Everything a residential and light-commercial solar installer needs to run the business side of the job — quoting, scheduling, invoicing, and follow-up — compared against the design tools that handle panel layout.
Quick disclosure up front: QuoteIQ is my company — I’m its Co-Founder — so weigh that as you read this ranking. For running the business side of a solar installation company — leads, quoting, scheduling, invoicing, payments, and customer follow-up — my pick is QuoteIQ, starting at $29.99/mo with aerial roof measurement and AI-generated line-item quotes for panels, inverters, and battery storage built in, all the way up to $699/mo for unlimited users. For pure PV design and shading analysis, Aurora Solar is the category standard at $159/mo (Basic) to $259/mo (Premium) per user, billed monthly. OpenSolar is the strongest free design alternative. Jobber starts at $39/mo for a solo operator and scales to $599/mo for larger teams but has no native solar design or aerial measurement. Housecall Pro runs $79/mo to $329/mo and gates core features like a price book behind add-ons. ServiceTitan is quote-only, reported at $245-$398 per technician per month, and fits large solar-plus-electrical operations, not most residential installers. Most solar shops end up pairing a design tool with an operations CRM — this guide covers both jobs honestly, including where each tool beats mine.
TL;DR: Solar installation software splits into two jobs that most buyers conflate: design software (panel layout, shading analysis, financial modeling) and operations software (leads, quoting, scheduling, invoicing, follow-up). Aurora Solar and OpenSolar own the design job. QuoteIQ, Jobber, Housecall Pro, and ServiceTitan compete on the operations job. The honest editorial truth: most residential solar installers evaluating ServiceTitan are paying enterprise per-technician fees for dispatch complexity built for 20+ tech HVAC and plumbing fleets — not for the two-to-eight-week, high-ticket consultative sales cycle that actually defines a solar deal.
The right operations tool for most solar shops is the one that bundles AI quoting and aerial measurement into a flat monthly tier with no per-seat tax, not the one with the biggest enterprise feature list.
U.S. solar panel installation industry market size in 2026, up 3.6% from 2025 — IBISWorld
Projected employment growth for solar PV installers, 2024-2034 — far faster than any other tracked occupation — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Median annual wage for solar photovoltaic installers as of May 2024 — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Cumulative U.S. solar installations surpassed in 2026, up from 5 million just two years earlier — Solar Energy Industries Association
QuoteIQ is my company — I co-founded it with Justin Rogers in 2022 — so this is my pick, not a neutral score from a blind evaluation.
I’m ranking it #1 for the majority of residential and light-commercial solar installers on a structural basis: it bundles aerial roof measurement, AI-generated line-item quotes for panels and battery storage, a long-cycle sales pipeline built for permit-to-PTO tracking, and automated lease/PPA follow-up into flat monthly tiers with no per-user fees — features that Jobber and Housecall Pro sell as separate paid add-ons, and that ServiceTitan bundles only at enterprise per-technician pricing.
The criteria: native feature coverage versus paid add-ons, flat pricing versus per-seat or per-technician fees, and genuine fit for the two-to-eight-week solar sales cycle rather than a short-cycle service call. Every price below is the vendor’s standard month-to-month rate, verified against the vendor’s own pricing page or a named third-party source as of July 2026. QuoteIQ is not a PV design tool — for panel layout and shading analysis, I name Aurora Solar and OpenSolar as the honest picks, every time it comes up.
All-in-one operations CRM for solar installers — aerial measurement, AI quoting, and follow-up in one app
QuoteIQ is the field service CRM I built with Justin Rogers for contractors running high-ticket, consultative sales — which describes a solar deal far better than a same-day service call. MapMeasure Pro pulls satellite roof measurements before anyone climbs a ladder, and the AI Estimator turns a job description into an itemized quote covering panels, inverters, and battery storage in seconds. Pipelines & Deals tracks the long permit-to-PTO cycle a lawn care or window cleaning CRM was never built for.
