Apples to Apples, Ohio: What It Is and How to Use It

If you've shopped for electricity in Ohio, you've probably been pointed to energychoice.ohio.gov — the site everyone calls “Apples to Apples.” It's the official state tool, it's legitimate, and it's free. But it's a plain directory of offers organized by utility, and it leaves the harder work — judging an offer against your default rate and spotting the fine print — to you. This is the plain-English guide: what Apples to Apples is, how to use it step by step, what it compares offers against, and what to watch for so you don't overpay.

What Apples to Apples actually is

Apples to Apples is the official electricity and natural gas comparison tool for Ohio, operated by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)— the state agency that regulates Ohio's utilities. Ohio opened its electricity market to competition in 1999, which means you can choose who supplies your power. Apples to Apples is where the state collects every licensed supplier's offers in one place so you can compare them. Every licensed competitive supplier is eligible to list there, and it's free for shoppers.

Its value is neutrality. Unlike third-party comparison sites (including Volt Butler), Apples to Apples doesn't earn commissions or advertising revenue — it's a public resource funded through PUCO. That makes it the authoritative place to see the full field of licensed offers. We're an independent guide to it; we're not Apples to Apples and we're not affiliated with PUCO. The tool also covers natural gas, though this guide stays focused on electricity.

One feature shapes everything about how you use it: Apples to Apples is organized by utility territory. The offers available to a household in Columbus served by AEP Ohio are not the same set a household in Cleveland served by The Illuminating Company sees. You compare within your own utility's territory, against your own utility's default rate.

The important thing to understand is what it is not: it's a directory, not a recommendation engine. It lists what suppliers submit, but it doesn't vet those offers for real-world value or tell you which one actually costs the least for your home. That gap is where most shoppers get tripped up.

How to use Apples to Apples: step by step

The basic flow is straightforward:

Step 1: Choose your utility

Because the tool is utility-specific, the first thing it asks is which of Ohio's utilities delivers your power. Your delivery utility is fixed by where you live and never changes when you switch suppliers — it still owns the wires, reads the meter, and restores service after a storm. What you're choosing is the supplier of the electricity itself.

Step 2: Read the columns

Each offer on Apples to Apples shows a standard set of fields: the supplier name, the price per kilowatt-hour, the term(a number of months, or “Month-to-Month”), the rate type (fixed, variable, or indexed), the renewable content as a percentage, the monthly fee if any, and the early-termination fee for leaving a fixed contract early. Those columns are the contract in miniature. The price is the headline; the term, the rate type, and the two fees are what decide whether the headline holds.

Step 3: Sort, then sanity-check

You can sort the list by rate, term, or rate type. Sorting by rate is the obvious move, and it's useful — but the lowest number isn't automatically the best deal, because a low rate paired with a short introductory term or a monthly fee can cost more over a year than a slightly higher clean rate. Before you trust any headline, look at the term and the rate type next to it.

What it compares against: the Standard Service Offer

A rate means nothing without a benchmark, and in Ohio that benchmark is the Standard Service Offer (SSO). The SSO is your default supply rate — the price you pay for electricity if you never choose a competitive supplier. Your utility bills it, but the rate itself is set through competitive auctions overseen by PUCOrather than by the utility picking a number. It's Ohio's equivalent of the “price to compare” you'll hear about in other deregulated states.

This is the number every Apples to Apples offer has to beat. A competitive plan saves you money only if its rate is below your SSO; a plan priced above your SSO costs you more than doing nothing. So the honest way to read the tool is to find your current SSO first, then judge each offer against it. Compare your SSO to offers in your own utility's territory — not to a rate from a different utility or a different season, which won't apply to your bill. Each utility's SSO and the offers measured against it live on its hub; for example, the AEP Ohio Standard Service Offer page lays out the current default rate.

One Ohio wrinkle worth knowing: if your community runs a governmental aggregation program, your default supply may be the aggregation rate your city or county negotiated rather than the utility SSO. In that case, the rate on your bill — not the SSO — is the number a competitive offer has to beat. Check your bill to see which rate you're actually on before you compare.

