We found 3,537 moving companies working in the Raleigh area and checked each one against federal carrier records. Of those, 28 had active authority, insurance on file and enough reviews to judge, and the 8 that scored highest are listed below. The top three are Dogwood Moving LLC (5.0 stars, 2,576 Google reviews), Next Stop Movers LLC (4.9, 715) and Wellknown Moving LLC (5.0, 170).
Ranked on federal and state carrier records — North Carolina certification, operating authority, insurance continuity, complaints per truck per year and whether a revoked carrier once operated from the same address. Every company here was checked against the NCUC register of certificated movers.
Covers the whole Raleigh–Cary, NC area, not only the city. About half the movers serving Raleigh are registered in the suburbs.
Every company below has an active USDOT number, liability insurance on file with the FMCSA and enough public reviews to judge. Each was also checked against the NCUC register. We list at most one company per parent van line, and no company can pay for a place.
Local moves are billed by the hour, so stairs, elevators and parking change the bill more than the miles do. Before you book, ask when the clock starts (at the depot or at your door), how travel time is billed and what happens if the job runs past the estimate.
A move across a state line falls under federal rules. The carrier needs active FMCSA authority for household goods, and you are owed a written estimate and the federal booklet "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move". Ask whether your things ride on the company's own truck or get combined with other loads on someone else's.
Storage in transit and warehouse storage are different products, with different liability. A mover with its own warehouse handles your things once. A mover that rents space hands them to a third party, and that is where damage claims get hard to settle.
Pianos, safes, fine art and lab equipment need a rigging plan and often a custom crate. Expect the company to see the item before it gives a price. A mover that quotes this work without seeing it is guessing.
The published list is short by design, so two or three filters can empty it. Clear one and try again.
| Metric | DOGWOOD MOVING LLC | NEXT STOP MOVERS LLC | WELLKNOWN MOVING LLC | SQUARE COW MOOVERS | ATHENS MOVING EXPERTS | CAPITAL MOVING & STORAGE LLC | MIRACLE MOVERS OF SELMA LLC | CRABTREE FAMILY MOVING LLC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 |
| Composite | 74.8 / 100 | 72.6 / 100 | 68.8 / 100 | 68.3 / 100 | 68.0 / 100 | 62.5 / 100 | 62.0 / 100 | 61.0 / 100 |
| Regulatory | 22.7 / 28 | 23.9 / 28 | 23.6 / 28 | 23.6 / 28 | 23.2 / 28 | 23.6 / 28 | 23.6 / 28 | 22.7 / 28 |
| Reviews | 24.4 / 27 | 22.0 / 27 | 18.1 / 27 | 17.6 / 27 | 22.5 / 27 | 24.1 / 27 | 15.2 / 27 | 16.6 / 27 |
| Operations | 13.1 / 19 | 10.3 / 19 | 5.9 / 19 | 7.0 / 19 | 10.3 / 19 | 8.7 / 19 | 7.4 / 19 | 12.9 / 19 |
| Transparency | 6.2 / 26 | 16.4 / 26 | 19.2 / 26 | 20.0 / 26 | 4.4 / 26 | 6.1 / 26 | 13.0 / 26 | 6.1 / 26 |
| Findability | 8.4 / 10 | 0.0 / 10 | 1.8 / 10 | 0.0 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 | 0.0 / 10 | 2.7 / 10 | 2.7 / 10 |
| Headline rating | ★ 5.0 (2576 on Google reviews) | ★ 4.9 (715 on Google reviews) | ★ 5.0 (170 on Google reviews) | ★ 5.0 (71 on Google reviews) | ★ 4.9 (1377 on Google reviews) | ★ 5.0 (994 on Google reviews) | ★ 4.6 (930 on Google reviews) | ★ 4.8 (360 on Google reviews) |
| Power units | 16 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| Drivers on file | 16 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| Years since registration | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 12 |
| USDOT | 3376522 · Inactive | 3619230 · Active | 4359790 · Active | 4469623 · Active | 3205320 · Inactive | 3623752 · Active | 4149189 · Active | 2507399 · Inactive |
| NCUC | T-4789 · Active | T-4837 · Active | Not checked | T-5036 · Active | T-4654 · Active | Not checked | Not checked | T-4476 · Active |
| Public liability | None on file | $750k | $750k | $1M | $750k | $750k | $1M | None on file |
| Cargo | None on file | None on file | None on file | None on file | None on file | None on file | None on file | None on file |
| Federal complaints | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file | No federal complaints on file |
| Revoked predecessor | None found | None found | None found | None found | None found | None found | None found | None found |
| Binding estimate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | Not stated |
| Survey method | Not stated | Video survey | In-home survey | In-home survey | Not stated | Phone only | In-home survey | Not stated |
| Price band | No price data | No price data | No price data | No price data | No price data | No price data | No price data | No price data |
A local move in Raleigh costs $200 to $700 for a studio or 1 bedroom and $2,100 to $2,800 for 4 or more bedrooms, according to the 5 guides that publish Raleigh prices. The guides disagree and several copy each other, so the table shows the full spread and which guide said what. A guide written by a company on this list is marked with its rank.
The number is how many of the guides say so. An item on both sides is one the guides disagree about — worth asking before you book.
These are wider than the local ones for a reason: a long-distance price follows the mileage more than the size of the home, so Raleigh to Virginia and Raleigh to California sit inside the same row. Nobody can quote you usefully without asking where you are going — get the answer in writing as a binding estimate.
Taken from real moves recorded on our partner companies' own websites — the software they quote and invoice in — rather than an estimate written for an article.
5 of the 8 companies here are recommended by name in Raleigh subreddit threads from the last five years. We read those threads and sorted each mention into recommended, spoken well of, or only named. A recommendation adds a little to the score, a plain mention adds nothing, and a complaint counts against the company.
2 of the 8 companies here came up in no thread at all. That is not evidence against them — plenty of good movers are simply never posted about, and a company can be excellent and invisible. No usernames are collected and no reviewer is identified. We count threads, not people, and a thread that names a company twice is one thread.
Ask for the mover's USDOT number and look it up on the FMCSA mover search before you pay any deposit. Then hold the quote up against the list below.
Moving household goods within North Carolina requires a certificate from the NC Utilities Commission, and the Commission publishes the whole list of carriers holding one. We read that register and check every company on this page against it, so the certificate number on a card is one you can look up — and a company we could not find on it is shown as such rather than left blank.
Crossing a state line requires an active USDOT number and FMCSA operating authority registered for household goods. Registration alone is not authority — plenty of active USDOT numbers are not allowed to move your furniture. We check the USDOT number and the insurance filings. We stopped scoring or showing the household-goods flag itself in September 2026, because FMCSA's own systems disagree about it and a flag we cannot check is not evidence in either direction.
Public liability and cargo insurance must be filed with the FMCSA and kept current. A filing that lapses and is reinstated leaves a record, and we count lapses in the last 24 months against the score.
The FMCSA runs a national consumer complaint database. We count complaints per truck per year rather than the raw total, because a 200-truck carrier will always have more complaints than a four-truck one.
We found 3,537 movers in the Raleigh area. 28 passed our eligibility checks and 8 made this list. Every number on this page comes from a federal or state record, a public review profile or a company's own website, and nothing a company pays for is an input.