Find the Best Home Insurance in Ontario (2026 Ranking)
Square One and Desjardins top the list. Are they the best options for you?
TL;DR: The best home insurance companies in Ontario
We analyzed 11 companies that provide home insurance in Ontario using a consistent methodology based on pricing, customer feedback, and policy clarity. We found that Square One, Desjardins, and CAA Insurance stand out as some of the best overall providers of home insurance in Ontario.
The results below highlight how each insurer compares to the market average across these areas.
In our analysis, three popular insurers in Canada were particularly noteworthy:
- Square One is an online car and home insurance provider founded in 2011. The company emphasizes transparency, customizable coverage options, and competitive pricing.
- Desjardins is the third-largest property and casualty insurer in Ontario. With over 85 years in business, they offer the best combined home and auto insurance discount for customers in Ontario.
- CAA Insurance was founded as a motor club, but has sold insurance in Ontario since the 1980s. In customer discussions regarding claims service, CAA stands out as one of Ontario’s most reliable insurers.
What makes a home insurance company the best?
A good home insurance company offers robust, customizable coverage at a competitive price, and backs that coverage up with reliable customer and claims service.
To research the best home insurance companies in Ontario, we looked closely at a few key factors:
- Coverage options: We scored each insurer based on the range of coverage included in each offer as well as the shopper’s ability to customize their own coverage. Carriers with more coverage options and a greater degree of customization scored higher, while carriers with limited, fixed options scored lower.
- Pricing: We ran home insurance quotes for each insurer based on three sample profiles and homes, and compared each quoted price to the average across all insurers. We also calculated a separate pricing score for younger first-time homeowners with no history of property insurance.
- Reputation: We analyzed Google and InsureEye ratings along with anonymous contributions to Reddit threads to capture a sense of each carrier’s reputation for handling home insurance claims and service among current and past customers.
- Transparency: We assigned a qualitative letter grade to each carrier based on the degree of explanation provided for underwriting questions and coverage offers. Carriers with clear, easy-to-access explanations of questions and coverage scored highly, while those with limited explanations scored lower.
Best home insurance in Ontario: Square One
Square One’s user-friendly online quote platform, flexible payment options, and competitive rates earned it the top spot in our analysis of Ontario home insurance companies. It’s an especially strong option for first-time homeowners and anyone seeking to customize their coverage and control their premium in detail.
Best large home insurance company in Ontario: Intact
If you’d prefer the resources and financial stability of a large, established home insurance provider, Intact is the most competitive option in Ontario. While some homeowners received higher rates in our analysis, Intact’s reputation for reliable claims support is strong, and experts agree that it’s a solid pick for a home insurance provider if you get a good rate.
Best home insurance for claims service in Ontario: Co-operators
The home insurance you buy is only as good as your provider’s claims service, and when it comes to claims, Co-operators stands out as a clear industry leader. Customers online frequently share positive experiences with the Co-operators’ claims team, with surprisingly few negative reviews. As a mutual insurer based in Canada, Co-operators may also appeal to shoppers who prefer human support and want to keep their business local.
There’s a clear trade-off, however: for most homeowners, Co-operators charges higher premiums than other carriers.
Best home insurance bundle in Ontario: Aviva
If you’d like to insure your home and car with the same carrier to save money, get home and auto quotes from Aviva. While Aviva’s standalone home insurance rates are near the industry average, adding a bundling discount can produce significant savings for most customers, making it a competitive option for shoppers on a budget, especially those with multiple cars or homes.
Best climate-resilient home insurance in Ontario: Allstate Canada
Allstate is ahead of the game when it comes to home insurance built for an era of climate collapse. Every Allstate Canada home insurance policy includes built-in climate mitigation benefits at no added cost, including steep discounts for customers who undertake certain fortification projects. Thanks to this focus on climate-ready coverage, policyholders who have been dropped or overquoted by other insurers due to severe weather risk report receiving competitive quotes from Allstate.
Best home insurance for first-time buyers in Ontario: RBC Insurance
If you’ve never bought home insurance before and aren’t sure what to look for, you may want to start with a quote from RBC Insurance. In our analysis, RBC delivered the best rates for first-time homeowners, along with clear and thorough explanations of each type of coverage. Be aware that you may need to complete a home inspection or make upgrades and repairs to get covered, especially if you own an older home.
Best home insurance to switch to in Ontario: CAA, Belairdirect, and Sonnet
Because switching to a new insurer is a major goal of many home insurance shoppers, we highlighted three common picks for Canadian home insurance customers who left their old provider for a new company.
When it comes to price, CAA is the clear winner for many homeowners. On top of low base premiums, CAA’s generous discounts for customers who bundle and for CAA members can lower the overall cost of home insurance significantly. Although CAA has a mixed reputation when it comes to claims, many customers report a seamless experience.
Belairdirect is another strong contender if saving on home insurance is your priority. While their rates weren’t the cheapest in our analysis, they have a robust lineup of discounts, including the largest auto insurance bundling discount on the market. Belairdirect is also a good fit for those who prefer an app-based insurance experience to a traditional advisor relationship, with highly rated digital tools for both Android and iPhone users.