Essentials starts at $29.99/mo for one user and 500 IQ Credits; Elite ($299/mo, 10 users) and Max ($699/mo, unlimited users) add the EmployeeHub, in-app texting, and consumer financing for teams quoting $20K-plus systems. None of the five tiers charge a per-user fee.
Best for: Residential and light-commercial solar installers who want the business side — quoting, scheduling, invoicing, financing, follow-up — on one flat-rate app, paired with a free or paid design tool for panel layout.
The category-standard PV design and proposal platform for residential installers
Aurora Solar is the most widely adopted platform for residential solar design in the U.S., built around LiDAR-grade 3D roof modeling, shade analysis, and bankable financial proposals that lenders and inspectors accept. Basic runs $159/user/month billed monthly, and Premium runs $259/user/month billed monthly, per Aurora’s own published pricing page (a lower recurring-billing rate is also offered, but the standard monthly rate above is what most solar installers actually pay). Sales calls with Aurora reps sometimes yield different segment quotes, so confirm your rate directly.
Aurora’s help center documents the shading and NEC-compliance tools reviewers cite most, and its developer docs cover how system pricing components are calculated. Third-party breakdowns on G2 and Crozdesk corroborate the per-seat monthly figures above.
Best for: Design and sales teams that need the fastest, most bankable address-to-proposal workflow and are willing to run a separate CRM alongside it — this is where Aurora beats QuoteIQ outright.
The most full-featured free solar design platform on the market
OpenSolar ships 3D roof modeling from satellite imagery, shading analysis, and professional proposal generation with no per-seat licensing cost, monetizing instead through hardware and financing partnerships. For a small installer who wants professional-grade design output without a software line item, it’s the most compelling free tool in the trade — but the built-in CRM and pipeline tools are minimal once a team scales past a couple of designers.
See OpenSolar’s own site for current feature scope, Capterra reviews for real-world usability feedback, and the OpenSolar help center for onboarding documentation.
Best for: Budget-conscious or new solar installers who want professional 3D proposals without a software budget — often paired with QuoteIQ for the operations side.
Transparent-pricing generalist CRM, no native solar design
Jobber’s Core plan runs $39/month for a solo operator with no commitment, scaling through Connect ($119/month) and Grow ($199/month) up to the Plus plan at $599/month for larger teams, all standard monthly rates per Jobber’s published pricing page. It’s a clean, well-reviewed generalist CRM per G2 and Capterra, but it has no aerial roof measurement, no satellite shading analysis, and no AI line-item solar estimating per Jobber’s own help center — a solar installer pairs it with a separate design tool by necessity, not by choice.
Best for: Small solar-adjacent teams (1-10 people) who already run a separate design tool and just need clean scheduling, invoicing, and a client portal.
Small-business dispatch and invoicing platform built for short-cycle service calls
Housecall Pro’s Basic plan runs $79/month billed monthly for one user, Essentials $189/month for up to five users, and MAX $329/month for up to eight users — standard monthly rates, roughly 20-25% above the site’s advertised annual-billing figures, per Housecall Pro’s own pricing page. It’s built around dispatching a technician to a same-day service call, which is a fundamentally shorter sales motion than the multi-month, permit-and-financing-dependent cycle a solar deal runs on. See G2 and Capterra for verified user pricing reports.
Best for: Small residential solar teams already comfortable in Housecall Pro’s ecosystem for scheduling and invoicing, running design work through a separate tool.
Enterprise field-service platform for large solar-plus-electrical operations
ServiceTitan doesn’t publish pricing (see its own pricing page, which requires a sales call); based on user reports across G2, Capterra, and BBB filings, expect roughly $245-$398 per technician per month depending on tier, plus a $5,000-$50,000+ one-time implementation fee and, commonly, a 12-month minimum contract. ServiceTitan itself has said the platform isn’t optimized for companies with three or fewer technicians — it’s built for 20+ tech operations with dedicated office staff to run it.
