Expert Reviews Home Energy Awards 2026: The results

With winter approaching, you may be concerned about your energy costs rising as you turn up the heating and spend more time at home. Fuel prices aren’t as high as during the peak of the energy crisis in 2022 and 2023, but they are going up again due to the continuing Middle East conflict.

This means now is a good time to switch energy suppliers, as you can fix your energy bills to avoid the further price hikes expected in January. Alternatively, you can take out a discounted deal to limit the impact on your finances.

To find out which are the best companies to switch to, we’ve surveyed almost 1,000 energy customers to find out how they rate their suppliers for value for money, customer service, the clarity of their bills, their website and more. We also asked how likely they are to recommend their supplier to others and whether they trust it to act in their best interests.

We reveal the results below with our nine awards that identify the best energy suppliers. Along with the prices of the deals they’re offering, these will help you choose a company that will give you a great service. You can also find out how others rated a supplier you’re already with.

Expert Reviews Home Energy Awards 2026

1. Octopus Energy

Our verdict

Octopus Energy’s meteoric rise has seen it go from launch just over 10 years ago to Great Britain’s largest energy provider today. It now supplies electricity and gas to more than a quarter of households.

This year, it won our Best Overall supplier award for the fifth time, along with four other awards – Most Recommended, Best Customer Service, Best Website and Best App. It came second in our other four categories.

To calculate a brand’s overall score we combined the results of customer ratings on value for money, how likely they are to renew with it and how likely they are to recommend their provider to others, with greater weight placed on the first two measures. 

Octopus came top for recommendation and renewal while it came a close second to Utility Warehouse for value for money.

As the winner of our Most Recommended award, Octopus had 35% of customers saying 10 when asked how likely they are to recommend it on a scale of 1-10. This compares with 30% for Utility Warehouse and just 13% for the least likely to be recommended – EDF Energy.

For customer service, Octopus was also way ahead of the competition. An average of 38% of customers said they were very satisfied with the four aspects of service we asked about – how easy it is to contact the provider, the speed of its response, staff helpfulness and how easy it is to resolve any problems. Utility Warehouse wasn’t in the running here as not enough customers had used its customer support services.

Read our full Octopus Energy review for more

2. Utility Warehouse

Our verdict

Utility Warehouse was launched in 2002. It has an unusual business model in that you get discounted energy if you bundle it with one or more of the other services it offers – broadband, mobile phone SIM plans and home insurance.

It won three of our awards this year – Best Value for Money, Best for Clear Billing, and Best for Customer Trust. It came second overall and second in our Most Recommended category.

Utility Warehouse received the highest score for value for money, with 30% of customers saying they were very satisfied with this, compared with 29% for Octopus Energy. Utility Warehouse customers are clearly happy with the value they feel they’re getting from bundling their energy with other services.

The brand narrowly beat Octopus Energy (before figures were rounded) to win our Clear Billing award. Here, 30% of customers strongly agreed that Utility Warehouse makes it simple to see exactly what they’re being charged for and why. Only 17% of EDF Energy customers said this.

In the customer trust category, Utility Warehouse was the clear winner, with 33% of customers saying they completely trust the provider to act in their best interests. This figure was just 17% for the least trusted brand – EDF Energy. 

Read our full Utility Warehouse review for more

3. Ovo Energy

Our verdict

Ovo Energy – one of Great Britain’s largest home energy suppliers with four million customers – was taken over by E.ON in early October. For now, nothing will change for Ovo Energy or E.ON Next customers and their existing tariffs will continue.

In our awards, Ovo Energy came second to Octopus Energy in our Best Customer Service category. It was a way behind the top supplier, though, with an average of 30% of Ovo customers very satisfied with the four aspects of service we asked about versus 38% for Octopus.

Overall, it came third with a score of 31% but, again, received much lower ratings than the winner Octopus (40%) and the second-place provider Utility Warehouse (38%). It was third for value for money and customer trust, and the third most recommended too. 

