Octopus Energy vs Scottish Power (2024 Comparison)

Lasted Updated: 15th March 2024

In this article we will compare energy suppliers, Octopus Energy vs Scottish Power, to see who offers the best all-round deal to their customers.

We look at the price, tariffs, how their customers rate them, their green credentials and more to see how they measure up where it matters:

Our top rated supplier Octopus Energy is currently offering £50 credit to any new customer that uses our referral link. Click below to see why we rate them so highly and get your £50.

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Who is Scottish Power?

Based in Scotland but owned by Spanish utility company Iberdrola, Scottish Power are one of the UK’s big six energy suppliers. They have over 5 million customers, and that must mean they are doing something right.

However, they do not cover the whole of the UK. Only customers in Central and Southern Scotland, Merseyside, North Wales, and certain parts of Cheshire and Shropshire can choose Scottish Power as their energy provider.

Who are Octopus Energy?

Although not one of the UK’s biggest suppliers, Octopus Energy now also has around 5 million customers, considering they have only been around since 2016, which is pretty impressive.

It invests heavily in renewable energy and focuses on supplying its customers with renewable energy at a fair price.

Octopus has also taken on customers of suppliers that have recently collapsed, including Bulb, Avro Energy, Engie, Flow Energy, GB Energy Supply, Gen4U and Iresa.

Octopus Energy vs Scottish Power: What’s the difference in price?

We compared these two suppliers with a head-to-head comparison to see who offers the best value for money across all tariffs. For each comparison, we used the following details:

  • 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 East Midlands

Let’s see if Octopus Energy is cheaper than Scottish Power or vice versa.

Here is how they measured up:

Scottish Power

Scottish Power offered us two tariffs on their website. It also states that others are available through other websites:

Tariff NameTariff DescriptionMonthly Cost
Standard VariableNo tariff end date and prices can go up or down£156.74
1-Year Flexi Price TariffThis is a 12-month fixed tariff with an exit fee of £100.£168.92
Source

Octopus

We consulted the Octopus Energy website to obtain a quote. We used the same options to get a price from Octopus Energy.

Here are the prices they offered:

Tariff NameTariff DescriptionMonthly Cost
Tracker TariffSmart tariff where prices change daily. No contract. No exit fees.*£92.99
Flexible OctopusFlexible tariff where prices go up and down with the market. No contract.£155.47
Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed September 202312-month, fixed rate contract. £75 exit fee per fuel.**£155.47
*Using an average rate over previous months for both fuels. Only available to existing customers. ** Available to existing customers only.

Conclusion: Is Octopus cheaper than Scottish Power? Yes, Octopus are slightly cheaper for both their variable and fixed tariffs. If you switch to their tracker tariff, then they are significantly cheaper. This makes them a clear winner here!

Octopus vs Scottish Power: What’s the difference in tariff options?

Here, we compare the tariffs which Octopus and Scottish Power offer their newest customers.

Firstly, let us look at Scottish Power’s options:

Scottish Power

Standard Variable Tariff

– No Exit Fees
– Your prices could go up or down over time
– No Tariff End Date
– Not 100% green electricity

1 Year Flexi Price Tariff

– Tariff ends in 12 months
– Support Cancer Research UK (more info here)
– 100% green electricity
– £100 exit fee per fuel

Octopus

At this time, Octopus is just offering three tariffs:

Flexible Octopus

– This is a variable rate tariff
– Offers 100% renewable electricity
– No exit fees

Loyal Octopus 12M Fixed September 2023

– This is a 12 month contract with prices fixed for that time.
– Exit fees of £75 per fuel
– Only available to existing customers

Tracker Tariff

– Unit rates change on a daily basis
– No exit fees
– Only available with a smart meter
– Not available on signing up – see below for more details
– Unit rate is capped at 100p/kWh for electricity and 30p/kWh for gas (including VAT)
Conclusion: When it comes to tariffs, there really isn’t much between these two companies.

However, in our opinion, Octopus came out just ahead. They offer 100% renewable electricity on both their tariffs, have lower exit fees on their fixed tariff and offer their innovative Tracker tariff as an additional option.

Octopus vs Scottish Power: Who offers the greenest energy?

Renewable energy and being sustainable are integral to the tariffs these two energy suppliers offer. We compared their green credentials to see where they really stand on green energy:

Scottish Power

Scottish Power only generates renewable electricity, which their own UK-based wind farms make. So, although they are rightly proud that they generate 100% of their green energy, they do not need to rely on the purchase of REGO certificates to meet their demand for green electricity.

In 2019 they announced they are the UK’s first supplier to generate 100% green energy.

Octopus

While Scottish Power is indeed incredibly Green, Octopus is also contributing a lot to renewable energy generation. They generate 40% of the UK’s demand for green electricity using their own wind farms.

On their Super green tariff, they also offset 100% of the carbon emissions generated through their partnership with RenewableWorld to back sustainability projects around the world.

Conclusion: These two suppliers are extremely green. However, we are giving the prize for the greenest supplier to Octopus. This is due to their carbon offsetting policy through sustainability projects.

Octopus Energy vs Scottish Power: Who has better customer reviews?

We checked out how both Octopus Energy and Scottish Power measure up on Trustpilot to see how their customers rate their supply and the interactions they have with each energy supplier.

