There is no published per-port price for EV charging management software, and no honest average to budget from. What you can do is compute your own figure from any quote: four fields, your port count, and one division turn a bundled price into an effective per-port cost for your site.
Key Takeaways
- No published per-port software price exists — your figure is computed from your quote, your ports and a named year.
- Demand four split fields: onboarding, the recurring fee and its shape, the minimum, processing.
- Year one carries the one-off lines; the same contract costs less per port from year two.
- Fees presume a working pairing: a stated OCPP version is evidence; “OCPP-ready” is a question to close in writing.
The Four Fields Every Quote Has to Show
Ask for these fields split out of any bundled quote — a provider that cannot split them cannot be compared against one that can.
| Quote field | What it covers | How it enters your total |
|---|---|---|
| One-off onboarding or connection charge | Connecting each existing charger to the platform, per unit | Paid once, in year one only |
| Recurring platform fee, with its shape named | Per port per month, per site flat, per session, or a share of session revenue | Multiplied by your ports (or sessions) across the contract term |
| Minimum monthly charge | The floor you pay even in a quiet month | Applies whenever your usage falls below it |
| Payment processing treatment | Whether card and app processing sits inside the fee or on top of it | Added to every session’s cost if passed through — invisible in the headline fee |
One more field belongs on the same page: the charge for re-pointing your chargers to another platform later, and for exporting your session history. It prices your exit, not this year’s total.
A Worked Example, With Invented Figures
Every dollar figure in this section is invented to show the arithmetic; none is a market price. Say your site has 8 ports, and a quote shows onboarding at $120 per charger, a platform fee of $18 per port per month, a $100 monthly minimum, and processing passed through at cost.
- Year one: onboarding $120 × 8 = $960, plus the fee $18 × 8 ports × 12 months = $1,728. Total platform cost: $2,688. (The $100 minimum never binds — the computed fee of $144 a month sits above it. At 4 ports it would bind.)
- Effective per-port cost, year one: $2,688 ÷ 8 ports ÷ 12 months = $28 per port per month.
- Year two: no onboarding, so $1,728 ÷ 8 ÷ 12 = $18 per port per month — the quoted fee itself.
The same contract therefore has two different per-port costs, and neither is wrong: the figure depends on the year, the port count and the one-off lines, which is why it can only be computed from your quote and your site — never looked up. Processing, passed through here, belongs in your per-session cost, not the platform total.
What Changes the Answer After Year One
- Escalation. Whether the recurring fee can rise inside the term, by how much notice, and whether you may leave if it does.
- Adding ports mid-term. When billing starts for a new port, and whether onboarding is charged again per unit.
- Feature tiers. Reporting depth, roaming access and driver-app features often sit in higher tiers; cost the tier your operation actually uses, as how commercial charging stations work sets out.
- The exit lines. Re-pointing and history-export charges, priced now, decide what a future switch costs.
The Hardware Your Software Budget Stands On
Fees only attach where a platform can run the charger, so the hardware listing is a budget document too.
EVDANCE’s EV-AC03201T dual-connector AC station and EV-RHDC30K-L compact DC charger state OCPP 1.6J — a named version a platform can confirm support for before it prices the pairing. The EV-ACS3210E states “OCPP-ready”: close the version and a tested pairing in writing before a budget assumes that model. EVDANCE charges no software subscription of its own, and its 3-year standard warranty covers the hardware, not any platform service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an average per-port price I can budget with?
No sourced one. A quoted figure is a sales number for one shape, term and tier; it becomes comparable only when the same calculation runs on your own port count.
Does the charger manufacturer charge the software fee?
Not in EVDANCE’s case: it sells hardware and runs no platform. The fee belongs to whichever platform provider you contract with.
Why does my per-port cost fall in year two?
Because the one-off onboarding charge drops out while the port count stays the same. Any honest per-port figure names its year.
Related Reading
- How Do Commercial EV Charging Stations Work?
- OCPP Explained: What Charge Point Operators Need From EV Charger Hardware
- How Much Does It Cost to Install a Commercial EV Charging Station?
- Is an EV Charging Station Business Profitable?
