Most lists of Easy PV alternatives start from the assumption that Easy PV is the problem. It usually is not. It is a good UK product built tightly around the domestic installer workflow, and for a lot of the people reading this page the correct decision is to keep it. This ranking exists for the smaller group whose work has changed shape: the installer who has started quoting warehouse roofs, carports and business park ground mounts, and who now has a client’s consultant asking for things the domestic workflow never had to produce.
Direct answer. The best Easy PV alternatives in 2026 are SurgePV for UK installers moving into commercial work who want design, shading, drawings and proposal on one licence, PVsyst when a funder or consultant will read the yield study, HelioScope for fast commercial rooftop layout, PV*SOL premium for customer-facing 3D shading visuals, Aurora Solar for high-volume residential sales, and OpenSolar when cost is the reason you are looking.
TL;DR
- For UK domestic MCS work, switching away from Easy PV buys you almost nothing. The scheme prescribes how the performance estimate is calculated, including overshading.
- The honest trigger for a second tool is commercial work, which sits outside MCS and needs a yield study with stated loss assumptions plus a drawing set.
- SurgePV ranks first for that transition: 8,760-hour simulation with module-level shading, single-line diagrams and DWG export, and a white-label proposal on one licence at $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.
- PVsyst at about $500 per user per year for a standard licence stays the reference when a funder or independent engineer reads the numbers.
- HelioScope, PV*SOL premium, Aurora Solar and OpenSolar each solve one part of the problem well and leave the rest to a second subscription.
Why Installers Start Looking for an Easy PV Alternative
Three reasons come up repeatedly on calls with UK installers, and only one of them is a good reason.
The first is capability envy. Someone sees a competitor demo an hourly simulation with module-level shading and concludes that their own numbers must be worse. On domestic work that conclusion is wrong, and the section below explains why in detail.
The second is expansion outside the UK. An installer opening in Ireland or mainland Europe loses the advantage that came from building tightly around one national certification scheme. The fit weakens because the scheme no longer applies.
The third, and the one worth acting on, is a change in the work itself. Commercial enquiries start arriving. The buyer is a business, the reviewer is a consultant or a funder, and the deliverables are a yield study and a drawing set. That is a genuinely different job, and it is the reason this ranking exists.
The Honest Trigger: Your First Commercial Job
For UK domestic installations, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme sets out how the estimated annual generation must be calculated, including a defined procedure for overshading. The method and its inputs are prescribed. You do not get to model the roof however you prefer and put your own number on the certificate.
That fact decides most of this page. A heavier simulation does not produce a better MCS number. If you buy a more sophisticated tool and it returns a different figure, you have not improved the certificate. You have produced a second number sitting beside a value the scheme already determined.
Commercial work is different in kind. It sits outside MCS entirely. Nobody hands you a prescribed method, so the assumptions become yours to state and defend. A client’s consultant wants to see the loss assumptions. A funder wants a yield study they recognise. The contractor wants a drawing set, not a quotation. None of that is produced by a workflow designed around domestic certification, and no amount of goodwill towards Easy PV changes that.
The signal to act is rarely the first enquiry. It is the third, when the pattern is obvious and you have already rebuilt the same model twice in two different places. Our Easy PV review covers the product itself in more depth.
If You Only Do UK Domestic Work, Do Not Switch
This section is not a hedge. It is the most useful advice on the page.
If your last twenty jobs were domestic MCS installs, no product in this ranking will change a single figure you hand a customer. The performance estimate comes from the prescribed method. Your quotation already comes out of the same job you built. Your compliance documentation already comes out of the same product. Replacing that with a general-purpose design platform means paying more, training your team on a second workflow, and losing the consolidation that made the original purchase sensible.
The expensive mistake in this category is switching out of anxiety about capability you will never use. If you want a sanity check, count the commercial jobs you have quoted in the last twelve months. If the count is zero, close this page and get on with your week. If the count includes work you turned away or subcontracted because you could not produce the deliverables, keep reading. That count is the number you should price software against.
1. SurgePV
Who it is for. UK installers who have started winning commercial work and want design, shading, drawings and the customer document under one licence rather than three subscriptions.
What it does that Easy PV does not. SurgePV is browser based and runs 8,760-hour simulation with module-level shading, mismatch and string topology. It produces single-line diagrams and DWG export from the same model, so the drawing set is not a separate rebuild in a drafting package. It also includes a white-label proposal layer, which means the commercial client receives a branded document rather than a domestic quotation format stretched to fit.
