EverQuote: shared vs exclusive insurance leads, and how the return policy works

EverQuote runs consumer-facing insurance shopping sites where visitors compare quotes across auto, home, life, and other lines, then routes the resulting leads to agents and carriers who pay for them. EverQuote's own pages describe two sources feeding that pipeline: its own owned and operated websites, and a Verified Partner Network of third-party insurance shopping sites that EverQuote says must meet the same lead quality standards as its own traffic.

An agent does not browse a public marketplace to grab leads one at a time. Signing up requires connecting with an EverQuote Inside Sales Representative to activate an account, and from there EverQuote matches leads to the agent's own filters: the risk profile they want, the ZIP codes they cover, and the hours they are available to receive them.

EverQuote's FAQ lays out two ways an agent can buy a lead. An Exclusive lead goes to that agent alone, at an additional cost per lead compared to the shared option. A Shared lead, priced lower, can go out to as many as three agents at once, but EverQuote caps that sharing at one agent per carrier, so two agents both quoting the same insurance carrier never end up competing on the identical shared lead.

For leads that come from EverQuote's Verified Partner Network specifically, the same maximum of three agents applies, and EverQuote's own page for agents states those leads are "sold exclusively through EverQuote," meaning the lead itself isn't resold outside EverQuote's system even though it can still be shared among up to three of EverQuote's own agents.

EverQuote does not publish a flat price list for either lead type. Its own FAQ for agents states that prices "vary based on the product type (auto, home, life, warm transfer), lead type (risk profile), and your eligibility for participation in the various subsidy programs," and directs agents to speak with EverQuote directly to get an actual quote for their line of business and market.

That variability cuts both ways for an agent budgeting a lead program: a warm transfer, where a live call is handed off, will not cost the same as a web-form lead, and eligibility for a subsidy program can change the net price an agent actually pays. Since none of this is posted as a fixed rate card, an agent has to get pricing confirmed for their own specific product and state before committing budget.

EverQuote's FAQ describes a defined return window rather than a case-by-case negotiation: an agent can request a return within 30 days of purchasing a lead, but the total returns accepted in a calendar month are capped at 20% of that account's total leads purchased that month. That cap means an agent cannot return an unlimited share of a bad batch, only up to a fifth of what they bought.

On the contract itself, EverQuote states there is "no minimum contract period or spending requirement," describing its billing as pay as you go, and that an agent "may cancel your account immediately, no questions asked." The one carve-out is financial rather than contractual: any initial deposit match credit EverQuote applied when the account was opened is treated as non-refundable, separate from the ordinary account balance.

EverQuote fits an agency that wants insurance leads matched to a specific risk profile, ZIP code, and working hours without building its own quoting funnel first, and that values a published, time-boxed return policy over an informal one. The choice between Shared and Exclusive lets an agency trade a lower price for competition, or a higher price for a lead nobody else is calling.

What an agency gives up is a consumer relationship that starts on EverQuote's own comparison sites rather than one that searched for the agency by name. A local agency with a strong Google Business Profile and search presence usually keeps more of the lifetime value of a policyholder when that first contact happens on the agency's own site instead.