Best for: 20+ technician solar-plus-electrical operations with dedicated office staff to administer a complex enterprise platform — genuinely the right call at that scale, and the honest reason it isn’t my pick for most solar installers.
| Software | Starting Price | Aerial Measurement | AI Quoting | PV Design | Native CRM/Pipeline | Per-User Fee | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuoteIQ | $29.99/mo | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | 14 days |
| Aurora Solar | $159/user/mo | Partial (LiDAR shading) | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| OpenSolar | Free | Partial | No | Yes | Basic | No | N/A (free) |
| Jobber | $39/mo | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | 14 days |
| Housecall Pro | $79/mo | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | 14 days |
| ServiceTitan | $245+/tech/mo (reported) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
A residential solar system typically prices between $22,000 and $34,000 installed — a lump-sum figure that stops plenty of homeowners cold. QuoteIQ bundles Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm financing directly onto every invoice at no added platform fee, with Affirm covering installs up to $30,000 over terms as long as 36 months, which matters more in solar than in almost any other trade on my site.
Jobber charges a 3.9% merchant fee for its Wisetack financing option starting at $49/month; Housecall Pro starts at $79/month before financing is even in the conversation.
The math on aerial measurement tells a similar story: a solar-specific measurement service like EagleView runs roughly $63-$105 per report with no CRM attached. QuoteIQ’s MapMeasure Pro — now built on Google’s Solar API for automatic roof-segment detection — is unlimited on Elite and above at $299/month, alongside the full CRM, scheduling, and invoicing stack.
Solar software splits into design (panel layout, shading, financial modeling) and operations (leads, quoting, scheduling, invoicing, follow-up). Almost no single platform does both well. Decide which side is actually your bottleneck — a slow, inaccurate proposal or a leaky, disorganized back office — before you evaluate a single vendor.
Aurora Solar’s $159-$259/user/month headline looks manageable until you add a second designer. Jobber’s $39/month Core plan looks cheap until AI Receptionist ($99/mo) and Marketing Suite ($79/mo) push it past $200. Total the base subscription, per-user fees, and required add-ons for your actual team size before comparing vendors.
Standalone measurement services like EagleView charge per report with no CRM attached. Check whether your operations tool bundles satellite roof measurement and AI-generated line-item quotes into the base price, or whether you’re stacking a third subscription on top.
A solar deal runs two to six months from first touch to signed contract, then another three to eight weeks to permission-to-operate. A CRM built for same-day service calls (Housecall Pro, base-tier Jobber) won’t track permit and financing stages the way a pipeline built for long-cycle consultative sales will.
Solar installers work on ladders and rooftops, not desks. Run the 14-day free trial from your phone, not a laptop, and check whether the app functions with poor cellular coverage before you commit a full crew to it.
For the operations side of the business — quoting, scheduling, invoicing, and follow-up — QuoteIQ is my pick, starting at $29.99/month with aerial roof measurement and AI-generated line-item quotes built in. For PV design and shading analysis, Aurora Solar is the category leader at $159-$259/user/month, with OpenSolar the strongest free alternative. Most installers pair one of each.
Operations CRMs for solar installers range from $29.99/month (QuoteIQ Essentials) to $599/month (Jobber Plus) on standard monthly billing, with ServiceTitan reported at $245-$398 per technician per month for enterprise operations. Design software separately runs from free (OpenSolar) to $159-$259/user/month (Aurora Solar).
Most growing solar installers do run two tools: a design platform (Aurora Solar or OpenSolar) for panel layout and shading analysis, and an operations CRM (QuoteIQ, Jobber, or Housecall Pro) for leads, quoting, scheduling, and follow-up. No platform on this list does both jobs at a genuinely competitive level for both sides.
