The Progressive Corporation has exemplified progress since its founding in 1937.  Still headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio, Progressive is now one of the largest vehicle insurance companies in the United States, while also maintaining auto insurance operations in Australia.  The company supports approximately 30,000 employees.

The company insures all types of vehicles, and also offers home insurance to consumers online and by phone.  Among the company’s user-friendly benefits are a usage-based insurance program called Snapshot.  This new Pay-As-You-Drive program is a tracking system that monitors a driver’s actual behavior on the road. It then assigns an insurance premium specifically tailored to that behavior.

In total revenue reported, Progressive ranks fourth among American insurance companies, holding roughly eight percent of the total market share with a reported 17 billion dollars in revenue for 2013.  The only insurance companies with higher revenue than Progressive are Allstate, State Farm, and Geico.

On a recent list of the top ten best auto insurance companies in the U.S. based on affordability, value of services, and responsiveness, Progressive finishes 6^th behind Geico, Allstate, State Farm, Esurance, and Liberty Mutual.  On viewpoint.com, Progressive gets a customer rating of 3.6 stars out of five, based on 655 consumer reviews.  Compare this to Nationwide (3.0), Esurance (3.2), Liberty Mutual (3.2), Allstate (3.4), Travelers (3.7), Geico (3.8), and State Farm (4.0).

Consumeraffairs.com gives Progressive auto insurance only one star out of five in customer satisfaction, based on more than 700 ratings and almost a thousand reviews.  However, competitors of Progressive don’t score much better on this particular insurance review website.

The average annual cost of car insurance paid in the United States was $907.38 in 2014, according to a study commissioned by Quadrant Information Services.  Progressive stays competitive with its competitors.  In terms of average annual premiums, Progressive is comparable to Geico, Liberty Mutual, and Nationwide.  The average annual car insurance premium at Progressive was $986.69 in 2014, while Geico’s average annual car insurance premium for the same year was quite a bit lower at $894.99.

It’s hard to say what exactly accounts for the difference in average annual premiums between Geico and Progressive.  Many variables must be considered when comparing insurance carriers.  Still, the average annual premium data suggests that GEICO may be a more cost-effective choice than Progressive for purchasing auto insurance.

However, Progressive has recently added new cost-saving programs.  For instance, the company recently introduced a “pay as you drive” insurance option which bases premiums on the number of miles driven. This type of coverage cuts costs for low-mileage policyholders.   Progressive also offers a full range of driver discounts, such as the Defensive Driver discount, Driving Habits discount, Good Driver discount, Good Student discount, Low Mileage discount, Loyalty discount, Military discount, Multiple Policy discount, and quite a few more.

On the down side, Progressive doesn’t offer new car replacement when your vehicle is totaled, or gap insurance, which covers the difference between the actual value of a totaled car and the balance remaining on your auto loan.  If either of these features are important to you, Progressive may not be your style of auto insurance company.