Simply Business vs Hiscox for UK Sole Traders: Which Is Right for Your Business?

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A Structural Difference, Not a Price Difference

Most people compare business insurance by premium and click buy. With these two, the more useful comparison is structural, because Simply Business and Hiscox are different kinds of company and that shapes whose wording protects you and who answers the phone when a client threatens action.

How Each One Works

Simply Business Is a Broker

Simply Business is an FCA-regulated insurance broker running a comparison marketplace rather than an insurer. It takes your details, shops them across a panel of underwriters, and presents options side by side. The panel changes over time, and the quote screen names the insurer behind each option, which is the name that matters.

So:

• Your policy is underwritten by a third party, not by Simply Business
• Claims are handled by that underwriter
• The wording and exclusions are the underwriter’s document
• Simply Business can help and advocate, but the insurer decides

None of that is a criticism. Brokers earn their place, and several quotes in one session is genuinely useful. It just means buying through Simply Business does not make Simply Business your insurer.

Hiscox Is an Insurer

Hiscox underwrites its own policies. The capital behind your cover is theirs, the wording is their document, and claims are handled by their own team.

Buy direct and the company taking your premium is the company assessing your claim and the company you argue with if it gets complicated.

Hiscox products can also appear on broker panels, in which case the claim still goes to Hiscox. Check the insurer named on the quote rather than assuming either way.

What That Means in Practice

Who Handles the Claim

Buy through a broker and the underwriter named on your schedule handles it. The broker’s team can help you present it and push on your behalf, and the decision is the insurer’s.

Buy direct from Hiscox and it is end to end with them. For professional indemnity in particular, insurers typically appoint panel solicitors to defend you rather than leaving you to find your own, which is worth more than the headline limit when a client first threatens a claim.

Whose Wording Applies

Policy wording is the legal document that decides what you are covered for, and the differences between insurers around exclusions, the definition of professional services, and the conditions you must meet are substantial.

Through a broker, read the wording of whichever underwriter you chose. Direct, there is one document to read.

Protection Behind Both

Worth knowing, because people worry about who is really standing behind a policy. UK authorised insurers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. For compulsory insurance, which includes employers’ liability, protection is 100% of a valid claim; for most other general insurance it is 90%, with no upper cap.

If something goes wrong with the service rather than the claim, sole traders and most small businesses can take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which covers brokers as well as insurers.

How Much Choice

The marketplace wins here. Several underwriters, several combinations of cover, compared in one place, which matters most if your trade is unusual or you need public liability bundled with tools or stock.

Hiscox offers a narrower, deeper range built around professional indemnity, public liability, employers’ liability and cyber for knowledge-based businesses.

The Thing Both Comparisons Miss

Whichever route you take, professional indemnity is written on a claims-made basis. The policy that responds is the one in force when the claim arrives, not the one in force when you did the work.

Three consequences that matter more than the premium:

• Retroactive date. A policy only covers work done after it. Switching provider on price can reset that date and quietly strip cover from everything you did before, so when you move, ask the new insurer to match the old retroactive date or offer full prior acts.
• Run-off. When you stop trading, past work needs run-off cover. Six years is the usual baseline, matching the limitation period for contract claims.
• Per claim or aggregate. A contract requiring £1 million per claim is not satisfied by £1 million across the whole year.

Switching annually for a cheaper quote is exactly how people end up with a policy that cannot answer their oldest exposure.

Which Suits Which Business

Simply Business Is Strongest For

Tradespeople. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, builders. The panel model finds underwriters comfortable with higher-risk trades, and bundles public liability with tools cover.

Landlords. Long-established in property and liability cover.

Retailers and market traders. Stock, product liability and public liability in combination.

Anything niche. More underwriters means a better chance of a fit when your business does not match a standard category.

If your main need is public liability plus tools or stock, start here.

Hiscox Is Strongest For

IT contractors and consultants needing professional indemnity at higher limits alongside cyber cover.

Marketing and creative freelancers, designers, copywriters, photographers, PR.

Management consultants and business advisers.

Accountants, bookkeepers and coaches, though regulated financial advisers need specialist cover arranged elsewhere.

Architects, engineers and technical professionals.

The professional indemnity wordings are built for these audiences, generally including defence costs and offering limits matched to the contract values involved.

Cover Available

Through Simply Business: public liability, professional indemnity, employers’ liability, tools and business equipment, stock and contents, business interruption, and cyber from some panel insurers. What you actually see depends on the current panel and your risk profile.

From Hiscox: professional indemnity, public liability, employers’ liability, cyber and data, buildings and contents, and management liability. For sole traders the depth sits in the first two.

Getting a Quote

Both take five to ten minutes online. Simply Business asks about trade, revenue and cover needed, then returns a comparison naming each insurer with links to its documents. Hiscox asks similar questions and quotes its own products, with limits you can adjust to see the price move.

One thing to get right in both. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you owe a duty of fair presentation: answer the questions accurately and disclose anything material, including past claims and the actual mix of work you do. A careless misstatement can reduce a payout proportionately, and a deliberate one can void the policy. The five minutes saved by rounding your turnover or describing your work loosely is the most expensive five minutes in this process.

Both quotes are free and non-binding, and getting both takes under twenty minutes.

FAQ

Can I trust a broker rather than an insurer?

Yes, with the distinction understood. Simply Business is FCA-regulated and the underwriters on its panel are authorised UK insurers, so the policy is backed by a regulated insurer and the FSCS. Your insurer is whoever underwrites the policy you pick.

Is Hiscox worth it for a new sole trader?

It is not automatically dearer for comparable cover, since premiums depend on profession, revenue and limits. For knowledge-based work where a negligence claim is the real risk, a dedicated underwriter with hands-on claims support earns its place. The quote costs nothing, so get the number before deciding.

What is professional indemnity and do I need it?

It covers claims that your advice, service or design caused a client financial loss. If you provide professional services, you almost certainly need it, and many contracts and professional bodies require it.

What about IR35?

Neither is an IR35 specialist. Note too that since April 2021, for engagements with medium and large private sector clients, status and the tax liability sit with the client or fee-payer rather than your company, so IR35 products are most relevant to work with small clients or historic engagements.

Does switching provider affect old work?

It can. Ask the new insurer to match your existing retroactive date. If they will not, you are buying a policy that does not cover anything you did before today.

Simply Business or Hiscox: The Verdict

Simply Business if you are a tradesperson, a landlord or a business with physical assets to protect. The marketplace gives real choice and finds underwriters comfortable with your trade without you contacting each one.

Hiscox if you are a consultant, freelancer or professional service provider for whom professional indemnity is the main policy. You know exactly who is behind the cover, and the claims support matters when a client first makes an allegation.

Get both quotes, since it costs nothing and takes twenty minutes. Then spend the next twenty on the wording, the retroactive date and the exclusions, because that is where the two policies differ in ways the price never shows.

This article is general information about insurance in the UK, not advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. Panels, products and policy wordings change. Confirm who underwrites any policy you are offered, read that insurer’s wording, and speak to an FCA-authorised broker or insurer before relying on anything here.