Every year, we ask thousands of shoppers to rate supermarkets on everything from store appearance and queuing time to delivery and the choice of substitutions.
It’s been a rough year for supermarket shoppers. Grocery prices are still rising, products are getting smaller and ‘skimpflation’ means some of the nation’s best-known treats, like Club and Penguin, can no longer be described as chocolate bars thanks to cuts to their cocoa content.
Our definitive guide to the best and worst supermarkets reveals which major chains offer value for money, quality products and great customer service – and which leave customers underwhelmed.
Read on to find out how the UK's supermarket giants, discounters and high-end grocers compare.
Why you can trust our supermarket reviews
Real customer experiences
We surveyed 3,552 members of the public who told us about their genuine experiences of shopping in-store and online.
Expert analysis
We combine expert analysis with our survey data so we only recommend supermarkets that offer good value and meet our strict criteria.
Best in-store supermarkets
For an impressive fifth year running, Marks & Spencer is the top supermarket for shopping in-store.
One happy customer said: 'It's a lovely place to shop, high-quality products and excellent customer service.' Another added: 'It's the best place for high-quality produce and never lets me down.'
Shoppers love almost everything about it – except, perhaps unsurprisingly, the prices, which rule it out of being a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP).
Tesco and Aldi are in joint-second place, showing there’s also still room in shoppers’ hearts for supermarkets that do the basics well.
Aldi is the only in-store WRP, with customers loving its value for money and famous middle aisle. One shopper said: 'Great amount of stock for great value. Can't get it cheaper elsewhere.'
Tesco lost out on being a WRP because we believe it needs to do more to make its Clubcard prices accessible to under-18s. It has now indicated that it's reviewing its Clubcard criteria with a view to allowing under-18s access by the end of the year.
Use our table to find out where your supermarket ranked for in-store shopping and how it performed across eight categories. The links take you to the supermarket's website.
Results are based on an online survey, conducted in November 2025, of 3,552 members of the public who told us about 4,928 experiences shopping in-store at a supermarket in the last 12 months. The customer score is based on satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend. Sample sizes in brackets. ‘n/a’ means not enough responses to include a star rating.
Measuring value for money
While loyalty pricing has become further entrenched at Tesco and Sainsbury’s, it’s still on only a tiny fraction of products at Lidl and Waitrose, and Morrisons has scaled it back significantly. Unsurprisingly, there are big differences in the cost of a large shop at Tesco and Sainsbury’s depending on whether shoppers are loyalty members. So, for the first time, we have split the in-store value for money between members and non-members.
The results are surprising; loyalty members at Asda and Morrisons actually rated them as poorer value for money than non-members did. Perhaps it’s a reflection of shoppers’ expectations of deep loyalty discounts – and their frustration if these aren’t met.
Best online supermarkets
For online grocery shopping, last year’s winner Tesco is joint top with Waitrose, although neither is a WRP because their loyalty schemes exclude under-18s.
Here, Ocado and Sainsbury’s are our Which? Recommended Providers.
Ocado customers praised the wide range of delivery slots available, while others mentioned its polite and helpful drivers. One happy customer said Ocado offers a 'wide range of quality products, delivered by the most friendly and efficient drivers'.
Sainsbury's customers like the quality and choice of its groceries as well as its Nectar prices. One said: 'Excellent quality, service and value all round. Delivery drivers brilliant.'
Use our table to find out where the eight supermarkets in our survey ranked for online shopping and how they performed across eight categories, including how easy the website or app was to use, the availability of time slots, communication about collection or delivery, and whether they offered sensible substitutions. The links take you to the supermarket's website.
Results based on an online survey, conducted in November 2025, of 3,552 members of the public who told us about 1,417 experiences with shopping online at a supermarket in the last 12 months. The customer score is based on satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend. Sample sizes in brackets.
Supermarket reviews
You can find out more about the supermarkets in our survey – and what customers really thought of them using our reviews.
The supermarkets are listed in alphabetical order.
Aldi - in-store 76%
Aldi is officially the cheapest supermarket of the year 2025, and it's probably no surprise to learn that value for the money is its standout attraction for shoppers.
So much so, they easily forgive its fairly mediocre performance for how stores look, its customer service and the quality of its groceries.
Shoppers love its prices and convenience. Many also told us about their love of its famous middle aisle, where you can pick up everything from dolls' houses to drills.
One happy shopper said: 'Great amount of stock for a great value for money. Can't get it cheaper elsewhere.'
Aldi does have a bit of a love-it-or-loathe-it reputation though, with some complaints about cluttered aisles ‘full of cages and boxes’.
