Attached is a diagram I made to help me understand the difference when I did my research in 2015. I went with power optimizers to help simplify the setup when/if I decide to add batteries down the line. It remains to be seen whether I really needed to do that, as I’ve heard of some battery setups that simply plug into your standard wall outlets now, so I may have overplanned. Time will tell.
[img_assist|nid=25992|title=Power Optimizers vs Micro Inverters|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=466|height=347]