Best and Worst Hearing Aid Brands

In total, we rated 20 hearing aid brands. Seventeen of those were prescription hearing aid brands—Audible, Beltone, Bernafon, Jabra/Jabra Enhance, Lucid, Miracle Ear, Oticon, Philips, Phonak, ReSound, Rexton, Siemens, Signia, Starkey, TruHearing, Unitron, and Widex. We also rated three OTC brands—Eargo, Jabra Enhance, and MDHearing.

“The vast majority of our survey participants bought prescription hearing aids,” says Adam Troy, who led our hearing aid brand and retailer survey. “But among those who went the OTC route, we were able to see that our ratings of OTC hearing aids—based on member feedback—was in the midrange category, like many of the prescription models.” It is important to keep in mind that consumers may have different levels of expectations for OTC aids, however.

Read on to learn more about how prescription and over-the-counter hearing aid brands compare. CR members can explore our complete hearing aid brand ratings. And make sure to check out our hearing aids buying guide for more information. We also rate hearing aid retailers, and we’ve evaluated over-the-counter hearing aids.