Battery Passport Software Compared

Enterprise platform, agency, in-house build or self-service: this comparison gives an honest picture of the four provider types and hands you seven criteria you can verify yourself, without a sales call.

A young market: what really matters when comparing

From 18 February 2027 EV batteries, LMT batteries and industrial batteries above 2 kWh need a digital battery passport. That applies to all newly placed on the EU market (Article 77 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542). The software offering is growing accordingly fast. The market is young, though. There is no seal and no certification for battery passport software. The central EU registry interfaces are only announced for the fourth quarter of 2026. Several Commission implementing acts are still pending. Comparing today means comparing software built to differing depths in a moving environment.

For you, that means two things. First: advertising claims such as “fully compliant” cannot currently be proven by anyone, because essential requirements are simply still missing. A robust comparison therefore rests not on promises but on things you can verify yourself. Second: a comparison by brand name goes stale quickly, because the provider landscape changes constantly. It is more durable to look at provider types, because practically every offering on the market follows one of four basic models, and each model brings its own strengths and limits, regardless of the logo on the homepage.

If you are right at the beginning: what a battery passport is in terms of content and which data belongs in it is explained in our fundamentals article What Is a Battery Passport?. This page is about the question that follows: with which kind of software do you implement it?

The four provider types at a glance

Almost every offering can be assigned to one of these four types. Each has its legitimate place, none fits every situation. What matters is which type suits your volumes, your budget and your internal capacity.

Enterprise DPP platform with project business

These platforms target large corporations and often cover several product categories beyond batteries. Their strengths: deep integration into ERP and PLM systems, individually tailored data models and a project team that accompanies the rollout. The limits: implementation is an IT project with requirements workshops, interface work and lead times measured in months. Prices are rarely public and sit well above a self-service entry point. For a manufacturer with a handful of battery models, this route is often oversized, and the project lead time has to be weighed against the 18 February 2027 deadline.

Agency or service provider implements it for you

Here you commission an agency or a consulting service provider that builds and maintains the passport for you on third-party or in-house technology. The strengths: little effort on your side, a single point of contact, helpful when nobody internally has capacity for the topic. The limits: every later change runs through the service provider, which costs time and money over the years, and the depth of expertise on the Battery Regulation varies considerably from firm to firm. Legally, the responsibility stays with you in any case: the later registration in the EU Battery Passport Registry requires that you yourself are eIDAS-verified as an economic operator. A service provider cannot replace that verification, and an officially defined status as a DPP service provider does not exist under the Battery Regulation so far.

Building it in-house

Your own development team builds the passport as part of the product IT. The strengths: full control, an exact fit with existing systems, no license costs. The limits: the battery passport is a moving target. Annex XIII requires three access levels, the Commission guidance of 15 August 2026 (version 2.0) classifies 71 data points, the registry interfaces are announced for the fourth quarter of 2026, and several format acts are still missing. Anyone building in-house takes on this regulatory upkeep permanently, not just once. Building in-house therefore tends to pay off when the passport is a core part of the product and a team is permanently assigned to it. You will find a calculation in the article Battery passport costs.

Self-service software

You create an account, enter the data in a guided editor and publish the passport yourself. The strengths: testable immediately, published prices, no project lead time, predictable cost per passport. The limits: there is no individual project support and no consulting, data collection from suppliers and the responsibility for the content remain with you, and anyone who wants to model heavily deviating special processes will hit the limits of the standard. For small and medium model ranges, this type is a direct route to a published passport, without having to set up a project first.

Seven criteria you can verify yourself

Whatever the type: these seven points separate robust software from pretty slides. All of them can be checked without jargon, most in a single afternoon. Take the list into every provider conversation, or better: check the points yourself on the product before a conversation is needed at all.