Sonnet positions itself as a simple, high-support option for young homeowners in search of affordable coverage. In many ways, it seems to deliver on that promise, with consistently low rates in our analysis and some of the best explanations from any insurer of how home insurance actually works. There’s a clear tradeoff, however, as current and former customers note mixed customer service and claims experiences, and Sonnet’s coverage may have gaps that are easy to miss unless you ask directly.
Compare home insurance coverage: Which company has the best policies?
Every standard home insurance policy in Canada has the same basic components: dwelling coverage for damage to your home and other structures, contents coverage for your personal property, additional living expenses coverage if you’re displaced from your home, and personal liability coverage for legal risks.
But each insurance company builds their policies differently.
- Some offer a single combined limit for dwelling, other structures, contents, and additional living expenses coverage, usually between $1 million and $3 million.
- Most offer guaranteed replacement cost coverage for your dwelling, which extends your coverage if your home costs more to rebuild than expected.
- Some include multiple endorsements, such as sewer backup and overland water coverage, with options to select or remove add-ons of your choice.
Look for an insurance company that allows you to select, adjust, and customize a wide range of coverage. If you can’t set your deductible, adjust your coverage limits, or choose between optional coverage types, you may not be buying the right coverage for your home.
To determine which companies offer the best home insurance, we created a home insurance profile for a fictional household and shopped for online quotes using their information.
Profile 1: The suburban shoppers
Bob and Marilyn live in suburban London, Ontario (postal code N6H 5W1). They’re both in their mid-40s and are shopping for a new insurance policy to replace the existing coverage on their $675,000 home.
Profile 1: Key home info
- Year built: 2006
- Storeys: 2
- Roof replaced: 2019
- Square footage: 2,000
- Garage: 2-car, attached
- Heating: Forced air (natural gas)
- Exterior finish: Brick and vinyl siding
Coverage comparison: The best home insurance policies in Ontario
* Single limit only
Sonnet and CAA Insurance returned the lowest quotes for Bob and Marilyn’s home, but Square One and TD Insurance allowed the greatest degree of customization, with generous options to adjust limits, deductibles, and add-ons.
Compare home insurance prices: Who has the best home insurance prices?
Price isn’t everything, but it can be a game-changer for Ontario homeowners—especially if you’ve received a recent rate increase or are struggling to balance your budget.
Home insurance prices are based on a wide range of factors related to your personal profile and your property. Every insurer we collected quotes from asked about the same basic factors:
But home insurance underwriting can go deeper. While some insurers keep it simple at the initial quoting stage, underwriting may require further information about your home, such as:
- Applicant occupation
- Square footage of decks, basements, and detached structures
- The number and breed of any dogs in the home
- Smoking status of residents
- Condition of exterior and interior walls
- Type of plumbing
- Date of last service for plumbing, electrical systems, and water heaters
The more questions an insurer asks during the initial quoting phase, the less likely your rate is to change when you purchase the policy and additional underwriting adds more information.
We tracked how many questions each insurer asked about the property to be insured. Desjardins asked the most at 27 distinct questions, while Aviva and RBC asked the fewest at just 7 questions each. PolicyMe asks 31 questions when generating home insurance quotes.
To evaluate each insurance company’s pricing options, we created two more profiles: a first-time homeowner living in a slightly older home, and a couple moving into a newly constructed home outside of a major metro area.
Profile 2: The first-time homeowner
After finishing her education, Supriya saved up for a down payment on her first house, a semi-detached split-level in southeast London, Ontario. While the home has some recent upgrades like modern kitchen appliances, it’s on the older side and some key home features like the roof and furnace haven’t been updated recently.
Profile 2: Key home info
- Year built: 1977
- Storeys: 2.5
- Roof replaced: 2017
- Square footage: 1,040
- Garage: 3-car, attached
- Heating: Forced air (natural gas)
- Exterior finish: Brick
Profile 3: The new build commuters
After living in central London for nearly 10 years, Catelyn, Emmy, and their two kids decided it was time for a fresh start in the suburbs. They’re shopping for quotes for a four-year-old home in Komoka, but they’re not first-time homeowners and have a long claims-free history with their current insurer.
Profile 3: Key home info
- Year built: 2021
- Storeys: 2
- Roof replaced: Never
- Square footage: 2,300
- Garage: 2-car, attached
- Heating: Forced air (natural gas)
- Exterior finish: Stucco
Pricing comparison: The best home insurance prices for every homeowner
For Bob and Marilyn, our standard suburban shoppers, Sonnet Insurance and CAA still had the best rates, with Square One in third place.
For Supriya, our first-time homebuyer, CAA, TD, and RBC had the most competitive prices. One insurer (Co-operators) didn’t return an online quote at all, instead prompting us to call an advisor to talk through options.
For Catelyn and Emmy, our new-build commuters, Co-operators and TD delivered the lowest quotes by a significant margin.
