Energy Ogre vs. Choose Texas Power

The Short Version

Energy Ogre is a paid concierge service that finds, enrolls, and manages your Texas electricity plan on your behalf, using your actual usage data to match you with the lowest-cost option year after year. Choose Texas Power is a free electricity plan comparison website, and is a sister company of SaveOnEnergy.  On both of their sites, you can search for plans yourself and sign up directly with a provider. 

Both serve the Texas deregulated market, but each business works in fundamentally different ways. If you want someone in your corner handling the entire process, Energy Ogre is built for that. If you prefer to do your own research and just need a place to compare rates, Choose Texas Power gives you a starting point at no cost.

Nine in ten Texas households are overpaying for electricity right now. That is not a guess. It is a pattern Energy Ogre has documented across more than 446,000 member accounts since 2013. The deregulated market gives Texans the power to choose their provider, but having options and knowing how to use them are two very different things.

That gap has created an entire category of services designed to help you shop smarter. Energy Ogre and Choose Texas Power are two of the most recognized names in that space, but they take very different approaches to the same problem. This guide breaks down what each one offers, what it costs, where each service falls short, and which type of shopper gets the most value from each option.

Is that enough insight for you to sign up today? If so, click "Get Started" below. Signing up for Energy Ogre can take five minutes or less.

Get Started

Table of Contents

1. What Each Service Actually Does

2. Side-by-Side Comparison: Energy Ogre vs. Choose Texas Power

3. The Benefits of Using Energy Ogre

4. The Benefits of Using Choose Texas Power

5. The Drawbacks Worth Knowing About

6. Who Should Use Which Service

7. Common Questions About Energy Ogre vs. Choose Texas Power

What Each Service Actually Does

Energy Ogre: A Full-Service Electricity Concierge

Energy Ogre is a subscription-based service that manages your entire electricity experience. You sign up, grant the service access to your Smart Meter Texas data, and from that point forward, Energy Ogre does the rest. The service analyzes your actual hourly usage patterns, not just a monthly average, to find the plan that costs you the least based on how your household really uses electricity.

That analysis is the starting point, not the finish line. Energy Ogre enrolls you in the plan, monitors the market throughout your contract term, and when a better option surfaces or your contract nears expiration, it handles the switch. Billing disputes, provider communication, early termination fee calculations: all managed by the Energy Ogre team. The membership costs $12 per month or $130 per year if you pay annually.

Choose Texas Power: A Free Plan Comparison Website

Choose Texas Power is an online marketplace where you can search for electricity plans by entering your ZIP code. The site displays available plans from multiple retail electricity providers, lets you filter by contract length, plan type, and estimated cost, and links you directly to the provider to sign up. There is no fee to use the platform.

The site earns revenue through commissions paid by the electricity providers listed on the platform. It is not affiliated with the Public Utility Commission of Texas or the PUC's official Power to Choose website, despite the similar name. Once you pick a plan and sign up through the site, the relationship is between you and the provider. Choose Texas Power does not monitor your plan, manage renewals, or get involved if something goes wrong.

Side-by-Side Comparison: Energy Ogre vs. Choose Texas Power

Here is how the two services stack up across the features that matter most to Texas electricity shoppers:

The Benefits of Using Energy Ogre

The most significant advantage is that Energy Ogre removes the guesswork entirely. The average Texas household uses around 1,100 kWh per month according to the EIA, but monthly averages hide the real story. Your usage spikes in August and dips in March. A plan that looks cheap at 1,000 kWh might carry hidden charges that hit harder at 1,500 kWh. Energy Ogre reads your 15-minute interval Smart Meter data and runs every available plan through your actual consumption profile.

That level of analysis takes hours to replicate manually, and most comparison sites do not offer it at all. Energy Ogre also never stops working after enrollment. The Texas electricity market shifts constantly, with new plans appearing and old ones changing terms every week. Energy Ogre watches those shifts and acts when a better deal becomes available, so you are not stuck on an expensive holdover rate because you forgot your contract was expiring.

Independence is another meaningful difference. Energy Ogre has never been owned by or affiliated with any electricity provider since its founding in 2013. The company earns its revenue from membership fees, which means the recommendation you get is based on what saves you the most, not on which provider pays the highest commission.

The Benefits of Using Choose Texas Power

The most obvious benefit is cost: there is none. Choose Texas Power is free, which makes it accessible to every Texas household in a deregulated area regardless of budget. For someone who wants to quickly scan what plans are available in their ZIP code without committing to a subscription, the site delivers that in minutes.

Choose Texas Power also covers both residential and commercial plans, which gives small business owners a single platform to compare options. The site includes provider reviews, editorial guides on topics like choosing between fixed-rate and variable-rate plans, and a filtering system that lets you sort by features like contract length or renewable energy content. For a shopper who already understands the Texas electricity market and just needs a side-by-side view of current rates, that toolset is functional.

