What a switching and bill service does for you
A switching and bill service sits between you and the energy suppliers, the companies that actually sell you gas and power. It takes your details, gathers offers from several suppliers, and often handles the notice period so you do not have to chase suppliers yourself. Every service covered here deals in energy, and each one works in a single market, so you can set aside any that does not serve where you live. The Switching and bill services ranking is a good place to see them side by side.
The first trade-off you weigh is reach against convenience. A service that sees more suppliers gives you more to choose from, while a service that runs the switch for you saves the admin on your side. EnergieKiezer, Gaslicht.com and Gatby will handle the switch on request, so for those the decision comes down to market coverage, supplier counts and what they charge to do the work.
Check the market comes first
Every service states which country it operates in, and this is the one check that can end a comparison immediately. EnergieKiezer lists NL as its home country and works in NL. Gaslicht.com lists NL and works in NL. Compare Power lists US and works in US, and Gatby lists US and works in US.
That splits the field into two separate pools, one Dutch and one American, and you cannot line up a Dutch tariff against an American one on the same figures. If you are in the Dutch market, the useful comparison sits between EnergieKiezer and Gaslicht.com. If you are in the American market, you are weighing Compare Power against Gatby. Fix your market, then compare prices.
Count the suppliers behind the quotes
The most useful number for judging reach is how many energy suppliers each service brings to the table. EnergieKiezer covers 70 suppliers, Gaslicht.com 30, Compare Power 21 and Gatby from 20. Coverage across the services listed here spans 11 to 70, so the gap between the widest and the narrowest list is wide enough to matter.
All four of these services say they cover the whole market. A stated whole market and a counted supplier list are different claims, though, and the count is the one you can compare on. A worked example: a reader who wants to see every option available in the market is better served by a service near the top of that span, while a reader who mainly wants a quick switch can look at the narrower list first and see whether the saving holds up.
What the switch costs you
Switching fees are where a lot of comparisons go quiet, so write each one down. Switching through EnergieKiezer is free, through Gaslicht.com it is free, through Compare Power it is free and through Gatby it is free. Across the services here, the fee range reads 0%, which makes this a low-stakes line in the scorecard.
The more important question is how the service earns its money. None of these four publishes a commission list, so a quote you receive may reflect a commercial relationship rather than a full market sweep. Read the price as an opening offer rather than the final word, and check the contract terms on the supplier's own paperwork before you sign. The fee being low does not mean the tariff is the cheapest thing available to you.
Compare support channel by channel
Support matters more after you switch than before, so weigh the channels rather than the count. EnergieKiezer offers phone, chat and help centre. Gaslicht.com offers phone, email and chat, Compare Power chat, email and phone and Gatby email, phone and help centre. A phone line and a help centre appear across the set, so the difference is in the extra channels rather than the basics.
Gaslicht.com is the only one of the four with a mobile app, which suits anyone who wants to check a bill or kick off a switch while out. Worked example: if you want a switch confirmed in writing, favour a service with email, such as Compare Power or Gaslicht.com. If something goes wrong mid-switch, a phone line saves a day of back and forth, and a help centre is where you look for a written answer you can point to.
Know which company you are dealing with
Before you hand over details, check the registered name behind the site. EnergieKiezer trades as DGN Publishers B.V., Gaslicht.com as Benergy BV, Compare Power as Compare Power, LLC and Gatby as Gatby Ventures Inc.. The contract that binds you is the one with the supplier, but knowing the intermediary's legal name makes a complaint far easier to write and to answer.
Trading history is a second clue. Gaslicht.com has been operating since 2003 and Compare Power since 2009, so both were established well before the tariff you are holding today. Age on its own will not settle a comparison, but it tells you whether the service predates the market conditions it is now quoting from.
Turn the pages into a scorecard
Start at the Switching and bill services ranking, then open the individual profiles for EnergieKiezer, Gaslicht.com, Compare Power and Gatby. Give each service one row with the same six columns: market match, supplier count, switching fee, support channels, legal entity and trading history.
Once the rows are filled, the shortlist tends to be obvious. Apply the same columns to the other switching services on the site, including CHECK24 Partnerprogramm, Energy Ogre, Mesfournisseurs, MyUtilityGenius and Wechselpilot, and you will end up with a service that fits your market and a budget rather than one picked on a headline figure.