Quick answers about how SmartShelf works, where the prices come from, and how to find the cheapest place to do your shop.
SmartShelf compares grocery prices across all 9 major UK supermarkets. It collects each shop's online prices and ranks every product by its price per unit (per kg, per litre or per item), so you can see where something is genuinely cheapest rather than which pack happens to look biggest.
Nine: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Ocado and Iceland.
Yes. Comparing prices and browsing the cheapest options is completely free. There is also a free weekly email of the biggest genuine price drops, and an optional Smart Basket Pro upgrade at £1.49 a month for extra tools.
No. SmartShelf is independent, and not owned by or affiliated with any supermarket, so the comparisons are impartial.
It changes from week to week, so SmartShelf keeps a live price league table that compares a like-for-like basket across all 9 supermarkets. Aldi is usually among the cheapest, with the big four (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons) often within about 10% of each other, and Waitrose and M&S at the premium end. See the Cheapest Supermarket index for this week's ranking.
Daily. SmartShelf re-checks each supermarket's online prices every day, so the comparisons stay close to what you would pay today rather than relying on old data.
Yes, where the supermarket publishes them. Tesco Clubcard, Sainsbury's Nectar and Morrisons More Card prices are shown and clearly labelled, so you can see the real price you would pay with a loyalty card.
From each supermarket's own online store, refreshed daily. Online prices can sometimes differ from in-store prices and between regions, so treat SmartShelf as your guide to the best online price.
Search for it on the Compare page. SmartShelf shows every supermarket that stocks it, ranked by price per unit, including any loyalty price.
Yes. Add your items to Smart Basket and SmartShelf tells you the single cheapest supermarket for your whole shop. Smart Basket Pro goes further with a store-by-store split, showing what you would save by buying each item at its cheapest store.
Smart Basket Pro is an optional £1.49 a month upgrade. It adds the store-by-store cheapest split for your basket, a loyalty-card optimiser, buy-now-or-wait price verdicts, and a basket inflation tracker that shows how the cost of your regular shop is changing.