Best UK Energy Suppliers
So which company is the best energy supplier in the UK at the moment? The Safe Energy Switch list is the most comprehensive and easy to understand energy supplier review.
Looking back at 2020 and going forward into 2021 we look at which are the best energy companies in the UK based on customer reviews, price and an analysis of their energy products. You can find the 2019 review list further down for comparison.
We've updated the way we rank energy suppliers and now use a system that gives a better overall view of each provider. The metrics used are Trustpilot rating out of 5, the percentage of overall negative customer complaints and the lowest quoted monthly price for an average UK household.
The UK's 10 best gas and electricity providers
Speaking to customers they often reel off a list of suppliers they will not go back to because of a bad experience even if they currently offer a great fixed energy deal. Suppliers don't set out to mess their customers about to the point that they leave but some companies just don't seem to have a great system in place to fix customer issues.
Unfortunately there is just no way to guarantee a problem free experience with an energy company but you can minimise any potential issues by switching to a provider that has the support in place to resolve issues rather than ignoring customers.
These ten energy companies have been picked because of their fair pricing and good customer service. They have all proven to be good reliable gas and electricity suppliers that can be trusted and relied upon and display an ethical attitude towards their customers and in the majority of cases towards the environment.
By choosing any of these energy providers to switch to you will get better customer support and fairer pricing. If I had to pick a provider right now the Green stands out as a great ethical supplier with consistently high levels of customer support that also currently happens to have very low tariff prices.
Octopus energy is a company you can't go wrong with as they have not only proven that they can offer an innovative service they have provided a level of customer support second to none. They don't have the cheapest of prices but offer good value so you are not going to get overcharged.
How we collected the data
All our quotes are obtained through energy comparison site Energy Helpline or going direct to the utility companies website. Quotes are based on the average household with a standard meter paying by monthly direct debit. Energy usage is quoted as 3,100 kWh for electricity and 12,000 kWh for gas.
Prices do change over time so it is important that you get a quote based on your actual usage and the region you live in.
We used Trustpilot reviews as they provide the most comprehensive coverage of UK gas and electricity suppliers. We combine this with our knowledge of the industry giving a good overview of where providers stand. Over the last few years we have reviewed many energy providers and seen some outstanding companies and some that are best avoided.
Best Energy Suppliers of 2021
To use the data in the table use the Rating, Bad rating and quote figures to compare suppliers. We've picked out the best suppliers further down the page and added additional review information as to why these particular suppliers are the best.
Rating - the total rating the company has listed on Trustpilot, this gives a good overall figure to reflect how customers feel about the provider.
Bad rating - a high percentage for this figure illustrates a potential problem with the supplier
Lowest quote - this gives an idea of how competitively priced the supplier is.
| Supplier | Rating out of 5 | Bad Rating % | Lowest quote £ |
| Affect Energy | 4.9 | 1 | 80.09 |
| M&S Energy | 4.9 | 1 | 85.74 |
| Green.energy | 4.8 | 2 | 71.88 |
| London Power | 4.8 | 1 | 82.00 |
| Octopus | 4.8 | 3 | 80.09 |
| Bulb | 4.7 | 4 | 81.12 |
| Zebra Power | 4.7 | 6 | 82.19 |
| So Energy | 4.7 | 2 | 82.79 |
| Avro Energy | 4.7 | 3 | 73.00 |
| Pure Planet | 4.6 | 5 | 73.42 |
| Goto Energy | 4.6 | 4 | 76.78 |
| Outfox the Market | 4.6 | 13 | 78.37 |
| Co-operative Energy | 4.6 | 15 | 80.09 |
| Igloo Energy | 4.5 | 6 | 75.77 |
| Gulf Gas and Power UK | 4.5 | 4 | 78.57 |
| ESB Energy | 4.5 | 7 | 84.21 |
| Green Energy UK | 4.5 | 5 | 115.21 |
| People’s Energy | 4.4 | 11 | 77.71 |
| Moneyplus Energy | 4.4 | 6 | 88.95 |
| Simplicity Energy Ltd | 4.3 | 13 | 75.19 |
| EDF | 4.3 | 18 | 76.24 |
| SSE | 4.3 | 16 | 78.82 |
| Sainsbury's Energy | 4.3 | 41 | 81.59 |
| Green Network Energy | 4.2 | 12 | 76.24 |
| OVO Energy | 4.2 | 7 | 77.11 |
| Utilita | 4.2 | 20 | 88.83 |
| Good Energy | 4.1 | 13 | 92.26 |
| Utility Warehouse | 4 | 5 | 82.56 |
| E.on | 3.9 | 27 | 89.00 |
| Shell Energy | 3.8 | 15 | 84.03 |
| Orbit Energy | 3.8 | 16 | 84.54 |
| Utility Point | 3.7 | 18 | 72.40 |
| Scottish Power | 3.7 | 23 | 82.33 |
| PFP Energy | 3.5 | 16 | 75.67 |
| British Gas | 3.5 | 24 | 91.78 |
| British Gas Evolve | 3.3 | 50 | 78.53 |
| Ecotricity | 3.3 | 35 | 97.56 |
| Together Energy | 2.5 | 56 | 84.66 |
| Nabuh Energy | 1.6 | 82 | 83.39 |
| nPower | 1.2 | 93 | 89.00 |
| NEO Energy | 0 | 0 | 72.94 |
| Twenty Energy | 0 | 0 | 92.55 |
UK Energy Companies
From 2019 to 2021 a number of energy companies have gone under and an even larger number have been taken over by the larger suppliers. Despite this the competitiveness of the market has remained although the later part of 2020 saw the difference in price across the market reduce from £601 in March 2019 to a peak of £717 in April 2020 to a low of £564 by December 2020. It shows the price difference reducing significantly to a more homogenous offering.