Type-specific mandatory fields EV, LMT, industrial and stationary batteries as well as batteries without a battery management system differ in their mandatory data. Check whether the editor shows different fields per battery type or whether all types get the same form. A one-size-fits-all form later produces either gaps or unnecessary ballast.
Blocking schema validation A passport export should be validated against a published schema, for example the Battery Passport Data Model v2.0. What matters is whether the software actually blocks faulty data or exports it anyway. Do not ask whether validation happens, try it out with a deliberately incomplete data set.
Access levels verifiable in the page source Annex XIII separates public fields, fields for persons with a legitimate interest and a level for authorities. Open one of the provider's public passport pages and look at the page source: restricted values must not arrive there in the first place. If they are merely hidden in the display, the separation is no separation.
Export paths without lock-in Can you get out again at any time with all your data? Demand machine-readable exports following a published schema in addition to the PDF, ideally via API as well. Anything you cannot export belongs, in effect, to the provider, not to you.
Handling of open regulation The carbon format acts are missing. The registry interfaces are announced for the fourth quarter of 2026. The act on legitimate interest is pending. Anyone promising full conformity or a finished registry connection today promises the impossible. Serious is whoever names the open points openly.
Verifiability and signature Can a third party check that a published passport is unchanged? Look for signatures, a publicly accessible verify route and a version history. Without that, a passport is just a web page whose content could be changed silently at any time.
Testability without an appointment Can you create an account without a sales call, play through a passport all the way to publication and see the prices? If a product can only be seen behind a demo booking, check the other six criteria especially thoroughly.

A practical hint on order: start with the seventh criterion. If you can test a product without a meeting, criteria one to six are settled in the same session. You see everything with your own eyes. With providers offering no free test, all that remains is having every answer given in writing. Anyone considering building the passport in house finds the comparison under build a battery passport yourself or use software. An eighth point often comes too late: how does the data get from your existing systems into the passport? Ask for the route from PIM, ERP or SAP. Have them show you whether there is an open interface and a table import. With us those are the v1 API and the CSV import. Ready-made connectors for individual products do not exist, and we do not claim otherwise. If terms come up in the answers that you cannot place, look them up in the battery passport glossary: without a shared vocabulary you end up comparing two descriptions rather than two products.

Where DPP Hero stands in this comparison

DPP Hero is self-service software, in other words the fourth type, and claims to be nothing else. There is no project business, no consulting and no appointments with us. If you are looking for a guided rollout or an integration service, the first two types are the better fit, and we would rather say so upfront than afterwards.

Measured against the seven criteria: the editor distinguishes five battery types with type-specific mandatory fields and guides you through the passport in seven explained steps, modelled on the DIN SPEC 99100 guideline. The JSON export is validated against the schemas of the Battery Passport Data Model v2.0 with blocking on errors; alongside it there are DIN SPEC JSON, PDF in German and English, and a CSV import for existing data. The REST API is aligned with the EN 18222 API standard; the full conformity assessment is open, and that is exactly how we phrase it.

Public passport pages do not deliver restricted values from the server in the first place, which you can check in the page source of any public page. Every published passport is signed and versioned and can be verified via a public verify endpoint. Before publication, a publish gate checks GS1 identifiers, your organization's mandatory data and all seven steps. The passport URL is a GS1 Digital Link with QR code, on request as a bulk export with up to 500 codes, and suppliers can contribute section by section via share links without a login of their own.

Prices are openly on the pricing page. An overview of the features is on battery passport software. You can test all of it without a meeting. Create an account and run the first passport through. It stays free permanently. For a total cost comparison what counts is not only the price per month but the total cost of ownership: software, GS1 identifiers, marking and data collection together.

Four starting points companies come from

Before comparing providers, it pays to look at what you work with today. The starting point decides the right provider type more than any feature list.

Spreadsheet and PDF: the most common start and its limit

Most battery data sits in a spreadsheet today. For collecting that is fine. As a passport a spreadsheet does not work, and that is because of three requirements. The passport has to be retrievable by QR code per individual battery (Article 77(3)). It has to be machine-readable, structured and searchable (Article 77(5)). And access has to be restricted per level (Article 78(f)). A file showing everything or nothing meets none of them. A PDF behind the QR code fails at the same point.

