The best car insurance companies in Ontario for 2024

In today’s cost of living crisis, saving money where possible is essential. Insurance is a mandatory purchase, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. To save money on your insurance, you’ll want to work with the best auto insurance company. But who’s the best of the best?

Below is a breakdown of the best car insurance companies in Ontario, including what they offer, how they rank by coverage options, price, and more.

There are more than 80 insurance companies in Ontario that sell auto insurance. Each insurance company has its own “offering,” and certain insurers only offer niche auto insurance (such as high-risk, right-hand drive, or classic car insurance).

When you want the best, you need to know what it means to be the “best.” The insurer you choose should be able to:

While an insurance broker’s duty is to help find you great rates, they can also help partner you with an insurer who will find you the best coverage fit. This goes beyond price. There are other ways to rank auto insurance companies beyond their price. Keep the following in mind:

J.D. Power, a software, consumer intelligence, and data analytics company, conducts their own customer satisfaction surveys every year for auto insurance companies. While their rankings may only serve as a general guideline, it’s good to take note of common trends. Note that J.D. Power ratings do have their own limitations, such as:

This is a factor that too few policyholders know about, but it’s important. When insurance companies are smaller, the funds that they have to payout claims also tends to be smaller. The risk that the insurance company may not have enough money to pay out all claims is greater. Larger companies tend to have a more evenly spread risk, and have also likely purchased reinsurance, so there’s less risk for the insured. This, of course, isn’t always an exact science – and sometimes the smaller guys will meet your needs even better than the big guys!

While reviews are not solely about what drivers should go off, they can be an indicator of the kind of service you might expect from an insurance company. They can be skewed because:

The best you can take away from online reviews is how insurance companies “argue” over what’s covered when a claim is filed and how easy they are to contact. Reviews may be able to show how well (or poorly) an insurance company fares for these aspects.

There’s no definitive way to say which auto insurance company is the best. We’ve created the table below to show the differences between different auto insurers. Note that we can only access pricing information from the auto insurers that we partner with:

There is no single best auto insurance company in Ontario that works for everyone, as everybody’s personal insurance needs are just that: personal. What works for Bob and Jerry down the road may not work for you, as your driving habits may be different, your driving experience, the cars you drive, etc. The table below shows pricing comparisons between some of our partners for different demographics:

All drivers with a valid Ontario license are entitled to fair access to insurance. Different insurers will specialize in different types of “risk,” meaning some companies may offer insurance to drivers who would otherwise have a difficult time getting insured through the regular market. In the chart above, we included which companies are open to business in different categories. Here’s a breakdown of those different categories:

Most drivers in Ontario are insured through what is known as the standard market. This means that the companies who offer “standard” insurance will offer it to low or medium-risk drivers, so drivers who don’t use their cars for business usage, aren’t right-hand drive, don’t have modifications, or who don’t have more than three tickets/at-fault accidents on their record.

High-risk auto insurance, also called nonstandard auto insurance, is offered by companies who specialize in insurance for drivers whose risk profile would otherwise be uninsurable by standard market companies. This is usually due to serious driving convictions, at-fault accidents, or having been cancelled due to a history of non-payment.

Some insurance companies specialize in offering insurance to what are known as non-standard vehicles, which are often right-hand drive, classic/collector vehicles, or vehicles that have been heavily modified.

In Ontario, motorcycle insurance tends to rack higher than car insurance on average as accidents can involve severe injuries, and may include the potential for long-term disability. Motorcycle insurance, as a result, can be riskier – even with more experienced drivers.

Few insurers will insure drivers under 25 or who have less than 5 years of riding experience. In this case, they may need to obtain coverage through Facility Association as their only option.

If you use your personal vehicle for ridesharing companies such as Lyft or Uber, and you transport either food or passengers, then many insurers may not agree to work with you, and you’ll have to acquire specialized insurance through a rideshare insurer. This tends to be more expensive than standard auto insurance.

Using a car for business purposes, such as owning a vehicle with business branding, hauling goods, tools, or delivering passengers, calls for commercial auto insurance. Many auto insurers specialize in insuring business vehicles.

There are quite a few options for farmers wanting to insure their farm-use vehicles, with over 40 farm mutuals operating in Ontario. Note a few of these mutuals only operate in their immediate geographic region. Some business vehicle insurers will also cover farm vehicles as well.

While it can be tough to choose a car insurance company that’s right for you, Mitch can help. We partner with many of Canada’s top auto insurance providers, so we’re confident we can help you find a company that fits the bill and for a great rate, too.