Coalition review: small business insurance

Peer comparison

How Coalition compares

Side-by-side against the 4 carriers we score most similarly.

Carrier	Our score	Positioning	Starting price	Coverage	AM Best
	7.4	Gig and event-based	GL $17/mo	6.5/10	A+
	7.8	Digital-native micro-business	Cyber $4/mo	7.0/10	A+
	7.6	Workers comp specialist	—	8.0/10	A-
	7.9	Single-carrier program for SMBs	GL $68/mo	9.0/10	A+

• 
  7.4

  Positioning

  Gig and event-based

  Starting price

  GL $17/mo

  Coverage

  6.5/10

  AM Best

  A+

• 
  7.8

  Positioning

  Digital-native micro-business

  Starting price

  Cyber $4/mo

  Coverage

  7.0/10

  AM Best

  A+

• 
  7.6

  Positioning

  Workers comp specialist

  Starting price

  —

  Coverage

  8.0/10

  AM Best

  A-

• 
  7.9

  Positioning

  Single-carrier program for SMBs

  Starting price

  GL $68/mo

  Coverage

  9.0/10

  AM Best

  A+

Coalition is not a cyber insurance company in the same sense that Hiscox or The Hartford are cyber insurance companies. Coalition is a cyber-risk program manager — an MGA, in industry terminology — that underwrites on the backing paper of a panel of global insurers and through its own admitted subsidiary, Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530), which Coalition acquired in 2022.¹² When you buy a Coalition cyber policy, the policy document in your file is issued on the paper of whichever panel carrier backed the specific product, state, and limit structure your placement required. A claim at Coalition is handled by Coalition's own claims operation, but the indemnity dollars that pay the claim come from the panel carrier's balance sheet. That structural point is the single most material thing a buyer needs to understand before comparing Coalition against a direct-carrier alternative like Hiscox or The Hartford.

The panel is strong. Per Coalition's public structural disclosures and industry coverage of the company's capacity agreements, the backing-paper roster has historically included Arch Insurance (A.M. Best A+), Allianz (A+), Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (A+), Lloyd's of London syndicates (A), Ascot Group (A), Chaucer Insurance Company DAC (A), and Vantage Risk Specialty Insurance Company (A-).¹³⁴ U.S. surplus-lines SME historic exposure split per public disclosures ran Swiss Re 45% / Arch 30% / (prior) Argo 25%; in April 2025 Coalition announced a long-term capacity commitment from Arch across U.S. cyber programs.⁴ We carry "A" as the conservative representative rating for the panel — top backers are A+, and the rating field in our dataset reflects the category average rather than the Arch/Allianz/Swiss Re majority.

Within cyber specifically, Coalition is widely regarded as the category-defining specialist for small and mid-sized business. Founded 2017 in San Francisco, the company pioneered "active insurance" — integrating real-time cyber risk monitoring and pre-incident security tooling into the policy itself.⁵⁶ Starting cyber premiums run from $83/mo per Coalition's own cost-analysis page, with the published range extending to $625/mo depending on risk profile and limits.⁷ For any small business where cyber is the primary exposure — tech, SaaS, e-commerce, payment processing, any business handling meaningful customer data — Coalition sits alongside Hiscox and The Hartford as the three most capable direct-channel cyber options in our coverage set. And within the cyber category specifically, Coalition's product depth is the broadest.

Our quick verdict

Coalition earns 7.7 out of 10 as the category-defining cyber insurance specialist for small and mid-sized businesses, pioneering the active-insurance model that integrates real-time risk monitoring and pre-incident security tooling into the policy itself. Coalition is an MGA underwriting on a panel of A-rated reinsurers including Arch, Allianz, Swiss Re, Lloyd's syndicates, and Ascot, plus its own admitted subsidiary Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530). Best for businesses where cyber is the primary insurance exposure — tech, SaaS, e-commerce, fintech, payment processors, and healthcare data handlers — that want a dedicated cyber tower with active risk monitoring rather than a generic cyber add-on bolted onto a primary liability policy. Not the right fit for businesses seeking a single-carrier program (Coalition writes only cyber), buyers uncomfortable with MGA structure, or buyers who require admitted paper on every placement. Starting cyber premium runs $83/mo with the published range extending to $625/mo depending on risk profile and limits.

