The beating heart of any solar system is its inverter, and nobody knows them better than the experts who work with them daily. It’s time to announce the winners of the 2025 SolarQuotes Installers’ Choice Awards for Best Solar Inverters.
How Did We Survey Our Installers?
At the time of writing, we have a whopping 594 installers in our network across Australia.
161 found the time out of their busy schedules to respond to our survey.
We asked them one simple question:
If installing a system on your own house today, what brand’s solar inverters would you use?
Here are the results. Drumroll, please.
Best Solar Inverters In Australia: 2025
Best Solar Inverters 2025: First Place – Fronius
A Fronius Gen24 inverter, installed by MC Electrical
Surprising no one, high-end Austrian manufacturer Fronius won gold for its 5th straight year, with 26% of the vote.
Their reputation in Australia borders on legendary, known for providing well-supported, reliable products.
The Gen24 series is Fronius’ current residential inverter, featuring a huge central fan and heatsink to keep it cool. Almost all of Fronius’ competitors avoid fans, relying on just a heatsink. The downside of a fan is noise, but the Gen 24 emits only a gentle hum. The upside of a fan is that it keeps the inverter cooler, theoretically improving efficiency and longevity.
Notably, Primo single-phase inverters are battery-ready, but you need to pay about $1,000 when you get your battery to update the inverter software.
On the SolarQuotes website, Fronius inverters have an average consumer review score of 4.8/5 based on over 8,600 reviews—a fantastic average score.
Best Solar Inverters 2025: Second place – Sungrow
A Sungrow SHRT hybrid inverter installed under an awning by DQ Electrical
Sungrow has made it on the podium every year since we started these awards in 2021. This year, they took silver with 19% of the vote.
They have a reputation for being a reliable, midrange inverter brand with a rock-solid battery pairing.
Their SGRS and SGRT comprise their core residential offering, with SHRS and SHRT as their hybrid inverters, designed for pairing with the SBR HV series of batteries.
My Sungrow hybrid inverter and battery setup on my rental property.
On the SolarQuotes website, Sungrow inverters have an average customer review score of 4.7/5 based on over 4,000 reviews.
One disadvantage of the Sungrow hybrid inverter architecture is that the backup circuits go through the inverter in such a way that if the inverter fails, you lose power to those circuits. The simple way to mitigate this is to always install an emergency bypass switch with any Sungrow hybrid inverter.
Best Solar Inverters 2025: Third place – GoodWe
A GoodWe DNS inverter, installed by In Series Electrical and Solar
Taking bronze with 14% of the vote, GoodWe makes reliable budget inverters. They have a reputation for being simple to install and are a favourite among many installers.
Since Goodwe units are thousands of dollars cheaper than premium brands like Fronius, many installers and customers opt for them. At the end of this post, I’ll quantify the price difference between all the winners.
On the SolarQuotees website, Goodwe inverters have an average customer review score of 4.7/5 based on over 2,500 reviews.
Best Solar Inverters 2025: Special Mention – Sigenergy
The top module with the logo is the Sigenergy hybrid inverter module. The two modules below it are batteries. Installed by Energy Solution Centre.
Although it lost out on bronze by two votes to Goodwe, Sigenergy deserves a mention as an up-and-coming brand that burst onto the Australian solar scene in 2024.
It’s the early days, but installers like how easy it is to install and commission Sigenergy units, with a great-looking app that is heavily influenced by Tesla’s app (and that’s a good thing).
Price-wise, they sit between midrange Sungrow and premium-end Fronius.
I filmed the installation of a full Sigenergy system—and was impressed.
What Do They Cost?
Pricing at the inverter level can be seen on my standard inverter and hybrid inverter comparison tables.
To use an example – here’s pricing for a 10kW single-phase inverter:
- Fronius Gen24 10.0 Primo: $3,700
- Sungrow SG10RS: $2,300
- Goodwe GW10K-MS-30: $1,300
- Sigenergy 6.0kW (they don’t do 10kW single phase): $1,800
So the budget Goodwe will save you over $2,000 compared to the premium-end Fronius.
