Ohme Home Pro vs myenergi Zappi GLO: tariff brain or solar brain?

Two chargers, two different brains

The Ohme Home Pro at £535 and the myenergi Zappi GLO at £750 are both tethered, both 7kW-class, both IP65. They share a warranty length (three years) and a rating (4.6). What they don't share is where the intelligence lives. The Ohme's brain points outwards, at your energy supplier. The Zappi's points upwards, at your roof.

That £215 difference is the price of the second brain. Whether it's worth paying depends entirely on what's on the roof.

• Ohme Home Pro — the tariff charger. API integration with Octopus, OVO and British Gas; it chases cheap half-hours without supervision.
• myenergi Zappi GLO — the solar charger. Three diversion modes, plugs into the myenergi ecosystem, 22kW three-phase if your property has it.

What the £215 actually buys

Spec sheets make these look like variations on a theme. They aren't. The Zappi GLO's headline trick is Eco+ mode, which will only send the car electricity that would otherwise be exported to the grid — meaning, in summer daylight, free miles. It also talks to myenergi's eddi (hot water diverter) and libbi (battery), so if you've built a whole-house energy system around that ecosystem, the Zappi is the port it plugs into. RFID for 126 users is useful on shared driveways.

The Ohme Home Pro does solar diverting too — built-in, no separate CT clamp — but it's not the point of the charger. The point is that Ohme wrote direct integrations with the major EV tariffs, and Octopus Intelligent Go officially recommends it. On Intelligent Go, Ohme gets you to 7p/kWh hands-off; the Zappi, by contrast, handles tariffs manually, through schedules you set. That's a real gap, not a marketing one.

There's also a built-in 4G SIM on the Ohme, with three years of connectivity included. If your driveway is where Wi-Fi goes to die, that matters. The Zappi is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only.

When the Zappi earns its £750

One scenario: you have solar. Ideally 4kW or more, ideally a south-facing roof, ideally a driving pattern that puts the car on the drive during daylight at least some of the week. In that world, Eco+ is the feature you bought the charger for — the car sips surplus that would otherwise export at a pittance, and you stop doing the mental arithmetic. Add an eddi and a libbi and the Zappi becomes the hub of the system, not an accessory to it.

A second scenario: three-phase supply. The Zappi GLO offers 22kW; the Ohme doesn't. Most UK homes can't use this, but if yours is the exception, the Ohme is off the table before the conversation starts.

Outside those two cases, £750 is a lot of money for a charger whose best features you won't touch. The Tesla Wall Connector at £478 does the physical job for £272 less, and the Ohme Home Pro does the software job better for £215 less.

When the Ohme earns its £535

Every other scenario, basically. If your savings come from a time-of-use tariff rather than a rooftop, the Ohme's API integration is doing the work the Zappi can't. On Octopus Agile, where prices move every half hour, that difference compounds. On Octopus Go or British Gas Electric Drivers, with their fixed off-peak windows, either charger can schedule inside the cheap block — but the Ohme does it with less supervision.

For buyers who want solar handling and the best tariff brain, the honest answer is that no single charger does both perfectly. The Ohme does both competently. The Zappi does solar exceptionally and tariffs adequately. Pick the one your energy savings come from.

The verdict

Buy the Ohme Home Pro if:

• Your cheap electricity comes from a smart tariff, not a roof
• You're on Octopus Intelligent Go or thinking about it
• Your driveway Wi-Fi is patchy and the built-in 4G matters

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels (ideally with an eddi or libbi already, or on the shortlist)
• You have three-phase supply and want 22kW
• You need RFID access for multiple users on a shared driveway

For the majority of readers — single-phase, no solar, smart tariff — the Ohme is the charger on the wall. The Zappi is a brilliant piece of kit aimed at a specific buyer, and if you're that buyer you already know. Everyone else is paying £215 for features that stay switched off. If solar is on the horizon but not installed yet, the best EV charger for solar guide is a better place to decide than this page.