing estimates, not personalized quotes. Actual professional liability pricing can vary based on your profession, services provided, revenue, claims history, contract requirements and the specific limits, deductibles and retroactive dates you choose. For the most accurate cheapest-provider answer, we recommend comparing quotes apples-to-apples using the same coverage limits and retroactive date.

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