• Our rating: 7.7 / 10 (Good)
• Scoring category: C — MGA underwriting on a multi-paper panel (methodology)
• Best for: businesses where cyber is the primary insurance exposure — tech, SaaS, e-commerce, fintech, healthcare data handlers — that want a dedicated cyber tower with active risk monitoring rather than a cyber add-on to a primary liability policy
• Not for: businesses looking for a single-carrier insurance program (Coalition writes only cyber); buyers uncomfortable with MGA structure or surplus-lines placement; buyers who want admitted paper on every policy
• Starting cyber price: $83/mo published floor; published range $83–$625/mo⁷
• A.M. Best rating: A (conservative representative for panel; top backers Arch, Allianz, Swiss Re are A+)⁴
• Admitted paper: Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530, acquired 2022) for specific admitted products; balance of book placed on panel carriers on surplus-lines basis¹
• NAIC complaint index: 3-year window (2023–2025) shows 0 confirmed commercial liability complaints on Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530, the MGA's admitted sub) — below our 20-complaint reliability floor; complaints on surplus-lines panel-placed policies appear against the backing paper, not Coalition. See Complaint history and claims experience below

What Coalition is

Coalition was founded in 2017 in San Francisco by Joshua Motta and John Hering as an independent, venture-backed cyber-risk MGA.⁵⁸ The company's 2022 Series E round valued Coalition above $3.5B, with strategic backing from Allianz X and Valor Equity Partners among others.⁶ The core product is cyber liability insurance combined with an active-monitoring platform (Coalition Control), which continuously evaluates policyholders' exposed attack surface and pushes remediation signals into the policy underwriting.⁵

The paper structure. This is the central structural fact about Coalition and the reason we classify it as Category C (MGA) rather than a direct carrier.

• For admitted products, Coalition writes on the paper of Coalition Insurance Company (CIC, NAIC 29530), which Coalition acquired in 2022.¹² CIC is licensed in all 50 states and DC.
• For surplus-lines products — which constitute most of Coalition's book by historic exposure — the risk is placed on the backing paper of panel carriers. The panel has historically included Arch (A+), Allianz (A+), Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (A+), Lloyd's syndicates (A), Ascot (A), Chaucer (A), and Vantage (A-).⁴³
• Claims adjudication happens at Coalition; the claim indemnity payment is written from the balance sheet of whichever panel carrier wrote the specific policy. Coverage interpretation, breach counsel engagement, and incident response coordination all run through Coalition's claims operation, but the dollars that pay a covered loss come from the backing carrier.

That structural split has practical consequences. It means the A.M. Best rating on the specific paper backing your Coalition policy can vary — between A- (Vantage) and A+ (Arch, Allianz, Swiss Re) — depending on the product, state, and limit. It also means surplus-lines regulatory treatment applies to most Coalition placements (no state guaranty fund protection, different disclosure requirements, surplus-lines tax), which is material for sophisticated buyers who weight admitted-vs-surplus as a policy decision.

Coalition's April 2025 announcement of a long-term capacity commitment from Arch Insurance suggests the panel is consolidating around Arch as the primary non-admitted backer for U.S. cyber programs.⁴ For buyers who want to understand which paper their policy will actually be on, the answer in 2026 is increasingly: Arch, with Swiss Re and Allianz continuing in specific product segments, Coalition Insurance Company for admitted SMB, and Lloyd's / Ascot / Chaucer / Vantage filling specialty and higher-limit layers.

Policies Coalition offers

Coalition writes one line: cyber liability.⁵

This is a deliberate specialty play, not a gap in a broader product ladder. Coalition does not offer general liability, BOP, workers' comp, commercial auto, property, professional liability, D&O, EPLI, or commercial umbrella — and does not intend to. Buyers who need non-cyber coverage will pair Coalition with another carrier for the rest of the program.

