OVO Energy vs So Energy: Which Is Better?

OVO Energy vs So Energy

Winner: So Energy — it’s cheaper on tracker and fixed tariffs, and its So EV tariff currently beats OVO’s EV charging rate by a wide margin. OVO Energy still leads on customer service and app maturity.

So Energy suits price-conscious households, especially EV owners, while OVO Energy remains the safer bet for proven customer service.

About OVO Energy
Founded in 2009, OVO Energy became one of the UK’s largest suppliers after acquiring SSE’s retail business in 2020. It’s currently in the process of selling its own retail arm to E.ON, a deal awaiting regulatory approval — meaning OVO’s ownership could look very different within the next year.

About So Energy
Founded in 2015 and backed by Ireland’s state electricity board since 2021, So Energy built its reputation on simple, renewable-first tariffs. It’s the only one of the two currently offering customers a vote on which UK renewable generators it buys electricity from — a rare level of transparency in the sector.

OVO Energy vs So Energy: At a Glance

So Energy’s cheapest tariff is a 24-month tracker with a £190 exit fee, not a true standard variable — worth noting before comparing directly with OVO’s zero-exit-fee variable tariff.

If you only wanted to know which supplier is better, you already have the answer above. But if you want to understand why one is better and whether that applies to you, the comparison below breaks down the important differences in simple terms.

Tariffs and Pricing

So Energy is cheaper on both its lowest-priced tariff and its fixed deal — but its cheapest option is a tracker tariff, not a true standard variable like OVO’s.

OVO Energy

• Cheapest: Simpler Energy — £1,805/year, standard variable, no fixed term, no exit fee — best for maximum flexibility
• Fixed: 1 Year Fixed + Boiler Cover — £1,923/year, 12-month term, £100 exit fee — best for price certainty

So Energy

• Cheapest: So Green Tracker 24m — £1,687/year, tracker tariff (follows wholesale rates), 24-month term, £190 exit fee — best for customers comfortable with tracked rates
• Fixed: So Heron 18m — £1,829/year, 18-month term, £190 exit fee — best for price certainty

Feature verdict:
So Energy’s headline price is £118/year lower, but it’s not a like-for-like comparison — its cheapest deal is a 24-month tracker with a £190 exit fee, while OVO’s cheapest is a true standard variable with zero exit fee and no minimum term. If you want the lowest price and don’t mind being locked in, So Energy wins. If you want to leave anytime without penalty, OVO Energy’s variable tariff is the safer, more flexible option — even at a higher headline price. Worth noting: Ofgem’s price cap rises 4% to £1,723/year from October 2026 (up from £1,663), so variable rates on both suppliers are likely to increase this autumn.

Pricing based on East Midlands, average 3-bed detached home, monthly direct debit, dual fuel.

Tariff Options

OVO Energy offers six mainstream tariffs, while So Energy offers eight — giving it the wider range, including three fixed-term lengths and two solar export options.

OVO Energy

• Simpler Energy — standard variable, no exit fee — best for switching freedom
• 1 Year Fixed — 12-month fixed — best for price certainty
• 1 Year Fixed + Boiler Cover — 12-month fixed with boiler cover — best for bundling energy and home maintenance
• 1 Year Fixed + Greener Electricity — 12-month fixed with a green add-on — best for eco-conscious fixed-rate customers
• Charge Anytime — EV charging add-on, now a monthly subscription (from £27.50/month) — best for EV owners, though no longer the flat-rate deal it once was
• Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) — solar export tariff — best for homes with solar panels

So Energy

• So Flex — standard variable, no exit fee — best for switching freedom
• So Green Tracker — tracker, resets with the price cap — best for tracking market rates
• So Green Tracker 24m — 24-month tracker — best for longer-term tracked pricing
• So Heron 12m / 18m / 24m — fixed terms across three lengths — best for locking in price certainty at your preferred length
• So EV — EV tariff at a flat 6.5p/kWh off-peak (12am–5am) — best for EV owners wanting simple, low-cost overnight charging
• So Export Flex — solar export tariff — best for homes with solar panels
• So Bright — higher-paying export tariff for solar-and-battery packages bought through So Energy — best for new solar installs

Feature verdict:
So Energy has the wider range — eight tariffs against OVO’s six, plus two solar export options where OVO has one. The clearest gap is EV charging: So EV’s flat 6.5p/kWh rate is now roughly half the effective cost of OVO’s Charge Anytime, which moved to a monthly subscription model in late 2025 and works out to around 14p/kWh for typical use.

Customer Reviews

OVO Energy leads on Trustpilot with a much larger review base, but the two suppliers are almost tied in the independent Which? survey.

