Solar monitoring apps are designed to make energy management at home easier. However, when the user experience is dominated by constant crashes, confusing interfaces, and inaccurate information, some apps only make things more difficult. Here is an overview of the worst-rated solar monitoring apps available in Australia.
Which solar monitoring apps are poorly rated?
Following on from last week’s story about the best solar monitoring apps in Australia, we now take a look at the lowest-rated options for phones on Google Play and the Apple App Store at the time of writing.
Interestingly, some of the worst-rated apps are associated with well-known inverter brands like Fronius – which just goes to show that good solar manufacturers are not necessarily good app developers.
If you want to purchase a specific brand of inverter but don’t want to use its monitoring platform, a third-party solution like Catch Control is an option, but it comes with an additional hassle.
Growatt ShinePhone
Google Play Store: average rating of 2.1 out of 5
Apple App Store: 1.8 out of 5 average ratings
What users liked: Some customers say it is sufficient for basic solar monitoring.
What users have complained about: Very buggy and annoying to set up, frequent dongle resets, app freezing, slow data updates that can take more than 5 minutes each), lacks advanced features to adjust important settings, chart colors are too similar, weather forecasts are inaccurate.
You can find more information about the Growatt inverters used with the app in our test report.
Fronius Solar.web
Google Play Store: average rating of 2 out of 5
Apple App Store: 1.9 out of 5 average ratings
What users liked: Some customers have welcomed the removal of a paywall for some features and an improved user interface.
What users have complained about: App freezes, inconsistent data display, difficulty logging in and two-factor authentication, a history of important paywalling features, missing error codes, poor support.
You can find more information about Fronius inverters used with the app in our test report.
Goodwe SEMS portal
Google Play Store: average rating of 2.5 out of 5
Apple App Store: 1.8 out of 5 average ratings
What users liked: Good presentation.
What users have complained about: App crashes after updates, missing consumption data, connection problems with new routers, broken landscape mode, long-standing complaints are not processed.
For more information about the Goodwe inverters used with the app, see our review.
SolisCloud
Google Play Store: average rating of 2.5 out of 5
Apple App Store: average rating of 2.4 out of 5
What users liked: Timely notifications of device failures, good historical data.
What users have complained about: Difficult setup, difficult/impossible login, difficult to contact support, complex menus, “real-time” data updates delayed by several minutes.
You can find more information about Solis inverters in our test report.
For solar monitoring apps that offer a more engaging user experience, see our roundup of the top-rated solar monitoring apps in Australia.
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