2025 Mayflower Moving Review

Mayflower’s moving packages, protection plans, and large network of agents make it one of our top picks for long-distance movers.

Mayflower calls itself “America’s Most Trusted Moving Company,” and its goal is to make your move quick and convenient.¹ Our review puts that claim to the test, examining how Mayflower does business and how it stands up to the competition.

With a truly nationwide network, versatile coverage options, and a long list of optional moving services, Mayflower allows you to customize your moving package to meet your unique needs. However, if you’re trying to get a quick quote before making a decision, you might be disappointed by its inconvenient estimate process.

Chances are, when you think of moving trucks, Mayflower is the name that comes to mind. For almost 100 years, Mayflower has been a trusted leader in the moving industry. Mayflower offers tailored moving solutions for local, intrastate, and long-distance interstate moves from its more than 500 locations nationwide. But if you're looking to use Mayflower for a move to or from Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, or West Virginia, you'll have to look elsewhere.

A lot of factors go into the price of a large move. Mayflower’s prices are determined by the total weight of your shipment, the price of gas, and the distance between your current home and your destination. Since these factors can be completely different from one move to the next, prices may vary.

That means Mayflower doesn’t offer specific pricing information online or over the phone, which can make your planning process a little more difficult early on. Quotes are only available after an in-home (or virtual) evaluation of your household goods. Even though there's no instant gratification with Mayflower, we like that your estimate is more likely to be accurate, which can help minimize the odds of an unwelcome surprise when it's time to settle up.

But that doesn't mean we can't give you some idea of what Mayflower moves cost. Even though the company doesn't like to give ballpark figures, they were willing to give us some rough estimates when we asked for some sample quotes.

We asked Mayflower for quotes for a cross-country move of around 2,100 miles for a three-bedroom home and a regional move of around 250 miles for the same size home. As you can see, the estimates came out the same; however, because things like mileage and the time of year impact moving prices, I'm confident a regional move of fewer than 1,000 miles could be cheaper than $8,000–$10,000.

It's important to remember that multiple factors contribute to the total cost of the move, including any extra services you add, like packing or electronics installation. Mayflower also offers Full Service Moving Packages. These packages include: 

• A personal move coordinator
• Full Value Protection (unless waived)
• Standard appliances transport
• Load, transport, and unload belongings
• Disassembly and reassembly of bed frames
• Standard placement of furniture

Depending on the option you pick (there are three to choose from), you'll also get identity theft protection, help with any claims you may need to make for damaged or lost items, additional coverage protection, debris removal, wall-mount TV disassembly and reassembly, and an extra $250 per day for delays. Full-service packages range from $225 to $725, on top of the cost of transporting your goods.

When you request a quote on the Mayflower website, you’ll have to provide your email, your phone number, and some basic information about your move.

Soon after you submit your request, a customer service representative will call you to set up a time for an evaluator to do a walk-through of your home. After the walk-through, the evaluator will give you your estimate. For convenience, you can also do the walk-through over a video call with the evaluator instead of coordinating a time they can come to your home.

Want to see how much your move with Mayflower will cost?

Once you get your Mayflower estimate, you can head over to our moving costs article to see how your estimate compares to the national average.

Mayflower delivers local and long-distance moving in 46 states from coast to coast. The company doesn't serve Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, or West Virginia. When it comes to services, Mayflower offers most of the standard services we see from large moving companies, but it has a few standout features that set it apart.

1. Virtual home surveys and a personalized digital move planner.
2. Comprehensive protection plans and generous compensation for delays.
3. A large network of agents to help you move across town or across the country.

• Local, long-distance, and international moves
• Binding quotes
• Packing and unpacking
• Storage options
• Transportation for cars, motorcycles, and boats
• Multiple coverage options
• Furniture assembly and disassembly
• Electronics installation
• Multimedia assembly and disassembly
• Military moves
• Transportation for pianos and other specialty items
• Crating
• Cleaning services
• Shipment tracking
• Moves for corporate and medical facilities

To make your quote process as easy as possible, Mayflower offers a virtual survey of your home. Because Mayflower doesn't give ballpark estimates, a moving specialist needs to see what you're moving in order to develop an accurate quote.