The question for consumers is: Is Fronius’s reputation worth $2k more, compared to the budget Goodwe? That’s a decision for you to make.
Which Installers Use The Winning Inverters?
If you’re looking to get quotes from installers who sell the winning brands, visit my cities list, choose your city, and use the filters to select only the brands you want:
Then, select up to three installers, and hit ‘Get quotes from selected companies’.
Congratulations to this year’s winners – but especially Fronius for winning gold five years in a row.
For more of the best picks from the 2025 Installers’ Choice Awards, take a look at the Best Solar Panels category winners revealed last week.
About Finn Peacock
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Where has SMA gone
In the Abyss where it belongs
I think SMA has lost a lot of customers due to their complicated new software (ennexos). The old web interface and portal were user friendly and logical. The new interfaces are terrible.
Yes, I wonder why SMA isn’t even mentioned. I have had the SMA 3 phase Tripower 15 installed last June ( 2024) and it has just worked flawlessly. Almost everyday this summer it has put out well over 100kWh – Since Jan 1 -> > 4000kWh and its only Feb 4th.
SMA were kings 10 or 15 years ago but they seem to have just fallen off the radar these days.
Being the first to go screenless, taking production from Germany to China & then delivering units that were dead on arrival didn’t help.
Failing to offer a battery & EV charger in Australia doesn’t help either.
Interesting. In Europe they offer BYD Batteries compatibility with their Smart Energy hybrids (built in backup), and EVSE (not very good).
when we had sma sunnyboy inverter installed 13 yrs ago they were the premium brand but ours failed after about 6 months and the largest solar installer at the time went under so contacted sma directly and they replaced my new unit with a reco one it lasted 12 months failed again sma sent another reco unit which is still operating well ,so our next upgrade were thinking fronius but may be better to go for a cheaper alternative as paying a premium didnt work out great the last install
Hi Kevin,
I installed hundreds if not thousands of SMA Sunny Boy 1100, 1700, 2500 plus the later TL5000 & Sunny Tripower. They were bulletproof in my experience.
Later screenless ones weren’t so flash but Fronius have always been excellent in my opinion, other than very early IG series “outdoor” units not really being very weatherproof compared to the incomparable Snap series that followed them.
“Their reputation in Australia borders on legendary, known for providing well-supported, reliable products.” ( Fronius)
We have been trying since November to get an issue rectified with our Fronius Inverter so I take exception to this statement. You can’t ring them and speak with anyone and it seems the installers(Sunboost) cannot get any satisfaction either. After numerous phone calls ( at least 10 to the installer plus to other suppliers) we have been told this week it’s out of warranty – why couldn’t someone have told us this when we first rang? There was nothing on any of our paperwork to indicate how long warranty went for. Warranty is for 5 years our inverter lasted for 5 years 9 months. Regardless, we want it fixed and no one seems to be interested in doing this, everyone is very eager to install systems but it seems no one wants to know you when something goes wrong. We want it fixed and would really appreciate some contact with someone, anyone who is prepared to give us some answers and actually find out what is wrong and fix it. Realise we will have to put our hands of n our pocket but still are not getting anything that resembles customer service.
Hi Michael,
Fronius offered 5+5 warranty for many years so while labour may not be covered I would expect your actual hardware would be.
I would question any sort of advice from Sunboost as they’re known for sidestepping after sales service. Proof positive is found on the review page they can’t pay for here :
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/installer-review/sunboost/
Filter for the one star reviews to see what I mean.
If you want professional service we can help out. Click the orange “I’m ready” button and once you’ve entered a few details there’s space at the end you can copy this complaint in for a new installer to refer to.
I know Fronius support is busy but they have a first rate product.
If you don’t already have one, consider a catch control integrated with the Fronius and use that to manage an electric hot water service.
