The Hartford vs Progressive vs Next Insurance: Which One Actually Covers Contractors

Short answer first. If you want to buy coverage online tonight and print a certificate before your 7 a.m. meeting, go to Next Insurance, now branded ERGO NEXT. If your biggest exposure is trucks and trailers, get a Progressive commercial auto quote, because that is the one line Progressive actually underwrites itself. And if you want a big-name carrier with agents and a claims department behind you, The Hartford is still a strong answer for workers comp and a business owner's policy, but check carefully whether they will write your general liability, because in 2026 their own contractor GL page says they do not currently have that product and refers you to a partner instead.

That last part surprises most contractors. So let's start there.

Two of These Three Are Partly Agencies, Not Just Carriers

There is a difference between a carrier and an agency, and it matters exactly once: the day you file a claim.

A carrier takes your premium, holds the reserve, and pays the claim. An agency sells you a policy that some other company underwrites. Neither one is bad. Plenty of contractors are better off with an agency that can shop eight carriers than with one carrier that only wants clean, low-risk accounts. But you should know which one you are dealing with, because when a claim goes sideways, "who actually owes me money here" is not a question you want to be researching for the first time.

All three of these names sit in different spots on that line, and none of them are where most contractors assume.

The Hartford: A Real Carrier That Currently Refers Contractor GL Out

The Hartford has been writing business insurance since 1810. It is a publicly traded carrier, it has its own underwriters, its own agents, and its own claims operation. For a lot of small contractors it is exactly what you picture when you picture insurance.

Here is the thing worth knowing before you spend an hour on a quote. As of a February 2026 update, The Hartford's own "General Liability Insurance for Contractors" page carries a notice at the top saying they do not offer general liability insurance for contractors, and a disclosure at the bottom stating they do not currently have a product available to provide that coverage. The quote button routes you to Tivly, an independent third party that matches you with other carriers.

That does not mean The Hartford is out of the contractor business. They still write plenty of small business coverage, including workers compensation, business owner's policies, commercial property, and commercial auto, and they still publish contractor-specific guidance. It means one specific thing: if general liability is the coverage you are shopping, The Hartford may hand you off, and you should confirm what they can actually issue for your trade and state before you invest time in an application.

Their published cost estimates are still useful as a benchmark. The Hartford says construction businesses pay about $1,351 a year, or roughly $113 a month, for general liability, and that a $1 million policy averages about $69 a month or $824 a year. Those are their estimates, footnoted as not guaranteed, and they are averages across all construction, which includes a lot of businesses safer than a roofing crew.

Best for: contractors who want a household-name carrier and a local agent, especially for workers comp and a BOP. Worth calling if you have employees and want one company handling comp and property.

Watch for: the GL referral. Ask directly, in the first two minutes, whether The Hartford itself will be the issuing company on every line you need.

Progressive: The Commercial Auto Pick, With an Agency Attached

Progressive is the one most contractors already have a relationship with, usually because of a truck.

Read the fine print at the bottom of Progressive Commercial's site and the structure is clear. Commercial auto policies are underwritten by Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and its affiliates. That is Progressive itself, on the hook. But business owner's policies, general liability, professional liability, and workers compensation are underwritten by insurers affiliated with Progressive and by unaffiliated insurers, with Progressive Advantage Agency acting as the licensed agency that shops you to at least one of them. Each insurer is solely responsible for its own claims.

So Progressive is a carrier for your trucks and an agency for most everything else. For a contractor, that is not a knock. It is a genuinely good setup if trucks are your biggest exposure, which for a lot of remodelers, roofers, and siding crews they are. You get one login, one bill, and one company that has been pricing work vehicles for decades.

On cost, Progressive publishes that in 2025 the national median cost of general liability through Progressive Commercial was $55 a month, with an average of $79 a month, and they note the median is closer to what most customers actually pay because a few expensive outliers drag the average up. For commercial auto, they published a 2025 average of about $260 a month for contractor autos. Quotes take about eight minutes online.

Best for: contractors whose insurance conversation starts with vehicles. Trucks, trailers, ladder racks, and permanently attached equipment are Progressive's home turf.

Watch for: knowing which company is behind each policy. If you bundle GL and comp through Progressive, ask for the name of the issuing insurer on each one and write it down.

Next Insurance: Now ERGO NEXT, Built for Buying at 9 p.m.

