Hearing aids come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and power levels.
Hearing aids come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and power levels.

Hearing aids are not a one-size-fits-all product. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and power levels. Some are more advanced than others too, providing superior performance in background noise, better sound quality for music, longer battery life, or more robust connectivity.

And every individual is unique too. Your hearing needs, budget, and lifestyle will all play a role in what device might be best for you.

HearingTracker's Hearing Aid Explorer makes it easy to find hearing aids that match your hearing needs and personal preferences. Based on years of experience, and data from testing dozens of hearing aids in the lab, our team has designed the Hearing Aid Explorer to quickly help you narrow down the options.

Hearing Aid ExplorerBeta
What type of hearing aid do you prefer?
1
2
3

How the Hearing Aid Explorer Works

HearingTracker hosts the largest and most comprehensive database of hearing aids anywhere on the planet. Our founder, Abram Bailey, a doctor of audiology, has tirelessly catalogued the features and tech specs of over 1,500 hearing aids, which has helped millions of people worldwide compare hearing aids in an apples-to-apples manner (example: Oticon vs Phonak).

In 2025, we decided to make our hearing aid database even more accessible to everyday people who aren't quite ready to get into the weeds of technical specifications. We realized that many of our users simply weren't sure where to start. With so many models, and so many ways to purchase, most people suffer a sort of analysis paralysis when trying to sort out their hearing.

The Hearing Aid Explorer will ask you a series of simple questions to determine your personal preferences when it comes to buying a hearing aid. The tool then communicates with our database of hearing aids and purchase options to find you the most highly-rated hearing aids within your budget that match your personal preferences. When you click to purchase a hearing aid through the tool, HearingTracker may receive compensation. See Expert Vetting: Our Hearing Aid Review Process for details.

How We Pick the Best Hearing Aids

HearingTracker's team curates lists of the best hearing aids in several categories, such as best for tinnitus, best in background noise, or the best OTC hearing aids. These lists combine HearingTracker's hands-on test results with sound performance data from the HearAdvisor lab.

For our 'best' lists, we select top-performing hearing aids from our overall rankings that also excel in the specific category—such as invisibility. While category suitability matters, overall performance takes priority. For example, a hearing aid with great battery life won’t make our 'Best Rechargeable' list if its overall score is too low.

We call our overall score the HearingTracker Score, and you'll see it all over the website, like in the top-left area of the product card below. The HearingTracker Score is a weighted average of ten rating dimensions, including build quality, comfort, sound performance, professional support, and more. The expert reviewer's testing notes can be found for each rating dimension in product cards like this:

Phonak Audéo Infinio Sphere L90
Score
0.0

Phonak Audéo Infinio

Loading...

Phonak’s Infinio Sphere, launched in August 2024, introduces the AI-driven DEEPSONIC chip, designed to enhance speech clarity in noisy environments. My hands-on testing left me impressed with the Sphere's performance, especially in background noise.

  • Listen to this device

View Prices
Ideal for
  • Music Lovers
  • Noisy Environments
  • Tinnitus Relief
Product Features
  • Hands-free calling
    No
  • Rechargeable
    No
  • iPhone Streaming
    No
  • Android Streaming
    No
  • Telecoil
    No
  • IP Rating
    N/A
Expert Review

You can think of our Hearing Aid Explorer like a curated best hearing aids list, just for you. The tool will review your preferences and selections and come back with its best guess as to the best hearing aids for you.

Should you still consult 'best' lists after taking the quiz?

Yes. While the explorer does feature hearing aids that excel on our 'best' lists, it won't provide you with an educational experience on the category that matters most to you. To become a truly educated consumer of hearing aids, we recommend starting with our introduction to hearing aids, and then branching out to the more niche 'best' hearing aid lists if you are focused on one feature or problem. Or, for those with less time on their hands, simply take the quiz and explore the products recommended.

Should you make purchasing decisions based on the results of the quiz alone?

While the Hearing Aid Explorer provides a very good set of products for your consideration, we highly recommend not purchasing any prescription hearing aid model based solely on the results of the quiz. If you're shopping for an OTC product, and have confirmed that you are a candidate for OTC, you can definitely use our quiz to jump straight to purchase. Always before consulting a hearing professional, like an audiologist before purchasing a prescription product. Your case history, comprehensive diagnostic profile, and full hearing goals and technology needs will provide the full picture that is needed to recommend prescription products.

How We Use the Data

Our quiz does not collect any information that might identify you. We do not ask for your name, phone number, or location, etc. However, we do save the responses from every quiz response anonymously to understand how people are interacting with our quiz and what priorities our audience has, collectively.

Share this post

  • Tina Sieber, PhD

    Health Writer

    Tina Sieber is a technology journalist with over 10 years of experience and a PhD in Biochemistry. Following an episode of sudden one-sided hearing loss, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in 2018. She has since started writing about hearing loss and reviewing hearing aids for major tech publications.