Honest limitation. SurgePV is not an MCS compliance product. It does not replace Easy PV on your domestic book, and it should not try to. For a funder-facing yield study on a financed project, expect the reviewer to still ask for PVsyst.
Price. $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year. Easy PV is a subscription quoted in pounds, so compare the two on the currency and term in your own contract rather than on a headline.
Most installers making this move keep both. Easy PV carries the domestic volume, SurgePV carries the commercial jobs. See it on one of your own roofs at surgepv.com/demo.
2. PVsyst
Who it is for. Any project where a funder, lender or independent engineer will read the yield study before money moves.
What it does that Easy PV does not. PVsyst produces the yield report that the financing side of this industry treats as the reference. The loss model is granular, the assumptions are explicit, and the output format is familiar to the people reviewing it. On a financed commercial project, that familiarity is the product.
Honest limitation. It is a desktop simulation tool with a steep learning curve and a dated interface. It produces no single-line diagram, no drawing set and no customer-facing proposal. A junior designer takes weeks to become useful with it. It is a companion tool, not a replacement for the workflow you run today.
Price. Around $500 per user per year, which makes it the cheapest way to cover the bankability requirement specifically.
3. HelioScope
Who it is for. Teams doing enough commercial rooftop work that layout speed becomes the bottleneck.
What it does that Easy PV does not. HelioScope was built for commercial and industrial rooftop design. Hourly module-level shading is standard, wiring and mismatch losses are broken out, and the layout motion on a large roof is quick once the team knows it. For a designer pricing several commercial roofs a week, that speed is real.
Honest limitation. There is no customer-facing interactive proposal, so most teams buy a second product to close the deal. It is a US-shaped tool with no relationship to UK domestic certification, and the residential motion is slower than the alternatives built for it.
Price. Roughly $1,188 per user per year at the commonly quoted tier. Our HelioScope alternatives guide covers the wider field around it.
4. PV*SOL premium
Who it is for. Installers who want to show a client a 3D shading study that a non-engineer can understand.
What it does that Easy PV does not. The 3D shading visualisation is the strongest customer-facing explanation of shading loss in this ranking. When a commercial client questions why the array stops short of the plant room or why one row underperforms, an animated shadow study answers it faster than a table of numbers. Yield modelling and storage coupling are solid alongside.
Honest limitation. It is desktop software with a learning curve, no interactive proposal layer, and no MCS documentation workflow. Building the 3D model takes real time, which does not suit high-volume quoting.
Price. The premium edition starts at about EUR 1,000. If shading is the specific thing you are trying to solve, solar shading analysis software in the UK ranks the options properly.
5. Aurora Solar
Who it is for. High-volume residential sales operations, particularly outside the UK, where LIDAR-based modelling and a slick sales motion matter more than certification paperwork.
What it does that Easy PV does not. Aurora builds a detailed roof and shading model from remote data, which shortens the site survey step. The sales-side proposal experience is the best in the residential market, and the design-to-close handoff is smooth for a rep who is not an engineer.
Honest limitation. It is the most expensive option here per seat, and it is not built around UK domestic certification. For a British installer, paying that premium to model a domestic roof more precisely runs straight into the MCS point above. Deeper capability sits on the higher tiers.
Price. $1,908 to $3,108 per user per year.
6. OpenSolar
Who it is for. Installers whose actual reason for looking is subscription cost.
What it does that Easy PV does not. OpenSolar is free at the seat, funded through transactions and hardware partners rather than a per-user licence. It covers design, proposal and a sales workflow, so a small team can run a complete quoting motion without a software line in the budget.
Honest limitation. Free at the seat is not free in aggregate. The commercial model steers you towards the platform’s partner ecosystem, and you should understand that trade before committing your quoting process to it. Simulation depth and drawing output do not match the paid engineering tools, and it is not an MCS documentation product.
Price. Free at the seat, transaction funded.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Best for | Price | Drawings | Proposal | MCS domestic fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SurgePV | Commercial work on one licence | $1,299 to $1,899 / user / yr | Single-line diagrams and DWG export | White-label layer included | Not an MCS product |
| PVsyst | Funder-reviewed yield studies | ~$500 / user / yr | None | None | Not an MCS product |
| HelioScope | Fast commercial rooftop layout | ~$1,188 / user / yr | Engineering output, no full set | None | Not an MCS product |
| PV*SOL premium | 3D shading visualisation | From about EUR 1,000 | Limited | None | Not an MCS product |
| Aurora Solar | High-volume residential sales | $1,908 to $3,108 / user / yr | Permit-oriented output | Included | Not an MCS product |
| OpenSolar | Free option on cost grounds | Free at the seat | Limited | Included | Not an MCS product |
| Easy PV | UK domestic MCS volume | Subscription in pounds | Not the product focus | Quotation built in | Built around the requirement |
The pattern in that last column is the whole argument. Nothing in this ranking replaces Easy PV on domestic certification, because none of these products were built for it. They replace the part of your work that has moved outside the scheme.
