Our mission at NCOA is to improve the lives of millions of older adults, especially those who are struggling. We want to make it easier to find exceptional, reliable, and affordable hearing aids to help you age well and stay connected to the world around you.

We started our hearing aid testing process by reviewing all the relevant research around hearing loss. We rely on our regular consultations with audiologists, hearing instrument specialists, and our many in-house experts to ensure we’re interpreting the research correctly. We also interview these experts to gain firsthand information on how we can better serve hearing aid users, and which brands are heads and shoulders above the rest.

We combed through thousands of verified customer reviews on trusted, impartial sites like Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot to help us understand customers’ experiences. Then, we launched a survey to hear directly from older adults—learning what they love about their hearing aids, what they hate, and how hearing aids changed their lives.

We believe in lowering barriers to hearing aid access. So we focused on brands offering devices that are:

• Affordable
• Widely available
• Treat different levels of hearing loss
• Offer a variety of features

How we rank and review hearing aids

To know how to test hearing aids, first we have to understand what’s most important to hearing aid users. So we went to the source—our surveys with older adult hearing aid users.

Based on our survey findings, we created a series of 21 tests. Each test results in a score, which is weighted according to the following factors:

• Customer service (15% of score): Especially with OTC hearing aids, good customer service is important. We mystery-shopped the customer service experience (calling a brand and pretending to be an average customer) of every brand we recommend. We gave extra points to brands offering support from audiologists, multiple ways to contact customer service, and providing support every day of the week.
• Brand reliability (5% of score): We’re advocates for older adults, including calling out disreputable hearing aid companies selling a shoddy product to make a quick buck. To find bad actors, we read reviews on third-party websites, looked into the founders of the brands and where they advertise, and examined each brand’s legal history to ensure every company we recommend is trustworthy and reliable.
• Sound quality (20% of score): We set up hearing aids, put them in our ears, and assess the sound quality just like the average user would. We test things like how easy it is to adjust the sound, whether settings update automatically based on the sound environment, the quality of audio while streaming Bluetooth, and more.
• Features (20% of score): Based on survey findings and expert interviews, we learned what features are most important to users. We test things like the brand’s mobile app, Bluetooth streaming, charging time, and more. We gave extra points to brands offering such features as Bluetooth and hands-free calling, directional microphones, digital noise reduction, and advanced speech processing.
• User experience (20% of score): We want to understand how easy it is to use each hearing aid daily. So we tested things like setting up the hearing aid fresh out of the box, downloading and using the mobile app, cleaning the hearing aids, and fit and comfort.
• Affordability (20% of score): As part of our mission to get products into the hands of older adults who need them, we want to recommend hearing aids that are not only high quality but affordable. We compare price and feature data to decide whether a hearing aid’s price justifies its value. We record things like cost ranges, warranty length, and free trial period.