Sole Proprietor Business Insurance: Who Needs It, How to Get It
Business insurance can protect sole proprietors against lawsuits, auto accidents and other risks.
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If you’re a sole proprietor, you may need business insurance to protect your business and personal assets in case of lawsuits and other risks. This might include general liability insurance, commercial auto insurance and a business owner’s policy.
Here are NerdWallet’s picks for the best business insurance options for sole proprietors. You can probably get the policies you need in just a few minutes online.
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.
Best business insurance options for sole proprietors
The best business insurance companies for sole proprietors make it easy to get the coverage you need quickly. Our choices are based on each company’s financial strength, volume of customer complaints, online features and claims experience.
Ergo Next: Easiest way for sole proprietors to get coverage
Ergo Next explains which policies you need based on what industry you’re in and how you answer questions during the quote process. The company also sells most common types of business insurance online. Whether you need cleaning business insurance, personal trainer insurance or otherwise, Ergo Next may be a good choice. Read NerdWallet’s review.
Chubb: Best general liability insurance for sole proprietors
Chubb received fewer than expected complaints about general liability insurance relative to its market share. It's one of the few longtime business insurance companies that makes it easy to buy coverage online — you can do so if your business earns $2 million or less in annual revenue. Chubb also offers a business owner’s policy, errors and omissions insurance and cybersecurity insurance online. Read NerdWallet’s review.
Thimble: Best for temporary coverage
Thimble is an insurance agent that sells policies underwritten by other companies, so we don't give it a star rating.
If a contract for an event or job requires you to have business insurance, Thimble offers insurance policies a month at a time or for one specific job. This can help you save money, since you won’t have to pay a premium on an ongoing basis. Thimble offers general liability, professional liability and commercial property insurance, but not commercial auto insurance. Read NerdWallet’s review.
The Hartford: Best business owner’s policy for sole proprietors
You can add data breach insurance and professional liability insurance to The Hartford’s business owner’s policy, making it a good choice for small-business owners who don’t want to manage multiple policies. Some business owners can buy a policy online, or The Hartford may connect you to a staff member to complete your purchase. Read NerdWallet’s review.
Progressive: Best for commercial auto insurance
You can get a quote online from Progressive, which is the largest provider of commercial auto insurance by market share in the U.S., according to the Insurance Information Institute. The company had fewer complaints than expected about commercial auto insurance (although more than expected about liability and property insurance, hence its relatively low star rating). Read NerdWallet’s review.
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.
Do sole proprietors need business insurance?
Sole proprietors should at least carry general liability insurance. This coverage protects you if someone files a lawsuit accusing you of damaging their property, injuring them or harming their reputation. As a sole proprietorship, there's no legal distinction between your personal and business finances. That means a lawsuit could put your personal savings at risk.
You may also want to consider the following types of business insurance depending on what sort of work you do.
| Type of insurance | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Professional liability insurance, also called E&O insurance | Claims of mistakes, negligence, inadequate work, inaccuracies, misrepresentation or similar allegations. Your business may need errors and omissions insurance if it provides services to customers for a fee. |
| Damage to your office or items your business owns as the result of natural disasters, fire, smoke or vandalism. You may need commercial property insurance if you own a building, use valuable equipment or keep inventory in stock. | |
| Loss of income when your business is unable to operate due to a disaster covered by commercial property insurance. If you buy property insurance, you should also consider business interruption insurance. | |
| Vehicles used for business. Your personal auto insurance may or may not have coverage for limited business use of your car. However, if you use your vehicle often for business, you’ll likely need a commercial auto policy. | |
| Data breaches or software hacks. If hackers breach your computer system and steal your customers’ credit card information, for example, this insurance would cover the costs of notifying customers, setting up credit monitoring and investigating the attack. | |
| Most sole proprietors don’t need workers’ comp. But if you work as a subcontractor or hire independent contractors, you may be required to carry it. Learn more about workers’ comp requirements by state. |
If you need commercial property and business interruption insurance, consider a business owner's policy. BOPs usually combine those coverages with general liability insurance. You may also be able to tack on some cybersecurity insurance and professional liability insurance coverage as well.
How to get business insurance for your sole proprietorship
Sole proprietors can get business insurance online or over the phone, either right from an insurance company or through an insurance marketplace or third-party broker. Get multiple quotes from different business insurance providers before making a decision.
When comparing quotes, consider things such as:
- Coverage: Business insurance policies are often quite similar from one provider to another. But look closely at exclusions, additional coverages and endorsements in case there are key differences there.
- Limits: The per-occurrence limit is the maximum the insurance company will pay out for each claim and the aggregate limit is the maximum amount the company will pay out during the policy term. Larger or riskier businesses may need a higher limit.
- Premiums: Compare policy premiums as well as deductibles, which is the amount you’ll have to pay out of pocket before your insurance kicks in. Lower premiums often come with higher deductibles, which means you’ll pay less on a monthly basis but more in the event of a claim.
After you buy your insurance policies, make sure you understand when your payments are due and how to manage your coverage — including how to file a claim, add endorsements or get a certificate of liability insurance.
Reevaluate your business insurance coverage annually. When your policies are up for renewal, think about how you like the coverage, costs and customer service you’re getting, as well as any new risks you face. That way you’ll always be sure you have the right coverage for your business.
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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.
