Kraken Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Struggling with clunky utility billing systems again?

If you’re frustrated by legacy platforms that slow down customer support and make billing changes a headache, you’re not alone. That’s often why you’d look into Kraken.

In my analysis of Kraken, I actually discovered that broken, disconnected systems create nonstop headaches for utility teams trying to help customers or launch new tariffs.

Kraken takes a very different approach, providing one integrated platform where agents, billing, smart meter data, and even field operations all connect in real time. From what I’ve discovered, it stands out by making tariff innovation and customer self-service truly practical for utility providers.

In this review, I’ll show you how Kraken can cut manual workflows and simplify the entire customer lifecycle—without the typical pain of big platform replacements.

You’ll see in this Kraken review what’s distinctive about their approach, core features, real pricing insights, and how Kraken compares to other leading utility platforms on the market.

You’ll get practical insights into the features you need to upgrade support, streamline billing, and boost customer satisfaction with confidence.

Let’s dive into the analysis.

Kraken Overview

Kraken is the tech arm of the Octopus Energy Group. Based in London since 2016, they build a modern, cloud-native software platform specifically for energy, water, and broadband utility companies.

What’s interesting is their focus on organizations frustrated with inflexible legacy systems. They’re specifically built for the modern energy transition, designed from the ground up to handle complex tariffs and real-time smart meter data.

Their recent licensing deals with global utilities like E.ON and Origin Energy show serious market momentum. In my Kraken review, it’s clear their ambition is to replace outdated systems at scale.

Unlike legacy giants like Oracle or SAP, which can feel complex, Kraken’s platform has a clear focus on speed and agility. It feels like a single, modern solution versus a collection of older, bolted-on tools.

They work with large energy retailers and disruptive new market entrants alike—companies managing millions of customers who need to shed the massive operational drag from older information systems.

From my analysis, their core strategy is unifying the entire customer journey, from sign-up to billing. This directly addresses your need to become efficient and innovate for new demands like EV charging.

Now let’s examine their platform’s capabilities.

Kraken Features

Disconnected utility systems cause endless operational headaches.

Kraken solutions are designed as an integrated, end-to-end platform, helping utilities manage their entire customer lifecycle from acquisition to support. Here are the five core Kraken solutions that address critical utility challenges.

1. Core CRM & Customer Management

Customer calls taking too long?

Many utility agents struggle with slow, disconnected systems. This means they lack a single customer view, leading to frustrating wait times and repeat calls, which impacts satisfaction.

Kraken gives your agents a unified view. From my testing, this single-pane-of-glass approach simplifies access to all customer history, billing, and meter data. This solution helps achieve first-call resolution without constant app-switching, making agents more efficient.

You can drastically reduce average call handling times, improving customer satisfaction and freeing up your support teams for complex issues.

2. Agile Billing & Payments Engine

Launching new tariffs is a nightmare?

Traditional billing systems are too rigid for modern energy plans. Trying to introduce flexible tariffs like time-of-use pricing often takes months of development and testing.

Kraken’s agile billing engine lets product managers launch complex tariffs in days, not months. What impressed me most is how it automates the entire meter-read-to-cash process, including payments and arrears. This solution allows rapid market adaptation.

This means your utility can innovate quickly, offering competitive pricing structures that respond to the evolving energy market and customer demand.

3. Smart Meter & Asset Integration

Struggling with real-time meter data?

Managing millions of smart meters and other IoT devices is complex. Legacy systems can’t handle the real-time data flow needed for accurate billing or proactive issue detection.

Kraken deeply integrates with smart metering infrastructure, processing millions of readings daily via its API-first approach. From my evaluation, the real-time data availability for billing and customer portals is truly transformative. This solution unlocks vast operational efficiency.

You can now fully leverage smart meter data for precise billing, quickly identify potential faults, and offer personalized energy insights to your customers.

4. Customer Self-Service Portal & Mobile App

Customers demanding better online tools?

Clunky, limited utility portals drive customers to call support for basic tasks. This frustrates users and inflates your call center’s operational overhead significantly.