The lowest annual gas and electricity bill for the average household reduced from £883 in March 2019 to a summer low of £743 in May 2020 finally ending the year in December 2020 at £825. Numerous smaller budget energy providers have certainly been the driver for keeping prices low. Without these smaller players energy bills in the UK would be higher.
Best budget energy suppliers?
Let's start off with the best budget energy suppliers, these are the companies that stand out amongst British gas and electricity firms for offering an efficient service at the lowest price. However the difference in ratings between the best rated and the best low cost outfits is negligible taken in a wider market context.
London Power and Green are the highest rated with a score of 4.8/5 and a 1% and 2% bad feedback percentage score respectively. All companies will have negative feedback when they have thousands of customers because at some point somebody is going to be upset about something and it could be something minor such as waiting on hold on the phone or major such as a supply problem.
Green have the lowest price of our budget group followed by Avro Energy, Pure Planet and Goto Energy. All of the quotes were under £77 a month for the average UK household (London Power was £82.00 as it is in a different energy region). For comparison the average for all 42 suppliers was £82.33 a month with the highest was £115.21.
Green.energy is rated at 4.8/5 with a 2% bad feedback score. They had the lowest tariff quote at £71.88 making them the cheapest best rated budget supplier.
Green
Renewable energy company Green has the perfect combination of low price and high level of service making it our top pick out of the best budget energy suppliers in the UK. Not only are they currently the lowest priced good energy supplier but they are also the UK's current cheapest energy deal with their Aspen tariff costing just £71.88 a month.
Over the course of the second half of 2020 Green had at least one tariff in our top 10 cheapest energy deals showing that they can offer consistently cheaper pricing than their competitors. They've also come top of the Citizens Advice customer service rating scoring 4.65/5 which is above M & S Energy's 4.55/5 rating for the same July to September 2020 period.
It's worth considering Green as your next energy provider due to their current low prices compared to other top rated suppliers and how well the company is rated based on figures from both Citizens advice and Trustpilot.
Green is not on comparison websites so you would need to switch direct with them. We've written a summary of their Green tariffs.
London Power has a 4.8/5 rating with a low 1% bad feedback score. The lowest tariff quoted price was £82.00 per month based on the London energy region rather than the Eastern region where all other quotes were based on.
London Power
London Power has a great customer feedback score with relatively few complaints and a great low cost tariff. However they only provide gas and electricity for people living in London.
Like many other smaller but highly customer rated suppliers they are actually powered by Octopus as are M & S Energy and Affect Energy who are also top rated providers. You'd be surprised how far Octopus's tentacles reach.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan founded London Power which launched in December 2019 in his quest to help households in fuel poverty in London. Any profits from the venture are redirected back into projects to help improve the community.
Based on a quote for the London area the cheapest price they offered was £82 which is slightly more expensive than if you performed the same quote directly on Bulb for the equivalent tariff which was £81.48. However the profits from London Power go towards supporting the community.
Avro Energy has a 4.7/5 rating with a low 3% bad feedback score. They quoted at £73.00 per month at the time of our energy supplier reviews but it's taken me several days (OK nearly all week) to review these providers and Avro replaced their SuperPrime tariff with SuperPremium which costs £75.00 a month.
Avro Energy
Avro Energy is unusual for a new supplier in that they do not offer renewable electricity or offset their gas . They do offer great value and have done so with their gas and electric tariffs usually being within or just outside of the top 10 overall cheapest energy deals, at least for the year 2020.
Avro has a 4.7 out of 5 rating and a 3% bad feedback rating so in the same ballpark as Bulb and Octopus. As with all the suppliers in our energy review they are listed here because of their consistently low pricing and good customer feedback.