Nonetheless, it’s done so well that it’s a WRP.
Amazon Fresh - online 79%
It’s been an impressive year for Amazon Fresh, which has leapt up our rankings to a respectable mid-table place after finishing second bottom of our online table in 2025.
Many customers singled out the freshness of groceries and quick deliveries. One said: 'Always able to get a delivery slot, always delivered on time and rarely have substitutions or unavailable products.' Amazon Fresh is only available to shoppers in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and parts of south east England.
In September, it announced it was closing all 19 of its UK stores to focus on online.
You can also order groceries from Co-op, Iceland and Morrisons through Amazon, although we only asked about Amazon Fresh in our survey.
Asda - in-store 68% / online 71%
Asda is bottom for both shopping instore (jointly with Morrisons) and online.
Customers don’t much like the customer service or queuing time in its stores.
Online they are unimpressed with the quality of its groceries and its substitutions.
One shopper said: 'Poor customer service and queues are bad. Staff just stand around chatting.'
Another added: 'Lack of promotions, shelves not stocked, not enough checkouts with staff, prices a lot higher.”'
Asda has a loyalty scheme but doesn’t offer loyalty pricing in the same way as some other supermarkets, and several shoppers felt the rewards were lacklustre.
It’s not all bad news, though. Asda is regularly the cheapest of the larger supermarkets for a long list of branded and own-label groceries in our monthly price comparison.
Iceland - in-store 70% / online 77%
Our results don’t paint a great picture of Iceland stores.
Shoppers don’t think much of the customer service. Many told us they liked the range of frozen food but were less impressed by the rest.
One said: 'Food can be pricier than discount supermarkets and [there’s a] lack of fresh produce.'
Iceland gets a slightly better overall score for shopping online, with shoppers liking its deliveries and how easy it is to get a delivery or click-and-collect slot.
It also fares better for customer service and value for money among online shoppers than those using its stores.
Several shoppers gave special mention to its 10% discount for over-60s every Tuesday.
Lidl - in-store 75%
Shoppers love the low prices at Lidl, but do not enjoy the process of paying.
They dislike the lengthy checkout queues and don’t think any better of its self-service checkouts.
It’s slightly behind rival discounter Aldi in our in-store table, but there’s nothing between them when it comes to how customers rank the customer service, quality of groceries and choice on offer.
Shoppers love the fresh goods available in Lidl’s bakeries (something Aldi doesn’t offer) and also like its loyalty scheme.
Others criticised its small range though, with some shoppers saying they found it hard to do a full shop there.
Last year, Lidl really put the pressure on Aldi in our monthly cheapest supermarket rankings - snatching back the title in July after 20 months and then winning it for a second month in October.
Morrisons - in-store 68% / online 72%
Morrisons is jointly at the bottom of the table for shopping in-store (with Asda) and isn’t much better online.
One shopper said: 'It’s dreadful. So expensive and badly stocked.'
Another added: 'It's a means to an end, the shelves are never fully stocked and the fresh produce goes off very quickly.'
With its market share steadily dropping, Morrisons bosses are revamping its pricing strategy — moving away from loyalty pricing and offering more discounts to all.
They are also looking again at the range of groceries it offers, with a focus on modernising its Market Street format, closing some meat and fish counters and revamping others.
Marks & Spencer - in-store 78%
M&S is once again the best supermarket for shopping in-store — making it an impressive five years running at the top of our table.
Shoppers love its beautifully presented stores, the quality and range of its groceries and its first-class customer service.
But what they don’t love is its value for money. Still, that doesn’t seem to dent shoppers’ overall satisfaction.
M&S has had a torrid year, with a cyber attack in April 2025 that almost wiped out its half-yearly profits, leaving shelves bare and shoppers unable to buy online for months.
So it’s a testament to M&S’s reputation that none of this seems to have affected its standing among grocery shoppers.
Looking ahead, it has plans to open dozens of new stores over the next two years with a focus on larger sites to attract more families.
Ocado - online 80%
Ocado is a WRP again this year, sitting just behind Tesco and Waitrose in our online table.
As an online-only business, it operates a slightly different model from the other supermarkets. It also offers own-label products from M&S, something many customers really appreciate, as well as Ocado's own-label groceries.
Many customers praised the wide range of delivery slots available, while others mentioned its polite and helpful drivers. One happy customer said Ocado offers a 'wide range of quality products, delivered by the most friendly and efficient drivers.'
It tends to be one of the more expensive supermarkets in our monthly price comparison, but is not as pricey as Waitrose and sometimes also Sainsbury’s (for shoppers without a Nectar card).