Kraken provides a white-labeled web portal and mobile app empowering customers. Here’s what I found: customers can manage usage, pay bills, and even change tariffs without needing an agent. This solution massively reduces inbound call volumes.

This empowers your customers, greatly reducing the operational load on your support teams while significantly improving overall customer experience and satisfaction.

5. Field Service & Operations Management

Field operations always chaotic?

Coordinating meter installations or repairs often relies on manual, disconnected systems. This leads to inefficient scheduling, missed appointments, and frustrated customers.

This Kraken solution includes modules for streamlining field service tasks. What I love about this approach is how it automatically generates work orders and helps schedule engineers efficiently. It tracks jobs, keeping customers informed via the app.

You get streamlined field operations, eliminating manual scheduling headaches and providing a seamless, informed experience for customers needing an in-person visit.

What I love about these Kraken solutions is how they work together to create a truly unified utility management platform. Each component supports the others, delivering end-to-end efficiency across your operations.

Kraken Pricing

Worried about bespoke software pricing?

Kraken pricing isn’t publicly listed; instead, it operates on a custom quote model, reflecting its enterprise focus and ensuring you get a solution tailored precisely for your utility’s complex needs.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Understanding Kraken’s core cost drivers.

Kraken’s pricing operates on a recurring license fee, typically structured per customer per month. The main cost factors you’ll encounter are the number of customers or meters you manage, the specific utility services utilized (electricity, water, broadband), and the extensive implementation and migration work. What I found regarding pricing is how it flexibly scales with your utility’s operational size, directly aligning your budget with actual usage.

This ensures your investment directly mirrors your scale, offering a transparent and predictable budget aligned with your evolving needs.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Justifying your enterprise investment.

Kraken’s enterprise pricing is justified by its promise of significant operational cost savings and revenue opportunities. By replacing disconnected legacy systems with a single platform, you can achieve drastically reduced call handling times and faster tariff innovation. From my cost analysis, this platform helps deliver strong ROI through streamlined operations and improved customer self-service, avoiding hidden costs of outdated tech.

The result is your budget gains efficiency, converting manual effort into automated, cost-effective processes compared to alternatives.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Navigating upfront implementation costs.

Beyond recurring fees, a significant one-time cost for Kraken involves complex implementation and data migration, which can take 12-24 months. Budget-wise, you need to factor in professional services for migrating millions of customer records and integrating existing infrastructure. What makes pricing work is that these upfront costs are offset by long-term savings and enhanced operational agility.

So for your business, prepare for substantial initial investment balanced by future efficiency gains and reduced operational overhead.

My Take: Kraken pricing targets large utilities, offering significant value through operational efficiency and modernizing legacy systems, ideal for those seeking comprehensive digital transformation.

Kraken’s custom pricing reflects its enterprise-grade capabilities, ensuring your utility receives a tailored solution with long-term strategic value. The overall pricing approach aims to deliver transformative operational efficiency for large utilities.

Kraken Reviews

What do real Kraken customers truly experience?

To understand the real-world performance of Kraken, I’ve analyzed available Kraken reviews, official case studies, and client statements. This section breaks down what current users actually think about the software.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Client feedback is highly positive.

From my review analysis of client leadership statements, Kraken elicits overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding its strategic impact and future-readiness. What I found in user feedback from executives emphasizes significant operational improvements, especially in cost reduction and market agility.

Leaders praise its ability to simplify systems, reduce operating costs, and enhance the customer experience for millions.

2. Common Praise Points

Clients love the transformative impact.

Client reviews consistently highlight Kraken’s power to drive operational efficiency, leading to massive cost reductions and streamlined processes. What stands out in user feedback is its remarkable agility in launching new tariffs, transforming months into mere days. Successful large-scale data migration from legacy systems also receives high praise.

This means utilities gain unprecedented innovation speed and reliable system transitions, vital for modern energy markets.

3. Frequent Complaints

Key challenges emerge during implementation.

