Defaqto Announces Insurer of The Year

Defaqto Home Insurer of the Year 2025-26

Defaqto Travel Insurer of the Year 2025-26

Defaqto Pet Insurer of the Year 2025-26

Commenting on 2026’s best insurers, Dipesh Sanghrajka, Product Director, Defaqto, said: ““In a competitive insurance market, consumers need clear and trusted ways to distinguish between providers. Price will always be an important consideration, but it does not tell the whole story about the quality of a product or the experience customers can expect.

“The Defaqto Insurer of the Year Awards recognise providers that perform strongly across both. Because the awards are earned rather than entered and combine detailed product analysis with the real experiences of thousands of insurance customers, they provide meaningful independent recognition of all-round performance.

“Many congratulations to each of the winners and highly commended providers recognised this year.”

Methodology

To determine the top performers, each insurer was evaluated using a two-part methodology, with equal weighting given to product quality and customer service performance.

The product element combines Defaqto’s Star Ratings methodology, Customer Appeal data from an annual survey of 10,722 consumers, which identifies the relative importance customers place on product features, and product breadth.

The service element draws on Defaqto’s Customer Experience Survey, in which 15,925 consumers rated their insurer based on their real experiences across five key service touchpoints: quote and buy, in-life queries and changes, claims, renewals and complaints. The survey covered 107 insurance brands.

The product and service elements are scored independently, then averaged and ranked to determine the winner and highly commended insurers in each category.

By looking beyond overall brand perception and examining customers’ experiences at different stages of their relationship with an insurer, the methodology provides a detailed picture of service performance alongside the quality and breadth of the products offered.

Customer experience survey findings

The 2026 survey results, compared with 2025, show customer experience continued to evolve across different insurance lines and stages of the customer journey, with improvements in some areas offset by declines in others.

Car insurance recorded the strongest overall performance, with customer experience improving across every service touchpoint, including claims (+3%), complaints (+4%) and recommendations (+1%). Pet insurance also recorded improvements in all areas, apart from mid-life queries and changes, which stayed the same.

By contrast, travel insurance saw the largest declines, particularly at renewal (-5%) and in complaints handling (-4%). Home insurance remained largely unchanged overall, with small improvements in mid-life queries and changes, renewals and recommendations balanced by a decline in complaints handling (-3%). Recommendation scores increased by 1% across all four personal insurance lines.

Defaqto supports over 80% of the UK’s general insurance providers to optimise their market propositions. The same independent product data and market insight that underpins the Insurer of the Year Awards also powers Matrix 360, Defaqto’s market intelligence platform, helping insurers benchmark products, understand market trends and support product governance.