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We’ve reviewed the top 7 home warranty companies and listed them side by side so you can compare the plans, costs, deductibles, exclusions, and coverages to find the best company for your budget.
Below you’ll find our custom-built interactive home warranty finder tool designed to help you locate the best home warranty that fits your specific financial situation in your local area and state.
The ReviewHomeWarranties.com team updates this tool with fresh data and rankings every day so you can be sure you’re getting the latest information!
Simply click the drop downs and select your preferred plan type (appliance, systems, or both), desired premium pricing, deductible, optional add-ons, how high you want your limits to be, coverage, and the state you live in. The tool will automatically populate with the home warranties that best match your needs.
As a reminder, the table above is updated every day with fresh data so you know you’re getting up-to-date information. It’s also worth calling out our top picks may be updated at any time depending on changes companies make to their plans. Below are our detailed reviews of each of the top home warranty companies on our list. After the reviews, we also cover a number of frequently asked questions related to home warranties. Make sure to read those in detail to ensure you get the best deal and don’t buy the wrong coverage!
Compare the Best Home Warranty Plans By Company as of June, 17th, 2021
At Review Home Warranties, we take our rating process quite seriously. Each company is tested for fair pricing, quality workmanship, BBB Rating, simplicity of contract, customer service, and more. Our list changes as we reevaluate companies each year. These top seven choices have stood out among other home warranty plans on the market year after year. We understand the needs of a homeowner, and each of these companies will be able to provide a fair and valuable warranty for your home. Choice Home Warranty, American Home Shield, and Select Home Warranty all have their unique position in the market; let’s look at how to find the best one for your home.
3 Best Home Warranties Companies (2021)
After analyzing 68 different companies, here’s your list of the three best home warranty providers for appliance insurance:
Choice Home Warranty
American Home Shield
Select Home Warranty
Choice Home Warranty – Best Home Warranty Overall
Choice Home Warranty is the best home warranty overall. With Choice Home Warranty, you will have the option of two very simple and straightforward plans. As a homeowner, there are many things to worry about; the last thing you need to concern yourself with is the fine print on your home warranty plan.
If your home is old or new, Choice will have a plan option to work for your needs. They do not deny coverage simply because appliances or home systems are aging. As long as everything in your home is functioning, your Choice Home Warranty plan will start 30 days after enrolling.
Choice Home Warranty is available in 48 states, and they offer coverage of 27 items. If this is your first home, or you have been living in your home for years, Choice knows how to keep you well protected. With fair pricing and well-trained customer service teams, this is a homeowners warranty that is worth considering.
Free reservice on failed repairs
Great value for high quality and comprehensive plan
Simple and straightforward contract and plan pricing
American Home Shield – Editor’s Choice
American Home Shield is our Editor’s Choice. This plan stands out among the best because of the ability to customize plan options. As you will notice, most home warranty plans will have two to three plan choices to choose from. American Home Shield has three plans, yet they also have the option to customize your plan and build it from the ground up. If you want your garbage disposal and your HVAC covered but not your dryer, American Home Shield allows you to do this.
In addition to customizing your coverage options, you can also customize your fees. American Home Shield allows you to pay a higher monthly fee to lower your service fee rate. This is a nice option for those that like to budget their expenses around the home. American Home Shield has been in the business a long time, and they have built an impressive network of qualified contractors and repair technicians. When you submit a claim with American Home Shield, you can fully trust that it will be handled with care and attention to detail.
Three plan options, additional coverage choices, and the ability to customize the plan
Very low chance of claim denial
A large and established company that has been around for more than 50 years
Select Home Warranty – Most Affordable
Select Home Warranty is the most affordable home warranty. The great thing about Select is that even though their plan choices are affordable, they will still offer impressive coverage for your home. There are two plans to choose from with select, and the Total Care plan will be the most comprehensive. With this plan, you will also get free roof leak coverage. This helps to make the value of the Total plan even better for a homeowner.
Another impressive benefit of choosing Select Home Warranty is the process that they make repair technicians and contractors go through before they are certified. Select takes your home warranty claim very seriously, and they only want to send someone that knows how to get the job done. At Select Home Warranty, you will have confidence that a trusted and professional person will complete your home warranty repair. For the affordability, excellent customer service, and free roof coverage, Select Home Warranty is a perfect choice for the homeowner trying to watch expenses.
Free roof coverage with the Total plan
Contractors and repair technicians are highly qualified
Now that we’ve gone through the top companies on our list, we wanted to put together our write-up to help you understand how we’ve rated each of these companies.
Your trust means a lot to us so it’s important that you know how our selection of top home warranty companies was made.
Our ratings are based on an analysis of 68 home warranty issuers as well as customer feedback.
This data helped drive which areas of home warranties we wanted to review and include in our write-ups. Specifically, we rated home warranty companies in the following areas:
Service Fee
Monthly Premiums
Coverage
Exclusions
Limits
Affordability
Customer Service
BBB Rating & Profile
We graded each company based on these areas. See below for a description of each and how we considered them in our review!
The “Service Fee” And Our Rating
If you’re unfamiliar with how home warranties work, you sign up for service, pay the yearly fee (or “premium”), and then if you ever need service you have to pay the “service fee” when a contractor comes out to inspect your broken appliance or system.
This fee is also called a “trade service call fee”, and it’s kind of like a deductible, but you pay it every time regardless if the home warranty company fixes your unit or not.
