How much lawn care and landscaping insurance costs

Published insurance prices for lawn care come from a handful of places: online brokers that report what their own customers pay, one insurer that publishes its own customer data, and a personal finance site that models quotes across all 50 states. They don't agree, and the reasons they don't agree are useful to understand before you look at your own quote.

Monthly cost by policy, every published source

All figures are monthly premiums unless noted. Each column links to its source. "Median" means half of the businesses paid less and half paid more.

Policy	Insureon, lawn care (median)	Insureon, all landscaping (median)	TechInsurance, lawn service (median)	MoneyGeek (modeled average)
General liability	$57	$51	$46	$198
Business owner's policy	$85	$94	$84	Not modeled
Commercial auto	$255	$204	$190	$193
Tools and equipment	$42	$38	$38	$3 to $64 range
Workers' comp	$123	$169	$143	$202 per employee
Commercial umbrella	Not listed	$88	Not listed	Not modeled
License or permit bond	$9	$9	Not listed	$8 to $125 range

Sources: Insureon lawn care costs, Insureon landscaping costs, TechInsurance lawn service costs, MoneyGeek lawn care cost report.

In annual terms, Insureon's lawn care medians work out to $685 a year for general liability, $1,025 for a BOP, $503 for tools and equipment, $1,476 for workers' comp and $3,062 for commercial auto.

Two insurers publish their own numbers too:

• NEXT says 47% of its lawn care customers pay $36 to $55 a month for general liability, its median workers' comp premium is $154 a month, and tools and equipment averages $31 a month for 43% of customers. NEXT says the data comes from its active customers over the previous 12 months and was updated in September 2026.
• The Hartford's lawn care page says small businesses pay about $810 a year for general liability on average, and about $1,687 a year for a BOP. Its workers' comp page says most of its customers with under $300,000 in payroll pay about $81 a month. Both Hartford figures cover small businesses in general, not lawn care specifically.

Why the sources disagree

The broker numbers are medians of real policies, but only for the kind of business that shops online. Insureon says most of its lawn care customers have fewer than five employees, revenue from around $50,000 to more than $200,000, and five or fewer years in business. That's a solo operator or a two-truck outfit, which is exactly who these numbers describe well.

TechInsurance is not an independent check on Insureon. Its lawn service page says its figures come from landscaping companies that apply for quotes with Insureon. Read the two as one data family.

MoneyGeek works differently. It used quotes from 10 major insurers to model premiums in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., for standardized profiles with one to four employees at "industry-recommended" limits. A modeled crew business with employees will price well above a median solo mower, which is most of why its general liability figure is about four times the broker medians.

Our take: if you're one person with a truck and a trailer, the Insureon and NEXT numbers are the closer benchmark. If you run a crew and do treatments, start from MoneyGeek's bundles.

What a full setup costs

Adding up the medians gives a rough monthly budget. These are sums of published figures, not quotes.

Setup	What's included	Monthly total
Solo mower, truck and trailer	GL $57 + commercial auto $255 + tools and equipment $42 (Insureon lawn care medians)	$354
Same, as MoneyGeek models it	GL, commercial auto, tools and equipment ("recommended bundle")	$424
Crew with a shop	GL, auto, equipment, workers' comp, commercial property ("crew operations bundle")	$691
Full-service with treatments	Crew bundle plus pesticide/herbicide coverage, a surety bond and cyber ("full-service bundle")	$931

The MoneyGeek rows come from its bundle table, which also lists a "starting bundle" of general liability and commercial auto at $390 a month. MoneyGeek calls its figures national averages to be used for comparing bundles, not as exact quotes.

Notice the truck. In Insureon's lawn care medians, commercial auto ($255 a month) costs more than general liability, tools and equipment and a BOP combined. If a quote for the whole business looks cheap, check whether it includes the auto policy at all.

How spread out the prices are

Medians hide a wide range. Among landscaping businesses that buy through Insureon:

• General liability: 48% pay less than $50 a month and 79% pay less than $100.
• Workers' comp: 26% pay less than $100 a month and 58% pay less than $200.
• Commercial auto: 48% pay less than $200 a month and another 25% pay between $200 and $400.

