The short answer
Local-only keeps everything inside your house. No account, no subscription, nothing sent anywhere. In exchange, you can only see it at home, and nothing can warn you while you're away.
Cloud sends your readings to a server so you can check from anywhere and get an email when a panel stops. In exchange, you make an account and trust a company with your numbers.
Neither is wrong. Ask yourself one thing: do you want to check it, or do you want to be told?
Option 1 — A local-only box (Solar Monitor)
$100 once · nothing after
One person's product, sold at solar-monitor.app. It plugs into the gateway's service port and serves a dashboard on your home network.
What's good
- No account, no subscription, ever
- Nothing leaves your home
- Keeps working if the seller disappears
- History stored on the box, as daily totals
- Every panel, live
What's not
- Only viewable on your home Wi-Fi
- No alerts while you're away
- Panel view is live only, no per-panel history
- Updates are a file you download and upload yourself
- SunPower only
Best for: privacy first, and you're home enough to glance at it.
Where it falls short: anyone who wants to hear about a dead panel without going looking.
From solar-monitor.app and the seller's own posts, checked 7 October 2026. Confirm with them directly. Not affiliated with us.
Option 2 — A cloud monitor (WattHacker)
$50 once · no subscription
Our box plugs into the same service port and sends readings to your WattHacker account every 2 minutes.
What's good
- See it anywhere, on your phone
- An email alert when a panel goes down, on the free plan
- Every panel, with a week of history, free
- Updates arrive on their own
- Download everything as a spreadsheet, any time
- 30-day money-back guarantee
What's not
- You make an account, and your readings live on our servers
- Free keeps 7 days of history
- Needs your home internet to report
- We are new and small
Best for: anyone who'd rather be told than have to check.
Where it falls short: anyone who wants nothing leaving the house. Get a local box; we'd rather say so.
Side by side
| Solar Monitor (local) | WattHacker (cloud) | |
|---|---|---|
| Up front | $100 | $50 |
| After that | $0 | $0 |
| Account needed | ✕ | ✓ |
| Data stays in your home | ✓ | ✕ |
| See it away from home | ✕ | ✓ |
| Alerts while you're away | ✕ | ✓ |
| Every panel | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per-panel history | ✕ | 7 days |
| Updates itself | ✕ | ✓ |
| Download your data | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works if the seller disappears | ✓ | ✕ |
Both plug into the gateway's own service port, so with either one the gateway never joins your home Wi-Fi.
If you're technical, free open-source software can also read the gateway, on a computer you run yourself. Our full comparison covers that, SunStrong, Sunflower, and Enphase.
Where WattHacker fits
The WattHacker monitor is a small box that plugs into your existing SunPower PVS5 or PVS6 gateway on your own home network and reads it directly. It doesn't rely on SunPower's or SunStrong's servers, because for owners like you those are either gone or behind a paywall. No technician, no electrician, no rewiring — you plug it in yourself.
- The monitor is $50 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Free to see your panel data, forever — every panel, live, no subscription, and no card on file.
- An optional premium plan at $6/mo (billed annually) adds the memory: full history kept for good, year-over-year comparison, and alerts told to you in dollars.
- Built by an electrification superfan who wants to help others use their solar smarter, lower their utility bills, and clean up the planet. Who's behind it.
Still have questions about your own system? I'll go through it with you — your panels, your bill, and what's worth doing about it.
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Real panels, real production.
Common questions
What is a local-only SunPower monitor?
A small box that reads your PVS gateway and shows the data on a web page inside your home network. No account and no internet connection. You can only see it while you're on your home Wi-Fi.
Can a local-only monitor alert me when a panel goes down?
Only while you're home and looking at it. With no internet connection, it has no way to send you a text or email.
Does a cloud monitor mean someone else owns my data?
Not with us. You can download all of it as a spreadsheet any time, on the free plan too.
Which one keeps more history for free?
The local box, usually. Solar Monitor says its unit holds about 20 years, stored as daily totals. Our free plan keeps 7 days.
See your own panels, live.
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