You can think of service fees like “co-payments” when you go to the doctor. They prevent homeowners from constantly calling the home warranty company by charging a fee so when there is actually a problem you’re willing to spend a bit of money for someone to come out and look at it.
Some home warranty companies have a set fee like Choice Home Warranty, which charges a flat $85 per service call. Other companies like American Home Shield, let you pick from a range ($75 – $125). If you pick $75 then your yearly premium for coverage goes up, if you pick $125 it goes down.
This is actually a good thing to have because if you think you’ll use your plan a lot, picking the lower fee will save you money. Either way, all home warranty companies will charge you this fee, so it’s important for us to call it out in our review.
Considering The Coverage In Our Rating
When picking your home warranty, you need to pay special attention to the coverages because this refers to what is actually covered in your plan. Some plans have systems and appliances bundled together, others do not.
To make it even more confusing, some plans cover as many as 21 systems and appliances, others cover only 15 leaving out key systems you might use.
In our review, we dig into the nitty-gritty details of the service contracts to vet out what’s covered and what’s not within each plan so you can make an informed decision.
How Exclusions Affect Our Rating
Exclusions are a critical facet in a home warranty service contract because it protects the home warranty company from things that may cause your home appliances or systems to break, which are unrelated to normal wear and tear. In our data, we found that heating and air conditioning were among the most common requests for in-home warranty claims. Below you can see our full breakdown!
If there are a lot of exclusions in your contract, it makes it easier for your home warranty company to try and disqualify your repair request.
For example, a common cause of disqualification often used by home warranty companies is “improper installation”. This means whoever installed the appliance or system didn’t do it correctly, therefore the unit was more likely to break down sooner than it would have through normal use, thus it is excluded from coverage.
Another example of a possible exclusion might be that all the parts of your clothes dryer are covered except for the knobs and dials on the actual machine! If you were to break off the knob on your clothes dryer, your home warranty service provider is not on the hook to help you fix it.
Perhaps there is rust buildup and corrosion in your plumbing system. Most home warranty companies explicitly exclude rust from coverage, but American Home Shield does cover rust-related repairs, which is great for you. Had you gone with a different provider like Total Home Protection, it would have been excluded!
So each company handles exclusions a bit differently, which we have accounted for in our review.
Now on one hand exclusions stink, but on the other hand, they are in place to prevent bad actors from abusing the policy. If home warranty companies DIDN’T have exclusions, it’s unlikely there would be any in business.
At the end of the day, what you need to know is that if you think your refrigerator is nearing the end of its life, and the home warranty plan you’re considering has a long list of exclusions related to refrigerators, you should probably look elsewhere or consider upgrading your plan for more robust coverage.
Also, our recommendation is to get a home inspection to really understand the current state of your home. Then get that home inspector to walk you through their report with a sample contract from your home warranty company so you know exactly what’s excluded and what’s not excluded BEFORE you want to make a claim.
How Limits Affect Our Rating
Where the “limits” come into play are the caps on actual payouts you can receive for repairs on covered items. You want this number to be as high as possible so you can get higher payouts.
For example, Choice Home Warranty has a limit of $1,500 for heating systems, which means that it will pay out up to $1,500 on covered claims to help repair the unit. If the actual cost is $3,000 to repair the unit quoted by the contractor, you would need to cover the difference between the coverage and the final bill.
Similar to exclusions, limits are meant to protect home warranty companies and your limit will usually depend on how much you’re willing to pay for your annual premium.
For example, American Home Shield has some of the highest limits available (up to $3,000) but also charges close to the highest annual premium for coverage.
Part of our review was locating the best home warranty company with a good balance of the monthly cost for their plans and dollar limit payout.
Affordability of The Plan Importance
When reviewing each company, we also looked at the general affordability of each plan. The costs of home warranties of annual premiums and deductibles can vary by state. Below, you can find data for all 50 states including Rhode Island, Texas, New York, California, Alaska, North Dakota, Montana, and Hawaii.
Based on our data, we put together a graphic of what you can expect to be charged on average by state as well as the general availability of home warranty companies.
There needs to be a balance between coverage and the cost of coverage, which is your premium paid. More expensive providers like American Home Shield have higher limits but also cost substantially more than value-based providers like Choice Home Warranty.
Companies like Total Home Protection have very similar fees related to Choice but substantially lower limits. For example, Choice has $1,500 limits where THP has $500 limits, but Choice is a bit cheaper. This means if your furnace breaks down over the winter, THP will give you a maximum of $500 for repairs while Choice $1,500.
Also, when negotiating a contract with a home warranty provider, you’ll likely get offered multiple-year deals in exchange for lower yearly premiums. So keep that in mind if you find a home warranty company you like.
In our review, we call this out so you can make the right decision that fits your budget.
Quality Customer Service Rated
The last area we looked at in detail was customer service.
Out of our data, we found that about 7% of the customers complained about tricky or vague terms and conditions, and more than 33% experienced problems with coverage of their home systems or appliances. See below for a breakdown of each of the complaints by type from our data.
Home warranties are notoriously difficult to navigate so it’s important that the company has a good customer service center to field your questions and set up service calls if something breaks.
For example, are the answers you get from the company consistent between customer service representatives? Do they quickly and promptly schedule contractors to come out on service calls? Do they offer to refund service fees if something goes wrong during the claim as a gesture of goodwill?
These are all things we’re looking for when reviewing each home warranty company below.