The cyber product itself is structured with depth a cyber add-on cannot replicate:⁵⁷

• First-party coverage — direct losses to the policyholder from cyber events: ransomware payments, business interruption, data recovery, forensic investigation, notification expenses.
• Third-party coverage — liability to others for breach-related claims: regulatory actions, customer data-breach lawsuits, payment-card-industry fines.
• Pre-negotiated breach counsel — legal representation engaged at the moment of incident response, with rates and scope already scoped rather than emergency-negotiated.
• Incident response services — forensic investigation, ransomware negotiation, crisis communications, credit monitoring for affected parties.
• Active Cyber Policy (launched April 2025) — real-time risk signals from Coalition Control integrated into coverage triggers and renewal pricing.⁴
• Regulatory defense — coverage for responses to state AG, FTC, and international regulator inquiries following breach events.

Compared with the cyber add-on offerings at NEXT ($4/mo as a GL add-on) or biBerk (add-on to GL/PL/BOP), Coalition writes a cyber tower that actually functions as the primary cyber exposure's insurance product. Compared with direct-carrier standalone cyber at Hiscox ($30/mo) and The Hartford (pricing not publicly published), Coalition's product depth includes the active-monitoring layer that direct carriers don't offer.⁹¹⁰

What Coalition actually costs

Coalition publishes a starting cyber premium of $83/mo on its own cost-analysis page, with a published range extending to $625/mo depending on risk profile, industry, and coverage limits.⁷

That pricing has two important properties:

First, it is below the Insureon market median for small-business cyber. Insureon's aggregated small-business cyber cost benchmark sits near $145/mo median across classes;¹¹ Coalition's $83/mo floor is meaningfully below that market median for the lowest-risk profiles. At the high end of Coalition's published range ($625/mo), buyers are paying materially above market median — which reflects the risk-graduated pricing of cyber specifically, where a SaaS company handling payment data faces different underwriting than a local landscaping business buying an entry-level cyber endorsement.

Second, the 7.5x spread between the low and high end of Coalition's published range signals meaningful risk-variance pricing.⁷ Unlike GL or BOP pricing, which tend to vary within a 2-3x band across standard classes, cyber premiums scale heavily with the policyholder's attack surface, data volume, incident history, and security tooling. Coalition's Active Insurance model uses real-time security signals to price the renewal, which means pricing can change mid-policy-year in ways that traditional cyber-as-add-on products don't replicate.

Surplus-lines regulatory treatment adds one more pricing wrinkle: surplus-lines placements are subject to a state-specific surplus-lines tax (typically 2-4% of premium) and are not protected by state guaranty funds.¹ For admitted placements via Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530), neither applies.

Our Pricing score of 7.0 reflects three factors: carrier-published floor and range (positive for transparency); below-market floor with above-market ceiling (competitive positioning within the risk-graduated cyber category); and the surplus-lines complexity on most of the book (reduces effective pricing transparency relative to an all-admitted direct carrier).

See full cost analysis: Our cyber liability insurance cost guide (Coalition starts at $83/mo) breaks down typical pricing across industries and states.

Coverage breadth: where Coalition is strong and where it's thin

A note on scoring Category C coverage. Coalition writes one line. Scoring Coalition on breadth against a 10-line direct carrier like Hartford or Travelers would mismeasure the product — Coalition is a deliberate specialty play, not a broad carrier that failed to expand. Our Coverage Breadth score of 8.5 reflects category-leading depth within cyber specifically (methodology).

Where Coalition is strong — within cyber. The cyber product itself is the deepest in our coverage set:

• Active Insurance integration.⁵⁴ Real-time risk monitoring via Coalition Control, continuous attack-surface assessment, automated patch recommendations, and signal-integrated underwriting. No direct carrier in our coverage set offers equivalent pre-incident risk tooling as part of the policy.
• Pre-negotiated breach counsel and incident response.⁵ Legal and forensic partners engaged before an incident rather than at the moment of crisis — materially better outcomes than post-hoc negotiation for policyholders experiencing first-time breach events.
• Admitted and surplus-lines options.¹ Coverage placed on CIC admitted paper where appropriate; on panel paper where surplus-lines flexibility matters. Buyer can select admitted placement where state guaranty fund protection is a priority.
• Regulatory defense depth. Specific sub-limits and capabilities for state AG inquiries, FTC actions, and international regulator responses — coverage areas where breadth matters most.
• Ransomware coverage structure.¹² Coalition's ransomware coverage has evolved through the 2021-2024 market hardening cycle with updated exclusions and sub-limit structures; buyers should verify specific ransomware sub-limits and any state-specific ransomware-payment restrictions.