Usually not. ServiceTitan itself has said its platform isn’t optimized for companies with three or fewer technicians, and reported per-technician pricing of $245-$398/month plus a $5,000-$50,000+ implementation fee is a heavy lift for a small residential solar shop. It makes more sense for 20+ technician solar-plus-electrical operations with dedicated office staff.
There’s no single dominant CRM the way Aurora Solar dominates PV design. Generalist field-service CRMs (Jobber, Housecall Pro, QuoteIQ) and solar-specific operations tools compete on price, financing integration, and how well their pipeline matches a multi-month sales cycle rather than a same-day service call.
Most solar CRMs, including QuoteIQ, Jobber, and Housecall Pro, offer CSV import for existing customer and job records during onboarding. Start with a 14-day free trial on your live customer list rather than a demo account, since real-world offline reliability and mobile usability matter more than the sales-deck feature list.
Financing integration fees are typically paid by the financing company, not the contractor, on most FSM platforms. QuoteIQ bundles Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm BNPL directly on invoices through Stripe at no additional platform fee; check each vendor’s current lender list before assuming a specific financing partner is supported.
Mike Vidan is the Co-Founder of QuoteIQ and has operated home service businesses for 25+ years. QuoteIQ is his company; weigh that when reading its #1 placement. Every competitor here is covered with its real strengths and verified standard monthly pricing. Pricing was checked against each vendor’s own pricing page, or a named third-party source when a vendor is quote-only, between July 1 and July 14, 2026. Read more about how this site works on the About page.
Solar installation software is really two separate purchases wearing one category label: design software that models the array, and operations software that runs the business around it. For design, Aurora Solar is the professional standard and OpenSolar the best free option — I say so plainly even though neither is mine. For operations, I built QuoteIQ specifically because I watched contractors juggle a measurement tool, a CRM, a financing portal, and a review-request app that didn’t talk to each other.
Starting at $29.99/month with no per-user fee, it’s my honest pick for most residential and light-commercial solar shops — paired with whichever design tool fits your budget.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Solar Photovoltaic Installers Occupational Outlook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/solar-photovoltaic-installers.htm
Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), U.S. Solar Market Insight Report: https://seia.org/research-resources/us-solar-market-insight/
SEIA, 6 Million Solar Installations: https://seia.org/research-resources/6-million-solar-installations/
IBISWorld, Solar Panel Installation in the US Market Size: https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-size/solar-panel-installation/4494/
North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP): https://www.nabcep.org
Aurora Solar, Pricing: https://aurorasolar.com/pricing/
OpenSolar, Product overview via WifiTalents comparison: https://wifitalents.com/best/solar-panel-installation-software/
Jobber, Pricing: https://www.getjobber.com/pricing/
Jobber Pricing 2026 breakdown, Tekpon: https://tekpon.com/software/jobber/pricing/
Housecall Pro, Pricing: https://www.housecallpro.com/pricing/
Housecall Pro pricing analysis, Procured: https://procured.us/articles/housecall-pro-pricing
ServiceTitan, Pricing: https://www.servicetitan.com/pricing
ServiceTitan reported pricing analysis, Tooled Up Pro: https://tooleduppro.com/guides/servicetitan-pricing/
QuoteIQ, Best Solar Installation CRM Software: https://myquoteiq.com/industries/solar-installation-software/
QuoteIQ, Best EagleView Alternative for Solar Installation Companies: https://myquoteiq.com/best-eagleview-alternative-for-solar-installation-companies/
QuoteIQ, Top 10 Solar Installation Estimating Software: https://myquoteiq.com/top-10-solar-installation-estimating-software-in-2026/
QuoteIQ, Best Customer Financing Software for Solar Installation: https://myquoteiq.com/best-customer-financing-software-solar-installation-2026/
G2, Housecall Pro Pricing: https://www.g2.com/products/housecall-pro/pricing
G2, Jobber Pricing: https://www.g2.com/products/jobber/pricing