Data spaces and the Asset Administration Shell: when they belong in the picture

Anyone supplying the automotive chain hears Catena-X quickly. That is the sector data space of the Catena-X Automotive Network e. V. Its reference building blocks sit openly in the Eclipse project Tractus-X. In mechanical engineering the administration shell under IEC 63278-1:2023 comes on top. Both are ways to exchange data between companies, and both can make sense. They are not part of meeting the passport duty. Article 77(5) requires open standards and transferability without vendor lock-in. It does not require membership of a particular ecosystem. So check first whether your provider releases your data in full.

Data carrier: what goes on the battery

From 18 February 2027 Article 13(6) requires a QR code under Annex VI Part C on all batteries. The passport is retrieved through it, linked to a unique identifier under ISO/IEC 15459-1 to 15459-6. NFC chips and RFID labels are possible in addition and often practical in the workshop. They do not replace the QR code. A provider selling NFC as the mandatory solution confuses the battery passport with other product passports.

Which route fits you? Decision questions instead of a blanket verdict

An honest recommendation depends on your situation, not on a ranking. Four of the following questions each lead to one provider type, the fifth helps if you cannot clearly answer yes to any of them:

Do you need passports for many product categories beyond batteries? If yes, and if budget and time for an integration project are available, the arguments favour an enterprise platform. Weigh the project lead time realistically against the 18 February 2027 deadline.
Does nobody internally have time for the topic? Then a service provider can take the work off your hands. Clarify in writing beforehand in which format you get your data back and what later changes cost. Nobody can take your eIDAS verification as an economic operator off your hands.
Is the battery passport a core part of your product? If your business model is built on the passport and a development team is permanently assigned to it, building in-house can be the right route. Budget for the regulatory upkeep over years, not just the initial build.
Do you want to start yourself with a manageable range of models before the deadline? Then self-service software is the direct route: start today, complete the data step by step, publish. The Battery Passport Checklist helps you sort out your data situation.
Still undecided? Our battery passport overview offers an introduction to the substance of the topic. For the decision itself: an afternoon with a real account says more than any brochure, and at DPP Hero the first passport is free permanently. Test before you commission a long comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a seal or certification for battery passport software?

No. There is currently neither an official seal nor a certification scheme for battery passport software or DPP service providers. The EN 18222 API standard exists, a final DIN version has so far only been announced, and the DPP standards harmonised in 2026 create a presumption of conformity only for product passports under the ESPR, not for the battery passport. If a provider advertises a seal or certificate, ask who issues it and on what legal basis.

Can I switch providers later?

Yes, if you pay attention to two things when comparing: complete, machine-readable exports following a published schema, and a solid answer to the question of what happens to QR codes that have already been printed, because the printed QR code must still lead to the passport after a switch. With DPP Hero you can export your data at any time as JSON in the Battery Passport Data Model v2.0, as DIN SPEC JSON and as PDF, additionally via the REST API. Switching remains your free decision.

Does the software already have to be connected to the EU registry?

It cannot be yet. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 on the registry has been in force since 6 August 2026 and a sandbox has been running since 20 July, but the registration of battery passports is blocked on the EU side because the semantic catalogue is missing. The semantic catalogue and the interfaces are announced for the fourth quarter of 2026, and the registration obligation starts on 18 February 2027. If a provider claims a finished connection, scepticism is warranted; what you may expect instead is a clear plan. Background in the article EU Battery Passport Registry.

What does battery passport software cost?

That depends on the provider type. Enterprise platforms and service providers price per project, and their prices are rarely public. Building in-house costs development and maintenance effort over years. Self-service providers publish their prices; at DPP Hero you will find them on the pricing page, and the first passport is free permanently. A full calculation across all cost types is in the article Battery passport costs.

Which batteries need a passport in the first place?

From 18 February 2027 for EV batteries, for LMT batteries, meaning light means of transport such as e-bikes and e-scooters, and for industrial batteries above 2 kWh, in each case when they are newly placed on the market in the EU (Art. 77 of the Battery Regulation). Details, special cases and the deadline situation are in the article Battery Passport: When Is It Mandatory?.

Ready for your first battery passport?

Set up an account, choose your battery type and capture your first passport in the guided editor. One passport is free forever.

Create your first passport View pricing