Try the software behind this review
Keep Easy PV for domestic. Cover the commercial jobs with one licence.
SurgePV runs 8,760-hour simulation with module-level shading, exports the single-line diagram and DWG from the same model, and ships a white-label proposal. $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.
Book a free SurgePV demo →No credit card. 20-minute walkthrough on one of your own projects.
How to Choose Without Overbuying
Start with the deliverable, not the feature list. Write down what the last client actually asked you to hand over. If it was a quotation and a certification pack, you already own the right tool. If it was a yield study with stated loss assumptions and a set of drawings, you need something that produces both.
Then decide who reads the output. A homeowner reads a quotation. A facilities manager reads a proposal. A funder reads a yield study. That reader determines the tool far more reliably than any comparison table, including the one above.
Finally, price the whole stack rather than the single licence. A tool that solves layout but not the customer document means a second subscription. A tool that solves the proposal but not the drawing set means a drafting contractor. The cheapest headline is often the most expensive stack. We break the numbers down in solar design software pricing, and the wider UK picture sits in solar software in the UK and best solar design software in the UK.
Where the real constraint is drafting capacity rather than software, our solar rooftop detailed engineering design team produces the full pack on whichever platform you already run. Get the sample design pack or talk to our team.
Conclusion
- Domestic-only installers should keep Easy PV. MCS prescribes the performance method, so a heavier simulation cannot improve the number on the certificate.
- Commercial work is the only honest reason to add a tool. It sits outside MCS and requires a yield study with stated loss assumptions plus a drawing set.
- SurgePV is the strongest single answer for that transition, with PVsyst added when a funder or independent engineer reviews the numbers.
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Disclosure and accuracy note
Commercial relationship. Heaven Designs and SurgePV are part of the same group. Treat our recommendation of SurgePV as a vendor making its own case, not an independent verdict. We have tried to describe every other product fairly, and to say plainly where a competitor is the better choice.
Pricing. All prices are indicative, compiled from public sources when this page was written. They vary by tier, region, contract term and exchange rate, and change without notice. Several vendors quote rather than publish, and some price in currencies other than the US dollar, so a converted figure moves with the exchange rate. Confirm current pricing with the vendor before you decide anything.
Trademarks and corrections. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners, and are used here for identification and comparison only. Their use does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by those companies. If anything here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
FAQ
What is the best Easy PV alternative? For UK installers moving into commercial work, SurgePV. It covers design, 8,760-hour simulation with module-level shading, single-line diagrams with DWG export, and a white-label proposal on one licence at $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year. For funder-facing yield studies specifically, PVsyst remains the reference at about $500 per user per year for a standard licence.
Is there a free Easy PV alternative? OpenSolar is free at the seat and funded through transactions rather than a per-user licence. It covers design and proposals for a small team with no software budget. It is not an MCS documentation product, and the simulation and drawing output do not match the paid engineering tools.
Should a UK domestic installer switch away from Easy PV? Generally no. MCS sets the method for the domestic performance estimate, including a defined overshading procedure, so a heavier design tool does not change the figure your customer receives. Switching costs money, adds a second workflow, and loses the consolidation of design, quotation and compliance in one product.
What does Easy PV cost compared with these alternatives? Easy PV is sold as a subscription quoted in pounds, so check the plan and term in your own contract. The alternatives here range from free at the seat with OpenSolar, through about $500 per user per year for PVsyst and about $1,188 for HelioScope, up to $1,908 to $3,108 for Aurora Solar. SurgePV sits at $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.
Do I need PVsyst as well as a design tool? Only when a lender or independent engineer reviews the yield numbers before funding. On that audience, PVsyst is still the report people expect to see. On unfinanced commercial work where the client’s consultant simply wants stated loss assumptions, a strong hourly model and a clear methodology note usually settles it.
Can I keep Easy PV and add a second tool? Yes, and that is what most installers actually do. Easy PV carries the domestic MCS book where its fit is strongest, and the second licence carries commercial jobs that sit outside the scheme. The point to watch is double handling: once you are rebuilding the same model in two places every week, it is worth deciding which product owns which type of job.
Related: the product itself is covered in our Easy PV review, the full stack picture in solar software in the UK, the design layer in best solar design software in the UK, and shading in best solar shading analysis software in the UK.