So a $140 general liability quote isn't automatically a rip-off, and a $38 quote isn't automatically a deal. Look at the services on the application and the limits on the quote before you judge the price.

What moves your premium

The services you list

This is the biggest lever you control, and the one people fudge at their peril. Insureon says tree service companies pay a median of $138 a month for general liability, against $46 for lawn care. It also notes that lawn care businesses offering chemical treatments and pesticide applications may pay more than mowing-only businesses. Snow work moves the needle too: Insureon's median general liability for snow removal contractors is $132 a month.

Leaving a service off the application to save money is how you end up with a denied claim. If you take down a tree once a season, or spray a few lawns as a favor, say so.

Your state

MoneyGeek's state data shows how much geography matters for the same business profile. For a lawn care business with one to four employees, modeled general liability runs from $120 a month in West Virginia to $349 in California. Workers' comp ranges from about $114 a month in Indiana and South Dakota to $486 in California. MoneyGeek names Michigan as the most expensive state for commercial auto, citing its no-fault system.

Crew size and payroll

Workers' comp is priced on payroll and job classification, so it grows with every person you add. The Hartford explains that insurers use classification codes to group jobs by injury risk, and riskier codes pay more per dollar of payroll. MoneyGeek adds a finding from its own model: as crew size grows, general liability changes the most, while workers' comp and commercial auto stay relatively flat.

Vehicles and equipment

The more trucks, the heavier the trailers and the more valuable the mowers, the more you pay. Insureon says lawn care owners with higher-value vehicles or equipment are likely to see higher premiums, and that frequently used items can cost more to insure. It also says a company with large commercial clients can expect higher rates than one serving small residential clients. For equipment coverage specifically, Insureon notes that items worth more than $2,500 may need to be scheduled separately.

Limits, deductibles and claims history

Higher limits cost more; higher deductibles cost less. Insureon's sample general liability policy for landscapers carries a $500 deductible with $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate limits. Past claims raise your price. Insureon's lawn care page also says businesses may qualify for lower rates with a documented employee training program, regular equipment maintenance and strong safety practices.

Add-ons and specialty coverage

MoneyGeek published typical monthly ranges for coverage that not every lawn care business needs, based on publicly available cost data:

Coverage	Typical monthly range	Who needs it
Pesticide or herbicide applicator coverage	$45 to $136	Anyone applying weed control, insecticide or fungicide
Contractors pollution liability	$83 to $500	Larger treatment programs and commercial accounts
Hired and non-owned auto	$7 to $172	Employees who drive their own cars for errands
Tools and equipment	$3 to $64	Anyone whose mowers leave the shop
Surety or contractor bond	$8 to $125	Where a city, state or client requires one

Source: MoneyGeek. For a commercial umbrella, Insureon's landscaping median is $88 a month, sold in $1 million increments.

Snow removal has its own price list. Insureon's medians for snow and ice removal contractors are $132 a month for general liability, $264 for commercial auto, $256 for workers' comp and $51 for tools and equipment. The snow removal guide covers how to add winter work to a lawn care program.

Keeping the bill down without creating a gap

• Raise the deductible on equipment and auto physical damage to an amount you could pay out of the operating account tomorrow.
• Get the workers' comp classification right. The Hartford's audit page says auditors review payroll and job classifications at the end of the policy period and can add class codes that change your premium. An accurate estimate up front beats a surprise bill at audit time.
• Ask about pay-as-you-go billing for workers' comp if your payroll swings with the season. The Hartford lists pay-as-you-go billing among its workers' comp features.
• Skip the BOP if you have no building worth insuring, and put that money into scheduling your mowers on an equipment floater.
• Quote the same limits and deductibles everywhere. MoneyGeek makes the same point: a cheaper quote may leave out tools, trailers, treatment work or crew members.

What you're required to carry, as opposed to what's smart to carry, is on the requirements page. What each policy actually covers is on the coverage page.