On-Grid vs Hybrid vs Off-Grid Inverters: Which One Actually Fits Your Power Cuts
Three fundamentally different architectures, not just three price points. The one most first-time buyers get wrong: assuming "on-grid" means backup power during a cut.
An on-grid (grid-tied) system has no battery. It generates, feeds your loads, and exports any surplus to the grid via net metering — but by design, it shuts itself off the moment the grid goes down. This is a safety requirement (anti-islanding protection, so the DISCOM’s line workers aren’t exposed to a live wire they think is dead), not a defect, but it surprises a lot of first-time buyers who assume "I have solar" automatically means "I have power during a cut." It does not, on a pure on-grid system.
An off-grid system has no grid connection at all — panels, battery, and inverter form a self-contained loop. Because there is no grid to lean on, both the array and the battery have to be sized for genuine worst-case autonomy (a run of cloudy days, your actual peak load), which makes off-grid the most expensive architecture per usable kWh. It is the right choice only where there genuinely is no reliable grid connection to tie into — not a general backup strategy for a grid-connected home.
A hybrid system is the flexible middle path: grid-tied like an on-grid system (net metering, export credit when the sun is out and the grid is up), but with a battery that keeps chosen "critical load" circuits running through an outage. The Deye hybrid inverter we reviewed separately illustrates this well — it also supports AC-coupling, meaning an existing on-grid system can sometimes be retrofitted with hybrid/battery capability rather than needing a full replacement.
The practical decision, stripped of sales pitch: if your grid is reliable and bill savings are the whole goal, on-grid is the cheapest, simplest option — our reviews of the Growatt MIN 5000TL-X and Solis S6-GR1P string inverters are real examples of this architecture. If outages are frequent or long and specific loads (lights, fridge, WFH setup) need to stay up, hybrid is the sweet spot for most Indian homes. If there is genuinely no grid to connect to, off-grid is the only option — budget for real autonomy, not a token battery.
One thing worth confirming with your DISCOM either way: some utilities apply different net-metering rules or caps to hybrid (battery-plus-export) systems than to pure on-grid ones. Ask specifically, rather than assuming your net-metering approval covers a battery addition automatically.