They are very contactable and have used their web based chat on several occasions and for they respond quickly and are able to answer technical questions about the service they provide. I mention this as I have talked to other energy providers in the past (I'm talking about you British Gas) and they have been less than helpful and even completely wrong about their own tariff they provide (still talking about you British Gas).
So Avro Energy is a great budget provider, not quite as good as Green who offer renewable electricity and are currently cost a bit less but still one of the providers to pick if you are going to switch energy.
Avro Energy has a 4.6/5 rating with a low 5% bad feedback score. The energy quote came to £73.42 per month at the time all the quotes were gathered. The Price has since changed to £78.89 a month which is still a competitive price.
Pure Planet
Pure Planet offers 100% renewable electricity and their gas is carbon offset which is a similar offering to the other providers in our energy supplier review.
Also like the other providers in our round up they focus on providing a lower stable price by not marking any markup on the unit rate they charge so you pay the wholesale rate. Instead they make their profit from the daily standing charge or as they call it their membership fee which for a household with gas and electricity is a flat rate of £16 a month.
They're customer support is online only so no direct telephone number so this is something to consider if you want to switch to them. Normal contact is either via email, support forum, social media and via their Wattbot chap app so don't expect an instant reply. If you want telephone support you might want to consider one of the other suppliers reviewed here.
Avro Energy has a 4.6/5 rating with a low 4% bad feedback score. The energy quote came to £76.78 per month at the time of the review. However prices have since changed to £78.96 a month which is inline with the increases seen by other similar suppliers.
Goto Energy
Goto Energy are a relatively new supplier having only started in 2019 but are rated good by their customers and offer gas and electricity at budget prices. Company director Nikki Goode has an extensive background in the energy industry including time spent working for some of the big UK energy suppliers.
They do state they offer energy for grown ups by which they mean they have a telephone number you can call to speak to someone in the UK. As with the other suppliers mentioned Goto offer sensible stable pricing and customer service at the core of their business.
As for their electricity it is 100% renewable although the gas is not carbon offset. They have said many time that 'our gas is responsibly sourced to minimise environmental impact' although I was unable to find any further information to clarify what that actually means I did find an old post from sust-it.net that reported Goto Energy carbon offset their gas but they no longer do this.
Best rated energy suppliers?
Some of the names in our list of energy companies covering the best out there for service may be more recognisable than our budget suppliers such as Bulb and Octopus who are now popular alternatives to the big 6 and both command a significant market share themselves now.
You may be surprised to see M & S Energy as a top rated supplier that is actually supplied by Octopus Energy so no surprise really that they rank so well. So Energy is also one of our 5 top rated suppliers that is becoming a brand name that is following in the footsteps of Octopus and Bulb when it comes to sensible and fair pricing and putting customers first.
Finally our fifth supplier in our group is Affect Energy from Brighton with their focus on simple energy and good customer service and it shows in their customer feedback. They are equally ranked as best energy service alongside M & S Energy, both having a 4.9/5 score and a very low 1% bad feedback rating.
M & S Energy had the joint highest score rating of 4.9/5 and 1% bad feedback with their cheapest tariff costing £85.74 a month.
M & S Energy
You may not think of gas and electricity when you hear the name Marks and Spencer but they are the joint highest rated energy company alongside Affect Energy. M & S do not supply the energy themselves but actually work with Octopus Energy Ltd who would supply you. Essentially you are joining Octopus but under the M & S brand.
Due to the relationship between Octopus and M & S the electricity will be 100% renewable and gas is carbon offset. At £85.74 a month they are one of the more expensive deals costing about £14 more a month than the best deal available and £5 more a month compared to Octopus so you may want to consider going with Octopus direct if you want to save some money.
You have to switch direct via their website if you want to switch to them.
Affect Energy had the joint highest score rating of 4.9/5 and 1% bad feedback with their cheapest tariff costing £80.09 a month so about £5 cheaper per month than Marks and Spencer Energy.
Affect Energy
Affect are our highest rated supplier alongside M & S except they are about £5 less expensive a month for the average household. They are a relatively new supplier and have been around since 2015 as Affect Energy Ltd.
Whilst there is not a great deal of information on their website I did find out that they are owned by Octopus Energy Ltd. I think you can see a pattern emerging here which would explain why the cost of Affect's tariff is exactly the same as Octopus.
Prior to the Octopus take over they were not supplying 100% renewable electricity and although it does not state on their current fuel mix on their website it is likely that they will offer new customers renewable energy and carbon offset gas.
You can only join Affect by going direct through their website as they are not available on energy switching sites.
24th December 2020 update - Had confirmation from Sophie Mander that you essentially get the same 100% renewable electricity and carbon offset gas from Affect Energy as you would do if you went direct with Octopus.
