CarbonPass vs Gopher Zero: a Gopher Zero alternative for PPN 006 CRPs

The clearest difference is the pricing model. CarbonPass is an annual plan — Free, then £199, £499 or £1,499 a year — under which you can generate and re-generate CRPs as often as you need while your plan is active, plus an optional £100 human Completion Check. Gopher Zero is pay-per-report: per its live pricing page, Silver is £199+VAT for a single premises, Gold £299+VAT for multiple locations, and Platinum starts at £499+VAT with bespoke expert support, with a free account to build and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Which is cheaper depends on how you use it. For a single one-off CRP the entry cost is comparable. If you expect to refresh your plan each year (PPN 006 requires an annual update) or produce more than one, an annual plan can be more economical. If you genuinely only ever need one plan, per-report pricing avoids an ongoing commitment. See our guide to what a CRP costs in the UK.

Both tools are fast. CarbonPass reads your uploaded electricity, gas and fuel bills using AI extraction, targeting a first CRP in about 20 minutes. Gopher Zero markets a Carbon Reduction Plan “in as little as 30 minutes” using a guided, prompted data-entry workflow.

The practical choice is a workflow preference: if you have your bills to hand, uploading them is quick and reduces transcription; if you would rather answer guided questions without digging out documents, Gopher Zero's manual-entry approach may feel simpler. Both calculate Scope 1, 2 and the relevant Scope 3 categories and output a plan you publish on your website.

CarbonPass focuses on the compliance deliverable: a PPN 006 CRP (PDF and DOCX), a public Carbon Passport page you can link from bids, and the optional human Completion Check. It also publishes guidance on the NHS Evergreen assessment.

Gopher Zero, per its site, bundles broader decarbonisation tooling alongside the CRP — for example EV/fleet transition guidance, location-specific solar feasibility, energy-efficiency analytics, and a net-zero investment-case report — with tiered human support at the higher price points. If you want action-planning tools as well as the compliance document, that breadth is a genuine plus.

Gopher Zero is a fair choice — and likely the better one — if you want more than a compliance document: bundled decarbonisation planning (EV and solar feasibility, energy analytics), a net-zero investment case, and the option of hands-on expert onboarding, all at a low fixed price, may suit a business that wants help acting on its footprint as well as reporting it. Its guided manual-entry workflow also suits anyone who would rather answer prompted questions than upload utility bills, and if you are confident you will only ever need a single plan, its pay-per-report model avoids an annual commitment. CarbonPass is the better fit when you want a fixed annual price with unlimited re-generation, bill-upload speed, a public Carbon Passport, and NHS Evergreen guidance built around the compliance path. To see how both sit alongside other tools, read our scored best-CRP-software comparison.

Is CarbonPass a good alternative to Gopher Zero?

Yes, if you want an annual plan rather than paying per report. Both are UK self-serve tools that produce a PPN 006-compliant Carbon Reduction Plan for SMEs bidding for public-sector work, at a similar ~£199 entry point. CarbonPass is an annual subscription with unlimited CRPs while active, reads your uploaded utility bills, and adds a public Carbon Passport page and a £100 human Completion Check. Gopher Zero charges per prepared report and bundles broader decarbonisation-planning tools.

What is the price difference between CarbonPass and Gopher Zero?

Both start around £199. CarbonPass is a Free/£199/£499/£1,499-per-year plan (unlimited CRPs while active), plus an optional £100 Completion Check. Gopher Zero (per its live pricing page) is pay-per-report: Silver £199+VAT for a single premises, Gold £299+VAT for multiple locations, and Platinum from £499+VAT with bespoke expert support, with a free account to build and a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you only ever need one CRP, the entry cost is similar; if you update or generate more than one, an annual plan can work out cheaper.

Which is faster?

Both are quick. CarbonPass targets about 20 minutes by reading your uploaded electricity, gas and fuel bills with AI extraction. Gopher Zero markets a Carbon Reduction Plan "in as little as 30 minutes" using guided manual data entry. If you prefer answering prompted questions to uploading bills, Gopher Zero's workflow may suit you better.

Do both work for NHS bids?

Yes. Both produce a PPN 006-compliant CRP that NHS suppliers can publish and submit. Since April 2024 the NHS applies a carbon requirement to all new procurements proportionately — a full CRP for contracts of £5m/year or more and for frameworks, and a lighter Net Zero Commitment below that. CarbonPass also publishes guidance on the NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment; Gopher Zero markets NHS procurement compliance but does not name Evergreen on its site.