Which? Awards 2026: winners revealed

The winners of this year’s Which? Awards have been revealed.

We celebrate brands that offer outstanding products and services and go above and beyond for customers. This year, there were 13 categories of awards, including four new ones:

• Home Appliance Brand of the Year 
• Consumer-First Brand of the Year 
• Consumer-First Service of the Year 
• Best-Value Brand of the Year

The Which? Awards are completely independent – brands can't influence who wins. Our shortlists and winners are decided by a rigorous set of criteria, including brand performance in Which? testing and surveys, reliability, analysis of provider data and results from investigations.

The winning brands were announced at a ceremony at the Science Museum in London on 14 May, hosted by broadcaster and comedian Sue Perkins, alongside Which? chief executive Anabel Hoult. 

Read on to find out this year’s winners and shortlisted brands.

Banking Brand of the Year 

• Winner: First Direct
• Also shortlisted: American Express, Marcus

First Direct doesn’t just impress in one area. It’s a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) for current accounts and has been since 2010 – our longest-serving banking WRP. It gets the top customer service star rating for savings and credit cards, and does well for mortgages, too. 

Although it's a branchless, digital bank, customers rave about its 24/7 telephone banking. It also deserves commendation for achieving the top customer score among disabled customers, making it the highest-scoring provider in every survey we’ve conducted since 2021. 

• Find out more: best banks and bank accounts.

New: Best-Value Brand of the Year

• Winner: Aldi
• Also shortlisted: Hotpoint, Lidl, Talkmobile

Aldi's win is well deserved in this new award category, designed to recognise brands that release impressive products and services at a budget-friendly price – those that get our Great Value recommendation. This proves that a lower price point doesn’t have to mean a compromise on quality or durability 

Aldi had the most Great Value products during the judging period. Its Great Value products include sun creams as well as everyday items such as nappies and washing-up liquid – leading to real savings that add up over time.

Also, Aldi is frequently our cheapest supermarket of the month and gets four stars for value for money in our supermarkets survey (the joint-best rating along with Lidl).

• Find out more: best supermarket food and drink.

New: Consumer-First Brand of the Year 

• Winner: Miele
• Also shortlisted: Epson UK, Eufy, Meaco UK, Vax

Another new award this year recognises brands that achieve excellent results in our Which? lab tests and assessments, and clearly demonstrate a commitment to putting customers at the heart of their work. The brands on the longlist were invited to submit entries explaining how they had made a measurable difference to their customers.

Miele was a worthy winner. The firm impressed our judges with its video call service, which uses experts trained to diagnose and resolve appliance issues safely, all without a technician home visit, resulting in a drastically reduced average resolution time. 

New: Consumer-First Service of the Year

• Winner: Octopus Energy
• Also shortlisted: 100Green, Sainsbury's Energy, Talkmobile, Tesco Mobile

This is a new award designed to celebrate brands that have consistently achieved excellent results in our surveys and assessments and clearly demonstrate a commitment to customers. Brands on our longlist were invited to submit entries that explain their customer commitment. 

Octopus Energy, a Which? Recommended Provider for the ninth year in a row, won our Consumer-First Service of the Year award. Its industry-first initiative embedded a team of qualified social workers into its customer support, enabling in-depth, long-term assessments and providing targeted support for highly vulnerable customers facing debt, welfare challenges and economic abuse. 

• Find out more: best energy suppliers 2026.

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Electric Car Brand of the Year

• Winner: Volkswagen
• Also shortlisted: Kia, Mini, Renault, Volvo

Volkswagen’s entire EV range performed well in our lab tests, with most being Best Buys. And it’s the only brand to have EVs in the medium, large, large estate, medium/large SUV and MPV car classes. 

Our tests, with more than 200 checks, are combined with our annual survey, completed by tens of thousands of car owners, to provide valuable information on reliability and customer satisfaction. Volkswagen achieved a four-star customer rating in our survey, which is a great result.

• Find out more: best electric cars.

Health & Wellbeing Brand of the Year

• Winner: Dyson
• Also shortlisted: Braun, Nivea, Nutravita, Peloton

When it comes to drying and styling your hair, Dyson continues to blow past the competition. 

Its hot brushes came first and second in our tests, with the Co-anda 2x Multi-styler and Dryer named ‘best of the best’ by our testers. Dyson’s hair dryers take gold and silver positions in our tables, too, with our panel of testers saying the Supersonic was one of the easiest hair dryers to use and delivered some of the best drying and styling results.

Dyson was up against some stiff competition for this award, as 31 product categories were considered, spanning 515 products. But standing out like this does come at a premium – the Airwrap Co-anda hot brush retails at £579.99 on the Dyson Website, and the i.d is £429.99. The Supersonic hairdryer costs £329.99.

• Find out more: best personal care products

New: Home Appliance Brand of the Year

• Winner: Miele
• Also shortlisted: AEG, Bosch, DeLonghi, Hotpoint, Kenwood, Philips, Shark

Miele's second award of 2026 recognises the premium brand's impressive performance in our testing.

We’ve tested 35 Miele products across seven categories in the last year, including dishwashers, fridge freezers, washing machines and tumble dryers and 63% of these got our Best Buy Recommendation, the highest Best Buy percentage rate across brands.