Sainsbury's - in-store 73% / online 79% (WRP)
The UK’s second-largest supermarket finishes mid-table for both in-store and online.
It was praised for its clean and well-laid-out stores, while online shoppers were impressed by the quality of its own-label and fresh products. It’s a WRP for online shopping.
Shoppers also like its Nectar prices, which have expanded over the past year and now also include personalised Nectar Prices for in-store shoppers.
But watch out — our monthly price comparison shows you’ll pay a lot more at Sainsbury’s if you don’t have a loyalty card.
Sainsbury’s has also ramped up its Aldi price match scheme over the past year. However, our research shows Aldi price matches across all supermarkets aren’t always as like-for-like as you might think.
Tesco - in-store 76% / online 81%
If you want a great all-rounder, look no further than Tesco.
The UK’s biggest supermarket retains its place at the top of the table (joint with Waitrose) for online shopping. It comes in joint-second place for in-store shopping, too.
It may not quite match the in-store value for money offered by Aldi and Lidl, nor the quality or customer service offered in M&S and Waitrose stores, but it offers a happy medium between the two — and this is perhaps its biggest strength.
One shopper summed it up by saying Tesco has 'relatively low prices, [and a] large range of products.'
Many shoppers mentioned their love of the Clubcard discounts, while one added: 'Prices without Clubcard are too expensive.'
We think Tesco’s not doing enough to make Clubcard prices available to under-18s, otherwise it would have qualified as a Which? Recommended Provider. It has now said it's reviewing its Clubcard criteria with a view to allowing under-18s by the end of the year.
Waitrose - in-store 74% / online 81%
Waitrose is the top store (along with Tesco) for shopping online, with shoppers praising everything from the customer service to the range of products and delivery.
It even performs well for value for money when shopping online, which is perhaps a surprise given it’s consistently the most expensive supermarket in our monthly price comparison.
Clearly, those shopping online think those prices still offer decent value.
It’s a different story for those visiting Waitrose stores in person, though. Here it sits mid-table, despite five-star ratings for customer service, its spacious, clean stores and the quality and choice of its groceries.
Where it really falls down for those shopping in-store is value for money, where they give it just two stars.
How we rank the UK's supermarkets
We surveyed 3,552 members of the public in November 2025 for our annual customer satisfaction survey, quizzing them about the supermarkets they use most often.
We asked both in-store and online shoppers about value for money, overall customer service, stock availability, range and the quality of own label and fresh products.
Customers who did their shopping in-store were also asked to rate store appearance, queuing time and self-service or self-scanning options. We also asked whether there were friendly staff available to help with queries.
For online shoppers, we asked about click and collect as well as delivery services. Customers were asked to rate how easy the website or app was to use, the availability of time slots, communication about collection or delivery, and whether they got sensible substitutions.
We also asked how satisfied shoppers are with their supermarket overall and whether they would recommend it. These two questions allow us to calculate the customer scores.
Choosing Which? Recommended Providers
We use a number of factors to determine which supermarkets will become Which? Recommended Providers (WRPs), including:
- customer score over 70% and in the top statistical band, or top two if there aren’t enough in the top band
- three stars or more for the quality of own-label and fresh products, value for money and customer service
- commitment to front-of-pack, traffic-light nutritional labelling.
We also consider other factors, including whether the supermarket has any two-star ratings, findings from recent investigations and whether it has failed to meet key Which? campaign calls.
Which? calls for supermarkets to widen access to cheaper loyalty prices
Which? research has revealed millions of people are excluded from accessing lower loyalty prices at some of the UK's biggest retailers. This is because many schemes have minimum age requirements, need shoppers to have UK residency or a UK address, or require an email address or access to an app to sign up.
This means that young carers, teenagers buying lunch and people without internet access are among those excluded from lower prices at some stores.
We called on retailers to take action to tackle this problem. The Competition and Markets Authority backed these calls, saying some supermarkets could do more to ensure certain groups of shoppers can access — or know how they can access — loyalty prices, such as those without a smartphone or those who are under 18.
Although Tesco earned impressive customer scores and star ratings for both in-store and online grocery shopping, we haven't named it a Which? Recommended Provider because of our concerns about the accessibility of its loyalty scheme, which is only available to over-18s. The same applies to Waitrose for online shopping.
Tesco has now said it's reviewing its Clubcard criteria with a view to allowing under-18s by the end of the year.
- Watch: our video reveals the unfair costs teenagers face when shopping at Tesco without access to a Clubcard
