[elementor-template id="79"]

5 Best Moving Companies of 2020

We’ve done hours of research on interstate movers so you don’t have to. See who rose to the top as this year’s best interstate moving companies.

Moving company United Nationwide TrucksandBoxes PODS Ease Allied
Website rev2-1-1-1024x283 1-1024x427 pods moving rev-1-1-1024x559 1-2-1024x427
Highlights Best overall Best for up-front pricing Best for customizing your move Best for customizing your move Best bang for your buck
Reviews
Phone number (855) 305-6244 (888) 266-4157 (855) 706-4758 (424) 306-1120 800‑689‑8684

To help you pick the best interstate moving company for your next move, we analyzed dozens of long-distance movers and then pared them down to the top five. Read on to see who made the cut as 2020’s best interstate movers—and to learn the right questions to ask when you’re shopping around.

Top 5 long-distance moving companies

  • United Nationwide — Best overall
  • TrucksandBoxes — Best for up-front pricing
  • PODS— Best for customer service
  • Ease — Best for customization
  • Allied— Best for tight budgets

United Nationwide Movers — Best customer experience

5 out of 5 overall
5/5

Verified Reviews

United Nationwide Movers is both a moving broker and a carrier that works with over 3,000 partners worldwide. United Nationwide Movers has an impressive lineup of services ranging from crane lifting and piano transport to full-service packing and motorcycle hauling.

United Nationwide Movers can handle everything from local and interstate to—you guessed it—international moves. Like a few of the other best movers on our list, United Nationwide Movers is transparent about the breakdown of your final bill.

Pros

United Nationwide Movers at a glance

Company information
MC # 01084544
U.S. DOT # 3379742

Why we recommend United Nationwide Movers

It does it all

United Nationwide Movers is able to offer every moving service you could want while still giving each move a personal touch. In addition to full-service moves for intrastate, interstate, and international moves, United Nationwide Movers offers services that many other interstate moving companies can’t (or don’t):

  • Long- and short-term storage facilities
  • Furniture assembly and disassembly
  • Custom crating
  • Transportation for specialty items (hot tubs, pianos, etc.)
  • Auto shipping
  • Boat transport
  • Home cleaning
  • Junk and debris removal

Through United Nationwide Movers, these services are available virtually anywhere in the country. Even if the company’s in-house staff can’t provide one of these services in your area, United Nationwide Movers wide network of partnerships enable it to outsource (or broker) that service to another company that United Nationwide Movers trusts.

So no matter where you’re moving from, where you’re moving to, or what your move requires, United Nationwide Movers can handle it.

It has transparent pricing
As we’ve mentioned (and you’ve probably experienced), pricing is one of the biggest pain points in moving. United Nationwide Movers tries to solve this problem by spelling out everything that goes into your quote, from the rate for each flight of stairs to the increased cost of bulkier items.

In our eyes, this kind of pricing transparency is a trademark sign of a reliable moving company.

Not only does this build trust between you and your mover, but it also helps you budget accurately. If we have the choice to pay what we expected or cough up an extra $250 or more after our move, we’ll take the first option, please!

In our experience, United Nationwide Movers transparency doesn’t mean it’s significantly more affordable than its competitors. However, based on the number of customers who leave happy with their move and the wide array of services United Nationwide Movers offers, we believe it’s well worth the cost.

TrucksandBoxes — Best for customizing your move

5 out of 5 overall
5/5

Verified Reviews

Most companies that provide everything Truck&Boxes does are brokers or broker-carrier hybrids that outsource part or all of your move to other companies. But Truck&Boxes is different. Whether you need auto shipment, full-service moving, or storage services, Truck&Boxes background-checked staff handles every part of your move.

In addition to all these services, Truck&Boxes is committed to fair prices and customer satisfaction, and it uses a flat-rate pricing system so you always know exactly what you’re going to pay.

