The expert take
How we pick Texas electricity plans — and what we'd choose
Last updated: July 2026
We're the team behind ComparePower, a live Texas electricity marketplace. We enroll real customers every day and watch how their plans behave after the sign-up screen — where the bill credit quietly disappears, where the "free" nights get paid back in the daytime rate, which contracts look cheap for exactly one month of the year.
So here's how we'd choose, in the order we'd choose it, and the mistakes that trip people up. Not a list of products — retail rates and plan IDs change daily, and a hardcoded "our #1 pick" would be stale by tomorrow. What doesn't change is the structure: how these plans are built, and which structures reward you versus punish you. That's what we'll show you here. For the full ranking methodology, see our editorial standards.
How we'd pick, in order
Work down this list for any plan you're considering. If a plan fails an early step, the later ones rarely rescue it.
Start from true cost at your usage — not the teaser rate
The rate on the ad is set at 2,000 kWh, a number most Texas homes never hit. We recompute the whole bill at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh before we trust a single plan. A plan that looks cheap at one tier gets exposed the second you price it at the other two. Find your usage on last summer's bill, then judge every plan at that number.
Prefer a fixed rate unless you have a reason not to
A fixed rate locks your price per kWh for the whole term. A variable rate can move month to month, and it almost always moves up — often right after a low intro month, with no ceiling and no warning. Unless you genuinely want the freedom to leave any month with no penalty, fixed wins. Pick variable on purpose, not by accident.
Skip bill-credit plans unless you clear the threshold every month
This is the trap we see burn the most people. A plan advertises a $100 credit at 1,000 kWh — great, until the month you use 950. Miss the threshold by a hair and the credit vanishes entirely, so your effective rate spikes on exactly the low-usage month you thought you were saving. It's a cliff, not a slope. Only take a bill-credit plan if your usage reliably clears the line in every billing cycle, all year.
Take free-nights only if you can truly shift your usage
Free nights and time-of-use plans give away power in one window and charge more in the other. Somebody pays for the free hours — and it's you, through an inflated daytime rate. The math only works if you can move roughly a third or more of your usage into the free window. If you can't run the dryer, the dishwasher, and the EV charger overnight, the daytime rate quietly eats the savings.
Watch base charges and minimum-usage fees
A flat monthly base charge and a minimum-usage fee both punish the same household — the one that doesn't use much. A $9.95 base charge is small on a big bill and brutal on a small one. If you're in an apartment or a low-usage home, a plan with no base charge often beats a lower per-kWh rate that carries one.
Read the exit terms before you sign
Know the early-termination fee before the contract, not after. Some run $150; some charge per remaining month. If the plan offers a satisfaction guarantee, learn the window — usually the first 60 days — so you can walk without penalty if the first bill isn't what you were promised.
The cliff, in numbers
Why one slow month wrecks a bill-credit plan
Say the plan pays a $100 credit when you use 1,000 kWh or more. Use 1,000 and the credit lands — your effective rate looks unbeatable. Use 950, one mild month, and you get nothing. Not a smaller credit. Zero.
That's a $100 swing over 50 kWh. The plan didn't get slightly more expensive — it fell off a cliff. This is why we tell people to check their lowest month, not their average. If any month of the year risks dipping under the line, the plan is a gamble dressed as a discount.
What we'd pick by situation
The right structure depends on your home. Here's the shape of plan we'd steer each type of household toward — then price the live options yourself.
Most households
A straightforward 12-month fixed rate with no bill credit
Predictable price, no cliff to fall off, no window to hit. Boring is the point.
Browse fixed-rate plansLow-usage apartment (under ~800 kWh)
A low or zero base charge, and no minimum-usage fee — skip bill credits entirely
Small bills get wrecked by flat fees and unmet credit thresholds. Guard the fine print, not the headline rate.
Electricity for apartmentsHigh, predictable usage
A bill-credit plan CAN win — but only if you clear the threshold every single month
The credit is real money when you reliably earn it. Check your lowest-usage month, not your average, before you commit.
Compare all plansWant green power
100% renewable, fixed rate — then compare the true-cost premium
Green plans have narrowed the gap. Price the clean plan against a comparable brown one so you know exactly what the choice costs.
Green energy plansBad credit or no deposit
Prepaid or a no-deposit plan — know the trade-offs going in
You skip the deposit and the credit check. In return you often pay as you go and lose some of the cheapest fixed rates. Fair trade for many, worth understanding first.
No-deposit plansWant to browse by plan type or term first? Start from the full electricity plans list, the plans by type hub, or plans across Texas.
See this applied to your real options
Enter your ZIP and we'll rank the live plans on your meter exactly this way — true cost at your usage, cliffs and base charges included, teaser rates set aside.
Rank my real plansWhy trust this
Every recommendation here comes from named advocates — Brad Gregory, Enri Zhulati, and Han Hwang — who read Electricity Facts Labels for a living. No anonymous "editorial team." You can meet them on our About page.
And we earn the same flat referral fee no matter which plan you enroll in. No provider can buy a better spot in this guidance, because there's no spot to buy — the advice keys off plan structure, not brand. That independence is spelled out in full in our editorial standards.