Where Coalition is thin — by design, not by gap. Coalition writes only cyber. Buyers looking for:

• General liability, BOP, or primary liability will need another carrier.
• Workers' compensation, commercial auto, or property will need another carrier.
• Professional liability, D&O, or EPLI will need another carrier.
• Commercial umbrella excess coverage over Coalition's cyber tower will typically come from a separate excess carrier.

None of these are gaps in Coalition's product — they're outside its specialty. For the specific buyer who wants cyber depth, Coalition's single-line focus is the feature, not the bug. For buyers who want one-carrier program completeness, Coalition is the wrong primary.

Industry-specific strengths. Coalition writes across most standard commercial classes but has particular depth in classes with elevated cyber exposure: technology (SaaS, IT services, MSPs), e-commerce and retail handling payment data, financial services and fintech, healthcare and HIPAA-regulated entities, and professional services handling sensitive client data.

Complaint history and claims experience

Scoring category note. Coalition is a Category C MGA under our methodology — risk is placed on a panel of backing carriers, with Coalition Insurance Company (NAIC 29530, acquired 2022) as the MGA's own admitted subsidiary (methodology). We retrieved the 3-year NAIC CIS commercial liability reading for Coalition Insurance Company directly. Over the 3-year window (2023–2025), Coalition Insurance Company recorded 0 confirmed commercial liability complaints — which reflects how recently the admitted sub was activated (post-2022 acquisition) more than it reflects the operational quality of the Coalition book, the bulk of which is still placed on surplus-lines panel paper. With a complaint count below our 20-complaint reliability floor, we retain a 7.0 Category C baseline and disclose the panel structure explicitly — the complaint patterns for surplus-lines-placed Coalition policies would appear against the panel carriers' NAIC filings, not Coalition's own.¹³¹

Claims process. Coalition's claims operation is cyber-native and widely respected in the category.⁵ The end-to-end cyber incident response — forensic investigation, breach counsel engagement, ransomware negotiation, notification coordination, regulatory response — runs through a claims team specifically trained for cyber rather than a generalist commercial claims organization. That operational depth is one of the core reasons Coalition's cyber product is category-leading within cyber specifically.

The structural caveat: the indemnity payment that funds a covered loss comes from the panel carrier's balance sheet, not Coalition's. For the largest claims — where claim-paying capacity matters as much as claim-handling quality — the specific paper on the specific policy determines actual claims-paying reliability. Arch, Allianz, and Swiss Re (A+ backers) are as strong as any commercial paper in the market; Vantage (A-) sits at the lower end of the panel.

Regulatory actions. We checked public state DOI enforcement records for material market-conduct or solvency actions against Coalition Insurance Company and for Coalition's MGA operations. No recent enforcement action is on file as of our research date.

Net. The 7.0 Complaint History score is a Category C baseline, held because Coalition Insurance Company's admitted sub is too new (post-2022 activation) for meaningful CL complaint volume, and the surplus-lines panel book shows complaints under the panel carriers' filings rather than Coalition's own. Our Claims Experience score of 8.0 reflects Coalition's cyber-native claims operation, pre-negotiated breach counsel, and published Active Insurance integration — direct operational strengths we are able to score on primary evidence, separate from a CIS ratio that is not yet readable at the admitted sub and structurally split at the panel.

The honest take

What works well.

1. Category-defining cyber depth.⁵¹⁴ Active Insurance integration, pre-negotiated breach counsel, regulatory defense depth, ransomware coverage evolution — within cyber specifically, Coalition's product is as broad as the category gets. No other carrier in our coverage set approaches this level of cyber specialty.
2. Strong backing paper panel. Arch (A+), Allianz (A+), Swiss Re (A+), plus Lloyd's / Ascot / Chaucer (A) and Coalition Insurance Company (own admitted sub, NAIC 29530).⁴¹³ The April 2025 Arch long-term capacity agreement suggests consolidation toward the strongest backers.
3. Transparent pricing for its one line.⁷ Published $83/mo floor and $625/mo ceiling; below Insureon cyber market median at the low end. More carrier-side pricing transparency than Hartford (averages) or Travelers (Insureon-aggregated) on cyber specifically.
4. Admitted-and-surplus optionality.¹ Coalition Insurance Company for admitted placements where state guaranty fund protection matters; panel paper for surplus-lines flexibility on specialty risks and higher limits.
5. Cyber-native claims organization. Forensic, breach counsel, regulatory, ransomware response — staffed and trained for cyber specifically, not a cyber sub-team inside a generalist commercial claims org.