Almost half of the products tested also received our Eco Buy recommendation, meaning they have a lower environmental impact than most of their rivals.

• Find out more: best home appliances.

Home Entertainment Brand of the Year

• Winner: JBL
• Also shortlisted: Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Hisense, LG, Samsung, Soundcore by Anker.

Some 70 brands and 841 products were considered for this year’s award, and there was some stiff competition from established brands such as Bose, LG and Samsung. But it was JBL’s phenomenal audio mastery that made it the winner. Its PartyBox speakers are the best we’ve ever tested – its top-scoring model scored 96% in our testing – and it makes many other good, cheaper and more portable Bluetooth models, too. 

Over the awards period for consideration, it released the most Best Buy and Great Value headphones. Three of the four soundbars we tested in 2025 were Best Buys and the other got our Great Value recommendation. It’s unusual for a brand to perform so well at both the high-end and affordable ends of the market. 

• Find out more: best audio products.

Renewables Installer of the Year

• Winner: Wow Energy
• Also shortlisted: ACD Electrical Green-Tech Ltd, Fusion Renewables Ltd, Sustain Heating and Renewables Ltd

This award was introduced last year to reflect growing consumer demand for renewable energy solutions to reduce household emissions, and rewards installers providing customers with the knowledge and services to help achieve this goal. 

Wow Energy, a solar energy equipment specialist that’s based in Macclesfield, stands out by ensuring that customers are happy post-installation with a mandatory but complimentary visit – an Energy Optimisation Session, which is a proactive initiative prioritising long-term performance and savings. 

• Find out more: check out our solar panel brand reviews and our guide to heating your home with renewable energy.

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Retailer of the Year

• Winner: John Lewis
• Also shortlisted: Euronics, Joie Baby, Lakeland, Richer Sounds, Samsung and The iOutlet

John Lewis has impressive strength in breadth that no other retailer can match, delighting customers whether they’re buying tumble dryers or dining tables. This helped it get the best retailer award for the second year in a row. 

It offers superb value for money and first-class customer service, coming top of our furniture and homeware retailer survey, second in both the appliance and tech retailer surveys, and in the top half of our baby and child products survey. Plus, it’s brought back its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price promise, which refunds the difference if you find the item at another retailer for a lower price within seven days of buying. 

• Find out more: best tech and appliance shops.

Travel Brand of the Year

• Winner: Trailfinders
• Also shortlisted: Jet2, National Trust Holidays, Skyscanner, Wetherspoons Hotels

Trailfinders is another repeat winner from last year (and for the fifth time since 2015). 

The firm is a WRP in nine categories: high street travel agent, adventure/activity holidays, cultural holidays, beach/ resort holidays, all-inclusive holidays, tailor-made holidays, city breaks, family holidays and escorted tours. 

Its ATOL-approved Trust Account holds customers’ money until they’re back home and provides a financial guarantee that it will be returned in the event of the collapse of an airline, tour operator or other provider. And you can book knowing that if the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office changes its advice about visiting a destination, you’ll get a full refund. 

• Find out more: best high street travel agents.

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Trusted Trader of the Year

• Winner: Easystep Stairlifts
• Also shortlisted: Associated Stairlifts Ltd, Balhousie Glazing Ltd, Hadley & Ottaway, LCM Flat Roofing Ltd

Which? Trusted Traders is an endorsement scheme for reputable traders that sets a benchmark that must be met. It includes all kinds of home improvement professionals, from bathroom fitters, builders, and electricians to gardeners, plumbers and home-security experts. 

Easystep Stairlifts, based in Leicester, takes this year’s award for its approach to protecting vulnerable customers from manipulative sales tactics with non-negotiable pricing. Pressure selling in the stairlift industry can be a real problem, so this is very important. It also offers external empathy training for its staff members. 

• Find out more: Which? Trusted Traders.

Utilities Brand of the Year

• Winner: Talkmobile

  Also shortlisted: E (Gas and Electricity), Octopus Energy, Zen Internet

Emerging victorious in a competitive space covering broadband, combined TV and broadband, mobile network and energy providers, Talkmobile stands ahead of the competition, and has been both a Which? Recommended Provider and a Great Value network in 2024, 2025 and 2026. It gets the highest customer score for mobile networks and five stars for value for money. 

Its Sim-only plans often feature in our monthly round-up of the best deals. Unlike the big providers (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone), which generally fail to impress in our annual survey, Talkmobile doesn’t have mid-contract price rises. Its Sims also include 5GB of free EU roaming.

• Find out more: best UK mobile networks.

Why is there no Insurance Brand of the Year this year?

Which? has decided to pause the Insurance Brand of the Year award for 2026, after 18 years of inclusion. This follows our recent super-complaint to the Financial Conduct Authority regarding systemic issues in the home and travel insurance markets. 

Although we will continue to point consumers in the right direction for their insurance needs, we believe that, until the regulator and industry address the fundamental challenges in claims handling and policy clarity, it would be inappropriate to proceed with a Brand of the Year title. 

We remain committed to working with the sector to raise standards, so that we can celebrate true consumer champions in the future. 

• Find out more: end the insurance rip-off.