OVO Energy

• Trustpilot: 4.7/5 from 298,928 reviews (updated 28 August 2026) — 77% five-star, 9% one-star
• Which? score: 61%
• Citizens Advice: 3.3/5, ranked 8th
• Common feedback: polite, prompt staff; some complaints about long wait times and being transferred between departments

So Energy

• Trustpilot: 4.5/5 from 30,750 reviews (updated 29 August 2026) — 73% five-star
• Which? score: 60% — narrowly behind OVO, but ahead on customer service and value for money (3/5 vs OVO’s 2/5)
• Citizens Advice: 2.86/5, ranked 12th
• Common feedback: professional staff and competitive pricing; some complaints about inconsistent communication and billing charges

Feature verdict:
OVO Energy and So Energy are effectively tied on Which? (61% vs 60%) — the 1-point gap isn’t meaningful on its own. So Energy actually scores higher on customer service and value for money, while OVO leads on smart meter support (5/10 vs 2/10). On Citizens Advice, OVO’s 3.3/5 clearly beats So Energy’s 2.86/5, though it’s worth noting Citizens Advice changed its scoring methodology on 24 March 2026, so this quarter’s figures aren’t directly comparable to older ratings. On Trustpilot, OVO’s edge is mostly about scale — its 4.7 rating comes from nearly ten times more reviews, making it the more statistically reliable score of the two.

App Ratings & Features

OVO Energy has the far larger, more established app user base — So Energy’s high ratings come from a sample too small to compare directly.

OVO Energy

• App Store (iOS): 4.6/5 from 18,000 reviews
• Google Play (Android): 3.0/5 from 10,621 reviews — last updated 6 August 2026
• Feedback: praised for detailed usage tracking and easy bill payment (Apple/Google Pay support); recurring complaints about login issues and payment/refund handling

So Energy

• App Store (iOS): 4.7/5 from just 197 reviews
• Google Play (Android): 4.6/5 from just 127 reviews
• Feedback: simple to navigate for checking usage; some bugs reported when submitting meter readings

Feature verdict:
So Energy’s app ratings look higher on paper, but with fewer than 200 reviews on each platform, they’re not statistically reliable next to OVO’s tens of thousands. A handful of enthusiastic reviewers can swing a 200-review average far more easily than an 18,000-review one. On the evidence available, OVO Energy is the safer choice if a well-tested, heavily reviewed app matters to you — though its own reviews show real, recurring frustrations around login stability and payment processing that are worth knowing about too.

Customer Service and Support

OVO Energy scores higher overall, but the two suppliers trade places depending on which specific measure matters to you.

OVO Energy (Citizens Advice, Jan–Mar 2026)

• Overall: 3.30/5, ranked 8th
• Fewer complaints: 2.5/5 (39.5 per 10,000 customers)
• Contact waiting time: 3.2/5 — call wait 1 min 33 sec, 98.5% of emails answered within 2 days, webchat response 6 min 53 sec
• Billing and metering: 3.8/5 — 98.5% smart meter billing accuracy, 90% traditional meter accuracy, 95% of smart meters working correctly
• Customer commitments: 5/5 (Switch Guarantee + Vulnerability Commitment)
• Accepts Direct Debit, cash/cheque, and prepayment; phone, email, webchat, ring-backs, and SignVideo all available

So Energy (Citizens Advice, Jan–Mar 2026)

• Overall: 2.86/5, ranked 12th
• Fewer complaints: 1.5/5 (57.1 per 10,000 customers)
• Contact waiting time: 3.6/5 — call wait 1 min 6 sec (faster than OVO), but only 91.3% of emails answered within 2 days, webchat response 5 min 51 sec
• Billing and metering: 3.0/5 — 97.3% smart meter billing accuracy, 94% traditional meter accuracy, 89.4% of smart meters working correctly
• Customer commitments: 5/5 (Switch Guarantee + Vulnerability Commitment)
• Accepts Direct Debit only — no cash/cheque, no mobile hotline, no SignVideo

Feature verdict:
OVO Energy wins on the metric that carries the most weight — complaints — with under half the complaint rate of So Energy (39.5 vs 57.1 per 10,000). But So Energy actually scores higher on contact waiting time overall (3.6/5 vs 3.2/5), driven by its faster average call answer time. Where OVO pulls clearly ahead is billing accuracy and payment flexibility — it accepts cash and cheque payments and offers SignVideo support, options So Energy doesn’t provide.

Complaints and Performance

So Energy receives far fewer complaints than OVO Energy, and it — unlike what some comparisons suggest — does publish a full breakdown of why customers complain.

OVO Energy (Q2 2026, latest available)

• Complaints: 1,775 per 100k customers (up from 1,725 in Q1)
• Resolved same/next day: 63.5%
• Resolved within 8 weeks: 90.7%
• Top complaint themes: customer service, payment issues, smart billing/meter reading, debt-related disconnections, general billing/meter reading

So Energy (Q2 2026, latest available)

• Complaints: 1,474 per 100k customers (down from 1,573 in Q1 — an improving trend)
• Resolved same/next day: 49%
• Resolved within 8 weeks: 93%
• Top complaint themes: customer service (31%), payment issues (16%), billing/meter reading unrelated to meter type (13%), smart/advanced meter billing (12%), meter installation or faults (8%)

Feature verdict:
So Energy receives noticeably fewer complaints than OVO Energy — 1,474 vs 1,775 per 100k in the latest quarter — and its complaint rate is falling while OVO’s is rising. So Energy also resolves slightly more complaints within 8 weeks (93% vs 90.7%), though OVO resolves more on the very next working day (63.5% vs 49%). Both suppliers share the same top complaint category — customer service — followed by payment and billing issues, suggesting these are industry-wide pain points rather than something unique to either brand.