Ovo was the lowest ranked for its app along with EDF Energy, where just 29% of customers said its app is very easy to use. This compares with an impressive 49% for Octopus Energy, putting it far above the second-best supplier Scottish Power with 33%. Utility Warehouse wasn’t included in this category as not enough of its customers had used its app.

Read our full Ovo Energy review for more

4. British Gas

Our verdict

British Gas used to be Great Britain’s largest energy supplier before Octopus Energy overtook it in 2023. It’s no longer the second largest either since E.ON’s takeover of Ovo Energy in October. 

It came second in our Best Website category – another area where Octopus came top. Just over a third (34%) of British Gas customers said its website is very easy to use. Ovo Energy wasn’t far behind here with 33% while Octopus was way ahead with 41%. Utility Warehouse was excluded from this category as not enough customers had used its website. 

British Gas came fourth overall, coming just behind Ovo with a score of 29%. The bottom two suppliers here scored much lower – E.ON Next received 24% and EDF Energy just 21%. In contrast, the winner Octopus Energy’s score was 40%. 

As part of our assessment to identify the best supplier overall, British Gas customers were the joint-third most likely to renew with the brand along with Ovo Energy – 41% said they were very likely to do so. 

In other categories, British Gas came third for its app and the clarity of its billing, fourth for customer service and fifth for customer trust.

Read our full British Gas review for more

5. Scottish Power

Our verdict

Scottish Power, based in Glasgow, is a generator of green electricity from wind. It currently operates 38 onshore windfarms across the UK.

This year, it won our Best Provider for Smart Meters award. In our survey, 35% of Scottish Power customers said they were very satisfied with the performance and reliability of the smart meter equipment or in-home display provided by it. The in-home display (IHD) is the digital display unit that wirelessly connects to your smart meters to show you information about your energy use in real time. 

It beat Octopus Energy to the top spot, which scored 31%, closely followed by Ovo Energy (30%) and British Gas (29%). This was another category where Utility Warehouse was excluded because not enough customers had used its smart meter equipment.

Scottish Power also came second in our Best App category. It was just slightly ahead of British Gas (before figures were rounded), with 33% of customers saying its app is very easy to use. This is far behind Octopus’s score of 49% though. 

Overall, Scottish Power came fifth in our awards, coming in fifth place for value for money and fourth for how likely customers are to recommend it.

Read our full Scottish Power review for more

Methodology

In August 2026, we carried out a survey of 933 homeowners in Great Britain who pay an energy bill each month to find out how satisfied they are with aspects of the service they receive from their energy suppliers. 

We captured data on nine suppliers – British Gas, Co-Op Energy, EDF Energy, E.ON Next, Octopus Energy, Ovo Energy, Scottish Power, So Energy and Utility Warehouse. 

Only suppliers where the number of respondents was 30 or more qualified to be considered for an award. This means we weren’t able to include Co-op Energy or So Energy. Utility Warehouse was also excluded from our Best Customer Service, Best Website, Best App and Best Provider for Smart Meters categories for this reason.

To determine our winners in each category, for each question we looked at the percentage of customers choosing the most positive response – those who said they were very satisfied or the equivalent. This methodology reflects true customer loyalty and peak satisfaction.

Total percentages mentioned in the article may differ slightly compared to the figures in the tables due to rounding.

Written By

Cathy Hudson

Cathy has been a journalist since 2001, starting her career writing about mortgages and property. Before going freelance in 2018 she worked at Which? for 12 years, first as a money writer then as an editor in the money, home, tech and cars teams. Her final role as technology editor saw her getting to grips with smart home technology and covering the latest tech from Las Vegas. Publications she has written for as a freelancer include Loveproperty.com, Lovemoney.com, The i Paper, the London Evening Standard, Which? and Which? Tech. Her guilty pleasure is watching property programmes.

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