You may also be struggling for support based on who installed it. The warranty from Fronius is excellent, when the product is installed to their guidelines…
Hi all Thanks for this article. I went for a Fronius 7kw three phase inverter on my build a few years ago as I had a Fronius 2kw in my first build many years ago and it never missed a beat. I realised there was a price penalty to pay but I never have regretted my current choice – again it has been faultless.
My larger system has now paid for itself I think (that wasn’t the aim so I haven’t checked carefully) and I hope to have many more years of good service from it. If I add another system, which I may do, I would be confident in going with Fronius again no problems at all, even given the increased cost.
I understand that may not be a choice available to everyone.
Good to see Sigenergy in fourth place.
We install it in our new house with the 10kW Inverter and 16kWh battery (extendable to 48kWh), plus EV charger. I hope it will be reliable like the Fronius we had before.
Still early days for Sigenergy, but I hear good things. I took the plunge because it is a innovative product. Let’s hope the service will be good too.
Checked in to see how Enphase micro inverters faired in your summary and found no reference at first glance. I have a 5.4Kw roof system and haven’t look back after install with Enphase micro inverters.
We have a 10YO Enphase microinverter situation at home too. I love it but that is only because this article makes me think of it. Would have to say I never think of it except when we get our quarterly energy REFUND!
We also regularly use wattever.com.au to compare feed in tariffs and resultant bills about yearly or so.
How should we interpret the graph at the start of the article?
The graph doesn’t match the reported results…and also exceeds 100%…
42% on the graph for Fronius vs 26% in the report?
David – the graph is raw votes, not percentages 🙂
161 votes total – 42 votes for Fronius = 26% of the total vote
The graph appears to be the number of installers that recommend each brand, and they may select more than one, hence the mismatch in numbers, as they represent two different things. Agree that it could be clearer, though.
I think those are the raw numbers of the 161 installers, David.
Thanks Finn for the invaluable info.
Most interested to see the picture of the awning installed by
DQ electrical.
Would it be practical to review the various methods and
installers who protect the inverters / batteries for those
who have to install in the sun and rain (and snow?)
Regards
Matt Green
The graph at the top of the article seems way out of whack. Is the vertical axis supposed to be denoting the number of votes or the percentage of votes received? I also looked for Enphase, whose products I’m mightily happy with. Maybe next survey needs a question along the lines of which inverters are best in a house strongly impacted by shade.
Michael – number of votes – I have added this clarification to the image.
I chose SolarEdge inverters with my 40kW of PV, mainly because of the heavy shading on my property. It was a difficult choice against Fronius (particularly with a 3-phase supply), but after my first full winter, I suspect I made the correct decision.
The commentary in the article doesn’t really delve into the WHY. I’m pretty sure Fronius didn’t take first place because of their fan. In your reviews, SolarEdge scored 4.7, compared with 4.8 for Fronius and equaling Sungrow.
I’d be keen to understand why SolarEdge only came 7th. Was it because of the support issues you raised several years ago? I can’t change my system, but I’m keen to understand more about it’s pro’s and cons.
Hi Alun,
Solar Edge have always seemed to polarise the installer base. Either you love them or think they’re the red headed stepchild of complexity.
They did have some pretty poor warranty issues too. Inverters that blew up with known problems that took a long time to acknowledge, plus arduous warranty procedure.
They offered a 3 phase hybrid unit that promised to work and was rendered unusable by standards changes.
While much of this has been cleared up(?) the fact they’re based in Israel has I think made them pretty odious to the buying public.
Hey all, I have a GoodWe inverter, it came with the install. They replaced our old system so it’s mounted where the original one was near the meter box, on the Northern side and bakes all day long. I have never had an issue but it cooked itself on 12/12/24.
GoodWe came through with a replacement and we installed a Sunny Covers box so hopefully we are all good.
The one thing not pointed out is the customer satisfaction if warranty work is required. GoodWe sent the new unit ASAP, return of the old unit was a simple online form. What did bite me was the price for replacement labour. “Send us the invoice” they said and “We will pay it”.
