In Wood Mackenzie’s latest ranking of inverter manufacturers, there is one company at the top of the ranking, which is a surprise given the challenges the company is facing.
Who were the top 10 inverter manufacturers in the first half of 2025?
Wood Mackenzie’s Global Solar Inverter Manufacturer Rankings H1 2025 report ranked 23 leading manufacturers from seven countries. The ten largest solar inverter manufacturers in the reporting period were:
Eight of the ten manufacturers listed above are currently included in SolarQuotes’ recommended solar inverter brands list.
You can follow the links in the table to view reviews and ratings of the brands from Australian customers. As for the opinions of Australian installers, we surveyed our installer network and they voted that the best solar inverters in 2025 are from Fronius, followed by Sungrow and GoodWe.
Just a quick note about Huawei: it was a SolarQuotes approved brand until early 2024, but then their inverters stopped shipping here. However, Huawei continued to produce solar inverters for the Australian market under the iStore brand name; This is a local company that sells and supports the products. iStore is currently in our recommended brands list.
Rankings are not about the sales volume of inverters
If Wood Mackenzie’s top 10 list were based solely on shipping volume, things would look very different.
For example, the German SMA has been struggling with tough competition from China for some time, and SMA recently announced further job cuts. In the first nine months of 2025, SMA generated consolidated sales of 1,134.7 million euros, an increase compared to the previous year. However, sales in the Home & Business Solutions division continued to be impacted by weak demand and competitive pricing pressure. fell by a whopping 38.7%.
So why did SMA end up in third place? For the purposes of this report, Wood Mackenzie said it evaluated providers based on eight weighted criteria; Be:
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) (30%),
- Customer service (15%)
- Research and development (15%)
- Supply chain stability (15%)
- Capacity utilization (10%)
- Certifications (5%)
- Financial Conditions (5%)
- Manufacturing experience (5%).
However, the inclusion of SMA and especially its high ranking gives me a bit of a headache. I haven’t read the full report to see all the numbers and reasoning, nor do I intend to pay $5,990 to access it, but Wood Mackenzie mentions in the accompanying press release:
“The strongest performers are those that leverage regionalized assembly strategies. This strategic positioning allows manufacturers to meet local content requirements and overcome import barriers while maintaining their supply reliability.”
Headquartered in Scotland, Wood Mackenzie has been reporting on the solar industry for over a decade, most notably with its acquisition of Greentech Media (GTM Research) in 2015. The company has been tracking the resources industry for over 50 years and began covering the oil market in 1973.
Choose an inverter for your home
An inverter is the real workhorse of a solar power system and the component most likely to fail first. These devices have a hard life processing all the electricity generated by the solar panels for domestic use or grid export; and often under harsh environmental conditions.
If you are considering installing a solar power system on a budget and want to cut corners to save costs, choose the right solution.
Your best bet is to focus on minimizing the cost of the solar panels – they’re currently super cheap among our recommended budget solar panel brands – and buy the best inverter possible. The additional benefits of expensive premium panels may not be significant enough in a standard installation scenario to justify their use.
High-quality solar inverters are usually significantly more expensive than inexpensive devices. An Austrian-made Fronius inverter will cost you about $1,000 more than a Chinese-made Sungrow of the same power.
For a 10 kW solar system based on low-cost modules such as Aiko Neostar 2S modules (approximately $138 MSRP each) rather than premium modules (e.g. REC 460W Alpha Pure-RX modules at $280 each), this represents a saving on the total system purchase price of around $3,000 – not to be sniffed at a nice little thing that could go into a premium inverter. And don’t forget that even the best equipment can be compromised by poor installation. Therefore, choosing a good solar installer is crucial.
Learn more about choosing the best inverter for your circumstances.
Comments are closed.