Octopus Energy vs EDF Energy (2024 Comparison)

Last Updated: 10th October 2024

In this guide, we look at Octopus vs EDF Energy and compare these two suppliers head to head to determine which one comes out on top in the categories that matter most. This includes areas like price, types of tariffs, customer service and complaints records.

Who are EDF Energy?

EDF Energy has been supplying energy to the UK market since 2002. They are owned by French company Électricité de France, abbreviated to EDF for the UK market. EDF’s offices are based in London, and they supply over 5.7 million homes.

EDF are not just about energy either. They supply various smart home products, including electric vehicles, charging points, and boiler insurance.

Who are Octopus Energy?

Octopus Energy is part of the wider Octopus Group, established in 2000. They deal in the energy market and the investment management sector. Octopus Energy started supplying the UK energy market in 2015. Since entering the market, they have gained an impressive 6.5 million customers.

Octopus focus on supplying green energy, and they generate their own green electricity and gas. 100% of the energy they supply into the UK comes from renewable resources. This is produced using a combination of anaerobic digestion, wind, solar, and sea power.

Octopus has achieved several prestigious awards within the energy market for its competitive tariffs and excellent customer service record. Including the Uswitch supplier of the year and the Which? Energy supplier of the year.

Octopus vs EDF: What’s the difference in price?

We ran a price check on both suppliers using the following criteria to see how they measure up and to see if Octopus is cheaper than EDF or vice versa:

• Dual Fuel supply
• Standard Meter
• Medium usage (3-bedroom house with four occupants)
• 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas
• Postcode in the East Midlands

Let us look at how they compared and see if Octopus is cheaper than EDF or vice versa:

EDF Energy

Octopus

We used the same parameters to obtain a quotation from Octopus Energy. We were offered a choice of three tariffs:

What’s the difference in tariff options?

EDF

EDF Energy offered us two tariffs at the time of the quote:

Octopus

Octopus Energy is offering three tariffs at this time:

Who offers the greenest energy?

As we become more environmentally conscious and aware of the benefits of switching to renewable energy sources, we want to know if our energy supplier is taking steps to make energy more sustainable and what they are doing to move away from fossil fuels.

Here we look at where both of these suppliers stand when it comes to green energy:

EDF

EDF is one of the largest investors in renewable energy. They are Britain’s biggest generator of zero-carbon electricity and meet around one-fifth of the countries demand for renewable electricity. Unfortunately, at this time, EDF does not have a green gas offering for comparison.

Octopus

Octopus Energy put a large number of resources into generating green energy. 100% of the electricity they generate is from renewable sources. This is standard on both tariffs currently on offer. If you choose Octopus’s Supergreen tariff, your carbon use is also fully offset.

An impressive 40% of the solar power generated across the UK comes from Octopus investments. As a company, Octopus plays a significant role in implementing and developing new renewable energy solutions to replace fossil fuels.

Octopus or EDF: Who has better customer reviews?

We consulted Trustpilot to see how EDF and Octopus’s customers rate their customer service. Both companies have 10,000s of genuine customer reviews.

Here is what we found:

• EDF scored 4.6 out of 5 based on over 100,000 reviews
• Octopus scored 4.8 out of 5 based on over 400,000 reviews

Both suppliers ask their customers to review their good and bad service. Both suppliers appear to take the time to respond promptly to negative reviews.

From reading some of the reviews, it seems in both cases; their customers are generally pretty happy. However, we have noted that considering their size, EDF energy has a considerably lower number of reviews than Octopus. We are not sure of the reason for this.

Octopus Energy customers frequently praise the quick and efficient service they have received. EDF customers praise the chat and text functions available to them, while a few customers complained about long wait times to get through to customer services or the time taken to resolve problems.

EDF or Octopus: Who has the better website and app?

Both EDF and Octopus have easy-to-use and functional websites. Once you sign up with them, you can manage your energy account and tariff. It’s simple to find their contact information and corporate information. We had no trouble finding everything we needed quickly on either website.

Both EDF and Octopus Energy also offer an app that customers can download onto their smartphones.

In Octopus’s case, customers rank their app at 4.8 out of 5 on the Apple App Store. Reviews show customers are happy with the control they have over their account through the app, which lets them pay bills, give meter readings, and see up-to-date usage.

EDF’s app seems to fair almost just as well, with an app store score of 4.5 out of 5, showing that they have developed a functional and user-friendly app too.

Who has the better customer service?

CitizensAdvice offers a neutral and unbiased comparison of energy suppliers’ customer service. We checked the website to see how EDF and Octopus did in critical areas that matter to their customers.

This table gives a summary of how both suppliers compare with the latest data:

Octopus Energy answers the phone on average nearly 4 minutes faster than EDF. You are, however, more likely to receive an email reply from EDF within two days than from Octopus.

Both companies have regular opening hours; however, EDF’s customers can call outside of regular business hours, which could be a big plus for those who can’t call during the working day.

Octopus or EDF: Who has fewer complaints?

We looked at the complaint data each energy provider openly provides. To make sure we cover the same period for both, we will look at Q2 for 2024.

We have summarised the data in the table below:

Octopus vs EDF: What are the main differences between the two?

These two suppliers are pretty well known across the UK energy market. EDF is one of the six big energy suppliers with over five million customers. Octopus has been around for just five years but has made a name for itself by offering energy tariffs that are fair and green.

Both are significant investors in the production of green energy. Both have a relatively good record and are rated well by their customers regarding customer service.

Here is our breakdown of how each supplier did per category:

Is Octopus Energy better than EDF?

Octopus are the stand out winners of this comparison. If price, tariff choice, service and green credentials are important to you, Octopus Energy is a great choice.