If you can't arrange an in-person appointment, the virtual survey lets you do a virtual walk-through. The estimator will do everything they would do if they were there in person, so be ready to fling open cabinets, reveal what's in the shed, and point out high-valuable items (worth more than $100 per pound).

For any large move, insurance is an absolute must. Even the most careful and competent moving company can accidentally lose boxes or damage a customer’s property from time to time. Luckily, Mayflower allows you to build your protection plan around your needs and your budget.

If you want to learn more about protection plans, check out our article on moving coverage.

While full-value protection is a great way to insure department store furniture and everyday household goods, some shipments require additional protection. If your load includes especially valuable property, such as a one-of-a-kind painting or an antique instrument, you can fill out a high-value inventory form and pay to add coverage.

The rate for this additional coverage is $5.50 for every $1,000 of coverage you want to add. For example, if you have an antique vase that you want to insure for $6,000, you can do that by paying an extra $33 upfront.

If you’re moving on a very tight budget, you can waive Mayflower’s full-value protection and go with the basic liability coverage that all moving companies offer for free.

This liability coverage only provides $0.60 of coverage per pound of your shipment. If your shipment only includes inexpensive and replaceable belongings, then basic liability coverage isn’t a terrible option—as long as you’re willing to accept the possibility of some loss.

But what if you were using the liability coverage and you shipped that $6,000 vase we talked about earlier? If the vase got lost or damaged in transit, you would only get reimbursed $0.60 for each pound it weighed. Even if the vase were particularly large and weighed nine pounds, you would get just $5.40, a tiny fraction of the vase’s worth!

With a nationwide fleet, Mayflower is designed to help people with local and long-distance moves alike. Mayflower belongs to the UniGroup, Inc. family, and every agent in the network is directly employed by UniGroup. This means you can expect any agent who handles your move to provide everything Mayflower offers.

Mayflower’s network ensures that only UniGroup movers and partners will handle and store your belongings from pickup to delivery.

If you want to read customer reviews for your local Mayflower agents, you can check out the full list of agents in every city and state in the US.

Mayflower also has transportation resources in more than 150 countries. As with interstate and local moves, Mayflower handles shipping and storage for international moves internally, so you don’t have to worry about coordinating with another company in the country you’re moving to. Additionally, all of Mayflower’s moving packages can be used for international moves.

Mayflower has been helping people move for nearly a century and you don't stick around that long if you're not good to your customers. Overall, Mayflower stands out for its customer-first policies, its full suite of services that go beyond the basics, and helpful tools like the virtual survey and customer portal. 

Mayflower's website also provides a plethora of helpful resources, FAQ, online quote forms (even though you don't get an instant estimate), and shipment tracking.

But when it comes to customer reviews, there aren't many out there, so it's hard to get a real sense of what customers experience. We plan to find out for ourselves in 2025, and are eager to see how Mayflower lives up to its reputation.

Mayflower has a lot of customer-friendly policies, like no deposit and free cancellation. We like that this eases the upfront burden for movers and takes away stress over losing deposit money. One thing to keep in mind is that your initial estimate may change if you have to cancel or change your move date. 

As the one of the most experienced and well known movers in the industry, we expected Mayflower to have thousands of gushing online reviews, but that's not what we found. On well-known review sites like Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Mayflower has low scores and few reviews overall.  We don't believe that this tells the entire story about Mayflower, but it was surprising to see scores like 2.2 stars on Trustpilot—from only eight reviews dating from 2024 back to 2017.

We'd typically see eight fairly negative reviews over seven years as a good sign, but as we couldn't find a counter balance of positive reviews, it's difficult to get a read on what people really think about their moving experience with Mayflower. I can note that all of the less flattering reviews are very detailed, but the few positive reviews I found were only a few lines, with no specifics and superlative praise.

Because Mayflower is owned by UniGroup (which also owns other moving companies, like United Van Lines), I wondered if there are more reviews out there under the parent company name. On Trustpilot, I found only three reviews for UniGroup, and again, they weren't glowing—and there were none in 2024. Mayflower itself isn't on the BBB website, but UniGroup is with 1.32 stars out of five, from only 31 customer reviews. UniGroup has an A+ rating from BBB (as of December 2024) and has been accredited since 1983.

