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For the fourth year, we’re pleased to present the winners of our annual Readers’ Choice Awards. In a survey we conducted on Kiplinger.com in January and February, more than 4,200 readers rated the financial products and services they use in 13 categories, from credit cards and banks to brokers, wealth managers and annuity providers. The results here offer valuable insight into the everyday experiences that Kiplinger readers have with their financial providers.
Respondents made their judgments on such criteria as their interactions with customer service, the likelihood they would recommend the product or service to others, and their overall satisfaction with it. They also had the option to leave comments about their providers, and we have shared some of them here (remarks may be lightly edited for length and clarity).
For each category, we’ve listed an overall winner that earned the highest total score as well as other providers that earned above-average ratings for the various criteria that readers assessed. Our thanks to all of you who participated in the survey.
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Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards: Tax Software
Tax-preparation software guides taxpayers through the complex process of preparing and filing an accurate income tax return. A good program should be easy to use and give users confidence that they’ve maximized all the tax benefits available to them.
We asked readers to rate their preferred tax-filing software based on ease of use, how likely they would be to recommend the service to others and overall satisfaction with the software.
OVERALL WINNER: FreeTaxUSA
Outstanding for:
- Ease of use
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
FreeTaxUSA is Kiplinger readers’ top choice for the fourth year in a row.
One reader says that it is “low-cost, accurate and user-friendly,” while another appreciates that they experienced no “bait and switch” on the pricing. Preparing a federal return really is free, and the prices for state returns and any other services are transparent and up front.
Readers also repeatedly praised the tax software for how simple it is to use and how easily they could pull up data from previous years when filing out their return.
TaxAct
Outstanding for:
- Ease of use
- Most recommended
- Overall satisfaction
Readers called TaxAct’s software “easy to navigate” and “efficient, thorough and accurate.” Those are important features to look for in any tax-prep software.
TaxAct offers a range of pricing and service add-ons, including the option to get unlimited help from an expert while you prepare your return.
H&R Block
Outstanding for:
- Ease of use
- Overall satisfaction
H&R Block excels in support options for tax filers, especially those with tricky or niche tax situations. “I stay with it because it is easy to use and handles every kind of tax situation I’ve had,” says one Kiplinger reader. “It finds tax savings that I would not have found on my own and has prevented errors I would have made,” reports another.
Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards Categories
How Readers Chose the Winners
Kiplinger readers were invited to take the Readers’ Choice Awards survey on Kiplinger.com between January 22 and February 19, 2026. The survey asked respondents to choose the financial product or service that they most frequently use in 13 categories: brokerage firms, wealth managers, IRA providers, cash-back credit cards, travel rewards credit cards, airline credit card rewards programs, national banks, internet banks, annuity providers, homeowners insurers, auto insurers, tax software and peer-to-peer payment services.
We asked readers to rate each provider they selected on a scale of one to 10 based on a few criteria. In many categories, readers rated the strength of customer service, how likely they would be to recommend the product or service to others, and how satisfied they are overall with the provider. In some categories, we included more nuanced criteria. With wealth management firms, we asked respondents to rate the trustworthiness of a firm’s advisers and the quality of its financial advice and retirement-planning services. For IRA providers, respondents assessed the mix of investment choices available to them. For peer-to-peer payment apps and tax software, respondents evaluated ease of use, and for auto and home insurance companies, readers judged the competitiveness of rates and strength of the claims experience.
We calculated an average (mean) score for each criterion with each provider. We also calculated an overall mean score for all providers for each criterion we asked readers to judge. We compared individual provider mean scores with the overall mean, and the three highest-scoring providers that had a score above the overall mean won an “outstanding” accolade; in cases of a tie, more than three providers are named, and if fewer than three qualifying providers achieved an above-average score, only those providers are named “outstanding.” In each category, providers are generally listed in descending order by the number of criteria for which they received the “outstanding” designation — so a product or company that is deemed “outstanding” in three areas, for example, is listed before a provider with one or two “outstanding” awards.
To choose an overall winner in each category, we added together the mean scores for each criterion rated for each product or service. The provider with the highest total score in each category took the prize for overall winner.