Next rebranded to ERGO NEXT Insurance and now sits inside the ERGO Group, a Munich Re company. That is a real change in what stands behind the paper. Munich Re is one of the largest reinsurers on the planet, which is a reasonable answer to the old objection that Next was a startup with an app.

What Next is actually good at is the part contractors hate. You answer questions about your trade, your location, your headcount, and your revenue, and you get a real price in about ten minutes without talking to anybody. You can buy at 9 p.m. on a Sunday. Coverage starts as soon as you pay, and your certificate of insurance is available immediately.

The certificate piece is not a small thing. Next gives you unlimited certificates and unlimited additional insureds at no extra charge, and the COI updates automatically when you change your limits. If you bid a lot of work for general contractors and property managers who each want to be named, that alone can be the deciding factor. Plenty of programs charge per certificate or make you email an agent and wait a day.

They rate themselves 4.7 out of 5 across roughly 5,000 customer reviews on their own site, they cover the residential trades that matter here including roofing, siding, painting, carpentry, concrete, drywall, and general contracting, and they let you pay monthly or annually. Next publishes a starting figure around $83 a month for general contractor coverage, based on premiums on active policies as of April 2026, which is a starting point and not a quote.

One structural note, because we said we would be straight about this: Next Insurance and its affiliates are also a licensed insurance agency, and their disclosures say policy obligations are the sole responsibility of the issuing insurance company. Same question applies as with the other two. Ask who issues.

Best for: owner-operators and small crews who need coverage fast, send a lot of certificates, and would rather not schedule a phone call.

Watch for: the handyman policy limitation. Next's handyman product is explicitly for small jobs and is not a fit for work requiring a license, permit, or inspection. If you pull permits, quote the general contractor or trade-specific policy instead.

Side by Side

All figures are the companies' own published estimates and averages, not quotes. Your number depends on trade, payroll, location, claims history, and limits.

What This Actually Looks Like When You File a Claim

This is the part the comparison charts skip.

With a carrier, you call one number and one company owns the outcome. With an agency, you call the agency, they route you to the issuing carrier, and the agency's job is to advocate for you. A good agency is worth a lot here. A bad one is a voicemail box.

The practical move is the same either way. Before you sign, ask three questions and write the answers on the quote itself:

1. Which company is the issuing insurer on this policy?
2. Who do I call to report a claim, and is it the same number for every line I bought?
3. If I add an additional insured at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday, how long until I have the certificate?

If a rep cannot answer all three in under two minutes, that is information.

How to Actually Decide

Start with your biggest exposure, not the cheapest premium.

If your risk is on the road, you have three trucks, a trailer, and guys driving between jobs all day, get the Progressive commercial auto quote first and build the rest around it.

If your risk is your crew, you have four or more employees on payroll and workers comp is your biggest line item, call The Hartford or an independent agent who represents them. Comp is the coverage where a carrier's claims handling and return-to-work program actually change what you pay next year, and it is worth a human conversation. Our breakdown of what workers comp really costs walks through how those premiums get calculated.

If your risk is a client's hardwood floor, you are a one to three person operation, you bid a lot of work, and everybody wants a certificate, start with Next. The speed and the free unlimited COIs solve your actual daily problem.

Then do the boring thing that saves the most money. Get all three quotes for the same limits on the same day. Not "about a million dollars." Exactly the same occurrence limit, aggregate limit, deductible, and products-completed operations. Contractors overpay constantly because they compare a $1 million per occurrence quote to a $1 million aggregate quote and think one company is cheaper.

If you are not sure what limits you should be asking for in the first place, start with our complete guide to contractor insurance, then read the general liability breakdown before you request anything.

The Bottom Line

These three are not really competitors. They are three different shapes of the same purchase.

Next is the fastest way to be covered and certificate-ready, now with Munich Re standing behind it. Progressive is the truck company that also sells you the rest through an agency arm. The Hartford is the traditional carrier that, for general liability specifically, may point you somewhere else in 2026.

The mistake is not picking the wrong one. The mistake is buying whichever one shows up first in a search, never asking who actually issues the policy, and finding out during a claim. Get three quotes at identical limits, ask the three questions above, and pick on coverage and claims handling. Price is the tiebreaker, not the decision.

You can compare insurance vendors that work with residential contractors on VendorRack, alongside the rest of the tools and services the trades actually use.