Less than hour to swap out the unit but 90 minutes on the phone to configure it – $600+. I send the invoice to be informed they have limits, and inverter replacement is $165.
Just a little tip for bearing in mind if you ever need warranty work.
Thanks for the feedback Peter.
For all installers the technical integration with WiFi, firmware updates & various network rules can be diabolically time consuming.
Sorry you got stung but the struggle is real for many modern systems, GoodWe is no exception.
Whilst it may be the third rated brand of inverter, after my experience with Goodwe and the GW5000-EH inverter, I would recommend against the brand, and, am unlikely to buy another Goodwe inverter.
It is the difference between the installers and the consumers – we are the ones that have to live with the products. And, we are the ones that have to live with the way that the installers deal (or do not properly deal) with the problems.
To the installers, it may be a case of “Well, we have completed that installation. Next”, and, that is the end of it. They do not have to live with the consequences of the failures.
Not very impressive that only 161 of your 594 installers took the trouble to participate in your survey.
This is certainly telling us something, but what id it?
1. Your survey is too difficult or time-consuming to complete.
2. You haven’t “sold” the
m sufficiently on its value to potential customers.
3. Installers are genuinely too frantic to even breathe, let alone scratch themselves.
4. They don’t really like you very much.
5. Like most of us in the real world, they’re sick to death of being surveyed by commercial and other interests.
6. Something else.
The reasons will suggest the appropriate action for you to take, but take action you must, as surveys representing such a small sliver of your base are of little value.
Thanks for the feedback Richard,
In my opinion 27% of the installer base isn’t bad, more than one quarter isn’t exactly a sliver of birthday cake.
We’ll see if we can interest them in a few slices more.
Cheers
Wondering why Tesla features so low in the list when many of the blogs emphasise how easy it is to install the Powerwall 3, other than the weight?
Hi Russ,
I haven’t seen any real complaints but there are murmurs about PW3 being in short supply. They have some issues because unlike PW2, they don’t yet have wireless monitoring for external solar (what used to be called a nurio device) and they aren’t compatible with third party optimisers either.
I wouldn’t think these are show stoppers but for a product that used to “just work” straight out of the box, there have been some problems.
Thanks Anthony. I am aware there is a s….fight going on between Tesla and Solar Victoria, SV demanding (as I understand it) that Tesla open up their software to other APIs, and Tesla refusing to. Supposedly Tesla started same way in California and were forced to open up their software. We have been in limbo for 5 months now waiting for Tesla/SV to resolve their issues and for SV to approve PW3 for their programs.
Hi folks,
We had a Huawei inverter installed with our system in 2020 (5kw due to constraints with roof complexity and space) A local contractor installed the system and prior to Xmas 2024 a fault appeared on phone app indicating the power collector is “faulty”. Contractor (installer) eventually responded to my messages to say that Catchpower has bought out Solar Analytics and he feels that this issue has something to do with a merging of the software and hardware of the 2 monitoring platforms. Sooooo, end of story and have not heard back since from contractor (whom didn’t seem very interested) nor am I able to contact anyone who knows what this actually means to a pleb in this field. I am unsure whether there is any issues concerning solar “consumed” v solar fed back to the grid, is there nothing to worry about here and is it simply a software fix if and when Catchpower decide to update the system. Any advice appreciated.
Hi Ian,
Firstly, under Australian Consumer Law, the installer who took your money is the one responsible for warranty. They can’t palm you off to the wholesaler or manufacturer unless you agree to that.
Seeing as Huawei have withdrawn from Australia, I would contact iStore and ask if they can help.
They’re an Australian operation that are selling Huawei hardware in disguise.
Difference being that they have their own support here is Oz as well as unique local approvals, compliance and monitoring platform. I know they’ve spent a bomb on getting all their products certified so I’d be keen to hear how they might be able to help you out.