About Plain Charge
Plain Charge is an independent UK directory of public EV charging networks and roaming apps. It exists because published p/kWh figures are scattered across dozens of operator websites, and many comparison tables fill gaps with estimates. This site does the opposite: it only repeats what an operator has published, and it shows the page and date for every entry.
How an entry gets into the directory
Each card is checked against a single official page, named under the card as the source. We copy:
- p/kWh figures, including peak, off-peak and membership rates when the operator publishes them;
- whether contactless payment is described;
- membership or app pricing, pre-authorisation holds, idle or overstay fees, and caveats printed on the same page;
- roaming prices only when a public page stated a figure for that channel, with the source URL and the date checked.
If the page does not state a fact — the exact contactless rate, a connector type, or a maximum charge speed — that field stays blank and is marked not published. A blank field means “not found on the page we checked”, not “this network does not offer it”.
The true-cost comparison
The true-cost page takes the published rapid or ultra-rapid figures and multiplies them by the energy in a 20–80% charge (60% of the battery size you enter). It places app, contactless and membership totals side by side, and it only calculates a subscription break-even when both rates and a monthly fee in pounds were published as single numbers. If you enter idle minutes, any published overstay fee is added after the grace period, up to any published cap. This is arithmetic on those published figures, not advice about which payment method to use.
Roaming versus paying the operator
The roaming page shows each operator’s own published app and contactless prices next to Zap-Pay, Octopus Electroverse, OVO Charge and Paua. Those roaming apps did not publish a public per-network p/kWh table on the pages checked, so those cells are marked not published rather than filled from an app screenshot or from Zapmap’s compiled index. If an operator publishes a single rate for roaming partners as a group, that figure is shown in its own column and sourced to the operator’s page.
Roaming can cost more than paying the operator directly. Public pages from Zapmap, Electroverse, Fastned, Allego and Paua say that some networks apply higher prices through third-party services, that rates might differ from charging with the operator, or that the card provider may add fees or mark-ups. That is a record of what those pages say, not a promise of saving or a recommendation about how to pay.
What this site is not
- It is not a live map of charge points, and it does not say whether a particular post is working today.
- It is not affiliated with any network, energy supplier or car maker.
- It does not give financial, consumer-credit or motoring legal advice.
- It does not scrape compiled databases such as Zapmap’s Price Index. Entries come from operator websites and from roaming apps’ own public pages.
UK public charge-point rules already require operators to make price information available. This directory simply gathers the pages where operators choose to explain those prices in one place.
Keeping the figures fresh
The current snapshot was checked on 10 November 2026. The intended routine is a weekly pass over the same official URLs, updating any changed tariff language and leaving a field blank if a page has been removed or no longer states the figure. The date on each card should always match the day that source was last read. A short price check log records those dates.
Using the site offline
Plain Charge can be saved to your home screen. After the first visit, the pages, search, calculator, roaming comparison and price file are stored on your device. If you lose signal, the site serves that saved copy and shows the date the prices were last checked. When you are back online, the price file is refreshed from the network.
Newsletter
The sign-up box on the home page is a placeholder. It is not connected to an email provider and will not store an address until a list is set up later.