Green Energy Comparison

So Energy’s electricity mix is mostly renewable, while OVO Energy relies mainly on fossil fuels — though the two suppliers take opposite views on whether REGO certificates prove anything.

OVO Energy (Jan–Mar 2026, Citizens Advice)

• Renewable: 11% | Nuclear: 9% | Fossil fuel: 74% | Other: 6%
• Runs Plan Zero, targeting net zero by 2035
• Stopped buying REGO certificates for standard tariffs in 2023, calling the system a form of greenwashing
• Instead buys directly from UK generators via power purchase agreements; optional Greener Electricity add-on available on specific fixed tariffs
• Planted 5 million trees since 2015

So Energy (Jan–Mar 2026, Citizens Advice)

• Renewable: 67% | Nuclear: 4% | Fossil fuel: 27% | Other: 2%
• Buys REGO certificates to match 100% of customer electricity use — guaranteed on all fixed tariffs
• Lets customers vote annually on which UK renewable generators it sources from
• Offers solar panel, battery, and heat pump installations

Feature verdict:
So Energy’s actual fuel mix is greener by a wide margin — 67% renewable against OVO’s 11%. But the two suppliers disagree on what “100% renewable” should even mean: OVO deliberately dropped REGO certificates because it considers them a paper exercise that doesn’t guarantee real renewable electricity, while So Energy leans on those same certificates to back its green claims. That makes OVO’s smaller renewable share arguably more directly sourced, even as So Energy’s overall mix remains the greener one on the numbers. If you want the highest share of actual renewable generation, So Energy wins; if you’re skeptical of certificate-backed claims, OVO’s approach may appeal more.

Best for EV Owners

So Energy is the stronger pick for EV owners — its So EV tariff charges a flat 6.5p/kWh overnight, while OVO’s Charge Anytime moved to a subscription model in late 2025 that now works out to roughly 14p/kWh.

So Energy — So EV

• Flat 6.5p/kWh off-peak, 12am–5am
• Applies to all household electricity in that window, not just EV charging
• 100% renewable electricity, 12-month fixed term

OVO Energy — Charge Anytime

• Now a monthly subscription (from £27.50/month) rather than a flat rate
• Effective cost works out to around 14p/kWh for typical use — more than double So Energy’s rate
• No fixed off-peak window; smart charging within a schedule you set

Feature verdict:
So Energy’s flat 6.5p/kWh rate is roughly half the cost of OVO’s Charge Anytime, which used to be priced similarly before its 2025 subscription overhaul. For most EV owners, So Energy is now the cheaper overnight charging option by a clear margin.

Best for Solar Homes

So Energy has the wider solar export range — two tariffs against OVO’s three — but OVO’s mid-tier option (12p/kWh) is easier to qualify for than So Energy’s jump straight from 4.5p to 20p.

OVO Energy — SEG

• SEG Standard: 4p/kWh, open to any customer
• SEG Beyond Exclusive: 12p/kWh, for OVO import customers
• SEG Install Exclusive: 20p/kWh, if OVO installs your solar and battery

So Energy — Solar Export

• So Export Flex: 4.5p/kWh, open to any customer, no exit fee
• So Bright: 20p/kWh for 12 months, only if So Energy installs your solar and battery — then drops to 4.5p/kWh

Feature verdict:
Both suppliers cap out at 20p/kWh, but only if they install your solar system. OVO has the edge for existing solar owners: its 12p/kWh mid-tier is available just by switching your import to OVO, with no installation required — a step So Energy doesn’t offer.

Our Verdict

Which should you choose?

Overall Winner: So Energy

So Energy wins on price, EV charging cost, and complaint volume, while OVO Energy leads on Citizens Advice scores, app maturity, and flexibility.

So Energy
Pros

• Cheaper on both its tracker and fixed tariffs, and its complaint rate is falling quarter on quarter
• So EV charges a flat 6.5p/kWh — less than half OVO’s Charge Anytime rate
• Greener fuel mix (67% renewable vs OVO’s 11%) and faster average call answer times

Cons

• Lower Citizens Advice score (2.86/5 vs 3.3/5), and its cheapest tariffs carry a £190 exit fee
• App ratings look strong but come from fewer than 200 reviews each — too small to trust over OVO’s tens of thousands
• Doesn’t accept cash or cheque payments, and has no SEG tier that avoids installing through them for the best rate

OVO Energy
Pros

• Higher Citizens Advice score and rank, with better billing accuracy and a lower complaint rate this quarter than last
• A properly established, heavily reviewed app (18,000+ iOS reviews)
• Its cheapest tariff carries zero exit fee — genuine switch-anytime flexibility
• A solar export tier (12p/kWh) that doesn’t require installing through OVO — So Energy has no equivalent

Cons

• Higher prices on both variable and fixed tariffs
• Charge Anytime’s 2025 shift to a subscription model roughly doubled its effective EV charging cost
• Far lower renewable share in its actual fuel mix (11% vs So Energy’s 67%)

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