Pros

Cons

Truck&Boxes at a glance

Company information
MC # 01084544
U.S. DOT # 3379742

Why we recommend Truck&Boxes

It uses flat-rate pricing and gives binding estimates

Truck&Boxes doesn’t offer quotes online, so you might be surprised to see them ranked as our favorite company for up-front pricing. What earns Truck&Boxes this rank in our book is its flat-rate pricing system.

Flat-rate pricing means Truck&Boxes doesn’t charge an hourly rate, and it doesn’t charge extra for mileage or fuel. Once Truck&Boxes has a full inventory of your belongings and knows how far you’re moving, it’ll calculate one flat estimate for your move based on how much your shipment weighs and how many days it’ll take to get from point A to point B.

While instant online quotes are convenient, they’re often inaccurate representations of what your move will actually cost in the end. Flat-rate pricing ensures that your binding estimate will accurately predict what your move will cost.

You won’t even pay extra if the loading process takes a couple extra hours or the moving crew has to take a detour because of construction. With an hourly company, you would likely need to pay more in either of these circumstances.

As an added bonus, many cross-country movers who charge flat rates are motivated to do their work quickly and efficiently so they can turn a profit (you’ll pay the same amount if the move goes more quickly than projected), so your shipment might get delivered ahead of schedule.

It has excellent customer service

Up-front pricing is certainly a nice perk, but even the best perks and benefits can be overshadowed by poor customer service. You probably wouldn’t be too grateful to have a flat-rate estimate if the representative servicing your move was rude to you over the phone or in person.

That’s why we looked into Truck&Boxes customer service, and we’re happy to report that the company has an excellent track record in this department as well. In fact, Truck&Boxes customer service was recently recognized by Newsweek as some of the best in the moving industry.

On top of this impressive kudos from Newsweek, Truck&Boxes also has hundreds of glowing customer reviews that praise its punctuality, fair prices, attention to detail, professionalism, and (surprise) customer service.

PODS — Best for customer service

pods moving
3.5 out of 5 overall
3.5/5

Verified Reviews

PODS is a full-service long-distance mover that maintains one of the largest moving networks in the world. Not only does it partner with plenty of agents (local moving companies) to meet your needs, it provides stellar service too.

A great in-home estimate experience, excellent customer service, and a wide range of services make this mover a shoo-in on our list.

Pros

Cons

Why we recommend PODS

Its representatives are easy to work with

In-home moving estimates are fairly similar from one moving company to another. Of all the in-home estimates we experienced, however, we enjoyed PODS the most.

An in-home estimate is one of the easiest ways to tell if a moving company (and its representatives) are trying to push you into a sale. Ask yourself: Are they pressuring you to commit to their services? Or does your quote seem suspiciously low?

We know—inviting a stranger to walk through every room in your home sounds like the beginning of a customer service horror story. But our in-home estimate with PODS was nothing short of helpful, honest, and stress-free.

It was evident that PODS relocation assistant had our best interest—achieving a comfortable, affordable move—at heart.

We never felt like we were being sold anything during the process, which was a welcome experience. In fact, our relocation specialist even advocated for not using certain services because he didn’t believe they were worth the money for our one-bedroom apartment.

You can read more about our in-home estimate in our full PODS review, but overall, it was a very positive experience.

It has responsive customer service agents
If we didn’t make it clear enough in reason number one, we’ll make it clear here—we were very impressed with PODS customer service during each and every one of our interactions.

The in-home estimate was just the tip of the iceberg. Each time we reached out to PODS representatives to ask questions about our move, they responded quickly and thoroughly. It didn’t matter if we were giving them a phone call or sending them an email, each response was prompt, and they didn’t make us feel like we were burdening them with our requests.

If customer service is important to you, you likely won’t go wrong with PODS.

Ease — Best for customization

5 out of 5 overall
5/5

Verified Reviews

With industry experience dating back to 1933, Ease is a seasoned full-service mover that can get your things safely and smoothly from point A to point B.

