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BUSINESS INSURANCE

Compare cheap business insurance tailored to your needs

  • Compare quotes for less than £57.65i/year or £4.80ii/month

  • In partnership with Simply Business, one of the UK's largest providers

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Compare quotes tailored to your business needs

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Compare business insurance quotes from leading UK insurers

We compare many of the leading business insurance brands including:

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What is business insurance?

Business insurance protects businesses from financial losses due to various risks and events. It covers property damage, legal liabilities, and employee-related risks, tailored to factors like business type, size, and industry.

How can business insurance help my business?

  • Covers legal expenses for accidents and injuries

  • Supplements lost wages and revenue

  • Replaces lost or damaged tools/equipment

  • Protects commercial property and contents

  • May include support services like legal advice

Is it legally required in the UK?

The only mandatory business insurance in the UK is employers’ liability insurance. This is essential if you have any employees, part-time workers or volunteers working.

While not a legal requirement professional indemnity insurance is high recommended for certain industries like solicitors, accounts, and healthcare professionals. In some industries, you are required to have professional indemnity insurance by your clients.

However, it's important to consider business insurance to ensure you have the right level of cover and protection. This can help protect your company from financial losses due to accidents, lawsuits, or other unforeseen events.

Why should I insure my business?

If you're still wondering whether business insurance is right for you, it's worthwhile to ask yourselves a few questions:

If you have non-family employees or volunteers, employers' liability insurance is required in the UK.

Business contents insurance can help recover lost equipment due to fire, flood, or theft.

Business interruption insurance covers revenue loss and expenses during operational pauses due to insurable events.

With key person insurance, your business will be compensated if a valuable employee is involved in an accident and is unable to work

What are the different types of business insurance?

Different types of business insurance can be tailored to your needs. Ensure sufficient protection against unexpected events

The four main types include:

  • ""

    Public liability

    Crucial for customer-facing operations, it protects against injury or property damage to the public.

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    Professional indemnity

    Covers legal costs if accused of faulty work or advice leading to client financial loss.

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    Employers’ liability

    Legally required in the UK, it covers compensation and legal fees for employee illness or injury.

561,000 workplace injuries were reported in 2022/23¹

Protect yourself and your employees with business insurance today!


¹According to the 2022-2023 Health and Safety Executive’s Labour Force Survey

What other types of business insurance do I need?

There are a range of different types of business insurance products that will help you protect the different parts of your business. Here are some of your options:

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    Legal expenses cover

    Covers legal dispute fees and offers legal and tax support services up to £100,000 per claim

  • Plus

    Personal accident

    Protects against accidents, offering benefits for injury, death, and health support services.

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    Commercial building insurance

    Protect commercial properties and contents from damage.

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    Tool insurance

    Protects tools from loss, damage, or theft.

  • Plus

    Business contents insurance

    Protects office equipment from damage or loss, including home office equipment.

  • Plus

    Product liability

    Product liability covers legal fees if your product causes injury to a customer.

How much does business insurance cost? 

The cost of your own business insurance varies depending on several factors:

  • 1

    Insurance type 

    The variety of business insurance types come with different price tags, so evaluating your options is beneficial.

  • 2

    Industry 

    Different industries and professions have varying levels of risk, which influences the cost of insurance.

  • 3

    Business size

    Larger businesses with more employees or higher annual turnover typically face higher insurance costs.

  • 4

    Cover levels

    The extent of your coverage and the number of policies you hold can increase your insurance premiums.

  • 5

    Claims history

    A history of insurance claims or legal actions can lead to more expensive insurance rates.

  • 6

    Excess

    Opting to pay a higher excess—the amount you contribute towards a claim—can reduce your business insurance premiums.

How to get cheaper business insurance

There are a few different ways you can lower your premiums for your business insurance including:

Higher excess:

You can choose a higher excess to reduce your premiums but be sure whatever excess you opt for is the amount you are able to personally pay in the event of any claim.  

Compare rates:

Comparing quotes from a range of insurers through MoneySuperMarket can insure you can get the coverage you need at the best price  

Lower your risk:

Installing security camera’s, ensuring added security and training are ways to show your insurer that you are lower risk 

Bundle policies:

Many business insurance providers allow you to join some of your policies together so they are all housed under one policy. This can be more cost effective than separate policies. 

Business Insurance Quote Example

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Covea

Business Insurance Quote

  • Monthly price 10 x monthly payments of

    £8.62

  • Annual price A one-off payment of

    £66.24


Public Liability Insurance for a mobile hairdresser who also rents a chair in a local salon


£51 Million in Claims Paid Out Last Year

Simply Business settled £51 million worth of claims last year and settled 83% of all claims made. Simply Business data 2023. The figure above is rounded across the Simply Business range of products. The claims process can vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

Jake Edmonds

Our expert says

Getting the right cover can help protect your business against any unforeseen incidents. A recent study revealed that business interruption claims have increased dramatically, as 21% of business owners say they’ve experienced disruption of some kind. 

 The top three causes were fire or explosions (24%) faulty workmanship or maintenance (24%), and defective products*. If your business is affected by an unfortunate event, having business insurance can mean the difference between staying in business or facing tough times.  