What doesn't work.

1. Single-line product. Coalition writes only cyber. Businesses that want a single-carrier program across GL / BOP / WC / PL / auto / property cannot use Coalition as the primary — Coalition is always a paired placement alongside a primary carrier writing those lines.¹⁵¹⁶
2. MGA paper-panel structural complexity.¹ The buyer doesn't choose which panel paper backs their specific policy, and the paper can vary by product, state, and limit. Arch and Swiss Re (A+) at the high end, Vantage (A-) at the low end — meaningful range that's not visible at quote time.
3. Most of the book is surplus lines. Surplus-lines policies are not protected by state guaranty funds, carry state-specific surplus-lines tax, and have different disclosure requirements than admitted placements.² Buyers who specifically want admitted paper on every policy will need to confirm Coalition Insurance Company placement before binding.
4. Active Insurance model means renewal pricing can shift materially. The Active Cyber Policy's real-time security signals feed renewal underwriting, which means premium can step up significantly if a policyholder's exposed attack surface changes adversely between renewals.⁴ For buyers who want stable multi-year pricing, this is a feature that cuts both ways.
5. Limited track record for Coalition Insurance Company as admitted paper.¹ CIC was acquired 2022; the admitted sub's own claims-paying and complaint history is too short to evaluate independently.

Who should skip Coalition.

• Buyers who need a single-carrier insurance program covering non-cyber lines.
• Businesses whose primary risk is physical (bodily injury, property damage, auto) rather than cyber.
• Buyers uncomfortable with MGA structure or surplus-lines placement on most of the book.
• Businesses in Alaska, Hawaii, or other states where Coalition's preferred panel placements may be more restrictive.
• Buyers who want admitted paper on every policy without having to verify placement type at bind.

Who Coalition is best for

Coalition is a strong fit in three specific scenarios:

1. Tech, SaaS, fintech, and e-commerce businesses where cyber is the primary exposure. SaaS and tech companies, IT consultants, e-commerce and retail, marketing agencies handling customer data. Coalition's active-monitoring integration is genuinely differentiated for this buyer profile.
2. Businesses with meaningful regulated-data exposure. Healthcare data (HIPAA), payment-card data (PCI-DSS), state consumer privacy laws (CCPA, CPRA). Coalition's regulatory-defense depth is stronger than generalist commercial cyber.
3. Growing businesses upgrading from cyber-as-add-on to cyber as a primary program. A business that started with NEXT's $4/mo cyber add-on or biBerk's add-on and needs to step up to a proper cyber tower with incident response, breach counsel, and active monitoring — Coalition is structurally the closest cyber-specialist option in the direct-channel market.

Business size: All, within Coalition's underwriting appetite. The carrier writes from small (single-person tech consultancies) through mid-sized small business, with surplus-lines flexibility for higher limits that exceed admitted-market capacity.

Alternatives to consider

Coalition is one of three direct-channel cyber options in our coverage set. The alternatives handle cyber differently:

1. Hiscox — Direct-carrier standalone cyber on A-rated Hiscox Insurance Company Inc. (NAIC 10200) paper.⁹¹⁵ Starting $30/mo published; simpler structure (direct admitted carrier, not an MGA); no active-monitoring integration but solid cyber underwriting with professional-services depth. For buyers uncomfortable with Coalition's MGA / surplus-lines structure but wanting a direct-carrier standalone cyber product.
2. The Hartford — Legacy-carrier cyber product embedded in the broader 10-line ladder on A+ Hartford Fire Insurance Company (NAIC 19682) paper.¹⁰¹⁶ Pricing not publicly published; less cyber-specific depth than Coalition or Hiscox; but available alongside the rest of a Hartford insurance program. For buyers who prioritize one-carrier program completeness and don't need cyber-specialist depth.
3. Embroker — Broker-aggregator specializing in tech / startup insurance that can place Coalition cyber alongside competing cyber carriers for comparison. Category D under our methodology; useful for buyers who want quote comparison across cyber specialists rather than going direct to Coalition.

