Madison Magazine is hosting the 45th annual Best of Madison readers’ poll (find the timeline for the nomination and voting periods and a list of the 2026 categories below). For decades, Best of Madison has helped determine what our readers think are the best businesses, people, places and experiences in the Madison area. Last year, 296,332 final votes from 35,307 people decided the winners on a new-and-improved voting platform. We’ll again host our online ballot on a separate URL in an effort to retain a good website user experience.
We’re excited to continue this tradition for the 45th year!
We have 157 categories this year in six sections — some categories are new, others have been discontinued. Every year we take a close look at categories in an effort to keep the list at a reasonable length. The decision to discontinue categories is made after much consideration. We base decisions off of voting popularity and cultural relevancy. Some new categories have been added, and you’ll notice some categories have been renamed. New and renamed categories have been noted below…