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Ovo Energy, British Gas, Octopus Energy: which are the best and worst energy suppliers?
Citizens Advice has ranked 16 energy suppliers for customer service but which one has been crowned the best and which one is the worst?
Ecotricity has been named England’s best energy supplier for customer service.
Citizens Advice publishes quarterly data ranking the country’s biggest firms based on four categories – complaints received, contact waiting time, billing and metering and customer commitments.
Suppliers are given a score for each which are combined to calculate an overall rating out of five.
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The latest data covers the October to December 2025 period and 16 suppliers’ level of service in England. Only firms with more than 25,000 customer accounts are included in the list.
Ecotricity and Outfox Energy, with a score of 3.9 out of 5 stars, came joint top in Citizens Advice’s latest rankings.
Ecotricity scored 4 out of 5 stars on the fewest number of complaints received while Outfox scored 4 out of 5 stars on its billing and metering practices.
Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest energy firm, and Co-Op Energy were joint third, both receiving 3.8 stars out of 5.
The two firms received the same scores across all four categories, including 5 out of 5 stars for customer commitments.
At the other end of the rankings, Tru Energy scored 1.9 out of 5 stars overall, including 2 out of 5 star ratings for how it addresses complaints and customer service wait times.
Utilita Energy, British Gas and EDF Energy were the other three firms finishing in the bottom four, with respective overall scores of 2.2, 2.3 and 2.6 stars out of 5.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
How the 16 energy firms scored
Ecotricity
3.9
Outfox Energy
3.9
Octopus Energy
3.8
Co-Op Energy
3.8
E.ON Next
3.7
100Green
3.6
Good Energy
3.5
E (Gas and Electricity)
3.2
ScottishPower
3.1
Ovo Energy
2.8
So Energy
2.7
Utility Warehouse
2.7
EDF Energy
2.6
British Gas
2.3
Utilita
2.2
TruEnergy
1.9
Source: Citizens Advice. Refers to the period covering October to December 2025.
A spokesperson for British Gas highlighted its high score in the customer commitments category and a reduction in customer complaints.
They said: “We know there is more to do, and we remain focused on continuing to improve the service we provide to our customers.”
A spokesperson for EDF said its score had risen due to staff training and investments “in continuous improvements”, adding “there is more to be done” to improve and increase the 170,000 5-star reviews it has on online review platform TrustPilot.
A spokesperson for Utilita said the Citizens Advice rankings “penalises us unfairly due to its interpretation of complaints, significantly impacting our overall ranking”.
“This contradicts statistics from both the Energy Ombudsman and Ofgem, which consistently show us among the top performers since well before the 2022 energy crisis,” the spokesperson added.
MoneyWeek contacted Tru Energy for comment.
How does Citizens Advice decide how to rank the energy firms?
The ratings given by Citizens Advice are based on how well energy firms score across four categories – complaints received, contact waiting time, billing and metering and customer commitments.
For the complaints received category, ratings are based on customer grievances made to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service, Extra Help Unit and Energy Ombudsman.
The contact waiting time category is scored based on data provided by energy suppliers and assesses average call centre wait times for customer service, the number of emails answered within two working days and wait times for customers contacting firms via online messaging services like WhatsApp and webchat.
For the billing and metering category, data from suppliers is used to work out the number of customers who received an accurate bill in the last six months if they have a smart meter and last 12 months if they have a non-smart meter.
To get a score for the customer commitments category, Citizens Advice looks at whether an energy firm is part of the Energy Switch Guarantee and/or Vulnerability Commitment.
Under the Energy Switch Guarantee, suppliers have to complete 98% of customer switches within five working days. Firms signed up to the Vulnerability Commitment, launched by trade body Energy UK, have to support vulnerable customers beyond existing industry regulations.
How to complain to your energy firm
If you’re unhappy with the service you have received from your supplier, you have the right to complain.
Your firm should have a complaints process on its website. Your firm’s customer service team should also be able to talk you through their complaints process over the phone.
If you decide to switch providers, you just need to decide on the new supplier and then contact them over the phone or via their website. Your new supplier will contact your old one to tell them you’re switching.
Before moving, make sure you won’t incur any fees for leaving, for example an exit fee for terminating a fixed tariff contract early.
You’ll have a 14 day ‘cooling off’ period when you can cancel the switch without paying a fee. This kicks in the day after you agree to a contract with the new supplier.
Make sure you take an energy meter reading on the day of the switch so the new supplier doesn’t charge you for energy used before the switch.
Suppliers should complete a switch within five working days. If they don’t, they have to pay compensation of £40 within 10 working days of the date they agree a mistake was made.
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