Commercial
OCPP and EV Charger Back Office Software: A Plain Guide
What an OCPP EV charger back office does, how it prevents vendor lock-in, UK contactless payment rules, and what to ask before signing a platform contract.
By Evova · Published
OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) — the deciding factor for hotels, pubs and retail sites that want to charge visitors — is the open standard that lets an EV charger talk to the software that runs it — the “back office”, or charge point management system (CPMS). Specify OCPP-compliant hardware with an open endpoint and the two halves of your charging setup can be swapped independently: you can change software provider without ripping out chargers, or mix charger brands under one platform. Get this wrong and your hardware can end up locked to one vendor’s cloud for its working life.
What OCPP is — and the lock-in trap
OCPP is maintained by the Open Charge Alliance and exists to make charging infrastructure interoperable rather than tied to proprietary systems. Three versions matter in 2026: OCPP 1.6 (2015) is still the most widely implemented and what most commercial back offices run in production; OCPP 2.0.1 (2020) became international standard IEC 63584 in 2024 and is increasingly specified for new projects; OCPP 2.1 (2025) adds bidirectional (V2G) support. Most charging hardware sold today supports OCPP — Tesla is the most notable maker to have historically used its own stack.
Here is the trap: “OCPP-compliant” on a datasheet does not guarantee freedom. A charger can speak OCPP internally yet be locked, contractually or technically, to the manufacturer’s own cloud. When buying, ask two things in writing: which OCPP version the charger runs, and whether the supplier will release and re-point the chargers to another platform at contract end. If the answer to the second is no, you are renting your infrastructure, whatever the invoice says.
What a back office actually does
A CPMS is the dashboard that turns wall boxes into a managed service. In practice it handles:
- Tariffs — set prices per kWh or per session, with different rates for staff, residents and visitors
- Access control — decide who can charge, via RFID cards, an app, or free-vend
- Monitoring — live status, diagnostics and remote restarts of faulted units
- Load management — share your site’s available electrical capacity across sockets so more chargers can run without a supply upgrade; the installer you choose will assess your supply and distribution board as part of the quote
- Billing and reporting — take payments, reimburse staff who charge at work, export usage data
Software is usually charged per socket per month. We haven’t found a reliably published UK price range, so treat any quoted figure as negotiable and compare like for like — you can find an installer who will price hardware, installation and platform together.
Payments — and when contactless becomes law
If your chargers are private — workplace units for staff and fleet, or resident-only bays — you can run payments however you like: app, RFID or free to use. The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 do not apply to chargepoints that aren’t accessible to the general public.
Open them to the public and the rules change. A chargepoint counts as “public” when it’s accessible to the general public, and the regulations (in force since 24 November 2023) then attach these duties:
| Requirement | Applies to | From |
|---|---|---|
| Contactless payment | New public chargepoints of 8kW+; all existing public chargepoints of 50kW+ | 24 November 2024 |
| Maximum price displayed in pence per kWh; the price charged can’t exceed it | All public chargepoints | With the regulations |
| 99% reliability (annual network average) | Public rapids (50kW+) | Calendar-year measure |
| Free, staffed 24/7 helpline | All public chargepoints | 24 November 2024 |
| Open data via OCPI 2.2.1, status updates within 30 seconds | All public chargepoints | 24 November 2024 |
| Payment via at least one third-party roaming provider | All public chargepoints | 24 November 2025 |
Free-to-use chargepoints are exempt from the contactless and roaming payment requirements, though the other duties still apply. (Last checked July 2026; see the GOV.UK guidance on the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023.) If you’re weighing up public access for a hotel, pub or retail site, start at our commercial charging hub.
OCPP, OCPI and roaming hubs in brief
OCPP connects a charger to its back office; OCPI connects networks to each other. It’s the royalty-free protocol operators and e-mobility providers use to exchange locations, live availability, tariffs and session records — and it’s why UK public sockets now appear in third-party driver apps automatically. Roaming hubs go further: one commercial agreement opens your network to many driver-facing providers at once. For a small site, though, direct roaming support from your platform usually matters more than hub membership.
Before you sign a multi-year platform contract
Get written answers to: who controls the OCPP endpoint, and will the chargers be re-pointed at contract end; whether exit or migration fees apply; the per-socket monthly fee and what it becomes after the initial term; whether the hardware is locked to the platform; the uptime commitment (if you run public rapids, the 99% duty sits with you as operator); transaction fees and payout timing on paid charging; and who owns the charging data.
On the hardware side, the Workplace Charging Scheme offers £500 per socket for installations completed on or after 1 April 2026 (it was £350 before), up to 40 sockets, with funding confirmed until 31 March 2027 — see our grants hub. When you’re ready for numbers, request a free quote and ask each installer to price hardware, installation and software separately, so the platform cost is visible on its own line.
Regulations and grant figures change: the Public Charge Point Regulations guidance and chargepoint grant pages on GOV.UK are the official sources, and both are worth re-checking before you commit.