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Best hearing aid providers
If you're looking to buy the best hearing aids, it's the fit and after-care that matters most for a good experience. So the provider you choose is of the utmost importance.
To find the best, we surveyed 2,192 hearing aid users about their experiences with hearing aid providers. From the range of products they offered to the quality of aftercare and value for money.
We also asked how much they paid to see how hearing aid providers compare on costs, and which were the best-rated hearing aid brands.
Our guide will help you find the best place to buy your hearing aids, and give you a steer on what to pay and which hearing aids are the best.
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Hearing aid providers rated
Our 2022 survey reveals how customers rated providers, including Amplifon, Boots Hearing Care, Hidden Hearing and Specsavers Audiology, as well as independent retailers.
We asked about eight key areas of care, including the suitability and comfort of products offered, value for money, aftercare and facilities. We also gathered insights on the typical hearing aid prices at each retailer.
The best high street providers received an overall customer score of 85% and top ratings for the thoroughness of their testing and the testing environment, staffing, product range and aftercare.
Logged-in Which? members can see how each provider was rated in our survey. If you're not yet a member, join Which? to get instant access to this and our guide to hearing aid prices.
| Hearing aid provider (sample size in brackets) | Customer score | Average price of a pair of aids | Waiting times | Staff skill | Product range | Facilities | Hearing aid suitability | Hearing aid comfort | After-care | Value for money |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sign up to reveal Get instant access to this and all our scores and recommendations. Unlock tableFirst month £5, then £11.99 per month, cancel at any time Already a member? Log in | 85% | £3,270 | ||||||||
| 73% | £2,562 | |||||||||
| 71% | £1,993 | |||||||||
| 68% | £3,464 | |||||||||
| 67% | £2,675 |
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Based on an online survey of 1,665 Which? Connect panel members and 527 members of the general public in June 2022 who got hearing aid(s) in the past five years. Number of respondents per brand in brackets. Minimum of 30 respondents needed to generate a star rating. Customer score is based on satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. Customers also rated aspects of service; these are presented as star ratings from one to five.
Amplifon
Amplifon is an Italian multinational company with over 200 clinics across the UK, and home visits for those who need them, selling brands including ReSound, Phonak and Widex.
Log in or join Which? to find out more about Amplifon and how it fared against rivals.
Boots Hearingcare
Boots Hearingcare has a huge 400 branches UK-wide. It sells brands including Phonak and Starkey, as well as AudioNova and Cosegi.
Log in or join Which? to find out whether the high street giant got the thumbs up in our customer survey.
Hidden Hearing
Hidden Hearing is one of the bigger hearing aid providers, with more than 280 local clinics across Great Britain and a home visits offer. It sells Bernafon, Oticon and Starkey hearing aids.
Log in or join Which? to find out if Hidden Hearing should be your choice of provider.
Scrivens
Scrivens is one of the main hearing aid providers, with more than 150 clinics across England and Wales. It also offers the 'Any Qualified Provider Provider' service. This is where the NHS commissions it in certain areas of England to provide assessment and hearing aids - free of charge - to NHS patients.
Scrivens sells Bernafon and Starkey hearing aid brands.
Log in or join Which? to find out how Scrivens was rated by its customers.
Specsavers
Specsavers is a major hearing aid provider in the UK, with over 200 hearing services and a home visit service. Specsavers offers the 'Any Qualified Provider' service as well as selling privately.
Specsavers sells its own-brand Advance hearing aids, as well as Phonak, Signia and Widex.
Log in or join Which? to find out if you should go to Specsavers, or if there are higher-scoring choices.
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Best hearing aid brands
We asked hearing aid users to rate their brand of hearing aid on battery life, ease of charging the battery, and ease of cleaning and durability.
Logged-in Which? members can see how each brand was rated in our survey.
If you're not already a member, join Which? to get instant access to this and thousands of other reviews.
| Brand | Satisfaction score | Battery life | Durability | Ease of charging the battery | Ease of cleaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sign up to reveal Get instant access to this and all our scores and recommendations. Unlock tableFirst month £5, then £11.99 per month, cancel at any time Already a member? Log in | 91% | |||||
| 85% | ||||||
| 84% | ||||||
| 83% | ||||||
| 82% | ||||||
| 82% | ||||||
| 77% | ||||||
| 76% | ||||||
| 75% |
Sign up to reveal
Get instant access to this and all our scores and recommendations.
Unlock tableFirst month £5, then £11.99 per month, cancel at any time
Already a member? Log in
Based on an online survey of 1,665 Which? Connect panel members and 527 members of the general public in June 2022 who had got hearing aid(s) in the past five years. Number of respondents per brand in brackets. Minimum of 30 respondents needed to generate a star rating.
Who sells which hearing aid brands?
"You can buy the same brands privately as you'd get from the NHS. The most common NHS and privately-bought brands in our survey were Oticon and Phonak. The only real difference in NHS-supplied aids is likely to be that you'll get 'last year's model."
Joanna Pearl, Which? hearing aids expert
Most big retailers only stock specific brands, often the ones that they are tied into, so you won't get the full range of choices at any one retailer.
Here's who sells what brands:
- Amplifon sells Phonak, GN ReSound and Widex, as well as its own brand.
- Boots sells Phonak and Starkey, as well as AudioNova and Cosegi.
- Hidden Hearing sells Bernafon, Oticon and Starkey.
- Scrivens sells Bernafon, Oticon, Phonak and Starkey.
- Specsavers sells Phonak and Signia, as well as its own-brand Specsavers Advance range.
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Why does it matter where I buy my hearing aid from?
It's crucial to choose a trusted retailer to maximise your chances of getting the right hearing aids for you. The difference between a good and a bad option isn't usually the aid itself, it's the fit and service given by the provider that matter more.
It can take time to fit and adjust an aid correctly so that it's working to maximise your hearing and doesn't cause you to get frustrated and give up.
Your audiologist can also advise on what high-end features you really need.
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Hearing aid buying pressure
Some 24% of private hearing aid customers in our survey felt under some pressure to buy from their retailer: 10% bought hearing aids that they now believe weren't necessary and 15% felt pressured to take out the retailer's insurance.
This varied considerably between providers. For example, 41% of one retailer's customers felt under some pressure to buy, whereas just 16% did from another.
Although we have seen even greater reports of pressure selling in some other markets, such as stairlifts, it's worth checking which hearing aid retailers are better or worse in this regard before you head to the shops.
Our hearing aid research: how we uncover the best providers and brands
Experience has taught us that asking customers who've bought and used hearing aids about their experiences is the best way to uncover who's making people happy, and who's not delivering a great experience.
We surveyed more than 2,000 people about their experiences and asked them 36 detailed questions covering everything from the range of products offered through to the after-care they experienced.
While we know from our research that how good your audiologist is, and the quality of aftercare is really important for having a good experience with hearing aids – more so than which product you get – we know that people want to know which brands are best, too. So we also asked how satisfied people were with the brand of hearing aid they got, and the durability, ease of changing the battery and cleaning, and battery life of the products.
Our researchers and statisticians then delve into the data to calculate an overall customer score, based on ratings for customer satisfaction and likelihood to recommend, and to produce star ratings for different factors to make it easier to compare across brands.
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