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Allstate has whittled down its business insurance offerings over the last few years. It partnered with online insurer Ergo Next in 2023, and Allstate now refers most business owners in that direction.
The only policy Allstate still offers new customers is commercial auto insurance. Unfortunately, a narrower focus doesn’t always mean a better customer experience.
Allstate commercial auto customers have filed far more complaints than we’d expect with state regulators given the company’s market share, according to a NerdWallet analysis of National Association of Insurance Commissioners data.
If you already have an Allstate agent you trust, it doesn’t hurt to talk to them about your options. But it’s unlikely the company will meet your needs if commercial auto insurance isn't your top concern. And even if it is, other insurers see fewer complaints and offer more features, like fleet tracking.
Instead, find an independent insurance agent who can get you several business insurance quotes. That helps make sure you find complete coverage at a competitive price.
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NerdWallet Small Business helps you get real-time quotes from 30+ insurers, and instant access to your Certificate of Insurance (COI) through our partner, Coverdash.
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Allstate business insurance: Pros and cons
Pros
High customer satisfaction scores in J.D. Power’s annual survey.
Superior financial strength ratings.
Cons
Only sells commercial auto insurance.
Can’t get a quote or buy a policy online.
Can’t file claims online, only over the phone.
What Allstate does well
High customer satisfaction scores
For the last three years, Allstate has been near the top of the list in J.D. Power’s annual small-business insurance customer satisfaction survey. This survey asks hundreds of business owners how they feel about their insurer’s prices, product offerings and digital tools. It also collects feedback about trust, problem-solving and how easy insurers make it to do business.
High scores in this survey indicate that people are happy with their interactions with an insurance company, at least compared to other companies’ customers. It doesn’t take into account whether customers have ever filed a claim — which is probably when most frustration with an insurer starts.
Financial strength
Credit rating agency AM Best gives Allstate its second-highest rating for financial strength. That means Allstate should have the cash or financial options necessary to survive a major disaster, like a wildfire that results in many claims at once.
Where Allstate falls short
Only sells commercial auto insurance …
Allstate previously sold customizable business owner’s policies. That’s no longer the case. You can only get auto coverage.
We generally recommend bundling insurance. That way, you only have to deal with one company if you have to file claims or update your policies. You also may be able to save money by getting all your coverage from the same insurer.
That said, some companies have specific needs that most insurers can’t meet or circumstances that result in high premiums. Commercial auto insurance might be one of those.
For instance, if you have a large fleet of trucks, it will be expensive to insure and you should shop around for the best commercial auto coverage. That may not be Allstate, given how frequently customers complain about it.
… but got lots of complaints about those policies
The problem is, Allstate commercial auto customers filed far more complaints with state regulators than we’d expect given its market share. That’s according to National Association of Insurance Commissioners data from 2023 to 2025, the most recent years available.
For comparison, Geico and Progressive also focus on commercial auto insurance. Both got significantly fewer complaints relative to their market shares over the same period.
What’s the difference between the J.D. Power survey and these complaints? Put simply, the survey measures policyholders in general. Those who took the extra step to file complaints with regulators — a pretty cumbersome process — are a specific subset of policyholders who feel the company wronged them.
To me, this disparity probably means that customers generally get good service from Allstate agents. They can find the information they need online, and payments go through smoothly. But when a claim is on the line, a significant number of people feel angry enough to turn to officials.
Lawsuit against data-collecting subsidiary
In 2025, Texas sued an Allstate subsidiary called Arity. The case alleged that Arity paid developers to embed its software in other apps, like Life360. Then Allstate used data from those apps to inform customers’ insurance rates. In March 2026, a federal judge allowed a class-action lawsuit related to those claims to move forward.
Allstate hasn’t been found guilty of wrongdoing. But every policyholder worries about rising rates. The lawsuit’s suggestion — that the company might be finding ways to increase rates without transparency — isn’t a good look.
How we evaluated Allstate business insurance
NerdWallet’s business insurance star ratings include these factors:
- Financial strength (33%). This tells us how likely an insurance company is to be able to pay out claims if there’s a major disaster or financial crisis. Allstate’s corporate entities have “superior” ratings from AM Best.
- Customer complaints (33%). The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects data about how many complaints an insurer’s customers file. Compared to what we’d expect given its market share, Allstate received slightly fewer complaints about general liability insurance and slightly more complaints about commercial property insurance between 2022 and 2024. That evens out to an average score. We don’t currently factor commercial auto insurance into our star ratings, though — and Allstate’s complaint ratio is much higher there.
- Purchase process (17%). You can’t get an online quote from Allstate. It sends you to its partner, Ergo Next. You have to call for a commercial auto quote. You also have the option to work with an Allstate agent. Allstate has captive agents, which means they can only sell Allstate policies. They won’t give you several quotes to compare as a result. In general, we recommend working with independent agents, who are able to sell insurance from several different companies.
- Customer support (17%). Allstate has an extensive online customer portal and 24/7 live chat. But there’s no phone number you can call for help. Instead, Allstate recommends calling your agent. You must file claims over the phone, and then you can track the status of your claim online.
