January 12, 2026

Flipturn vs. Blink for Multifamily EV Charging

For our competitive analysis comparing Flipturn and ChargePoint, click here.

Blink Charging is another key legacy player in EV charging. Founded in 2009 as CarCharging Group, Blink rebranded in 2017 after acquiring several service providers and a charging network. Today, Blink provides a vertically-integrated solution with chargers exclusively networked by their software, and offers other services like charger install and maintenance.

Below, we’ll cover the key differences between Flipturn and Blink for multifamily charging. Whether you’re an asset manager planning for your properties’ first EV chargers, or an experienced property owner refreshing your first-gen hardware, it’s important to understand what modern charging looks like compared to legacy solutions like Blink. Owner-operators looking to cater to the modern EV driver should optimize for high charger utilization via positive driver and operator experiences in charging hardware, software, and support.

Flipturn key differentiators

Our platform prioritizes giving the operator control and maximizing charger utilization. In doing so, we can unlock larger financial and sustainability gains from EV charging for multifamily owners.

Operational experience: easy configuration & quick customer support

Multifamily operators need simple, self-serve configuration. For example, say your property’s chargers are set to private (only residents / staff can charge), Josh moves out, and Daisy moves in. The charger access management system must be updated so that Josh can no longer charge in your parking lot and Daisy can.

Making these small changes on Blink’s platform is tedious, with many possible failure points. The site host must individually send an email invitation, which the driver then needs to accept to make an account. Now imagine the site host has to process dozens of these requests each week, or think about how easily account invite emails get lost. Ongoing updates / one-off changes become frustrating, often requiring operators to contact support for simple requests if either the operator or driver side fails.

Flipturn’s platform is designed for easy configurability. Operators can limit charging to specific groups (residents, visitors, maintenance employees) and easily update these groups by bulk uploading emails / phone numbers, as well as set up PIN codes for temporary visitors. After a driver is added, they can immediately plug and charge without setup on their end. Furthermore, Flipturn makes pricing set-up super easy, whether you’re looking to set a flat-rate or configure time-of-use fees.

If issues arise, Flipturn’s real-time charger monitoring, daily AI charger health reports, and 15-minute average response time lets operators easily spot where the problems are. Meanwhile, Blink users frequently express frustration with long customer support delays (days for issue resolution and long hold times) and low visibility into what the actual problem is.

Hardware compatibility: open vs. closed ecosystem

Blink operates in a closed ecosystem, meaning Blink chargers are only compatible with Blink software. While a closed ecosystem may seem convenient as it’s all from one vendor, it locks in operators long-term, creating two issues:

Operators cannot benefit from better, more cost-effective technology on the competitive market and are limited to Blink’s pace of innovation (which, looking at their financial performance over the last 5 years, is slower than the market).
Closed ecosystems can increase prices far beyond market averages: if an operator has mostly Blink chargers, they’re likely to pay for price increases in Blink software (it’s like Salesforce — the company knows you think it’s inconvenient to switch, so they can make you pay more and more over time).

Meanwhile, Flipturn operates in an open ecosystem and is compatible with most chargers. Buyers still purchase their entire EV charging solution in one simple package, thanks to our partnerships with top hardware providers and installers.

By specializing in software, we can focus solely on improving the modern driver and operator experience; we leave hardware manufacturing and install to partners who are the best in their fields.

The open ecosystem also enables Flipturn to offer competitive pricing, with hardware 1.5-2x cheaper and software 50% cheaper than Blink.

Resident experience: simple payments and no-app plug + charge

Blink typically require drivers to download an app to pay for charging, feeding into app fatigue: drivers have to download yet another app just to charge at home.*

Using Flipturn, drivers get seamless, no-app charging with flexible payment options: Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc. A no-app interface creates a better driving experience as residents don’t need to worry about app updates or managing payments across several apps just to be able to charge both at home and in public (ie. their public chargers are from a different provider.)

If drivers experience issues, navigating to customer support is intuitive, and your maintenance teams can immediately spot where issues are occurring on their side of Flipturn’s platform.

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At the end of the day, while legacy providers like Blink are well-established, multifamily owner-operators should evaluate their options to prioritize driver and operator experiences. Choose solutions that provide long-term flexibility and smooth charging sessions for drivers as EV adoption continues to rise.

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Have a particular frustration with Blink that we didn’t address above? Want to learn how you can modernize your EV charging? Let’s chat!

*Blink does not require app download if the driver already has a linked RFID card, but the app is central to the charging experience.

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