What Apples to Apples does well, and what to watch

Apples to Apples does the most important thing right: it is a single, neutral, government-run list of every licensed supplier's offers, with the key fields standardized so you can line offers up side by side. That neutrality is genuinely valuable, and it's the reason we use energychoice.ohio.gov as the primary source for our own Ohio data. Start there for the complete field of offers.

What it doesn't do is tell you which offer is actually a good deal for your home. Because it's a neutral directory, it lists gimmicks and honest plans with equal billing and leaves the judgment to you. Watch for:

• Teaser and introductory rates. A low headline rate can be a short promotional period, after which the rate resets — often higher. The term column tells you how long the rate is guaranteed; a one- or two-month term next to a very low rate is a flag.
• Variable rates that move. A variable or indexed rate can change every month. It may start below your SSO and climb above it. If you want price certainty, filter for a fixed rate with a stated term.
• Monthly fees. A flat monthly charge can erase the savings from a rate that looked lower than your SSO. A plan at a few tenths of a cent below the SSO with a monthly fee can cost more than staying put.
• Early-termination fees.Leaving a fixed contract early can trigger a flat fee charged by the supplier, not the utility. It's a column on the listing — read it before you sign, especially if you might move.

None of this means Apples to Apples is doing anything wrong — it's a neutral government directory, and that neutrality is its job. It just means the work of separating an honest plan from a gimmick is left to you. That's the gap an independent guide fills: we take the same energychoice.ohio.gov data and rank offers by what you'd actually pay, flagging the fine print, on our best Ohio electricity plans page.

The six Ohio utilities

Because Apples to Apples is utility-specific, the offers and the SSO you see depend on which of Ohio's six investor-owned utilities serves you. Each has its own service territory and its own default rate:

• AEP Ohio — central and eastern Ohio, including the Columbus area.
• Duke Energy Ohio — southwestern Ohio, including Cincinnati.
• Ohio Edison — northeastern and central Ohio.
• The Illuminating Company — greater Cleveland.
• Toledo Edison — northwestern Ohio, including Toledo.
• AES Ohio — the Dayton area.

If you're not sure which utility serves you, your electric bill names it, and our city guides — for instance Columbus or Cleveland — map the territory and the local default rate.

A simpler rule for reading any listing

If you take one habit from this guide: find your SSO, then read the term and fees before the rate. A clean, fixed-rate offer for a term you want, with no monthly fee and a rate below your Standard Service Offer, is almost always a safer choice than whatever sits at the very top of the rate sort. Apples to Apples will show you the full field honestly; the judgment about which offer fits your home is the part it leaves to you. For how to weigh the rest of the fine print, see how to choose an electricity company.

Frequently asked questions

What is Apples to Apples in Ohio?

Apples to Apples is Ohio's official electricity and natural gas comparison tool, run by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) at energychoice.ohio.gov. It lists the offers from every licensed competitive supplier in your utility's territory — each offer's rate, term, rate type, renewable content, monthly fee, and early-termination fee — so you can compare them against your utility's default Standard Service Offer. It's free and government-run.

Is Apples to Apples free?

Yes. It's a public resource operated by PUCO, so there's no charge to browse offers or use it to choose a supplier.

Who runs Apples to Apples?

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) — the state agency that regulates Ohio's utilities — runs it at energychoice.ohio.gov. Every licensed competitive supplier in Ohio's deregulated market is eligible to post offers there.

What is the Standard Service Offer, and how does Apples to Apples compare to my default rate?

The Standard Service Offer (SSO) is Ohio's default supply rate — what you pay if you never choose a competitive supplier. Your utility charges it, but the rate is set through competitive auctions overseen by PUCO. The SSO is the benchmark on Apples to Apples: a competitive offer only saves you money if its rate is below your SSO. Compare each offer to your current SSO, not to a rate from a different utility or season.

Does Apples to Apples cover natural gas too?

Yes. The same PUCO tool at energychoice.ohio.gov covers both electricity and natural gas. This guide focuses on electricity, but the gas section works the same way: pick your gas utility, compare the listed offers against your default rate, and read the term and fees before enrolling.