26th January 2021 update - I have contacted Affect Energy multiple times but am unable to get through to anyone to get a straight answer. If you call their number you now go striaght through to Octopus Energy and it seems the staff are unaware this is happening. You can no longer get a quote from Affect's website but instead have to go through Octopus since they took over. If you use this link you will get £50 bill credit if you decide to swith to Octopus Energy.
Octopus has a rating of 4.8/5 and a 3% bad feedback score with their cheapest tariff costing £80.09 a month. Along with Affect Energy they have the lowest priced energy of the best rated suppliers.
Octopus Energy
Octopus has been busy taking over many of the smaller suppliers in the UK and offers a consistently good level of customer service at a reasonable price. They offer an alternative to the big 6 but their nearest competitor is Bulb and many want to know which supplier is best Octopus or Bulb?
Octopus Energy has a slightly higher negative feedback score of 3% compared to mostly 1% for the other top suppliers although this can be explained by their much larger customer base. Octopus were our number 1 rated energy provider in 2019 and have been a consistently good supplier over the long term along with the likes of Bulb and So Energy.
If you are moving from one of the big 6 suppliers or just want a more reliable company with a proven track record you can't go far wrong with Octopus.
With regards to tariff rates they are not the cheapest and do not pretend to be but instead focus on fair pricing. If you are looking for both good service and a lower price then consider the budget suppliers Green and Avro Energy.
Bulb has a rating of 4.7/5 and a 4% bad feedback score which is the poorest rating out of the best but is still one of the best rated UK suppliers. Their monthly quote came to £81.12 which is about a £1 more than Octopus.
Bulb
Outside of the big 6 UK energy companies Bulb Energy is probably the most recognised name and most well known. Bulb is also the largest supplier outside of the big 6 which would explain the higher 4% bad feedback rating compared to the other top suppliers.
Bulb, like Octopus, does not aim to be the most competitive but instead offer a reliable and consistent level of customer service with fair pricing. They do state they aim to be cheaper than the likes of British Gas and the other major UK providers on a similar deal.
So Energy is rated at 4.7/5 with a 2% bad feedback score. They had the second highest tariff quote out of the top 5 at £82.79 but were all within a few pounds of each other.
So Energy
Although So Energy has the lowest rating at 4.7/5 compared to the 4.8 and 4.9 of the other four suppliers this by no means marks them out as a poor performer. In fact as well as outstanding customer service they, like many of the other top performing suppliers are committed to keeping their prices in check and have been comparable to the prices charged by Octopus and Bulb.
Like most of the better rated suppliers there electricity is 100% from renewables including tidal but they do not provide offsetting for their gas or offer biogas whereas both both and Octopus carbon offset their gas and Bulb uses 4% biogas in its mix.
So Energy provides simple clean energy and fantastic customer support which is why they are the 8th fastest growing private company in the UK.
•••
Best Energy Suppliers of 2019
The table below shows the results of our supplier energy review from 2019. The latest review above now supersedes this but I've kept it here for reference as it is useful to see how well suppliers performed in the past.
| Energy Supplier | Aggregated Score |
| Octopus Energy | 10.25 |
| So Energy | 9.98 |
| Igloo Energy | 9.83 |
| Green Energy UK | 9.67 |
| Bulb Energy | 9.35 |
| Zog | 9.13 |
| Engie | 8.87 |
| Gnergy | 8.77 |
| Avro | 8.62 |
| Bristol Energy | 8.42 |
| Tonik Energy | 8.12 |
| Utility Warehouse | 8.08 |
| EDF Energy | 8.07 |
| Shell Energy (formerly First Utility) | 8 |
| Robin Hood Energy | 7.78 |
| iSupply Energy | 7.63 |
| Green Network Energy | 7.57 |
| British Gas | 7.5 |
| Ebico | 7.47 |
| Ecotricity | 7.12 |
| OVO Energy | 7.07 |
| Pure Planet | 6.87 |
| First Utility | 6.8 |
| Good Energy | 6.6 |
| Flow Energy | 6.57 |
| Utility Point | 6.53 |
| npower | 5.65 |
| SSE | 5.4 |
| E (Gas and Electricity) | 5.32 |
| Co-operative Energy | 5.28 |
| PFP Energy | 4.98 |
| Utilita | 4.7 |
| Scottish Power | 4.7 |
| Eversmart | 4.67 |
| Together Energy | 4.62 |
| Green Star Energy | 4.43 |
| E.ON Energy | 4.4 |
| TOTO Energy | 4.38 |
| Solarplicity | 4.17 |
| Fairerpower | 3.97 |
| Outfox the Market | 3.25 |
| GB Energy Supply | 1.87 |