GivEnergy vs Solis: which inverter works better with Octopus smart tariffs?

GivEnergy and Solis are two of the most common home battery inverter brands in the UK. Both are well-regarded, widely installed, and have broadly similar hardware specifications at comparable price points. For most homeowners, the choice comes down to installer preference and price.

But if you are on an Octopus smart tariff — or planning to be — there are meaningful differences in how each system exposes itself to external control. Those differences affect what you can and cannot automate.

How GivEnergy handles external access

GivEnergy operates a cloud platform called GivTCP (for local API access) and the GivEnergy cloud API. The cloud API allows third-party systems to read:

• Battery state of charge
• Solar generation rate
• Grid import and export
• Current operating mode

It also allows write commands — specifically, the ability to change the inverter's operating mode, set charge/discharge targets, and control time-of-use schedules remotely.

This write access is what makes GivEnergy particularly useful for smart tariff coordination. GivEnergy has published integrations for Octopus Agile, allowing the inverter to read half-hourly prices and schedule battery charging into the cheapest slots automatically. For homes on Agile, this is a genuine advantage.

GivTCP also provides a local API over the home network that does not require cloud connectivity — useful if you want to avoid cloud dependency or run a self-hosted home energy management system.

How Solis handles external access

Solis uses the SolisCloud platform. The SolisCloud API provides read access to the same core data: battery SoC, solar generation, grid flow, and operating state. The API is well-documented and used by a number of third-party platforms.

Solis's write API — the ability to send control commands to the inverter — is available but requires an approved access arrangement. Consumer-facing write access is more restricted than GivEnergy's, and the process for gaining API write access for third-party software has historically been less straightforward.

This does not make Solis a bad choice. The SolisCloud read API is reliable, and for monitoring and reporting — understanding what your system is doing — it is fully capable. But for automated control (dynamically adjusting charge windows based on Agile prices, for example), the write API situation is more complex.

What this means for smart tariff users

On Octopus Go (fixed window): Both GivEnergy and Solis handle this well. You set a charge schedule in the inverter app, it runs nightly, no external control needed. The fixed Go window is predictable enough that inverter-native scheduling is sufficient.

On Octopus Intelligent Go (dynamic dispatch): Neither GivEnergy nor Solis has a native integration with Octopus Intelligent Go's dispatch signals. When Octopus dispatches a daytime EV charging session, neither inverter receives that signal. The battery-drain conflict described in other articles affects both brands equally.

The difference: with GivEnergy's write API, a coordination layer can instruct the inverter to hold battery charge when a session is detected. With Solis, this control path requires a more involved integration.

On Octopus Agile: GivEnergy has a published native integration that reads half-hourly prices and schedules charging accordingly. For Agile users, this is a meaningful advantage — it removes the need for third-party software and works out of the box.

Solis on Agile requires either a third-party platform with Solis write API access or manual schedule management. Some home energy management platforms (including 1app.energy) handle this via the SolisCloud API with approved write access.

Other practical differences

Monitoring: Both platforms have consumer apps with generation, consumption, and battery state data. GivEnergy's app is generally considered slightly more detailed for battery management. SolisCloud's app has a cleaner interface for monitoring generation.

Warranty and support: GivEnergy is a UK company with UK-based support. Solis is a Chinese manufacturer with UK distribution through installers. For warranty claims, GivEnergy's UK-direct support is generally quicker to reach.

Price: Solis systems are typically priced slightly lower at comparable specifications. The gap is not dramatic but is a factor for cost-sensitive installations.

Which should you choose?

If smart tariff automation is a priority and you are planning to be on Octopus Agile, GivEnergy's native integration is a genuine differentiator. The write API access and published Agile support give it an advantage for homes that want the battery to work automatically with half-hourly prices.

If you are on Go or Intelligent Go and using a whole-home coordination platform that handles the session detection layer, the difference between the two systems is smaller. Both can be coordinated externally — the implementation complexity differs, not the achievable outcome.

If you already have a Solis system installed, this is not a reason to replace it. The coordination capabilities exist; the path to them is just slightly more involved.

See which inverters 1app.energy supports and how coordination works in practice — or check the integrations page for current status.