Different choices for different priorities. Direct admitted standalone cyber — Hiscox. Cyber as part of a full-ladder program — Hartford. Panel comparison including Coalition — Embroker. Category-defining cyber depth with active monitoring — stay with Coalition.

How to get a Coalition quote

Coalition's quote flow is direct-to-business through the carrier's website, plus broker-channel distribution through tech-focused agencies. For direct placement:⁵

1. Start at coalitioninc.com and initiate the quote flow.
2. Answer discovery questions about your business: entity type, state, revenue, employee count, industry, technology stack, current security tooling, prior cyber events, coverage limits needed.
3. Security posture assessment. Coalition's Active Insurance model uses real-time security signals (exposed ports, unpatched systems, known-bad email-security posture, etc.) to inform underwriting. The quote process runs a non-intrusive scan of your exposed attack surface as part of the discovery.
4. Review the quoted cyber program — Coalition surfaces coverage structure, limits, retentions, and the backing-paper entity (admitted via CIC or surplus-lines via panel carrier).
5. Bind payment; receive policy documents and Coalition Control dashboard access for ongoing risk monitoring.

What Coalition will ask for beyond standard commercial discovery: detailed technology stack, security tooling in place (EDR, email security, MFA, backups), incident history, data types and volumes handled, regulatory requirements applicable (HIPAA, PCI-DSS, state privacy laws).

If you want to compare Coalition against other cyber options: a broker-aggregator like Embroker or Simply Business can surface Coalition quotes alongside Hiscox, Hartford, Travelers, and other cyber writers on a comparison basis.

Alternatives to Coalition

Different choices for different priorities.

7.0/10

Hiscox

Professional-services micro-businesses under ~10 employees — consultants, marketing agencies, accountants, IT consultants, photographers, SaaS firms, real estate agents — whose primary exposure is professional liability, cyber, D&O, or EPLI, with commercial liability carried as a secondary line alongside the primary coverage they are actually choosing Hiscox for.

Better if

Professional-services micro-businesses under ~10 employees — consultants, marketing agencies, accountants, IT consultants, photographers, SaaS firms, real estate agents — whose primary exposure is professional liability, cyber, D&O, or EPLI, with commercial liability carried as a secondary line alongside the primary coverage they are actually choosing Hiscox for.

Read full review

7.9/10

The Hartford

Growing small businesses that need a single-carrier program across five or more commercial lines — especially those needing D&O, EPLI, commercial umbrella, native workers' comp, or commercial auto in the same placement; contractors, trades, and field-services businesses needing GL + WC + commercial auto + umbrella on one carrier; buyers who value 215-year claims-relationship depth over lowest premium.

Better if

Growing small businesses that need a single-carrier program across five or more commercial lines — especially those needing D&O, EPLI, commercial umbrella, native workers' comp, or commercial auto in the same placement; contractors, trades, and field-services businesses needing GL + WC + commercial auto + umbrella on one carrier; buyers who value 215-year claims-relationship depth over lowest premium.

Read full review

7.0/10

Embroker

Venture-backed tech and SaaS companies, IT consulting firms, and professional-services firms in Embroker's named industry list that need D&O + EPLI + PL + cyber bundled with tech-specific underwriting depth — especially Series A to Series C startups scaling headcount and handling product-engineering liability, and accountants/lawyers/consultants placing PL on Everspan-backed programs added in October 2024.

Better if

Venture-backed tech and SaaS companies, IT consulting firms, and professional-services firms in Embroker's named industry list that need D&O + EPLI + PL + cyber bundled with tech-specific underwriting depth — especially Series A to Series C startups scaling headcount and handling product-engineering liability, and accountants/lawyers/consultants placing PL on Everspan-backed programs added in October 2024.

Read full review