Comparing auto insurance quotes on a car insurance shopping site can help you find the coverage you need at an affordable price.
But not all comparison sites are equally trustworthy. Some collect your information to sell to insurance agencies and insurance companies and don’t show you any actual quotes.
The editors and data scientists at Insurify checked out 10 of the most well-known car insurance comparison sites using a sample driver profile to explore their comparison products, and they read reviews from real users. We’ve identified the best (and worst) experiences for comparing car insurance rates online. Here’s what we learned about the best insurance comparison sites.
With dozens of insurance-comparison sites available, picking the best shopping experience can be challenging. To help you choose, here’s a comprehensive list of car insurance comparison sites.
Auto insurance comparison sites help you shop for car insurance and compare multiple quotes by sharing some basic information about yourself and your vehicle. These sites fall into two categories: quote-comparison sites and lead-generation sites. Both aim to connect insurance shoppers with quotes from car insurance companies. They differ in how they do this.
Many people still prefer to work with a local agent to buy a car insurance policy. But a growing number are embracing online shopping for car insurance.
Quote-comparison sites partner with car insurance companies to provide real-time or estimated quotes.
Below, you can see the different steps involved in receiving online car insurance quotes from quote-comparison sites.
Lead-generation sitesLead-generation sites collect your information and promise multiple quotes. But these sites typically sell user information to their advertising partners, like insurance companies, agencies, or even other lead-generation sites.
This means you won’t receive actual quotes from a lead-generation site. Instead, the site will display a list of insurance company logos. You’ll need to click on one or more logos and enter your information multiple times to request quotes.
You could end up getting a barrage of cold calls or emails from insurance call centers and agents.
Insurify is a reputable virtual insurance agent that makes it easy to instantly compare car insurance rates from multiple companies. Insurify provides accurate, real-time quotes. Other comparison sites can provide accurate quotes too, but Insurify delivered the most while having the fewest ads. It gave us the option to complete our purchase online.
The process was fast and simple for our sample driver, with the easiest information prompts to follow of any website we tested.
User reviews indicate Compare.com is an easy-to-use comparison website that provides real-time quotes from insurers. Compare showed us one instant quote, which is more than most of the other sites tested. In previous tests, Compare showed five quotes.
Compare ranks second for its ease of use, its strong customer data protections, and the ability to finalize a purchase online. Like Insurify and The Zebra, Compare.com is free to use and partners with top insurers.
In past testing, Policygenius showed estimated quote numbers. This time, its results page didn’t show us any actual numbers but provided offers from seven insurers. Three offers showed actual, detailed quotes after a couple of clicks to the insurer’s website. It was faster and easier to use than other sites that referred us to other comparison sites or required us to re-enter information on an insurer’s site.
Policygenius has numerous positive online reviews from users, citing the site’s customer service.
The Zebra is a free-to-use, reputable insurance-comparison site, but our most recent experience with it was unexpected. Previously, we received instant quotes from insurers. In this test, we received four offers instead of instant quotes — one for another comparison website.
The absence of real-time quotes, and some inconvenient information prompts, bumped The Zebra down on our list. Positive user reviews cite The Zebra agents’ professionalism and helpfulness. Negative reviews point to a lack of real-time quotes.
Like Insurify, The Zebra isn’t a lead-generation engine.
Gabi has some positive reviews, but many users report unsatisfactory outcomes — even some who purchased a policy through Gabi.
Gabi doesn’t collect all the information needed to generate an accurate quote, so it’s difficult to know if you’ll receive quotes.
Gabi also shares your information with its parent company, Experian. In less than 20 minutes after using the site, we received two text messages — one from an agent with Gabi and one from an Experian agent.
As a lead-generation site, QuoteWizard sells users’ information to insurance agents. Multiple reviewers on the Better Business Bureau website report spam calls and emails after using QuoteWizard.
QuoteWizard showed us a lot of offers, but only two were from actual insurance companies. For those results, clicking through on “View My Rate” did show us actual quotes. But we’d rather have fewer, higher-quality results than multiple “quotes” from other comparison sites.
LendingTree owns both ValuePenguin and QuoteWizard. The quoting process and results were virtually the same, and it’s not clear why a user would choose one over the other.
ValuePenguin makes money, in part, by selling user information as leads to car insurance agents. Many online reviewers cite unwanted phone calls and no actual quotes. The site has a respectable library of educational articles, but the high risk of spam and lack of actual quotes may inspire you to comparison shop elsewhere.
Our driver profile generated a handful of results from LendingTree but no immediate quotes. Clicking on “View My Rate” took us to the insurance company’s website, where some of our information was prepopulated. But to secure an actual quote, we still had to answer numerous questions on the insurer’s website.
Reading LendingTree’s privacy policy made it clear that any data provided through its insurance tool would be shared with its business and marketing partners. In fact, the dummy email we used for quoting received an unsolicited email within minutes of us using LendingTree to see quotes.
The NerdWallet quote process channels users to insurer websites to complete quoting rather than providing real-time quotes.
NerdWallet’s terms of service say using its platform means you authorize the site to share your information with third parties “at your sole risk.” Many Trustpilot and BBB reviewers report multiple unwanted phone calls after requesting insurance or loan quotes through NerdWallet.
In the days after using NerdWallet, the email address we provided received dozens of emails from the website and its partners.
Media giant Red Ventures owns Bankrate, so the personal finance site partners with another Red Ventures website — Coverage.com — for insurance quotes. After providing the standard information to Bankrate, we received four offers, including two immediate rates from well-known insurance companies. The rates were competitive, but to buy a policy, we’d have to call Bankrate’s agents.
The advertising disclosure on the page explains that links on the quote list page are advertisements from Coverage.com partners. It also says that the compensation Coverage.com receives, among other factors, may influence what offers Bankrate shows you.
If it seems like you’re paying more for car insurance now, you’re not imagining it. Full-coverage auto insurance rates rose 15% in 2024, according to an Insurify report. Insurify’s data analysts predict an increase of 5% in 2025.
Although the pace of rate increases has slowed nationally, some states will face hikes well above average. Insurify predicts 10% increases in Florida and New York by the end of 2025, 8% surges in Georgia and Nevada, and a 7% increase in Delaware.
Here are the states with the highest rates for full-coverage car insurance:
Here’s how average car insurance rates vary by state.
Whether you need full-coverage car insurance or liability-only coverage, comparison shopping is the best way to find an affordable policy. Here are some tips to help make online comparison shopping easier:
Gather information. Gather the basic information you’ll need to get an auto insurance quote, including driver’s license numbers for everyone who will be on the policy, vehicle identification numbers for every vehicle you want covered, and your previous policy coverage limits.
Decide how much coverage you need. If you lease or finance your car, you’ll need to buy comprehensive and collision coverages. If you have an older, paid-off vehicle, you might choose liability-only coverage. But insurance professionals recommend buying more than your state’s required minimum. Higher liability insurance limits provide more financial protection in case of an at-fault accident.
Choose a reputable comparison platform. Look for options that provide real-time quotes and don’t sell your data. Avoid lead-generation sites that could result in spam calls, emails, or text messages.
Explore discounts. Most insurers offer discounts for things like being a good driver, paying your premium in full, and vehicle safety features. Teen drivers may benefit from discounts for good grades. You may qualify for multiple money-saving discounts.
Manage your payments. Most insurers require a down payment to initiate a car insurance policy. Prepare to make that payment, and either pay the balance in full if you can or set up a monthly or quarterly payment plan.
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