With a company that performs so many moves in a year, it's important to understand that the few negative reviews and complaints we found are a very small percentage of all customers—it's just strange not to see a bunch of positive reviews as well. Mayflower's partnerships with hundreds of agents may also make online customer reviews a bit murky.

On its website, Mayflower claims "an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars," and, "we’re proud to be highly recommended by 9 out of 10 customers." There are a few customer testimonials on Mayflower's website, but I couldn't find a way to see more reviews or star ratings.

We also looked at the company's track record with the FMCSA. It was reassuring to find that Mayflower has one of the lowest complaint rates with FMCSA, with only five in 2024 as of November. The only company with fewer complaints is Solomon and Sons—they have just four.

Mayflower's estimates are right in the middle of estimates we've received from other movers. Its starting cost of $8,000 for a cross-country move is lower than International Van Lines, Safeway Moving, and Colonial, which all told us their starting price is around $9,000. Mayflower's top number of $10,000 is lower than IVL and Safeway, which quoted $13,000 and $14,000 as their top prices, respectively.

If you're looking for even lower quotes, Mayzlin and American may be able to beat Mayflower's ballpark pricing—quoting us starting rates of around $7,500 and $6,200, respectively, for a 3-bedroom cross-country move.

Deposits are where Mayflower really stands out—it doesn't require one. Mayflower's no-deposit policy is a rarity in the moving industry. Mayflower is one of only four moving companies we've talked to that doesn't require 10–50 percent when you book your move. The caveat is that Mayflower doesn't offer any discounts like other moving companies.

Mayflower is one of our top picks for long-distance moves. If you want nearly 100 years of experience and services like wall-mounting your TV and want to skip the deposit, Mayflower has what you're looking for.

Here's why Mayflower stands out:

• Customizable full-service packages: Options include packing, furniture assembly, and identity theft protection—plus extra coverage in case of loss, damage, or delay.
• No deposit required: Mayflower doesn't ask for a deposit upfront, so there's no stress to come up with a significant chunk of change or worry about losing money if you need to cancel or change your dates.
• Nationwide network: Mayflower has over 500 locations and can help with moves in 46 states.
• Smart moving solutions: Virtual home surveys, a customer portal, and a personalized digital move planner make planning and executing your move convenient and accurate.

While we'll be putting Mayflower to the test in 2025, its nearly century-long reputation and wide range of services already make it a strong contender for your next move. However, its lack of service in a few states, minimal customer reviews, and required in-home surveys for a quote are worth noting.

Want to see how much your move with Mayflower will cost?

There are may be a better long-distance moving option for you, so be sure to check out our list of the best interstate moving companies.

For our Mayflower review, we went straight to the source for information about quotes, policies, and what features help Mayflower stand out. We also conducted hours of research about the company, reading both customer and expert reviews. We investigated the company's standing with regulators and reviewed customer complaints and how Mayflower responded.

We're setting up a real-life test of Mayflower's moving services in 2025, which will give us even more insights into how this moving industry giant gets things done. 

Move.org evaluates and identifies the moving industry’s best full-service movers using a fivefold research approach:

• Compare pricing transparency. We gather quotes, check for binding estimates, and read customer reviews about pricing to ensure each moving company’s prices are trustworthy. 

• Review accreditation. We check every company’s records in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s database to confirm companies are properly authorized to transport household goods.

• Mystery shopping. We review every company’s website, pose as customers in calls to companies, and read customer reviews to analyze every company’s moving services, transit protection, and customer service. We also interview actual customers to learn how their moves went from start to finish.

• Site visits.  We invite moving companies to our headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT, to share data and expertise. We verify the information they provide by comparing it to data gathered through independent research and interviews with other movers.
• Regular review. We routinely repeat this process to update our recommendations to reflect current data and trends. We also revise each review annually and make updates throughout the year.

• Best Long-Distance Movers
• The Only Moving Checklist You'll Ever Need
• Best Moving Container Companies
• Best Moving Truck Companies
• Best Car Shipping Companies
• Best Storage Unit Companies

1. Mayflower, Home page. Accessed December 18, 2024.