Top public liability insurance compared

About Top public liability insurance compared

Public liability cover pays when your business is held responsible for injuring someone or damaging their property, so readers weigh two things: what a policy costs and how solid the company behind it is. This ranking covers 44 brands that write or arrange that cover, from brokers such as WeddingPlan Insurance and Simply Business to insurers such as Hiscox UK, die Bayerische, Porto Seguro and ERGO Group Deutschland. Prices here are entry premiums rather than quotes for your trade, so a low starting fee tells you little about the limit standing behind it or the excess you pay when a claim is made. That is the trade-off running through the list: cheap cover with a thinner safety net, or a higher fee for a larger limit and a clearer route to the company when something goes wrong. Read each fee ref beside the limit and excess refs for the same brand, then check how the brand lists support. Brokers place the policy with an insurer, comparison sites match you to one, and insurers write it themselves, and that difference shapes both price and the claims experience.

How we picked

Each brand in this ranking is scored on three things. Cost carries a weight of 35%, offer a weight of 25% and trust a weight of 40%, so trust counts for the most and price leads the rest. Cost comes from the starting premium a brand publishes. Offer reflects how much cover stands around that price, including limits and added lines. Trust reads the shape of the company: whether it is an insurer, a broker or a comparison site, how long it has been trading, and how a customer can reach it. Figures are taken from the product information each brand publishes, from its contact and about information for entity, location and support details, and from its legal information for the company behind the brand. The site-wide distributions and this category's own distributions are used to place a price and a limit in context, which is why limits across the field run €876,962.20 to €11,621,825.79 and entry premiums run €2.09 to €319.60. Partners are listed first and everyone else follows in score order, so a sponsored slot never pushes a stronger brand further down the page.

Our top picks

1. 4. ERGO Group Deutschland

   ERGO Group Deutschland completes this ranking as a German insurer with a broad liability offer. Its business lines run to public liability, cyber and property, pairing public liability with cyber and property rather than the professional and employers liability lines common higher up, which suits a firm whose main exposure is online. It trades as ERGO Group AG from DE, monthly payments are available, and support runs on email, chat and phone without a self-serve help centre. As with Porto Seguro just above, the starting premium of €3.90 comes from household contents cover, so read it as a label on the brand rather than a liability quote.

   • Premium from: €3.90
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Life, and 5 more
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • Premiums start at €3.90 on the Smart home policy, below the site median of €8.37
   • Monthly payments are available, so the cost spreads across the year rather than landing in one bill
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone, so you can reach a person on chat, email or phone
   • Cover spans auto, home and life under one legal entity, ERGO Group AG

   Cons

   • The starting premium of €3.90 belongs to the Smart home policy for a small flat, so it reads as an entry point rather than a price for a larger home
   • The age band shown is Under 36 (13% start bonus for young people), so the starting price applies to a narrower group
   • Support runs on email, chat and phone only, with no branch or broker option listed
   • Business cover is limited to public liability, cyber and property, so a company needing professional or employers liability looks elsewhere

2. 9. die Bayerische

   die Bayerische is one of the older names in this ranking, founded at the year on file, 1858, and trading as BY die Bayerische Vorsorge Lebensversicherung a.G. from DE. It serves Retail, construction, cleaning, hospitality and health professions and pairs liability with property through public liability and property, so a shop or hospitality site can cover both sides in one conversation. Monthly payments are available and support runs on phone, email and chat. The price signals need their label, though: the starting premium of €2.09 sits on its mobile phone policies, and the excess range of €0 to €35 is quoted there too, not on a liability policy. INSHUR above shares that pattern on its excess.

   • Premium from: €2.09
   • Insurance types: Auto, Home, Motorcycle, and 7 more
   • Provider type: Insurer

   Pros

   • Premiums start at €2.09 on the mobile phone liability line, and the excess on that same line runs €0 to €35, so a small loss can cost nothing to settle.
   • die Bayerische underwrites the risk itself as insurer, writing auto, home and motorcycle for households and public liability and property for businesses, so cover and claims stay with one company.
   • Monthly payments are available, so a premium is spread across the year rather than paid in one sum.
   • Support runs on phone, email and chat, and claims can be started on online, post and phone, which gives several routes to report a loss.
   • The company behind the policies, BY die Bayerische Vorsorge Lebensversicherung a.G., has been trading since 1858.

