One housekeeping line before the numbers, because the Flogas name carries two businesses: this page compares piped natural gas and grid electricity — the LPG cylinders and tanks Flogas is famous for in rural Ireland are a separate operation with separate pricing, and nothing here applies to them. On natural gas, both suppliers bill you for the same fuel through the same Gas Networks Ireland pipes; only the retailer, the rates and the after-sales experience differ. Neither, for the avoidance of doubt, is "the gas board" — Bord Gáis Energy is a Centrica-owned retailer, and Flogas is owned by Dublin-listed DCC.
So who wins? We score Bord Gáis 7.0 and Flogas 6.6, and the gap is year two and billing, not year one. Flogas has the sharper first gas year and a genuinely useful no-contract Standard Variable option; Bord Gáis has the softer landing, the cheaper electricity (€1,557 vs €1,655.34 in year 1; €2,011 vs €2,172.78 after), the steadier billing platform and prepay on both fuels. But the best two-fuel setup here is often a mix — the dual-fuel sums below show why. Wider field: best energy for Ireland and cheapest gas.
Quick comparison
Side by side from published August 2026 prices and contract terms. Green highlights the better figure on each measurable row.
| Flogas | Bord Gáis Energy | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 6.6 | 7.0 |
| Elec year 1 (EAB) | €1,551 | €1,531 |
| Elec year 2 (EAB) | — | €1,977 |
| Gas year 1 (EAB) | €1,314 | €1,388 |
| Gas year 2 (EAB) | €1,705 | €1,498 |
| Fuels | Gas + Electricity | Electricity + Gas |
| Dual fuel | Yes | Yes |
| Prepay option | No | Yes |
| Exit fees | €50 per fuel if you close the account within the first 12 months, outside the 14-day cooling-off period. The Standard Variable tariffs have no fixed term and no exit fee. | €50 early-exit fee on 12-month fixed-term plans (the plan terms word it per contract — dual-fuel customers should confirm in their welcome pack). No fee at contract end or inside the 14-day cooling-off. |
Gas first: Flogas €1,313.88 vs Bord Gáis €1,388 — then electricity flips it
At CRU typical gas usage of 11,000 kWh (urban, all figures checked on both suppliers' sites on 28 August 2026), Flogas's 28% first-year discount prices the year at €1,313.88 — a 9.14c unit rate with a €170.84 standing charge. Bord Gáis's 9% gas discount prices the same year at €1,388 — a smaller percentage off, but hung on what Bord Gáis says is the lowest gas standing charge on the market at €131.69. Year one on gas goes to Flogas by about €74. Both figures include carbon tax and 9% VAT, and both discounts require direct debit (Bord Gáis also requires paperless billing).
Electricity reverses the result. Bord Gáis's 26% discount prices 4,200 kWh at €1,557 in year one; Flogas's 28% discount lands at €1,655.34 — nearly €100 dearer despite the bigger headline percentage, because the standard rate underneath it (44.00c per kWh) is one of the dearest fallback rates in the market. Electricity is Flogas's weak leg, full stop. If electricity is the bill that matters to you, this is the wrong matchup — start at cheapest electricity instead, where SSE's €1,492 opens the field.
Month 13 flips the gas result: €1,705 at Flogas, €1,498 at Bord Gáis
Both discounts die at month 12, and the two suppliers land you very differently. Flogas rolls you onto Standard Variable: gas at 12.70c per kWh works out at €1,705.48 for the same usage — €391.60 above your first year. Bord Gáis rolls you onto its standard rate minus a 5% loyalty discount (kept only while you pay by direct debit with paperless billing): €1,498 at the raw standard rate, or roughly €1,437 with the loyalty 5% applied. That is the flip: the supplier that was €74 dearer in year one is €207–€268 cheaper in year two.
The recent price-change record sharpens the point. Flogas raised its variable prices — exactly where its lapsed customers sit — by roughly 11.8% on gas and 10.9% on electricity from 20 July 2026, per its own June 2026 notice. Bord Gáis raised electricity by 13.5% on units and 12% on standing charges from 12 October 2025 — its first electricity rise in three years — but left gas untouched. Two-year gas totals at typical usage: Flogas €3,019, Bord Gáis €2,886 at standard, nearer €2,825 with loyalty. On electricity the year-2 story is the same shape: Flogas €2,172.78 against Bord Gáis €2,011 (about €1,923 with loyalty). The general mechanic is worth five minutes: year 1 vs year 2.
None of this makes staying put at Bord Gáis a strategy. A loyalty-discounted €1,437 gas year is still €123 dearer than switching back to a fresh discounted year at Flogas — or anyone else. The year-2 winner here is the supplier that punishes your inattention least, which is a real virtue, but re-shopping at month 11 beats both.
Flogas's rough 2025 billing year vs Bord Gáis's ordinary-but-working machine
This is the least glamorous section and the biggest real-life gap. Flogas migrated to a new billing platform in 2025 and complaints logged with the CRU rose sharply that year; into 2026 customers still report long phone queues, slow email replies and bills arriving late or short on detail. We rate its billing 5.5 and service 4.5 — the weakest marks on this page. If both fuels sit on one account that misbills, you have no clean bill to point at, which is exactly why the service record belongs in a dual-fuel decision.
