Category evidence
We do not know, and we will not pretend to. Ranking software here would need five products each carrying eight verified first-party reviews. Today 0 products are scored, so any ordered list would be opinion dressed as research.
What follows is the evidence for all 25 products in this category, unordered, with the “best suited for” classifications the data does support.
Verified against the vendor’s own pages.
Why this page is not indexed
This page carries a noindex directive. Blocking gate on record:
G-data (no scored products until reviews land)
This category holds 25 products, so it can clear the five-product gate once reviews arrive. That is a deliberate constraint, not a gap to be filled later with an opinion.
Blank cells are excluded from the denominator, never scored as zero. Vendor claims count at half the weight of verified facts. Products whose surface we could not read are not scored at all. And the publisher’s own products are excluded from every ranking, permanently. Full methodology
Listed alphabetically. The ordering carries no judgement.
| Product | Best suited for | Price | Model | Verified points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archelios Pro | Utility-scale work | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 10 |
| Arka 360 | Solo installers and small teams | USD 159 | Per seat | 11 |
| Aurora Solar | Solo installers and small teams | USD 159 | Per seat | 9 |
| DNV SolarFarmer | Utility-scale work | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 8 |
| Easy PV | Teams starting without a budget | GBP 0 | Per seat | 10 |
| Enact | Utility-scale work | USD 279 | Per seat | 11 |
| FIMER PowerPHAST | Not established | Not publicly disclosed | — | 3 |
| HELIOS 3D | Utility-scale work | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 9 |
| HelioScope | Projects up to 1.25 MW DC (Basic) / 5 MW (Pro) / 30 MW (Enterprise) | USD 159 | Capacity tiered | 12 |
| Huawei SmartDesign 2.0 | Not established | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 3 |
| KACO blueplanet PV-designer | Teams starting without a budget | Free | Free | 3 |
| PlantPredict | Utility-scale work | Could not verify | — | 12 |
| PV*SOL premium | Teams with an existing toolchain | EUR 845 | Per seat | 11 |
| PVcase Ground Mount | Utility-scale work | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 7 |
| PVComplete / PVCAD | Utility-scale work | Could not verify | — | 12 |
| PVGIS | Teams starting without a budget | Could not verify | Free | 9 |
| PVsyst | Utility-scale work | CHF 700 | Per seat | 11 |
| RatedPower (pvDesign) | Utility-scale work | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 9 |
| Reslink Energy | Projects up to 100 kW / 500 kW / 5 MW / 100 MW | USD 2000 | Capacity tiered | 9 |
| SAM (System Advisor Model) | Teams starting without a budget | Free | Free | 6 |
| Scanifly | Field-heavy teams | Not publicly disclosed | Quote only | 7 |
| SMA Sunny Design | Not established | Could not verify | — | 11 |
| SolarEdge Designer | Teams starting without a budget | Free | Free | 9 |
| Solargis Evaluate | Utility-scale work | EUR 12000 | Per seat | 7 |
| SurgePV ◆ | Excluded — publisher product | USD 1899 | Per seat | 11 |
Trace Software International
A French PV design and simulation suite sold in four capacity-banded tiers — free up to 9 kWp, then €990 / €1,490 / €1,990 per year excluding tax — with Meteonorm weather data, 3D modelling, SketchUp and Revit plugins, DXF/KML/GeoJSON export and a direct handoff into the vendor's electrical-calculation products.
Arka360
Design & simulation · Web
A 3D solar design, proposal and lead-management platform, originally Indian and now selling into the US with an attached permit-plan-set and PE-stamp service arm.
Aurora Solar Inc.
Design & simulation · Web
Cloud residential solar design-and-sales platform that turns satellite/LIDAR imagery into a 3D roof model, a shaded production estimate and a signable proposal in one session.
DNV
Design & simulation · Desktop
DNV's Windows desktop yield-assessment tool for utility-scale PV — irregular terrain, 3D shade, sub-module electrical mismatch, sub-hourly and multi-year simulation, in-app scripting, and cloud-burst calculation — built on DNV's own continual-validation methodology.
Midsummer
Design & simulation · Web
A UK-only, MCS-oriented solar design and sales tool that is free at the base tier and £35/month for Pro, published by a solar wholesaler — so the kit list it produces drops straight into a trade order with live pricing and next-day delivery.
Enact Systems Inc.