From the reviews I analyzed, while outcomes are positive, frequent complaints center on implementation complexity. It’s a massive undertaking requiring significant internal client resources, not a simple plug-and-play. What you should know is the migration process demands considerable internal commitment.

Moreover, adapting to Kraken’s integrated, agile model necessitates substantial cultural change management within your organization.

Overall, Kraken reviews from utility leadership reveal a highly strategic and impactful solution, provided you commit to the necessary implementation and change.

Best Kraken Alternatives

Navigating utility software alternatives can be complex.

The best Kraken alternatives include several strong contenders, each offering distinct advantages for different utility sizes, operational needs, and strategic priorities. Understanding these differences is key for your next platform choice.

1. Oracle Utilities

Already deep within the Oracle ecosystem?

Oracle Utilities makes more sense when your entire enterprise is already deeply embedded, requiring significant customization that leverages their broader product suite. From my competitive analysis, Oracle offers unparalleled enterprise ecosystem integration, albeit with a higher total cost of ownership and professional services fees.

Choose this alternative when leveraging your extensive existing Oracle investment and requiring extreme customization across your entire business is paramount.

2. SAP for Utilities

Is SAP your business’s central backbone?

SAP for Utilities (IS-U) excels if SAP is already the foundational system for your entire business operation, from finance to HR. Alternative-wise, SAP provides unmatched integration with its core ERP, demanding a substantial investment in consultants and longer implementation cycles.

You’ll want to consider SAP IS-U when sticking with a single, overarching vendor is your primary strategic priority for deep system cohesion.

3. Hansen Technologies

Operating in heavily regulated utility markets?

Hansen Technologies provides a strong alternative, particularly for regulated utilities where they have a deep, established market presence and pre-built compliance for local regulations. I found that Hansen offers strong regulatory compliance features and established expertise, though Kraken’s tech is more modern for energy transition use cases.

Choose Hansen when local regulatory compliance and an established provider in your specific market outweigh the need for modern, API-first green energy features.

4. In-House / Custom-Built Legacy Systems

Extreme resistance to system modernization?

Existing in-house or custom-built legacy systems are an alternative only if extreme organizational resistance to change and lack of capital budget prevail. What I found comparing options is that while these systems offer tailored historical processes, they incur extremely high operational costs and significant technical debt.

You’ll want to consider this ‘alternative’ when transformation projects are not feasible and maintaining current, costly, inflexible operations is the only path.

The best Kraken alternatives depend entirely on your specific business context and strategic goals, not just feature lists. Evaluate your budget, existing tech stack, and long-term vision to make the right choice.

Setup & Implementation

Kraken implementation demands careful planning.

My Kraken review explores what it takes to successfully deploy and adopt this powerful utility platform. You’ll gain practical insights into the setup, requirements, and challenges you might face.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

This isn’t a quick installation.

Kraken is a major transformation, involving complex data migration from legacy systems with millions of records. From my implementation analysis, expect 12-24 months for large utilities, as planning begins long before migration. This high-stakes implementation requires significant client-side resources.

You’ll need dedicated internal teams for data preparation and active partnership with Kraken’s experts during extensive planning.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Expect significant IT involvement.

Kraken is a cloud-native platform, but migrating decades-old Customer Information Systems (CIS) and billing engines demands robust data cleansing and mapping. What I found about deployment is that your technical team will manage high-volume data transfers and complex integrations. This isn’t a simple API connection.

Plan for substantial IT resources to assist with legacy system data extraction, transformation, and validation, ensuring data integrity.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is a critical hurdle.

Staff must shift from siloed applications to an integrated platform, requiring comprehensive retraining across various departments. Implementation-wise, the biggest shift is cultural, moving towards agile, customer-centric workflows. Without strong change management, user resistance is a real challenge.

Invest in robust training programs and proactive change management for your team to embrace new processes and adopt Kraken fully.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support is key.

Kraken’s dedicated implementation team is considered expert, providing hands-on, enterprise-level support through the entire transition. From my analysis, their team is core to project success, managing large-scale migrations effectively. This partnership mitigates significant deployment risks.

