Apps broadly fall into one of two categories:
Discovery & route planning, &;
Charging.
You won't require all of these, especially with fast / high power chargers contactless payment support requirements, but you will require some.
These apps enable discovery of all charge points available, by all charge point operators, while their route planning features will highlight or suggest locations along routes at which to charge.
Again, fast / high power chargers will in majority of instances offer contactless payment support - no app required.
However, charge point operators apps have the benefits of providing real-time status, pricing, support, notifications, & other useful information. Particularly noteworthy is lower pricing may be available in app, & notifications on time remaining before imposition of overstay fees.
These apps can also be used for charge point discovery too, though it is important to note that they will be limited to displaying only those with which they are compatible with (see previous Discovery & Route Planning section for apps that aren't). We've sorted these in descending order by number of CCS connectors available.
A number of operators on the island are only present in Northern Ireland currently.
Contactless payment using Apple Wallet / Google Pay will generally provide the most seamless means of use as debit / credit cards issued in Ireland may have lower transaction limits than those set by these operators, while the apps themselves may be unavailable too. For example, bp pulse's pre-authorisation amount is £60 & their app is unavailable in Ireland.