OpenSolar vs solarVis: which solar sales software fits in 2026?
Two platforms, one promise: take a roof from first enquiry to a signed solar proposal. OpenSolar gets there free, funded by hardware and finance partners, with e-signature and financing built in. SolarVis gets there with heat pumps sized in the same feasibility, tariff rules for 45+ countries, and commercial sites up to 50 MW in the same product. Here is the honest version, from both sides.
What is OpenSolar?
OpenSolar is the free, end-to-end platform of the solar industry, founded in Sydney in 2017, with 28,000+ active solar professionals across 185+ countries and over 6 million systems designed. OS 3.0 brought Ada, an AI assistant that auto-designs systems, plus SolarTouch mobile design, interactive proposals with integrated financing, e-signature, CashFlow payments, single-line diagrams and a built-in CRM. In October 2025, Google led a $20M round to fund the roadmap.
The free part is real. OpenSolar's own February 2026 announcement keeps the core app free for end-to-end work inside the platform, with no seat fees, project caps or contracts; since 16 April 2026 API Access and third-party Connectors (accounting tools such as Xero and QuickBooks) are charged, and higher-resolution imagery is paid per use. OpenSolar can afford this because hardware and finance partners fund the platform. The rest of this page answers a narrower question: what solarVis gives a European installer that the free platform does not, and when free is simply the right call.
OpenSolar
The free global standard, end to end.
solarVis
Lead to proposal in one flow, from a home to a 50 MW site.
Why teams choose solarVis
Heat pumps in the same feasibility
SolarVis calculates the building's heating load, sizes the heat pump and prices it in the same report as the PV and the battery. OpenSolar adds a heat pump to the proposal and models its electricity use (in beta), but the heat pump has to be sized in another tool first.
An AI sales agent on your website
The AI Sales Agent, an add-on product, learns your business by crawling your own site, answers visitors, and can return a real feasibility report and a proposal link, with every lead landing in your CRM. OpenSolar's AI Lead Gen (in beta) puts an estimate form on your site that returns an auto-designed system, without a chatbot.
Local tariffs in the same feasibility
Tariff and regulation rules for 45+ countries, from hourly time-of-use and demand charges to net billing and feed-in tariffs, sit in the same feasibility as the PV, battery and heat pump, and battery arbitrage runs against them on on-grid designs. OpenSolar applies rates from its own database, publishes no country coverage list, and otherwise takes custom tariffs.
- Up to 80% less design time
- 80%
- Solar projects
- 67,500+
- Countries supported
- 45+
Feature comparison
How we compared. We follow the order an installer sells in: access, market fit, site and roof modelling, layout and engineering, yield and feasibility, proposal and close, and pipeline and operations. SolarVis facts come from the product itself. OpenSolar facts come from its own website, product pages, help centre and its February 2026 announcement, checked between 31 July and 29 September 2026 and re-checked every 90 days. Where OpenSolar's pages say nothing about a capability, we leave the row out rather than guess, and the section below names where OpenSolar is the better pick.
| Capability |  solarVis |  OpenSolar |
|---|---|---|
| Access | ||
| Getting started | 7-day free trial, no credit card | Core platform free, no trial needed |
| Business model | Subscriptions from installers | Hardware and finance partners |
| Market fit | ||
| MCS documents (UK) | Yes, MCS Performance Estimate and MIS 3002 shade report | Yes |
| Site and roof modelling | ||
| Roof capture | AI roof detection, then Fit to LiDAR where data covers the site | Ada auto-design with LiDAR |
| CAD (DXF) | Import and export | Export |
| Layout and engineering | ||
| Automatic stringing | Yes, Full Auto and Guided | Yes |
| Single-line diagram | Yes, generated from the stringing; PDF and DXF | Yes, for AU, NZ, US, CA, UK, DE, IT, ES and FR; PNG or SVG |
| C&I and ground mounts | Yes, up to 50 MW per design | Yes |
| Yield and feasibility | ||
| Shading analysis | Cell-level, on an 8760-hour engine | Yes |
| Battery modelling | Self-consumption, autonomy and arbitrage | Self-consumption, savings-maximising and peak-shaving control schemes |
| Heat pump | Simulation and sizing | Running costs modelled (beta), sized in another tool |
| Proposal and close | ||
| Payments and integrated financing | No, payment plan split only | CashFlow payments, integrated finance |
| White-label and custom branding | Yes | Yes |
| Pipeline and operations | ||
| CRM and team management | Yes | Yes |
| Website lead capture | AI Sales Agent chatbot and Lead Generator (add-ons) | AI Lead Gen estimate form (beta), no chatbot |
| Mobile app | No, web-based | Yes |
Last verified 11 September 2026; heat pumps, CAD, single-line diagrams, battery modelling and lead capture re-checked on 29 September 2026. The solarVis column comes from the product, the OpenSolar column from opensolar.com, its help centre and its February 2026 pricing post. Re-checked every 90 days.
The workflow, stage by stage
Lead generation
EvensolarVisA Lead Generator on your own site and an AI Sales Agent trained on your website (add-on products), with every lead landing in the CRM.
OpenSolarAI Lead Gen (in beta), an estimate form on your site that returns an auto-designed system, without a chatbot.