I take a few additional steps when writing reviews of business insurers. These don’t currently affect star ratings, but they inform the recommendations in this review:
- Aggregating customer reviews and complaints. I used an AI tool to summarize what policyholders say about Allstate on websites like Trustpilot and Consumer Affairs. We don’t factor this feedback into star ratings because it’s usually anonymous and we can’t verify it. Beyond that, it’s tough to separate complaints about business insurance from those about home and auto insurance. But still, these comments offer some insight into customers’ experience with a company overall.
- Trying the online quote process. Allstate’s online quotes reveal which policies you can buy online and when you’ll be referred to third-party companies. This helps me understand who Allstate might be a good fit for and who needs to shop elsewhere.
Save up to 30% on business insurance
NerdWallet Small Business helps you get real-time quotes from 30+ insurers, and instant access to your Certificate of Insurance (COI) through our partner, Coverdash.
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What small-business owners think about Allstate business insurance
I read through online forums like Reddit and review sites like WalletHub to understand how users feel about Allstate. I looked for reviews that focused on business insurance, but didn’t find any written more recently than 2020.
Instead, I used Claude to help me analyze general sentiment from personal insurance customers. My overall takeaway: Allstate can be good if you have a good agent. But without one, the experience can range from impersonal to bad.
Positive Allstate reviews focus on good agents. Some users say that even when dealing with other parts of the company is stressful, their agents respond quickly and helpfully and help them get problems solved.
On the other hand, multiple reviews say their claims have been delayed for days to weeks, which interfered with repairs. Some say claims were ultimately denied for what they think are invalid reasons.
A denied claim is one of the most frustrating experiences you can have with your insurer. Even a company that provides otherwise great service will get these sorts of complaints. Progressive, an Allstate competitor, has similarly low Trustpilot ratings.
Yes, larger companies have more customers who could complain. But they also might have more layers of bureaucracy, more auditors and adjusters and, as a result, more chances for information to get lost or conveyed incorrectly. A smaller company with higher-touch service, like Chubb, gets far fewer of these types of complaints.
What policies does Allstate sell?
Allstate only sells commercial auto insurance to new customers.
Its commercial auto policy is pretty standard. It covers declared vehicles, which can include box trucks and service utility vehicles. You can include hired and non-owned auto insurance, including for trailers.
Some customers may still have Allstate business owner’s policies, given that Allstate publishes information about how to file a claim for them. I’ve reached out to Allstate’s media team to see if it’s still possible to get a BOP from an Allstate agent. I’ll update this review if I hear back.
How to get Allstate business insurance
Allstate doesn’t offer online quotes right now.
When I clicked “get a quote” on Allstate’s website, it invited me to call for a commercial auto quote. For other policies, Allstate redirected me to Ergo Next, an online insurance company.
Here’s what’s probably happening: Allstate knows it has a well-known brand and that people might turn to it for business insurance. But it only wants to sell commercial auto insurance. That might be due to market conditions or dynamics within the company.
Either way, Allstate wants to get some benefit from that business owner. So it refers them to Ergo Next. If they end up buying a policy, Allstate might get some kind of referral fee.
There’s nothing shady or unusual about this. Other big-name insurance companies, including Liberty Mutual, have similar referral relationships for commercial coverage.
But it reveals that Allstate is only underwriting commercial auto insurance. If you need more coverage — and most businesses do — start your search elsewhere.
Try The Hartford or Hiscox, both of which offer online quotes (and the ability to buy some policies online). You can work with an independent agent for either too.
Methodology
Business insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet rewards business insurance companies for reliability and good service. We calculate star ratings based on scores in about a dozen categories. These include:
- Each company's financial strength.
- How many complaints customers made relative to its market share.
- How easy it is to get coverage.
- How accessible customer service is.
Learn more about how we rate small-business insurance companies.
Our editorial team routinely fact-checks and updates these data points. We also adjust our scoring on an ongoing basis. This helps our star ratings reflect changing industry norms. For instance, in 2026, we began evaluating how easy insurers make it to add an additional insured.
Our ratings are a guide. But insurance policy details and prices can vary widely. We encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.
Insurer complaints methodology
One key factor in our star ratings is how many complaints insurance companies get. Here's how we arrive at that score.
Disappointed customers can file a complaint with their state's insurance department. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collects, analyzes and groups complaints by business line and insurance company every year. A business line is a specific type of coverage, like workers’ comp.
Then, the NAIC calculates a complaint ratio for each company. It divides the company's share of complaints by its share of total premiums for each line of business. It then adds these ratio values to their official complaint index.
- A complaint ratio of 1 means a company received about the expected number of complaints relative to its size.
- A ratio of 2 means it received twice as many complaints as expected.
- A ratio of 0 means it received half as many complaints as expected.
NerdWallet obtains the raw NAIC data every year. We aggregate results at the company level and fact-check these results. Then we calculate a three-year average of each insurer's complaint ratio and convert it to a score for our star ratings.
Business insurance star ratings consider complaints about two lines of business: commercial liability and commercial property. We analyze complaint data on commercial auto and workers' comp policies too. But we don't currently incorporate these into our ratings since they're less universal.