At MoneySuperMarket, we can help you find the right business insurance to protect your business and keep your customers happy.

- Jake Edmonds, Insurance Expert

The importance of business insurance for small businesses

If you own a small business or a start-up, you should know that most types of personal insurance exclude "business use" as standard.

This includes motor insurance, home insurance, and even some elements of travel insurance.

So, business items kept in your home, vehicles you use for your business, and business equipment you take out of the country may all be at risk without insurance policies specifically geared towards businesses.

For this reasons, the extra cost of taking out insurance for your business can be very worthwhile.

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Business insurance for a wide variety of trades

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What do I need to compare business insurance?

When you start your search for business insurance, there are a few pieces of information you should have on hand. This is to give you accurate quotes and determine whether you can get the cover you're after:

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    Your business details

    This includes your business address, what your business does, and how old it is

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    Personal details

    Such as your name and date of birth

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    Employee details

    How many employees your business has and if they're permanent or temporary contractors

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    Policy requirements

    The kind of policy you're looking for, how much cover, and any preferred optional extras

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    Cover type details

    Depending on the type of insurance, you may need to give specific details, such as your content value

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    Legal history

    You may need to provide honest information about you business's past or ongoing claims and legal disputes

Ready to compare quotes? Here is what to do next

  • Icon depicting a clipboard with information and a tick

    Tell us about your business

    Let us know about your business, its structure and expected turnover, and what type of business life insurance you are interested in.

  • We explore the market

    We will talk with you to learn more about your individual business and then explore the market for appropriate policies and prices.

  • Icon depicting policy details and a tick

    Find the right cover for you

    We will show you the options and prices and, when you’re happy, we can put cover in place for your business protection.

If you have employees working for you, then you will probably need employers' liability insurance. Other types of business insurance can also provide valuable protection, especially:

  • Indemnity insurance will cover you in the event that have made a mistake while providing a service for a client

  • Business and office equipment insurance will cover any of your important equipment that you keep at home or a rented premises

  • Stock insurance can be worthwhile if you are selling items online and want to insure them while they're being stored on your premises

  • Legal expenses insurance can help you cover the legal cost of contract disputes, data protection, tax protection, corporate identity theft and more

  • Business interruption can help support your business if, for example, your office building is flooded and you're unable to work until new equipment is bought

The only insurance that you are legally required to own as a sole trader is employers' liability insurance, which you would only need if you hire employees.

No other types of insurance are legally required but there is very good reason to consider them. As a sole trader, all business expenses fall on you. If something goes wrong on the job, that means that you will be responsible for covering costs.

For that reason, it's worthwhile to consider public liability insurance at least to protect you from expensive legal fees.

Business insurance is important for all businesses, self-employed, sole trader, or otherwise. It protects your business from claims made against it, covering fees for defending against a claim and paying out any compensation that might be due.

Depending on the type of business you have, certain business insurance policies may be required by law, like employers liability insurance.

The only compulsory business insurance is employers' liability, which you will need if you have hired any employees for your business.

Other types of business insurance, like public liability, aren't legally required but there certain trades where they may be required for other reasons.

The simplest way to reduce the cost of a business insurance policy is to increase your voluntary excess. This is the amount you agree to contribute to cover costs if an incident occurs. A higher excess is usually an indicator to your insurance provider that you won't make small, frivolous claims, so they will reduce your premiums.

If increasing your excess isn't an option, it may be worthwhile to reassess the insurance needs of your business. Rather than automatically renewing your policy each year, it can save you money to look at the value of your insurance policy and assess whether your cover is cost effective.

No, you don't need to register your business to buy business insurance. You can buy business insurance before you register your business or as self employed. However, it is generally a legal requirement that you register your business.

Commercial property insurance is another term for business building insurance. This type of policy will insure the property that you use for your business against structural damage. This includes cover for fire, vandalism, and flooding.

Commercial property insurance is only a worthwhile insurance if you actually own the building you use for business operations. If you rent the property, it is typically the responsibility of the actual property owner to take out insurance to cover the building.

If you only rent your business building, then you would only need to insure the contents of the building, which can be covered by business and office equipment insurance as well as stock insurance.

Business interruption insurance will cover your business for loss of income or gross profit if an unexpected even prevents you from operating as usual. For example, you might be forced to halt operations if your business building is flooded or if a fire ruined your stock. In which case, your business interruption insurance would pay out to cover the loss and additional expenses you may need to keep your business running.

You work hard to earn your money, and we don’t think you should waste a penny of it paying over the odds on your household bills. That’s why at MoneySuperMarket, we’re on a mission to save Britain money.

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So how do we make our money? In a nutshell, when you use us to buy something, we get a reward from the company you’re buying from.

You might be wondering if we work with all the companies in the market, or if our commercial relationships with our partners might make us feature one company above another. We’ve got nothing to hide, and we want to give you clear answers when it comes to questions like these, so we’ve pulled together everything you need to know on this page.

MoneySuperMarket are partnered with Simply Business to offer you business insurance policies. Simply Business are one the the UK's largest business insurance brokers, authorised and regulated by Financial Conduct Authority. They specialise in protection policies for small and new businesses and work with an extensive panel of providers to help small business owners find tailored policies for good value.

For more information, visit the Simply Business website