Why Choose BeYogi Over Yoga Alliance Insurance

Why Have Liability Insurance In the First Place?

As a yoga teacher, it’s crucial to have liability insurance that works for you and your teaching style. We may think there’s no way someone would leave an amazing class and want to sue you, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. With any movement modality, and without full control over what everyone chooses to do, it’s important to protect yourself as a person and as a teacher. 

Think of all the times you’ve offered a modification for a pose, only to see someone fumble and struggle their way through it. What would have happened if they dropped out of a headstand and broke their neck? Or went for a backbend and sprained their ankle? While it feels better to not think of those situations at all, it’s important to be prepared for the worst with the best coverage available.

beYogi offers insurance to protect all yoga teachers from the unexpected. Backed by A+ rated underwriters, and with many years of experience exclusively in yoga insurance, we’re positive we offer the very best combination of coverage and affordability available. Let’s see why thousands of yoga teachers rate our program so highly.

What is Yoga Alliance?

With the comparison highlighted above, it’s pretty easy to see that our yoga insurance program offers a lot that Yoga Alliant Insurance does not. From the get-go we see that Yoga Alliance insurance is a perk of membership after you’ve achieved an RYT certification through a Yoga Alliance-affiliated program. With beYogi, we’re not focused on how many hours you have or what poses you know, we’re focused on providing yoga insurance that adequately protects you and your future in yoga.

Why does beYogi's yoga insurance outweigh Yoga Alliance?

Unlike Yoga Alliance, beYogi Insurance Plus offers yoga instructors all-inclusive liability insurance as low as $179 a year as opposed to the full-time policy full of additional fees that Yoga Alliance offers. We also offer a $25 student policy for students currently enrolled in yoga teacher training (YTT), keeping you covered even if the unfortunate happens. Yoga Alliance does not offer an affordable student rate, leaving student instructors at risk if something unforeseen happens. Every new yoga instructor knows that being protected as a trainee is essential to your success.

In addition, Yoga Alliance can restrict coverage based on how many hours you can teach in a week. If you go over the allotted hours, your insurance is voided—leaving you uncovered. However, beYogi’s professional policy covers you even if you do teach more than 8 hours a week, so don’t limit yourself or your potential. While you may be teaching at one studio for now, you never know what the future holds. Opportunities may arise to teach a workshop, hold private sessions at clients' homes, or work at retreats and festivals. beYogi insurance follows you no matter where you decide to take your passion.

Having stolen equipment coverage is something that every yoga instructor should consider, especially if you invest in yoga mats and blocks for your clients or business. If something you use for your business is stolen from you, beYogi will reimburse you for those lost or stolen items. When you're insured through beYogi Insurance Plus, you will have up to $1,000 in stolen equipment coverage, giving you the peace of mind you need.

Along with the stolen equipment coverage that beYogi Insurance Plus offers, you will also receive identity protection coverage and a free professional website. When you purchase a policy through Yoga Alliance, you don't receive either of those benefits, which puts your identity and brand at risk. By investing in a beYogi Insurance Plus policy, you are not only protecting your career, but also your practice.

Beyogi Vs. Yoga Alliance

With the comparison highlighted above, it’s pretty easy to see that our yoga insurance program offers a lot that Yoga Alliant Insurance does not. From the get-go we see that Yoga Alliance insurance is a perk of membership after you’ve achieved an RYT certification through a Yoga Alliance-affiliated program. With beYogi, we’re not focused on how many hours you have or what poses you know, we’re focused on providing yoga insurance that adequately protects you and your future in yoga.

To give you a good apples-to-apples comparison, we’ll take each category one-by-one through each program's offerings to see how they compare.

Application Process

In order to get Alliant Insurance through Yoga Alliance, you have to be an RYT member first. Yoga Alliance offers several tiers of RYT hours including 200-hour, 500-hour, and specialty level credentials. Whichever education provider you choose to complete your program with will have to hold current Yoga Alliance credentials as listed in their online directory. 

After you achieve this certification, you can then apply for Alliant yoga insurance. Note, you’ll have to pay a separate fee apart from your Yoga Alliance membership in order to activate your policy. With beYogi, the application process couldn’t be simpler. Just fill out a quick online application, check out, and that’s it—you’re done! In minutes, you’ll have full coverage and immediate access to all of your plan documents. 

Liability Coverage Comparison

Inside of a yoga insurance policy, you want to see stout limits for the types of risks today’s pros are facing. With Yoga Alliance insurance, the general and professional liability coverages can be purchased at different limits including a $1M/2M option and a $2M/4M option. These limits have different premiums associated with each. beYogi offers general, professional, as well as product liability coverage. General and professional liability coverage comes with limits of $2 million per occurrence and $3 million as an annual aggregate for each. Product liability is an important protection against a student having a bad reaction to a product you used. This coverage limit is set at a $2 million annual aggregate.

Additional Protections Offered

Both beYogi and Alliant yoga insurance provides other protections beyond liability coverage. Some of the most impactful of these include:

Rental Damage Coverage: beYogi - $100K, Yoga Alliance insurance - $100K (only fire and water-related).

Stolen Equipment Coverage: beYogi - $1,000 with a $250 deductible, Yoga Alliant insurance - $5,000 with a $500 deductible.

Identity Protection Plan: beYogi - $25,000, Yoga Alliance - no coverage offered.

Covering more for less is what beYogi does best. One of the most important added protections above is identity theft protection. These days, incidents of cyber theft are growing exponentially, which is why protection is critical. If your identity is ever compromised beYogi insurance provides you with up to $25,000 in identity restoration services. 

Occurrence Form vs. Claims Made

Easily the biggest differentiator between these two programs is that yoga Alliant insurance uses claims-made and beYogi uses occurrence-form policies. With claims-made policies, you have to file a claim while the policy is in effect in order for it to be considered. Sounds simple, but let’s look at timing. 

Say your policy expires December 31st and you have your last class of the year scheduled. A student is unfortunately injured in the class but doesn’t say anything until their next class with you two weeks into January. Even though this incident occurred when the policy was active, because it had since lapsed, you couldn’t go back and file a claim for any losses you experience. If there was a lawsuit against you, you’d be left paying for your defense completely out-of-pocket.

The occurrence form policies that beYogi uses (and that the yoga industry prefers) say that you can still file for a claim that happens during your policy term weeks or even months after the incident, even if your policy has expired. This important distinction can be the difference between millions of dollars worth of coverage and nothing at all. 

Price Comparison

Full-time rates for Yoga Alliance insurance start at $125 per year for a $1M/2M policy and $146 per year for $2M/$4M. Part-time yoga instructors can either pay $110 annually for a $1M/2M policy or $122 per year for a $2M/$4M policy. From there, Yoga Alliance adds application fees and annual dues for your RYT membership to bring the totals above $200 for each. Keep in mind, this total does not include the cost of obtaining your RYT credentials through a Yoga Alliance education provider.

Comparatively, beYogi’s rates are highly competitive and start at just $159 for part-time yoga teachers, and $179 for full-time yoga teachers. The best news is that’s it—you know exactly how much you’ll pay and never have to worry about a bunch of extra fees and hoops to jump through.

Student Policy

beYogi provides students in yoga teacher training (YTT) the opportunity to start their career in yoga on solid ground with a comprehensive insurance plan at a students-only price. For just $25, YTT’s can get professional-level coverage for an entire year. Yoga Alliance insurance does not currently provide insurance for yoga students.