Plan names are marketing.
We review what's underneath.
Free days, free nights, bill credits, $50 checks in the mail. Every plan below gets the same treatment: what the ad says, next to what the fine print says.
Bill credit High gimmick 4Change Energy Maxx Saver
The credit is real and the advertised rate is genuinely cheap — if you clear 1,000 kWh every single month. Miss the floor once and that month costs you nearly triple the headline rate. Check twelve months of usage before you sign, not one.
Read the review →
Bill credit Medium gimmick Frontier Saver Plus 12
The cheap rate is real — for homes that clear 1,000 kWh every single month of the year. Miss the floor once and the $125 credit vanishes whole; Frontier is a good company, but this plan only fits people who know their usage cold.
Read the review →
Free nights High gimmick Green Mountain Energy Pollution Free All Nighter
The free window is real, but on the last public pricing sheet only the energy charge goes to zero — and the daytime rate is set high enough to pay for the giveaway twice: once for the free nights, once for the green label. Below roughly 62% overnight usage by our math, a plain fixed plan wins.
Read the review →
Free nights High gimmick Reliant Truly Free Nights & Weekends
The free hours genuinely zero out — energy and delivery both. But at August 2026 pricing the paid hours run roughly triple a plain fixed rate, so the plan doesn't win until about two-thirds of your usage lands in the free window — a bar even Reliant's own 42% assumption doesn't clear.
Read the review →
Bill credit High gimmick Gexa Eco Saver Plus 12
The $125 credit is real — every month your usage clears the floor. Miss it once and this 'cheap green plan' bills at nearly triple its advertised rate, because the everyday rate underneath is one of the highest Gexa sells.
Read the review →
Free nights High gimmick Direct Energy Twelve Hour Power
The 12 free hours are real — and so is the daytime rate that pays for them: about 26¢ average at typical usage against 15¢ for Direct Energy's own plain fixed plans, per August 2026 listings. Unless roughly two-thirds of your usage lands in the free window, the boring plan wins.
Read the review →
Free nights High gimmick TXU Energy Free Nights & Solar Days
TXU pulled this plan off the shelf in June 2026, but the math outlives the name: nine genuinely free hours, priced into the fifteen paid ones that carry your AC. Unless 35% of your power burns after 8 p.m., a plain fixed rate beats it — and beats its Cool Summer replacement too.
Read the review → Free days High gimmick TXU Energy Free Pass 12
The free days are real. So is the rate that pays for them. Most homes come out ahead on a plain fixed-rate plan.
Read the review → Seasonal discount High gimmick TXU Season Pass
The 50% discount is real — for four months. The other eight months carry a rate high enough to pay it back. Homes with huge seasonal swings can break even; most homes do better on a plain fixed rate.
Read the review → Bill credit High gimmick TXU Energy Smart Deal 12
The $50 credit is real — in months you burn 1,200 kWh or more. Every other month you're paying one of the highest plain rates in Texas, with no discount at all.
Read the review → Bill credit High gimmick TXU Energy Smart Edge 12
The $50 credit is real — in months you cross 800 kWh. But the plan only beats a plain fixed rate in a narrow band around 1,000 kWh; miss the floor and you're paying one of TXU's steepest effective rates with nothing back.
Read the review →How these reviews work
Electric companies name plans the way cereal boxes name flavors: Free Pass, Truly Free, Season Pass, Bill Credit Bundle. The name tells you the hook. It never tells you the rate.
So we go get the rest: the mailers, the footnotes, and the pricing fact sheet (the EFL) every company must publish. Then we put the marketing claim next to the fine print and do the math at real usage levels.
We don't sell any of these plans. Nobody pays to be reviewed — or to avoid being reviewed. When a plan is a fine deal, we say that too.
Compare real prices instead
See what every plan actually costs at your usage — gimmicks included.