Say goodbye to insurance phone calls

There are several short-term insurers in South Africa that allow people to take up policies through a mobile app — without ever having to speak to a broker or insurance employee.

As is the case in many other businesses, some players in the insurance industry have embraced technology as consumer demands have shifted towards innovative digital solutions.

While a number of major insurers offer apps and online quote systems, these are often just the first step in a long and laborious quoting process.

In most cases, users enter their personal information and vehicle or item details, and a consultant or broker calls to follow up and confirm more details.

One major reason people want to use an online platform is that they do not want to interact with human agents or brokers.

Fortunately, there are three online-only insurance apps that completely eliminate the need to talk to a human before getting insurance coverage on several kinds of items: Blink by MiWay, Naked Insurance, and Pineapple.

MyBroadband analysed the performance of these three apps using third-party reviews and first-hand experience of their quoting processes and features to see which was the best in February 2025.

Naked was a firm favourite when combining ratings across mobile app stores and a major South African business reviewing platform, with a total score of 13.9 out of 15.

Naked offers vehicle, home contents, buildings, and single-item insurance.

It scored the highest ratings on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Its 4.8 out of 5 rating among iPhone users was particularly impressive.

While Naked ranked third on consumer-sentiment gauging website Hellopeter, its Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 67 was higher than Pineapple’s and just two points short of Blink’s.

Pineapple, which sells vehicle and single-item insurance, placed second on all three platforms and second overall with a total score of 13.4 out of 15.

Blink by MiWay ranked last on both mobile app stores but achieved the highest score on Hellopeter — 4.8 out of 5.

The big gap between these ratings could perhaps be explained by MiWay’s policy of encouraging customers to leave a rating on the platform after a satisfactory quoting experience.

The table below summarises the average ratings of the three online-only insurance apps in South Africa.

First-hand comparison of interface and features

MyBroadband also tested the three apps first-hand in February 2025 — focusing primarily on their quote generation processes, app designs, key features, and pricing.

The Naked interface was uncluttered and made minimal use of colours.

It was also easy to navigate with four ever-present tabs at the bottom for jumping between home, emergency requests, FAQs, and account details.

Naked’s entire quote generation process is handled with an AI-powered chatbot called Rose, which asks questions in natural language.

There are less than 10 questions for every quote and some user responses — like vehicle model and make — have a dropdown list through which users can browse.

Our quote for a Suzuki S-Presso 1.0 GL+ AMT was generated in less than three minutes from starting the process.

One of Naked’s unique features is the ability to pause accident cover for long periods in which your car will not be driven.

Pineapple’s interface had far more imagery and colours, which might appeal to more creative-minded users.

At the same time, the app was far more cluttered with lots of icons and buttons for which the immediate purposes were not clear.

There was also no way to check what personal details the insurer had for our user. The profile section only showed their name and surname.

The quote generation process took longer than Naked’s but was also very straightforward.

It required us to go through several pages with multiple-answer questions, still a far cry from having to verbally explain details to a broker.

Similar to Naked, Blink also had a basic interface — although it was perhaps a tad too simple for our liking.

Every time we opened the app, we had to log in again, and the quote would automatically regenerate before we could proceed.

There was no way to review the personal information that Blink had for our user and after encountering an error with our ID, we had to chat with a Blink staff member over WhatsApp to fix the issue.

We then had to submit all the details of our user’s insurance history and vehicle via WhatsApp, instead of through the app itself.

Another issue that Blink had is that it requires users to give it permission to track their location and motions via their smartphones.

On the positive side, Blink was the most affordable option of the three insurers, followed by Pineapple.

Despite being the most expensive, the overall simplicity and minimal amount of personal data, insurance history, and vehicle information Naked required gave it the top spot in our hands-on impressions.

The table below summarises some of the required information and key features of South Africa’s three biggest online-only insurance apps.