Bord Gáis is no paragon — but it is ordinary in the normal way. Customers report slow complaint handling and long waits to get through, and we rate it 6 for service; its billing (7) and app, though, do the daily work: online account, meter-reading submission, smart Pay As You Go top-ups on the same standard tariff as billed customers, plus the Hive and Rewards Club ecosystem if you want it. None of that makes a tariff cheaper — but a bill that arrives correct and an app that shows your balance is precisely what Flogas customers spent 2025 asking for. If a dispute stalls at either supplier, complain formally first, then escalate free to the CRU customer care team.
€50 a fuel either way — Flogas's no-contract escape hatch is the difference
On paper the two contracts are near-twins: 12-month terms on the discounted plans, €50 per fuel to leave early at either supplier, no fee after month 12, and a 14-day cooling-off on any normal switch. Dual fuel doubles the stake at both — leave a dual account early and it is two fees, so €100. Both also tie the discount to conditions: direct debit at Flogas, direct debit plus paperless billing at Bord Gáis (miss the conditions at Bord Gáis and the discounts, including the year-2 loyalty 5%, stop).
Two genuine differences. First, Flogas's Standard Variable tariffs have no fixed term and no exit fee at all — dearer per unit, but the only way in this matchup to be a customer without signing a contract, which suits short lets and anyone about to move. Second, Bord Gáis offers Pay As You Go on both fuels at the standard tariff with no prepay premium rate; Flogas has no prepay option on any fuel. Either way, a €50 fee should rarely trap you: it is smaller than most of a year on the wrong rate, and the switch itself takes two to four weeks with no break in supply — the mechanics are in how to switch supplier.
Two certificate-green electricity badges wrapped around a fossil fuel
Be honest about what this pair is: two suppliers whose core product is natural gas, a fossil fuel that carries carbon tax on every kWh — currently 1.25c per kWh including VAT, with the postponed increase to €71 a tonne due on 14 October 2026. No green badge changes that, and we rate both 6.5 on green.
On electricity, both sell "100% green" supply backed by renewable certificates on the shared grid — an accounting claim at both houses, not a private wire to a wind farm. The differentiators are small but real: Bord Gáis says 10% of its gas comes from renewable sources, the only green claim on the gas side of this page; Flogas pays microgeneration exporters a competitive 18.5c per kWh, the most concrete green number of the four. If green sourcing is actually your first criterion, this is the wrong shortlist — start at best green electricity.
The dual-fuel sums: three ways to buy both fuels, priced
Here is the question the doorstep pitch never prices: does putting both fuels with either of these suppliers beat keeping the good gas deal and shopping electricity separately? At typical usage, year one, urban, from the same 28-August-2026 dataset (the split rows are simple sums of the single-fuel EABs):
| Setup (year 1) | Gas | Electricity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flogas dual fuel (28%) | €1,313.88 | €1,655.34 | €2,969.22 |
| Bord Gáis, both fuels (26% + 9%) | €1,388 | €1,557 | €2,945 |
| Split: Flogas gas + Bord Gáis electricity | €1,313.88 | €1,557 | €2,870.88 |
| Split: Flogas gas + SSE electricity | €1,313.88 | €1,492 | €2,805.88 |
The pattern is blunt: the split beats both bundles. Flogas's dual price is exactly its two single-fuel discounts stapled together — no extra bundle saving — and its electricity leg is the dearest number in the table. Even splitting between the two suppliers on this very page saves about €98 against Flogas dual; adding SSE's €1,492 electricity instead saves about €163, and Bord Gáis's Smart All Day dual (€2,867 year 1, smart meter required) sits between. The cost of splitting is a second bill, a second direct debit and, if you leave early, separate €50 fees. The full board is at best dual fuel, and find your energy runs the same maths on your own usage.
The dual-fuel inertia trap: one bill feels like one decision, so dual households stop shopping — and that is the business model. Flogas dual drifts from €2,969.22 to €3,878.26 at Standard Variable in year 2, a €909 jump; Bord Gáis's smart dual drifts from €2,867 to €3,510. Whoever you pick, and however you split, the month-11 diary reminder is worth more than any discount on this page.
Which should you choose?
It comes down to cost profile, contract terms, and how you like to deal with a supplier. Use this fast decision frame.
Choose Flogas if
Gas is the bill you care about and you will actually move (or renegotiate) at month 11 — Flogas's 28% discount at €1,313.88 is the cheaper first gas year of the two, and its Standard Variable tariffs have no fixed term and no exit fee if you refuse to sign anything. Skip the electricity add-on: 44.00c standard units make it the weak leg.
Check Flogas →
Choose Bord Gáis Energy if
You want one supplier you can leave alone: Bord Gáis gas costs €74 more in year one but €207 less in year two, the 5% loyalty discount keeps direct-debit customers off the full standard rate, electricity is cheaper both years, and Pay As You Go exists on both fuels at the standard tariff. Still diary month 11 — loyalty softens the landing, it does not make it cheap.
Check Bord Gáis Energy →Advertiser disclosure: we may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. That never affects scores or the winner.
