62 of the 553 US commercial carriers in QuoteSweep's appetite registry publish appetite for contractors. That includes national names you'd recognize — State Farm, Progressive, Selective, Kemper — alongside dozens of regional mutuals, farm-bureau carriers, and specialty or E&S platforms. But 62 is the ceiling, not the floor: only 24% of carriers in the registry offer online quoting at all, and higher-hazard trades like roofing narrow the field sharply, often pushing the risk into the excess & surplus market. For most contractors, the fastest route to a bindable quote is still an independent agent matching your trade to the carriers that actually want it.
How we built this
These figures come from QuoteSweep's own carrier-appetite registry — 553 US commercial P&C carriers normalized from their public appetite guides, coverage pages, and state filings into one machine-readable corpus. We counted every carrier whose published appetite names contractors as a target class. This is an appetite analysis, not a market-share or premium ranking: it reflects which carriers say they will write contractor risks, not what any one of them will quote or bind for a specific business. "Contractors" here is the general class — individual trades, especially higher-hazard ones, will match a narrower set.
The carriers that publish contractor appetite
QuoteSweep counts 62 carriers with published contractor appetite. Here are 30 of the more notable ones, grouped by the kind of carrier they are:
National carriers you'll recognize: State Farm, Progressive, Kemper, Auto-Owners, Selective, Westfield, Hiscox, and Federated.
Regional and mutual carriers: Grange Insurance, Secura, Society, EMC Insurance, Vermont Mutual, Ohio Mutual, North Star Mutual, Central Insurance Companies, Integrity, and Arbella Insurance.
Farm-bureau and rural carriers: COUNTRY Financial, Farm Bureau Financial Services (FBFS), Kansas Farm Bureau Insurance, Rural Mutual, and Tennessee Farmers Mutual.
Specialty, E&S, and digital platforms: Attune, Pathpoint, ProBuilders Specialty, Ascendant Commercial, Cowbell Cyber, PolicySweet, and AmTrust Financial.
The remaining 32 skew regional — county mutuals, state farm-bureau affiliates, and specialty writers whose relevance depends on which state you operate in.
Why 62 is the ceiling, not the floor
Two things shrink that list fast in practice.
Most carriers won't quote you online. Across QuoteSweep's registry, only 24% of carriers offer online quoting at all. For contractor coverage, a human underwriter still has to touch most submissions — which is why "get a contractor insurance quote online" rarely returns a bindable price from a real carrier.
Higher-hazard trades narrow the field. The 62 figure reflects carriers that publish appetite for contractors as a general class. Individual trades don't map evenly. A handyman or a finish carpenter will match far more of these carriers than a roofer, a demolition contractor, or a scaffolding company. Higher-hazard trades — roofing chief among them — get excluded by many admitted carriers and frequently land in the excess & surplus (E&S) market, where a specialist wholesaler places the risk. The rougher your trade's loss profile, the shorter your real list of markets.
How to actually get covered
If you're a contractor shopping for coverage, the takeaway isn't "pick one of these 62." It's that the carriers that will actually compete for your policy depend on your trade, your payroll and revenue, your loss history, and your state — none of which a single online form captures well.
The practical path:
- Work with an independent agent who carries appetite for your specific trade and has E&S access for the harder classes. Contractor appetite is fragmented and poorly disclosed; matching a roofer or a specialty trade to the right markets is skilled work, not a lookup.
- Check appetite before you apply. QuoteSweep's free appetite checker shows which carriers publish appetite for a given class, so you — or your agent — start with markets that are likely to say yes instead of collecting declines.
Appetite reflects what a carrier publishes, not a guarantee it will bind your specific risk. But starting from published appetite beats spraying applications at carriers that were never going to write your trade.
Frequently asked questions
How many carriers write contractor insurance?
In QuoteSweep's registry of 553 US commercial carriers, 62 publish appetite for contractors — roughly one in nine. That's the count of carriers that name contractors as a target class, not a guarantee any one of them will quote a specific trade.
Can I get contractor insurance online?
Usually not from the carrier directly. Only about 24% of carriers in QuoteSweep's registry offer online quoting at all, and contractor risks — especially higher-hazard trades — typically need a human underwriter. Most "instant" contractor quotes online come from agents or platforms that shop carriers on your behalf.
Why do roofers and higher-hazard trades have fewer options?
Trades with worse loss profiles — roofing, demolition, scaffolding, and similar — get excluded by many admitted carriers and often move to the excess & surplus (E&S) market. The 62-carrier figure covers contractors as a general class; a higher-hazard trade will match a much smaller subset and usually needs an agent with E&S access.
Does appetite mean a carrier will definitely cover me?
No. Appetite is what a carrier publishes about the business it wants to write. A specific quote still depends on your trade, size, loss history, and state. Published appetite tells you where to start — not where you'll bind.
About this data
These figures come from QuoteSweep's proprietary carrier-appetite registry, normalized from carriers' own published appetite guides, coverage pages, and state availability — the same first-party dataset behind our commercial insurance appetite report. It powers the free appetite checker. Appetite reflects what carriers publish, not a guarantee any carrier will bind a given risk, and we'll refresh this analysis as the registry is re-enriched. Questions or corrections: agent@quotesweep.com.