   Cons

   • The entry premium and the cover limit come from different products: €2.09 is quoted for the mobile phone line, while 100 million EUR (E-Scooter-Versicherung) applies to e-scooter cover, so neither figure describes a motor or home policy.
   • Renters cover is missing from auto, home and motorcycle, whereas Good Sam Insurance Agency includes it in auto, home and renters.
   • Business cover is limited to public liability and property, a narrower set than the market, where professional indemnity alone is offered by 63.5% of the brands on the site.

3. 10. Hiscox UK: best for Lowest premium from

   Hiscox UK earns its place in this ranking on cost, with public liability fees of £5.20 the lowest entry premium of any brand here, and it does not trade there alone. The limit behind that fee is £10,000,000, well clear of the category median, and the business lines run to public liability, professional indemnity and employers liability, so professional indemnity or employers liability can follow on the same account. It writes as Hiscox Underwriting Ltd and takes on work from IT and consultancy through to trades and retail, including freelancers and sole traders. Monthly payments are available, and support runs on phone and help centre. Against WeddingPlan Insurance above, the difference is reach: Hiscox UK serves general business trades rather than a single sector.

   • Provider type: Insurer
   • Cover types: Public-liability, Professional-indemnity, Employers-liability, and 1 more
   • Indemnity limit: £10,000,000

   Pros

   • Indemnity limits of £10,000,000 rank first of 11 brands on our data, well above the site median of €3,486,547.74.
   • Business lines cover public liability, professional indemnity, employers liability and cyber, so several core covers sit with one insurer.
   • Premium from £5.20 sits below the site median of €8.37, and Hiscox UK ranks 2 of 14 on entry price.
   • Monthly payments are available, so the premium can be spread rather than paid as one lump sum.
   • Cover runs from an insurer, Hiscox Underwriting Ltd, rather than through a broker or comparison site, and Hiscox UK ranks 2 of 14 on price.

   Cons

   • Support runs on phone and help centre only, so a help centre and phone line are the listed ways to reach the team.
   • Business cover is limited to public liability, professional indemnity and employers liability, with no property business line among the listed lines.
   • The entry premium is a starting figure, and business insurance premium from £5.20 sits under a category spread running to €3,431.08.
   • A Hiscox UK entity is an insurer, so cover sits with a single underwriter rather than a broker such as broker who can place it across the market.

What to look for

Entry price, read with care

Starting premiums in this category run €2.09 to €319.60, with a median of €8.06. Entry fees across the field start at €5 and reach €21.92, so a figure well under the median is worth a second look at what it covers.

The limit behind the fee

The median limit here is €3,782,418.65, with published figures ranging from €1,310,118.04 to €5,810,912.89. A brand quoting a low fee against a high limit gives you more room per pound spent, and one quoting low on both does not.

Who underwrites the policy

Most of the field are insurers, at 59.1%, with brokers at 31.8% and comparison sites at 9.1%. Insurers write the cover, while brokers and comparison sites place it with an insurer, and that choice changes who answers when a claim comes in.

How you pay

88.5% of the brands in this category let you pay monthly, which makes a modest entry fee far easier to carry than a large one. Where a yearly payment is needed instead, the same fee lands in one go, and that changes what a low price really means for a small business.

Reaching a human

Phone support is the most common route at 87.2%, with help centres at 84.6%, email at 66.7% and chat at 35.9%. A claim is the moment these details matter, so read the support channels listed against the brand you are considering.

Licence records and paid slots

21 of the 44 brands in this category carry a licence record, which tells you which providers are recorded as authorised to write cover. Paid slots are rare, at 1, so most of the order here follows the score rather than a contract.

Frequently asked questions

Top public liability insurance compared by country

• Australia
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV