PlugShare Reviews

Apparently, the ability to edit a charging station’s information has been removed from recent app versions. One of this app’s great strengths WAS its crowd-sourced information by actual charger station users/customers. I tried to update a local station that recently added a Tesla plug, but I cannot find a way to edit. And PlugShare ’s Help feature provides inaccurate editing instructions that are apparently no longer available.

Update: The developer has informed me that some station owners request that the users be barred from editing their listings. Good to know. I have three suggestions. First, I’d suggest that this app develop a process to enable and encourage these station owners to keep their listings up to date (e.g. “New Tesla connector available at this station.”). If users can’t edit station info, the owners should make darn sure to update their listings to reflect changes in status and features. Second, PlugShare ’s Help function should explain that some stations may not be editable by users. (Currently, the Help function doesn’t mention this, and that’s unnecessarily confusing. Third, station listings should clearly indicate whether stations may or may not be edited by users right on the listing (perhaps in place of the edit button?). My rating stands at 3 Stars. this app remains an essential EV app, but its usefulness has declined as a result of these changes.

The whole point of an app connected to a charging network is to simplify the experience of owning an EV. If you want a smooth experience, I recommend EVgo or ChargePoint. Download PlugShare only if you’re an app developer so you can explain how to rebuild this from scratch or if you’re a glutton for frustration. Registering is like running into the walls of a maze. Using the chargers is next to impossible unless you have a fob you can use to connect to the charger. Trying to connect from PlugShare (once I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to do it) yielded multiple failures with no explanation of the problem and no way to go back to fix whatever problems arose. You have to go back to the beginning. There are no directions on the chargers themselves, and the 800# led me to a customer service agent who had no idea how to solve my problem. The aggravation of the entire experience made me question why I bought a Leaf. This company made the range anxiety nightmare of every EV driver come to life.

If your app is down and people rely on it, you have to tell them. Not having enough “fuel” to get from one place to the next is a big deal. I was stranded and have to rent a car because of the lack of consideration from the company. Send an email to put up an error notice, like, duh?

When I contacted them they took a week to respond and then down played how their mistake affected me. Covid is not an excuse anymore, you all aren’t working in a factory your on your couch. It’s fine that errors happen but you have to be responsible for them and communicate them and not excuse them with privileged excuses. People rely on your service not having it causes harm. Being stranded somewhere is a big deal.

I will no longer use this company and will actively tell people what kind of people operate it. I was literally gaslight and passive aggressively addressed about my concern.

I found PlugShare to be quick, accurate and direct, in locating charging stations for my wife’s Tesla Starship. Accurate to the max, PlugShare revealed the distances our automobile was from various charging stations listed. In Kettleman, CA, one of America’s farming belts, is a huge charging station with some 40 charging posts. Each was housed beneath a weather-protecting aluminum roof. While our auto was charging, we entered the TESLA building, plugged in our laptops, used the restrooms, and worked and talked as we sat in comfortable lounge chairs. We had already eaten lunch, so we didn’t need anything from the snack bar. Thank you for PlugShare, reliable with precision.

Great app, very happy with the ability to quickly narrow down options based on type of charger. New to having an EV vehicle so I’ve been exploring different places I might go to. Unfortunately, I’m colorblind and I absolutely cannot distinguish the difference between a level 3 port and level 1/2s in the map (have to ask my fiancé which ones are level 3 and then memorize it) and can’t find a filter to apply for this. It would be great if you could filter to show only level 3 chargers or to have a colorblind mode where the level 3 ports were distinguished by a more distinct color or even by a different shape

Hello, we need more plugs rin Southfield Michigan. Meijers at 12mile and Telegraph do not have a this app. I ask Meijers to get a this app in their parking lot. The Manager stated that’s what the Biden administration infrastructure plan is about. I stated, I have to walk with my groceries Across telegraph to get to my car at Nissan Motors where my car is connected to this app. I also stated to the manager they needed a this app. He said they can’t afford it. I said Livonia’s Meijers has several, and Oakland County was the 3rd richest county in America. Then he said he would look in to it. Please add several PlugShares at Meijers 12 mile and telegraph. I talk to a tall middle age handsome white man. Thank you so much.
Sept 8, 2021
Patrine Rice

UPDATE: I think my earlier issue was actually an Apple problem. The website is working normally now. And the password is being shared between PlugShare and my iCloud Keychain, which was not the case before. Given that I haven’t updated PlugShare in between not working and working, but I did reboot my phone, I strongly suspect something had gotten wedged in my keychain. Thanks to this app’s support team for contacting me to track down the problem.

Now it works great! Upping the review to 5 stars.

Original review: PlugShare is actually quite good, but the associated website manages to break Safari’s strong password generator/saver more thoroughly than I thought possible.

PlugShare is a must for anyone using an electric car for their first time! And with the latest updates the travel planner is very helpful! Don’t forget to log on to their website on a computer, it helps there too if you don’t want to be confined to a phone/iPad.
I wish I knew about PlugShare before I bought my Hyundai Ioniq electric. I realized that I can’t go from SoCal to Las Vegas. Let alone to Salt Lake City its going to take A LOT longer than traveling in a gas powered car. The 124 range on my car just won’t do it for long trips. There are not enough charge stations.
PlugShare gives you all the info you need to adjust from a gas powered car to electric. Enjoy!

If the point of PlugShare is to fanboi out about ev’s it’s doing great. If the point is to find a place to charge your car then this is not suited to the task. Like a pipe wrench used to hammer a nail it can work in a pinch. 98 percent of the listings are private lots. Whether they are business owned employee lots, hotels requiring a stay, businesses requiring a non-ev charge purchase or a private home, they are restricted public access and PlugShare needs to have the ability to filter them out. Currently there are only toggles for private home and hotel. Thus the reason for the second star. Want to make it five star? Have the default map setting for full public access only. If I want to apply for a job with a business that offers employee charging, let me toggle it on to see my options.

With version 6.01, on an iPhone, you can no longer filter by plug type so all charging locations now appear on the map regardless of whether they are compatible with your car and regardless of the speed of the charger.

On the iPad you can still filter by plug type, but the filter settings are lost each time you run PlugShare so you have to select the plug types every time. Also, while using PlugShare , as you navigate arounnd and resize the screen, the filter settings are randomly lost and must be reset.

What was once a great app isss now painful to use.

This is probably *the* best app for locating chargers of any kind. It's ability to apply filters to find only fast chargers, or only free chargers, or if road-tripping and you only want chargers at hotels, etc. This is the way to do it.

Also... while other apps tell where a charger *should* be, the community of this app users is great about telling you how to navigate to hard-to-find chargers (e.g. not easily visible when you reach the location ... such as in a parking deck or hiding behind a building, etc.).

Also also... great at telling you which chargers are actually reliable.

Go-to app for EV charging when I travel! Most of the other charging apps are charging-brand dedicated. Plug Share covers everybody’s chargers, including private home chargers that you can arrange with the owner to use. The reviews by other users are also very helpful. Checking in and reviewing is really easy! PlugShare is extremely handy both for on-the-go driving, and for trip planning.
The only reason it gets four instead of five stars is because locating where YOU are on the map is not obvious. There’s a little compass arrow on the map that you have to press. It took me ages to figure that out!

This is the only app that really matters for all EV drivers and I’m amazed it hasn’t been acquired by a bigger company yet. Without PlugShare, our 2000 mile road trip would not have been possible and I use it whenever I’m going anywhere I’m going to need a charge away from home. I was very excited when they added Trip Planner to their web platform. And now that they’ve added Pay with this app, it’s edging closer to the “can’t live without” status. My first time reviewing an app, because I want more people to use it. Especially the check in feature. Fingers crossed for Apple Car Play integration.

This is by far the best, most feature-rich, and most up-to-date charging station application. It includes chargers from every network, and information is constantly updated by a highly-responsive admin team. They have done a great job receiving my feedback and updating info so my local charging stations show up correctly. There’s even a feature where you can see how busy a specific charger is at different times of day, or receive an alert when a charger becomes available. If you drive an EV, you need PlugShare!

I saw this app’s 5 star ratings and figured that it would perform much better than Semaconnect’s 2 star app. So when I needed to start charging my EV at my apartment complex, I downloaded this app and forgot that Semaconnect had its own app. This was my mistake. When initiating a session with this app, my car would never start charging. After the two minute window, the session would time out as if I didn’t plug in my vehicle. I definitely did. After several calls to Semaconnect customer service, I realized that I needed to use Semaconnect’s app. When I tried initiating a charge with that app, my car started charging within seconds. I guess I’ll give this app two stars because my car did charge about 20% of the time.

UPDATE: It’s been five years since bought our Volt, and even at 120,000 miles, the honeymoon continues! this app has been our constant companion in our travels around our state, as hurricane evacuees, as eclipse tourists, and when driving halfway across America to visit family. this app has reliably guided us to charging, when we need it. It’s a “Must Have” for EV drivers. Five years ago, we wrote...

My wife and I are new to EV ownership. We have owned a Chevy Volt for less than a month, but we LOVE it! The challenge to any EV driver is locating reliable places to charge. this app solves that problem, and is paving the future for personal transportation in the USA.

this app was recommended by members of our local EV club, and using it has been excellent. It is well laid out and reliable. Even though we are new users, we've already listed our own home charger, and have reported on existing EVSE that we have used.

We give this app a big thumbs up!

this app user since buying my EV in 2019. Well done, an essential app for all EV users.

Biggest pro: it’s awesome showing the type, few, location of charging stations available around you when in a non-familiar city or location.

Biggest con: The mapping function could use some serious updating and improvement. When traveling long distances I have to map out my required charges on this app’s mapping tool. But when I’m in the car, I have to run both this app and Google Maps at the same time so I can see in live-time where I am in relation to upcoming charging stations.

My recommendations for maps would be to show my car movement live, on my pre-planned this app map, like Google Maps does; add a button or mechanism to update current distance to a selected charging station in real time (I currently have to create a new map every time I want to check my distance to a pre-planned/mapped charging station); and update the map UI, it definitely feels outdated, almost early MAcintosh/MS-Dos like.

PlugShare was a life saver when I first got my electric car. I live in an apartment so am completely dependent on public chargers. I spent hours on PlugShare finding convenient chargers that match my plug near every place I frequent, and I still have some nearby chargers I haven't even tried yet. I am so fortunate to live in Oregon with a half-way decent infrastructure supporting electric vehicles! PlugShare essentially made it possible and easily workable for me to own an electric car. I honestly don't know what I would have done without it. Thank you!

IT’S THE ONLY APP YOU NEED for up-to-date information on available charging stations.
Many thanks for developing a great app. Not just for finding chargers but for the rating system also. The 10 point scale is very helpful so that the user knows the reliability of a station also.
I like that it is constantly updated by users for real-time information on the status of charging stations. Of course, the only drawback is also that it relies on the check-ins of users for the info. Also, if someone checks in, you can communicate with them through PlugShare if you need the charger.

When trying to find desired charger all in view are listed but no easy way to tell which you want. List on left appears to be random. Allow user to click on charger to highlight it to display on the left.

I always have to zoom in until only the one I think I want is visible and that is only one on list to be sure.

Need to be able to change filter (e.g. DCFC vs J1772) on the screen without using phone.

Plug Share is basic for electric driving. It's the leader in car charging apps, letting you know at a glance where the nearest charging station is. The future of electric driving depends on an extensive publicly accessible charging infrastructure, and this app is the way to connect to it.
Since I wrote this two years ago, I've noticed a few wrinkles. For example, it's hard to figure out how many miles are between chargers on the map. A mileage indicators would help.
And the trip planning function is difficult to use.
For all that, though, it's the one service that unites all the difference charging providers on one map. I still say you gotta have it.

I wanted to introduce our wonderful Smart City to the world. What better way to experience Orlando and the sounding area, than to visit the new and totally innovative Lake Nona, Florida! Centrally located in Florida, Lake Nona is the new hot bed of modern day Smart living. From the newly created Medical City to the High Tech Town Center, Lake Nona delivers what some are still trying to wrap their minds around. From smart charging EV stations to the Autonomous Vehicle, Lake Nona is staged to blaze a trail where no city has gone before. You have to come see it to believe it!

We just drove from Sacramento to San Diego, this app eased the way in our new Chevy Bolt. It still has shortcomings, but nothing else comes close. Info on individual charging stations is uneven, especially what level of charge is offered; planning needs improvement but is workable once you figure out how to use it; and not everybody "checks in" so which stalks are available isn't always correct. But there's no living without it!

this app keeps my range anxiety at a low simmer. Like the old jingle, I never leave home without it. One improvement I'd appreciate is the ability to view the altitude graph between the last charging stop and the final destination. As well as the ability to see the altitude graph for a trip that does not apparently require a charging stop, since some trips in mountainous terrain might not be possible in fact without a charging stop.

PlugShare is personally my favorite. I don't care what brand I charge at I just want to know if the station works!! This site makes checking in super easy. I have found the ratings and color scheme to be clear and concise.

Eventually it would be great to be able to open your blink or ChargePoint account from PlugShare so you could start charging via the watch or your phone. But hey- this is overall a really slick app!

This is my go to Tesla Model X app. I use it to find alternatives to Supercharging when towing a trailer with the X. And on road trips up to Seattle.
I use it to check on local chargers and pay. For the AV network, Blink network, and Chargepoint I pay through those systems. I’m testing out the non Tesla charging infastruture and deciding who’s good and who’s a pain in the a**. this app enables this activity. .
Works great for finding chargers and checking in.

PlugShare gave me piece of mind when Tesla supercharger for the next stop wasn’t showing up on the map and then said it wasn’t available. I went to PlugShare to find a backup and discovered that there were Tesla users using the supercharger that day and reported the station as open. We were relieved to find out that this report was true and it gave us piece of mind when we rolled up with 6 miles to go.

I just came to Annapolis on my EBIKE, from about 30miles away. I had one dot of juice left.
I figured “I’ll find a spot when I get there!”
Easier said than done!
Well 10 seconds after firing up PlugShare , I found this parking garage with 10 receptacles specifically for electric vehicle charging(120v receptacles) . And additional charging for other cars on upper levels.
So nice, I can cruise back home and can make this trip again without any worry!

PlugShare is trash. Extremely frustrating to use. Every time I open it it’s a Russian roulette on whether it’s going to freeze my phone for 5 minutes while I’m driving trying to find a nearby station. By the time my phone reboots I miss the exit. Whoever developed PlugShare needs to rethink their career. Also the live data is 20% accurate majority of the time the station says it’s open, it’s not.