Compare Energy is an Australian energy comparison service that shows electricity and gas plans side by side. Like most comparison sites in the energy category, it operates on a referral model — retailers pay for leads and sign-ups generated through the platform.
Centza approaches energy differently. Rather than listing plans and earning commissions when you switch, Centza diagnoses whether you are overpaying on your current plan and explains exactly what a competitive rate looks like for your state and usage profile.
Compare Energy earns revenue through referral fees. When you click through to an energy retailer and sign up for a plan, Compare Energy receives a payment from that retailer. The site is free to use because the retailers — not you — are the paying customers.
This structure is common across the comparison site industry and is legal in Australia. The Australian Energy Regulator requires energy comparison sites to disclose their commercial relationships. The practical consequence is that not every retailer appears on the platform — only those with commercial agreements — and the plans shown most prominently may reflect commercial arrangements as much as genuine value.
Compare Energy is an authorised representative under the Energy Made Easy framework, which sets conduct standards for energy comparison services. This provides a degree of consumer protection but does not eliminate the referral fee incentive structure.
Centza's energy tool is a quiz, not a catalogue. It asks about your state, property type, typical usage, and current bill. The AI then tells you whether you are overpaying relative to the current Default Market Offer (the regulated price benchmark for your state), what a competitive market offer looks like, and what the dollar gap is between what you are paying now and what you should be paying.
Centza does not have retailer agreements and does not earn a fee if you switch. The output is a diagnosis, not a referral.
| Centza | Compare Energy | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue model | Subscription / free tools | Referral fees from retailers |
| All retailers shown | N/A — no product listing | Only partner retailers |
| Overpayment diagnosis | Yes — vs DMO benchmark | Not directly |
| State-specific analysis | Yes — VIC, NSW, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, ACT | Yes |
| Explains DMO/VDO benchmark | Yes — in plain English | Rarely explained |
| Concession eligibility check | Yes — state-by-state guidance | Not included |
| Solar feed-in tariff guidance | Yes | Not included |
| Requires sign-up | No — free, no account | No |
Australia's energy market has a regulated price benchmark — the Default Market Offer (DMO) in NSW, SE Queensland, and South Australia, and the Victorian Default Offer (VDO) in Victoria. These benchmarks represent the maximum regulated standing offer price. A competitive market offer should be 10–25% below the DMO for most households.
The problem most energy comparison sites have is that they show you a list of plans without clearly anchoring you to whether any of them are actually good value. A plan that is 5% below DMO sounds good but is well below the savings available from genuinely competitive retailers.
Centza's energy tool uses the current DMO/VDO as the explicit benchmark and tells you the percentage gap between your current spend and what you should be paying — so you can evaluate any plan against that standard, whether you find it through Centza or any other source.
The AER publishes Default Market Offer prices annually (updated July each year). Centza uses these as the reference benchmark for all energy overpayment calculations. Source: aer.gov.au
If you have already confirmed you are overpaying and want to browse the specific market offers currently available in your postcode with exact per-kWh pricing, a comparison site that lists current retailer plans is the right tool for that specific step. Compare Energy, Energy Made Easy (the government comparison site at energymadeeasy.gov.au), and Victorian Energy Compare are all useful for this.
Energy Made Easy (government-run, no referral fees) is worth noting as a neutral alternative in this category.
Centza is most useful at the start of the process — before you are browsing specific plans. It answers the question most people skip: am I actually overpaying, and by how much? Once you know you are paying $400/year above market and understand what a competitive rate looks like for your usage profile, you can evaluate specific plans with real context rather than just choosing based on which plan appears first in a list.
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