Plus, with over 500 local movers, Ease boasts one of the nation’s largest fleets—so it can likely service your move whether you’re in Arizona or Arkansas.

Pros

Cons

Ease at a glance

Company information
MC # 01084544
U.S. DOT # 3379742

Why we recommend Ease

It allows you to customize your move

From full-service and fragile-only packing to appliance disconnection and reconnection to furniture disassembly and reassembly, Ease offers a slew of add-on moving services.

This means you choose services based on how much you can afford. If you have an unlimited budget, you can go entirely full service and have a Ease crew pack and load everything for you. If money is tighter, you can have movers pack only your most fragile items or pack all of it yourself and simply have the movers load and haul.

Ease makes it clear which services are included in the overall cost of your move and which are extra. Full-service packing, for example, is extra.

You can also pay for help you want once you’ve arrived at your new home (reattaching the legs on your dining room table or plugging in your smart TV, for example).

We think this freedom to tailor your move shows that Ease is flexible and considerate of its customers’ needs (and budgets).

It walks you through your move from start to finish

It’s easy for moving companies to forget that this may be your first rodeo—and even if it isn’t, every move comes with its own challenges.

Ease gets it.

Instead of confusing moving lingo that you’ve never heard before, Ease’s website has moving guides and blog posts written in plain language. This can help you feel confident in every step of the process—which is important with something as chaotic and overwhelming as moving.

Plus, Ease’s organized process and helpful checklists cover all your questions well before your move. This will come in handy when it’s 2:00 a.m. the night before your move and you’re staring at your ceiling fan thinking, “Wait, did I ask about packing my fragile stemware and wedding china?”

We also love that Ease provides instant ballpark estimates for your move, instead of saying, “Great! Check your inbox and maybe a quote will be there.” This makes comparison shopping easier because you’ll have your quote in-hand immediately.

Allied — Best for tight budgets

4 out of 5 overall
4/5

Verified Reviews

Unlike the other companies on this list, Allied is a moving and storage container company (one of our favorites, in fact). When you hire Allied, you pack your moving pod yourself, and Allied picks it up and delivers it to your new home for you. This makes moving with Allied slightly more DIY than moving with one of the full-service movers we’ve mentioned so far.

While moving with storage containers takes a little more work on your part (unless you pay for loading assistance), it can save you thousands of dollars on your interstate move, making it an excellent option if you’re moving on a tight budget.

Pros

Cons

Why we recommend Allied

It’s far more affordable than a full-service mover

Full-service movers aren’t cheap. While prices vary depending on distance, weight, and seasonality, an interstate move with a full-service mover typically costs between $2,000 and $12,000 (and we’ve even seen higher rates for exceptionally large moves).

Compare these prices to the rates we’ve gotten from Allied, and it’s clear what the budget option is.

Of course, these are ballpark estimates for unique moving scenarios, so they don’t necessarily reflect what you might pay moving with Allied. To get an exact price, you’ll need to request a quote.

Is Allied the cheapest moving container company?

We want to reiterate that moving prices are highly contextual, and they depend on a lot of factors. This makes it hard to broadly compare prices from different companies. That being said, Allied tends to cost more per container than other container companies like U-Pack and SMARTBOX.

However, when you break the prices down per cubic foot of storage space, Allied usually gives you the most space for your money.

Most moving container companies offer only one size option, and many of these sizes are smaller than Allied’s smallest containers. Allied’s wider selection is ideal for budget hunters since it means you’ll always get the most space for your money.

Plus, it’s almost always cheaper to ship a single large container than it is to ship multiple smaller containers that add up to roughly the same amount of storage space.

So, if you don’t have much to move, you could save money by getting a smaller container from a different company. But if you’re moving tons of furniture and household goods, renting one or two Allied containers instead of several from another company is probably best for your wallet.

[elementor-template id="83"]