The best insurance comparison sites in the US, and what they actually are.

TL;DR

• The main US insurance comparison sites fall into two types: lead aggregators (they collect your details and sell them to insurers or agents) and licensed agencies (they hold an insurance licence and earn a commission when you buy). Many do both.
• The biggest names for auto and home are The Zebra, Insurify, and EverQuote. For life, Policygenius and SelectQuote. For Medicare and individual health, eHealth, SelectQuote, and HealthSherpa.
• None of these sites show you every insurer. Each has a panel — a fixed set of carriers it has deals with. The carriers not on that panel are invisible to you.
• Ownership matters. Policygenius is now owned by Zinnia, a life-tech platform backed by Eldridge. CoverHound was acquired by Brown & Brown, a large insurance broker. EverQuote and MediaAlpha are publicly traded. The Zebra and Insurify remain independent.
• "Free to use" means the insurer or agent pays the site, not you. That cost can flow into your premium.

How comparison sites work

A comparison site asks you for basic facts: your zip code, your car, your age. It passes those facts to a set of carriers or agents. The carriers run their own pricing engines and return quotes. The site displays them.

That is the simple version. The business model underneath varies.

Lead aggregators sell your contact details to multiple carriers or agents, who then call or email you. EverQuote is the clearest example: it generated $692.5 million in revenue in 2025 this way, on NASDAQ under the ticker EVER. MediaAlpha operates a programmatic exchange where insurers bid in real time for the right to reach you. Neither EverQuote nor MediaAlpha is a licensed insurance agency. They earn revenue by connecting you to carriers, not by selling you a policy directly.

Licensed agencies have an insurance licence in each state where they operate. They earn a commission — typically a percentage of the annual premium — when you buy through them. The Zebra, Insurify, Policygenius, SelectQuote, and eHealth all hold licences and earn commissions. Some of them also sell leads, which is why the line blurs.

The distinction matters for one reason: a licensed agency has a legal obligation to act in your interest. A lead aggregator does not. It is simply matching you to buyers.

Auto and home: the main sites

The Zebra (Austin, TX, founded 2012) is the largest US auto-comparison panel by carrier count, with over 200 national insurers. It started as a pure comparison engine and added a licensed in-house agency. It raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation and remains independent. It covers auto, home, renters, and life.

Insurify (Cambridge, MA, founded 2013) calls itself an AI-driven comparison platform. It integrates with over 120 insurance carriers and acts as a licensed agency rather than a lead seller. In March 2023 it acquired Compare.com, which had been the US subsidiary of a UK comparison group. It covers auto, home, renters, life, and pet.

EverQuote (Cambridge, MA, founded 2011) is publicly traded (NASDAQ: EVER) and is the largest pure-play US insurance lead marketplace. It made $692.5 million in 2025 revenue, with auto accounting for over 90% of that. When you use EverQuote, your details go to carriers and agents who have paid to receive them. It also covers home, life, health, Medicare, and commercial lines.

Life insurance: where to compare

Policygenius (New York, NY, founded 2014) is the best-known online life-insurance broker in the US. It offers term, whole, and disability alongside home and auto. In 2023 it was acquired by Zinnia, a life-and-annuity tech platform backed by Eldridge Industries. It operates as a licensed agency on commission. Its carrier panel varies by line and is not published as a fixed number.

SelectQuote (Overland Park, KS, founded 1985) started as a phone-based term-life comparison service before the web existed. It is now publicly traded (NYSE: SLQT) and covers Medicare, life, auto, and home. It works with 50 or more rated carriers and operates through licensed agents on commission. It generated $1.527 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025, with Medicare now its largest segment.

Medicare and individual health

eHealth (Austin, TX, founded 1997) was the first website to sell an individual health insurance policy online, in 1998. It holds licences in every state and covers Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, and individual health plans. Its panel includes around 170 carriers. It generated $532.4 million in revenue in 2024 and is publicly traded on NASDAQ under EHTH.

HealthSherpa (Sacramento, CA, founded 2013) focuses on ACA individual health plans. It is a CMS-approved Enhanced Direct Enrollment platform, meaning it is officially connected to the federal marketplace. It processed the majority of off-Healthcare.gov individual ACA enrollments. It also serves over 60,000 agents and brokers via carrier-branded enrollment tools. It has raised around $6.6 million in disclosed funding and is backed by Y Combinator.

Small business

CoverHound (San Francisco, CA, founded 2010) was one of the original US insurance marketplaces. It pivoted from personal lines to small-business and commercial coverage. In November 2020 it was acquired by Brown & Brown, a large publicly traded insurance broker, along with its CyberPolicy unit. The deal value was not disclosed. It now operates as Brown & Brown's digital small-commercial distribution arm.

The honest answer on neutrality

No comparison site is a neutral marketplace in the way a supermarket shelf is neutral.

Every site has a carrier panel. Carriers not on that panel do not appear, whatever their price. A carrier on the panel may pay more to appear prominently or to receive leads first. The site's income comes from carriers or agents, not from you.

That does not make comparison sites useless. Getting four or five quotes in two minutes is still useful. The point is to use more than one site and to check directly with any large regional carrier that did not appear.

MediaAlpha (Los Angeles, CA, founded 2011) makes the underlying economics visible in a way the consumer-facing sites do not. It runs a programmatic ad exchange: insurers and agents bid in real time for consumer-intent signals — someone shopping for car insurance is an ad impression, and carriers pay to reach that person. It generated $1.113 billion in revenue in 2025 and is publicly traded on NYSE as MAX. White Mountains Insurance Group holds roughly 24% of the company.

A plain way to use these sites

Use one multi-line site (The Zebra or Insurify for auto; Policygenius or SelectQuote for life; eHealth or SelectQuote for Medicare) to get a baseline set of quotes. Then check one more site from the same category. If the two sets overlap heavily, you have a reasonable picture of the market. If they do not overlap, you have found a gap in one site's panel — which tells you something about what it is showing you.