Leverage Kraken’s professional services deeply, establish clear communication channels, and ensure strong internal project leadership for success.

Overall, Kraken implementation is a significant undertaking requiring substantial internal investment and strategic partnership. Successful deployment transforms operations and customer experience for utilities ready for change.

Who’s Kraken For

Kraken: A perfect fit for your utility’s future.

This Kraken review analyzes ideal business profiles, team sizes, and use cases. We help you quickly determine if this powerful utility software truly aligns with your strategic goals and operational needs.

1. Ideal User Profile

Perfect for large, innovative utility companies.

Kraken is ideal for mid-market to large enterprise utility companies, especially those with 100,000+ customers in energy, water, or broadband. You’ll find success if your operation is burdened by high legacy system costs and you aim to rapidly launch innovative new products to stay competitive.

You’ll see strong ROI if you’re undertaking a major digital transformation, aiming to cut operational costs, and promote customer self-service.

2. Business Size & Scale

Built for large-scale utility operations.

User-wise, Kraken is designed for mid-market to enterprise-level utilities managing at least 100,000 customers. Your team size can range from C-level executives to call center agents and field engineers. What I found about target users is that smaller utilities often find this too robust and complex for their operational scale.

You’ll know your business size is a good fit if you have significant internal resources and a strategic commitment to undertake a major digital transformation.

3. Use Case Scenarios

Core utility customer lifecycle management.

Kraken excels when you need a comprehensive, cloud-native platform to manage the entire customer lifecycle for energy, water, or broadband. This includes billing, CRM, and customer self-service. The software especially shines when your priority is to handle complex tariffs and real-time data.

You’ll find this works best if your goal is to consolidate disparate legacy systems, improve customer experience, and rapidly launch innovative products.

4. Who Should Look Elsewhere

Not for every utility business.

If you are a small utility with a limited budget for major transformation, Kraken isn’t your fit. Also, if your organization is deeply locked into a single-vendor ecosystem like SAP or Oracle, this isn’t the right core platform.

Consider smaller, budget-friendly solutions or niche point solutions for specific needs. If you’re locked into an ecosystem, explore existing vendor modules instead.

This Kraken review shows your fit truly depends on your utility’s scale and ambition for digital transformation. Success hinges on committing to a major platform shift, not just software acquisition.

Bottom Line

Is Kraken the right fit for your utility?

This Kraken review offers my decisive take, synthesizing comprehensive analysis to help you understand if this advanced utility platform truly aligns with your strategic objectives and operational realities.

1. Overall Strengths

Kraken truly excels in utility transformation.

Key advantages include unparalleled operational efficiency and remarkable agility, significantly reducing your overall cost-to-serve. Kraken enables utilities to launch innovative tariffs in days, not months. My comprehensive analysis confirms its consistent success in complex data migrations from decades-old legacy systems.

These strengths empower your business to rapidly adapt, achieve substantial cost reductions, and significantly enhance customer experience with robust, future-ready capabilities.

2. Key Limitations

However, significant challenges demand careful consideration.

The primary drawbacks center on its implementation complexity; this is a massive undertaking requiring considerable internal client resources. Based on this review, cultural change within your organization is crucial for true success and adoption. It is emphatically not a simple plug-and-play solution.

These limitations are not immediate deal-breakers but necessitate realistic planning and a strong commitment to organizational change management before starting the migration.

3. Final Recommendation

So, is Kraken the right choice for you?

You should choose Kraken if your mid-to-large enterprise utility is ready to replace outdated legacy systems with an integrated cloud platform. Based on my comprehensive analysis, it’s ideal for strategic, long-term modernization. Your success truly depends on organizational readiness and a commitment to change.

Your decision should factor in the considerable upfront commitment required, yet the long-term operational and efficiency benefits for prepared organizations are substantial.

This Kraken review highlights its transformative power for large utilities, provided you are prepared for the intense implementation journey. I am highly confident in this assessment for your strategic decision-making process.