We choose Trustpilot reviews as it’s the most popular review platform that gives a complete picture of how real customers view organisations.

Here is what we found:

  • Scottish Power scores 4.3 out of 5 based on over 70,000 reviews (source)
  • Octopus score 4.8 out of 5 based on over 250,000 reviews (source)

29% of Scottish Power customers gave them a bad rating on Trustpilot. From reading the reviews, when a customer has a problem with their supply, their switch or makes a complaint, it takes far too long to resolve.

In fact, when they receive a 5-star review it’s to compliment an advisor that has gone above and beyond and not Scottish Powers Service which seems to be poor according to their customers using Trustpilot.

Octopus come off much better when being reviewed by their customers. With 89% of their customers giving them a 5-star excellent rating. Most customers state they always receive friendly service, and their queries are quickly resolved.

Both companies respond to customer reviews, both good and bad.

Conclusion: When it comes to customer reviews, Octopus clearly have the edge over Scottish Power with 89% of their customers rating the service as excellent that’s pretty hard to beat.

Who has the better website and app?

We reviewed both supplier’s websites to see how they compared:

Scottish Power’s website allows customers to submit meter readings, view their bills and make payments. There is also a live chat feature.

There is a lot of information on the Scottish Powers website, however, finding what you want isn’t simple and a search feature would help here.

Scottish Power also has an app that their customers can use to manage their account. It has an App Store rating of 4.7 out of 5 which is quite impressive.

By comparison, Octopus Energy has an easy-to-navigate website. You can log in as a customer and submit meter readings, check your bill and update your information.

Octopus also have an app which can be downloaded and allows customers to manage their account. It has a similar score, although slightly higher, of 4.8 out of 5.

Conclusion: This one is a draw. They both have apps that work well for their customers and functional websites.

Octopus vs Scottish Power: Who has the better customer service?

On the Citizens Advice website, you can review how energy suppliers perform in key areas that impact the level of customer satisfaction and their customer’s experience.

We believe they offer an unbiased view based purely on facts directly obtained from Ofgem and the suppliers.

Octopus Scottish Power
Average call centre wait time03:4401:59
Emails responded to with 2 days56.8%97.7%
% customers with an accurate bill97.8%98.8%
Switches completed < 15 days98.1%100%
Opening hours9 am – 5 pm (4 pm Friday)Mon to Sat 9 am – 5 pm.
Contact via PhoneYesYes
Contact via EmailYesYes
Contact via WebchatNoYes
Source: Citizens Advice
Conclusion: Both suppliers appear to perform well when it comes to the critical areas of customer service.

However, Scottish Power clearly is performing better based on the stats above. Scottish Power wins when it comes to customer service.

Who has fewer complaints?

We look at the complaint data for both companies. Both companies publish complaints data on their own websites for the latest quarter. We have summarised the data in the below table. This is for Q4 2022:

Octopus EnergyScottish Power
Complaints per 100,000 customers1,1421,376
Resolved next working day64%62%
Resolved in 8 weeks84%88%
Sources: Octopus Energy Q4 2023. Scottish Power Q4 2023
Conclusion: Octopus Energy is the winner here. With fewer complaints and better stats for resolving them, they clearly have their complaints process under control.

Octopus Energy vs Scottish Power: What are the main differences between the two?

We’ve compared both suppliers in detail across various key areas. Here’s a summary of how they each performed:

AreaSummaryWinner
Tariff OptionsWhen it came to tariff choices, Octopus took the lead here.Octopus
PriceWhen it comes to price, Octopus wins this round by being cheaper for everything on offer.Octopus
Greenest EnergyOctopus took the prize for its green energy efforts.Octopus
Customer ReviewsOctopus outshone Scottish Power when it came to customer reviews.Octopus
Website/AppThis round was a draw, with both having similarly rated offerings.Draw
Customer ServiceWhen it came to customer service, Scottish Power came out just ahead.Scottish Power
ComplaintsIn the case of complaints, Octopus were the clear winner with fewer complaints, and they are better at resolving them.Octopus

Is Octopus Energy better than Scottish Power?

When comparing these two head-to-head, Octopus is the clear winner. They offer great value for money, greener energy, and they keep their customers happy.

And the winner is… Octopus Energy!

Our top rated supplier Octopus Energy is currently offering £50 credit to any new customer that uses our referral link. Click below to see why we rate them so highly and get your £50.

Read our review

Rob
Rob

Hi, I'm Rob and I run Energy-Review.co.uk. I initially started this project 5 years ago when I was looking to switch energy suppliers and found there wasn't a website that provided simple, data backed reviews on all the suppliers available. Since then, I spent have a lot of time (too much some may say!) looking at all publicly available data about each supplier and writing reviews using this information. These reviews are updated as regularly as possible and any data is backed up by a source where necessary. I have also started writing guides on various energy related topics which hopefully you will find useful. If you find any issues, please use our contact form to let us know.

1 Comment
  1. After reading ALL the info on here,am going to give OCTOPUS atry for our power etc,Tried to get some help,info on out AC with S.P. and have given up! They hassle us when they want something,but try getting help from them!! Waste of time !!

  2. We were switched to OctopusEnergy from AVRO when AVRO went bust.
    We are delighted with Octopus!

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