If you want the best solar battery for your home, you’ve probably considered the Tesla Powerwall 3— Good value, great specs, and solid reviews. We can’t argue with that. But it’s 2025— are there good alternatives to the Tesla Powerwall 3?
Yep, we think there are.
Why Look for an Alternative to The Tesla Powerwall?
We were very skeptical when we started installing Tesla products a few years ago. We had to fight through administrative issues, constantly follow-up with various parts of the Tesla team to get certified, and were given essentially no discount, and in fact sometimes charged more than an end consumer for the same product.
(don’t worry, this is because Tesla has an arm that serves distribution, and an arm that sells direct, and, well, those parts of the company compete with each other 🤦).
But it turns out, the product is actually good.
We sold around 50 Tesla Powerwall 3’s last year, and found them to be reliable, powerful, and flexible— they easily work with pretty much any home solar system.
So what’s changed?
Not much. The product is still good, and the admin is, well, not. The product seems to be permanently back-ordered 3+ months, and if you have looked at the news in the last few weeks, well— We found ourselves wanting to find an alternative company that we believe in. From looking to Reddit and our vendors, I know that we are not alone.
The Best Tesla Powerwall Alternative: FranklinWH aPower 2
FranklinWH has been a Tesla Powerwall competitor for quite a while, and their product functions in a very similar way to the Powerwall. That’s good, because the design of both products is excellent.
The previous generation of batteries from Franklin has been highly praised in the industry, but the newest generation is by far the most exciting. The power output is twice that of its predecessor (jumping from 5kW to 10kW), which puts it on par with the Powerwall 3.
The aPower 2 checks almost all the same boxes that the Powerwall 3 does (except for DC-coupling), but it has some big advantages as well.
FranklinWH also just announced that they are releasing the aPower S, which will support DC-coupling, meaning you can use it as the inverter for your PV array, just like you would a Powerwall.
Major advantages over the Powerwall 3:
- Supports generator input.
- Can power loads & charge battery from generator
- Supports more PV per battery (when AC-coupling)
- Smart Circuit Control (enable / disable circuits through the app)
- 15 year warranty (One of the best in the industry)
Here’s a quick comparison of the FranklinWH aPower 2 vs. Tesla Powerwall 3:
| Feature | FranklinWH aPower 2 | Tesla Powerwall 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Max Output | 10 kW (15 kW peak) | 11.5 kW |
| Energy Capacity (kWh) | 15 kWh | 13.5 kWh |
| Max AC Coupled Solar | 12 kW | 7.6 kW |
| Generator Support | Yes | No |
| Smart Circuits | Yes | No |
| Battery Chemistry | Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) | Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) |
| Warranty | 15 years | 10 years |
To us, FranklinWH seems to be the best alternative to the Tesla Powerwall at the moment, but there are some other options, which can make sense for different types of systems.
And I’m sure you’ve guessed it already, but Virtue Solar is a certified installer of FranklinWH batteries.
What other Tesla Powerwall 3 Competitors are there?
We value simplicity and reliability highly, so while we think FranklinWH checks those boxes better than the competition, there are still plenty of other options:
Enphase
If you are working within the Enphase ecosystem, then Enphase batteries are a good option. We’ve found them to be more finicky to work with, but they still have good performance and features. Enphase’s service team is incredible, and they’ve won over the internet in terms of general reliability.
Enphase batteries don’t work with other inverters, so they only are an option if you already have their microinverters, or are planning an installation with them.
They are releasing a new line of batteries this year (10C), which hopefully will see improvements, but we’re still not sure if that will really be comparable to the Powerwall in terms of price, specs, and performance. The 5P has good output, and is scalable, but the main drawbacks we’ve found in the field are:
- Takes up a lot of space – For batteries, accessories, and the gateway/ system controller itself
- Limited generator support – It’s very limited in terms of what generators are compatible, and then you have to size it just right with the PV and battery.
- Commissioning / firmware issues – Especially if retrofitting with older Envoys, we’ve found the software to be more prone to glitches, and in some instances have needed Enphase to come out to site to rectify it.
We swear by Enphase’s microinverters, and their company is rock solid in terms of support, so we still think these are a viable option, but it may not be a 100% seamless experience, as it seems like they are still updating things and working out some kinks in their system.
Generac PWRcell 2
Generac sounds like they may be climbing back up the ranks in the solar battery world. Their first-gen PWRcell is infamous because it coincided with Pink Energy going out of business, and suing Generac for all the failures. To their credit, it sounds like Generac has stood behind their product, corrected faulty designs, and stayed the course on honoring warranties.
Their system does require proprietary optimizers if you want to DC-couple it, which were a source of trouble in the past. If you AC-couple, (so you can have Enphase micros on the roof, for example) then it supports 7.6kW of AC power per unit. This increases reliability (in our mind), but takes away the advantage of DC-coupling, and will take up more space due to the additional hybrid inverter.
The inverter & battery also have a 10-year warranty, which is comparable to Tesla Powerwall 3, but shorter than Enphase or FranklinWH. Once their new gen product has a little more time in the market, this could be a good option for those that want a single-product ecosystem, and that need generator support, or if you really want a DC-coupled solution for whole-home battery backup.
Primary benefits of PWRcell 2 over Tesla Powerwall 3:
- Generator integration
- Better scalability of battery
- Integration with EcoBee thermostats, for extra smart-home visibility & control
- DC Coupled option (same as PW3)
SolArk
SolArk is popular with some companies, but is a completely different concept than the Powerwall or FranklinWH batteries. It is not a battery, it’s a hybrid inverter designed to work with lots of different types of batteries. We’ve seen lots of issues with a-la-carte battery systems in the past (think Schneider & Outback Power), and prefer the battery backup components to all be managed by one company. That way the battery company isn’t pointing fingers at the inverter company, and vise-versa. A lot of folks like to pair these with EG4 batteries, which are much more affordable, but comparing this to the Powerwall 3 is a bit of an apples to oranges situation.
If you were considering a Powerwall 3 for a ground-mounted installation, then SolArk could be a good fit, since you wouldn’t be adding rooftop electronics (Optimizers or RSD components), but if it were us, we’d probably still stick with a reliable string inverter like SMA or Fronius, and pair that with a FranklinWH battery.
The other time when SolArk may be a great option is if you are designing a true off-grid system, with no utility connection. In this situation, being able to mix-and-match, and easily expand your battery bank can be extremely helpful. It also allows for generator support, which is essential if there is no grid connection.
Anker Solix X1
Anker recently launched a product that is aimed at being a Tesla Powerwall competitor, but it’s been slow to come to market. On paper it is a great option for AC-coupling, and I believe they are releasing their own microinverter as well— But development seems to be actively happening, with new features rolling out later this year.
This could be one to watch, as their gateway looks very similar to the Powerwall and Franklin systems, but as with any first-gen product, we’d like to see it get more widely deployed first. They say that they will support standby generators that use utility-sense, which would be a great out-of-the-box feature.