The Drawbacks Worth Knowing About

Where Energy Ogre Falls Short

The subscription cost is the first consideration. At $12 per month or $130 per year, Energy Ogre adds $100+ to your annual electricity costs—if you include the cost of our service. For households with very low usage, say under 700 kWh per month, the savings Energy Ogre generates may not justify the membership fee because those members will not save a ton of  money. 

From a financial perspective, the service is best for Texas households who save a significant amount of money. For those members, our service consistently delivers value. But it is worth running the numbers for your specific situation. If you deem convenience and peace of mind, then the cost of membership may be worth it.

Energy Ogre also requires access to your Smart Meter Texas data, which means you need to grant permission for the service to pull your usage history. Some people are uncomfortable with that level of data sharing, even though the information is limited to electricity consumption patterns.

Where Choose Texas Power Falls Short

The biggest limitation is what happens after you pick a plan. Choose Texas Power is a one-time shopping tool. It does not track whether your plan is still competitive six months later. It does not alert you before your contract expires. And it does not intervene if your provider raises rates or changes terms. That responsibility stays with you.

The commission-based revenue model also introduces a layer of complexity. Choose Texas Power displays plans from providers that have a commercial relationship with the platform. That does not mean every recommendation is compromised, but it does mean the plans you see are not necessarily drawn from the full universe of available options in your area. The site acknowledges this with disclosure language, but the average shopper may not notice or fully understand what it means.

There is also the comparison accuracy issue. Choose Texas Power estimates plan costs using standard usage bands of 500 kWh, 1,000 kWh, and 2,000 kWh. If your household consistently uses 1,300 kWh or 850 kWh, the estimates may not reflect what you will actually pay. Tiered pricing, usage credits, minimum usage charges, and time-of-use structures all create plan costs that shift depending on exactly how much electricity you consume. A flat comparison at round numbers misses those nuances.

Who Should Use Which Service

Energy Ogre Is Built For You If:

• You use more than 800 kWh per month and want someone to ensure you are always on the cheapest plan available
• You have been burned by a contract expiration or holdover rate before and want that managed automatically
• You value having a team that handles provider disputes, billing questions, and renewals without your involvement
• You want recommendations based on your actual usage data, not generic estimates
• You value convenience and peace of mind—and you don't want to waste time or worry about your bill each month

Choose Texas Power Is Built For You If:

• You are comfortable researching electricity plans on your own and just want a place to compare current options
• You use a relatively low amount of electricity and want to avoid any subscription costs
• You are a small business owner looking to quickly compare commercial rates
• You already understand Electricity Facts Labels, tiered pricing structures, and early termination fees well enough to evaluate plans without help

Common Questions About Energy Ogre vs. Choose Texas Power

Is Choose Texas Power really free?

Yes. There is no fee to search, compare, or sign up for a plan through Choose Texas Power. The platform earns revenue from commissions paid by the electricity providers listed on the site, which means you are not paying directly but the providers you see are the ones that have a commercial relationship with the platform.

Does Energy Ogre lock me into a long-term commitment?

No. Energy Ogre membership can be canceled at any time. The monthly option is $12 per month with no contract, and the annual plan is $130 per year. Your electricity contract with the provider Energy Ogre enrolls you in will have its own terms, but the Energy Ogre membership itself is flexible.

Is Choose Texas Power the same as Power to Choose?

No. Power to Choose (powertochoose.org) is the official shopping tool run by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Choose Texas Power (choosetexaspower.org) is a privately operated comparison marketplace run by Save On Energy LLC, which is owned by Red Ventures. The similar names create confusion, but they are entirely separate organizations with different business models.

Can Energy Ogre save me money even after paying the membership fee?

For most Texas households, yes. Energy Ogre reports that the average member saves significantly more than the cost of membership. The savings come from matching your specific usage pattern to the plan with the lowest true cost, something that is nearly impossible to replicate with a comparison tool that uses standardized usage bands. Households with higher usage tend to see the largest dollar savings.

What if I want to use Choose Texas Power to research and Energy Ogre to manage?

You can browse Choose Texas Power to get a general sense of market rates, but once you sign up with Energy Ogre, the service handles your plan selection based on a much deeper analysis of your usage. There is no conflict in using both, but the plans Energy Ogre identifies may not appear on Choose Texas Power since the comparison site only displays plans from its partner providers.

Making the Right Call for Your Household

The Texas electricity market gives you options, but options without the right information are just noise. Choose Texas Power offers a free starting point for shoppers who prefer to do the work themselves. Energy Ogre offers something different: an expert team that does the work for you, using data most comparison sites do not have access to, and stays on it long after you have picked a plan.

For the majority of Texas households, the question is not whether you can save on electricity. You almost certainly can. The question is whether you want to manage that process yourself or hand it to someone whose only job is to keep your bill as low as possible. That is the real difference between these two services.

See How Much Energy Ogre Can Save You