Design & simulation · Web
A design-through-monitoring solar platform that, since acquiring PVComplete in January 2026, sells its own web design and proposal tool alongside PVComplete's AutoCAD-based engineering product and an asset-management/fleet-monitoring layer.
FIMER
An inverter-manufacturer sizing and simulation tool — PHotovoltaic Array Sizing Tool — launched in 2026 and delivered inside FIMER's existing Aurora Vision® account, covering PV array configuration, storage sizing and a downloadable technical report.
Helios 3D (a product of STÖHR+SAUER CAD- und Computersystem GmbH)
German engineering software for utility-scale ground-mount PV that runs inside Autodesk Civil 3D — TIN-terrain-accurate rack and tracker placement, per-rack local grading, full electrical layout with cable and voltage-drop calculation, single-line diagrams, a yield estimate on Meteotest data, and a VR viewer — sold by quote only, with no price published in either English or German.
Aurora Solar Inc. (acquired Folsom Labs, 2019)
Design & simulation · Web
Cloud commercial-and-industrial PV design and simulation tool — rooftop, carport, ground mount and storage in one project — sold per seat, with a stated accuracy target relative to PVsyst and a PVsyst export on the top tier.
Huawei FusionSolar (Huawei Digital Power)
Design & simulation · Web
An inverter manufacturer's free-to-partners web design tool: pick a site from satellite view, let it auto-arrange modules and auto-generate the electrical design, compare storage options, and export a 3D report — all inside the Huawei FusionSolar ecosystem.
KACO new energy GmbH
Design & simulation · Web
A free, no-login, browser-based PV sizing and yield tool that KACO new energy (a Siemens company) puts its brand on, and that Valentin Software builds and hosts — the same company behind PV*SOL.
Terabase Energy
Cloud, physics-based energy-yield modelling for utility-scale PV — sub-hourly resolution, full 3D ray-traced shade on cloud GPUs, an open REST API and Python SDK, with a published per-user price and an unusually detailed public record of independent engineering reviews.
PVcase
AutoCAD-based design software for utility-scale ground-mount solar — terrain-adapted automated layouts, slope and grading analysis, 3D cabling and stringing, BOM and construction-ready CAD deliverables, sold by quote only.
Valentin Software GmbH
Design & simulation · Desktop
Windows desktop PV design and simulation package built around 3D shading — model the buildings, extrude them from a cadastral map, place up to 7,500 mounted modules, and get a yield forecast, a circuit diagram and a customer-facing report, for a published €845/year named-user licence.
PVsyst SA
Design & simulation · Desktop
The Windows desktop PV simulation package that most lenders treat as the reference yield model — grid-connected, stand-alone and pumping systems, 3D near-shading, hourly and sub-hourly, sold as a named annual licence in Swiss francs.
RatedPower (part of Enverus)
Design & simulation · Web
Cloud platform for utility-scale PV, storage and hybrid plants — automated layout and basic engineering all the way to the grid connection point, with substation design, 3D energy yield, CAD deliverables and a PVsyst export, sold on three quote-only tiers.
Reslink Technologies Private Limited
Design & simulation · Web
A mobile-first 3D solar design and proposal platform for Indian EPCs that claims to take a rooftop from satellite imagery to a bill of materials and a signed-ready proposal without a site visit.
National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) — formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Design & simulation · Desktop
The US national laboratory's free, open-source desktop techno-economic model — PV, CSP, wind, marine, geothermal, biomass, solar water heating and storage, each wired to a full project-finance model (PPA, partnership flip, leaseback, TPO, community solar, merchant plant).
Scanifly, Inc.
Design & simulation · Web · iOS · Android
A two-phase solar design platform: a satellite/LiDAR remote design tool for sales, plus drone photogrammetry that rebuilds the roof as a to-scale 3D model so the design that was sold is the design that gets installed.
SolarEdge Technologies
Design & simulation · Web
SolarEdge's free browser-based PV design and proposal tool — HD imagery, AI-assisted 3D roof modelling, automatic panel placement, automatic stringing and DC cabling, and a customer proposal with financial analysis — with no licence or subscription fee.
Solargis
Design & simulation · Web
Cloud PV design and energy-yield simulation built directly on Solargis's own bankable solar and meteo dataset — 15-minute time series over 30+ years, a 3D energy system designer, and ray-traced simulation with the Perez all-weather sky model — at a published €12,000 subscription.
4 products excluded from this grid: publisher-owned or partner products, and products whose vendor surface we could not read. They remain listed in the table above and on their own pages.