To see how home insurance premiums can change based on specific factors, we adjusted some prices based on underwriting questions available from each insurer.
- If Supriya was a member of Medical Laboratory Professionals' Association of Ontario (MLPAO), her quote from Belairdirect would be $221/month instead of $256/month thanks to a group discount.
- If Bob and Marilyn’s home had a swimming pool, they’d pay $218/month with Desjardins instead of $179/month to account for the liability risks associated with swimming pools.
- If Catelyn and Emmy ran a daycare out of their home, their price with Square One would go up from $198/month to $221/month to cover any claims related to their home-based business.
- If Catelyn and Emmy had a pit bull, their price from Square One would go up to $209/month because of the liability risk associated with certain dog breeds.
How real customers rate Ontario home insurance companies
To get a sense of how actual customers rate their experience with the companies we analyzed, we turned to three key sources: InsureEye ratings, Google ratings, and Reddit discussion threads.
Insurance company ratings can be hard to interpret due to the psychology behind them. People typically review their home insurance company online for one of three reasons:
- They’re mad: A significant number of insurance company ratings are driven by anger after a negative claim or customer service experience. This trend is especially present on review aggregator sites like InsureEye, where only four of the insurers we looked at (Belairdirect, Co-Operators, Pembridge, and Square One) scored above a 2 out of 5. No insurers scored 4 out of 5 or higher.
- They had a positive experience with a human representative: Carriers with extensive in-person broker and agent networks such as CAA, Co-Operators, and Desjardins scored much higher in Google reviews compared with insurers that operate mainly through direct online sales and receive Google reviews only for their corporate office.
- They’re artificially inflated by contests or content creators: One carrier stood out in our analysis: Square One, which has over 10,000 customer reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.9 stars. Square One’s unusually high volume of positive Google reviews differs from the broader market, which may influence how consumers interpret ratings.
A negative review doesn’t necessarily mean an insurance company has bad customer service, it just means you may need to do more digging to uncover its real reputation with customers. In the same way, a high volume of positive customer reviews doesn’t guarantee a good experience for you.
All reviews are just data, and data isn’t always transparent. It’s up to you to decide what to do with it.
Home insurer public perception: What Reddit has to say
It’s an open secret: if you want honest customer reviews, you don’t look at a review aggregator or the company’s website. Instead, you turn to Reddit—which is exactly what we did.
We analyzed four separate threads in r/PersonalFinanceCanada and related subreddits where users asked each other about their experience with their home or auto insurance company. In each thread, we tracked positive mentions (e.g., “the best price with an online portal”) and negative mentions (e.g., “the absolute worst”) to understand which property insurers are best regarded by Canadians on Reddit.
Here’s what we found:
CAA, Belairdirect, and Co-operators came out on top in our analysis, standing out for strongly positive perceptions from customers.
Digging deeper, we looked at what Redditors love about their favorite home insurance companies:
- CAA and Belairdirect have the best reputation for affordability.
- TD is a historic leader in the market, but many customers have mentioned steep price increases.
- Co-operators and Intact have a generally positive reputation for claims and customer service, but their pricing tends to be less competitive than CAA and Belairdirect
- Sonnet, Square One, and Allstate have some of the best prices on the market, but some policyholders report mixed claim experiences.
The bottom line: Reddit, Google, and online reviews offer some insight into customer experiences, but they’re not always an accurate predictor of which homeowners insurance company will be best for you. Do your research by talking to family, friends, and neighbours about their home insurance carriers.
How to choose the best home insurance in Ontario
No single home insurance company has the best rates, best service, and best coverage for every homeowner in Ontario—and no insurance company is perfect. It’s up to you to decide what your priorities are and evaluate each insurer based on those metrics.
- Coverage: Do you need specialized coverage for a high-value or high-risk home, or are you looking for a standard policy? Make sure you understand everything your policy covers (and what it doesn’t!) before you agree to buy.
- Price: What’s your budget for home insurance, and is there any wiggle room? Are you comfortable with a higher deductible in exchange for lower premiums? Don’t just go with the lowest price; look for ways to adjust pricing with the insurer whose coverage fits your needs.
- Reputation: Take online reviews, Reddit conversations, and advice from friends, family, and neighbours into consideration. Pay special attention to how insurance companies respond when something goes wrong, and look for a provider with a proven record of handling claims and policy issues with efficiency and humanity.
- Transparency: The insurance industry runs on jargon and fine print. Too often, this leaves policyholders underinsured, frustrated, and even financially hurt. Seek out insurers that communicate clearly in plain language, from their website and mobile app to their representatives and policy documents.
FAQ: Best home insurance in Ontario
This article is for general information only and is not insurance or legal advice. Examples and any sample quotes or rate ranges are illustrative and do not constitute an offer or guarantee of coverage, price, or eligibility. Actual coverage, discounts, and premiums depend on your individual circumstances and the insurer provider; if there is any discrepancy, your policy and insurer documentation govern. For advice about your situation, speak with one of our licensed insurance professionals.