Site model and layout
EvensolarVisAI Roof Detection for the outline, Fit to LiDAR for height and slope, 3D modelling of stepped roofs with adjoining sections at their own height and roof type, then AI panel placement to a target panel count, capacity, production or consumption share.
OpenSolarAda AI auto-design, LiDAR-assisted modeling, and SolarTouch design on mobile.
Electrical design
EvensolarVisAutomatic Stringing (Full Auto or Guided), checked per string, MPPT and inverter, then a single-line diagram generated from those strings, checked electrically as you draw and exported as PDF or DXF.
OpenSolarAutomatic stringing, single-line diagrams from regional templates in nine countries, and bankable shade reports.
Feasibility and project pricing
solarVis edgesolarVisCell-level shading on an 8760-hour engine, PV, battery and heat pump in one feasibility with tariff rules for 45+ countries, battery arbitrage, and payback with a 20-year cash flow.
OpenSolarPV and battery on hourly tariffs from its rate database, with battery control schemes and incentives; heat pump running costs from a design done elsewhere.
Proposal and close
OpenSolar edgesolarVis26 configurable proposal pages, sent by email, SMS or link or shared to WhatsApp, with view and time-spent tracking and customer accept or reject.
OpenSolarInteractive proposals with financing, e-signature, and CashFlow payments built in.
After the sale
EvensolarVisA CRM with customizable pipelines, by default from Offer Sent to Construction and Installation, with stage-gated tasks and headquarters, team and partner permissions.
OpenSolarProject management with SolarAPP+ permitting in the US.
Selling in the UK and South Africa
OpenSolar also supports MCS in the UK and exports UK single-line diagrams. The difference in both markets sits in the feasibility: local tariffs, battery modes and heat pumps in one report. Here is what solarVis carries in both markets, and what it leaves to other tools.
| Market | What solarVis covers | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | MCS Performance Estimate and an MIS 3002 shade report, for Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man; the Smart Export Guarantee modelled as net billing, with default export rates for fixed and time-of-use tariffs that you edit per project to match the customer's supplier; standing, metering and capacity charges kept separate from the unit rate | DNO applications (G98 or G99), BS 7671 compliance flags, BUS grant tracking, job scheduling and invoicing |
| South Africa | Around 180 Eskom and municipal tariffs preloaded, from Homeflex to Megaflex and the metro residential blocks, with seasonal time-of-use and net billing; custom tariffs where a municipality is not preloaded; a battery autonomy mode with a backup reserve for outages; off-grid and zero-injection designs | SSEG registration and NERSA applications, load-shedding schedule simulation, NRS 097-2 and SANS 10142-1 documentation, rent-to-own billing |
Where a row says "does not do", plan on a separate tool or a manual step.
Where OpenSolar is the better pick
No tool wins everywhere, and a free one this good deserves a straight answer. Choose OpenSolar when:
- Budget decides. The core platform is genuinely free with unlimited users and projects: design, proposals, CRM, e-signature, and payments, with charges only for API Access, Connectors and higher-resolution imagery. No subscription can beat free.
- You close with financing on the spot. Integrated finance options, incentives, and CashFlow payments live inside the proposal, with e-signature to finish the deal. SolarVis has no integrated financing: its proposals carry a payment plan, not a loan.
- You need US permits. OpenSolar covers US permitting through SolarAPP+ and AHJ data, and generates single-line diagrams from regional templates in nine countries, from Australia and the US to the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France. SolarVis generates the single-line diagram from your stringing and exports it as PDF or DXF, but it prepares no permit package.
- You want the largest community in solar. 28,000+ active professionals across 185+ countries, 6 million+ systems designed, and a 2025 round led by Google funding the roadmap.
Switching from OpenSolar to solarVis
Plan on running both in parallel for about two weeks. Here is the path.
- Get your data out of OpenSolar. Export projects and contacts from the project list, and each open design as a DXF file. API Access has been a paid service since 16 April 2026; where no export covers it, OpenSolar support can help retrieve your data.
- Request your solarVis trial. Apply with no credit card. Once the team has set up your access, import contacts and leads from Excel with the sample template.
- Set your project pricing once. Load Preset Cost Settings, Packages and material prices, with VAT, discounts and margins. Every proposal prices consistently from then on.
- Pick your tariffs. Choose your market's utility tariffs, time-of-use schedules and export rules in Tariff Settings.
- Rebuild active designs. Start each open project from AI Roof Detection or from the DXF you exported from OpenSolar, run Fit to LiDAR where data covers the site, let AI panel placement fill the roof, and let Automatic Stringing build the strings.
- Brand, send and route. Add your logo and commercial terms, send proposals with view tracking, and point new leads at solarVis while OpenSolar stays live until the last open deals close.
What moves over: contacts and leads (Excel import), pipeline stages, material prices, packages and cost presets, branding, margins and VAT rules.
See also
- Best solar design software for installers: the whole category, compared the way installers buy
- Aurora Solar vs solarVis: European coverage vs the US premium leader
- Reonic vs solarVis: a free trial vs a demo-first model
- HelioScope vs solarVis: commercial engineering vs the full sale
- Heat Pump Modeling: the feasibility step OpenSolar does not size
- What is solar design software?: the category, explained
