Nirav Dhanani OpenSolar is a cloud-based solar design and proposal platform, launched in Australia in 2018, that installers can use without per-user licence fees. It provides rooftop layout, shading estimates, financial modelling, and customer proposals, mainly for residential and small commercial projects. Installers use it during the sales stage, often handing permit drawings to separate engineering teams.
Key Takeaways
- OpenSolar = free residential solar design platform.
- Aurora alternative for cost-sensitive installers.
- Revenue from hardware purchase commissions.
- Strong in Australia, India, emerging markets.
- Feature set growing; less polished than Aurora premium.
What OpenSolar Actually Does
OpenSolar’s core workflow mirrors the same three stages every residential design platform covers: rooftop layout, shading analysis, and a customer-facing proposal with a basic financial pro forma. The difference is the pricing model, instead of a per-seat subscription, OpenSolar is free to use for design, and the company makes its money on commissions when hardware (modules, inverters, racking) is purchased through its marketplace.
That business model is why it has gained the most traction in markets where installers are price-sensitive about per-user software fees, Australia, India, and other emerging solar markets, rather than displacing Aurora in the US, where Aurora’s deeper CRM and financial-modeling integrations still dominate.
For an installer, that trade-off is usually straightforward: OpenSolar removes the software line-item from the cost of running a design and sales process, at the expense of a narrower feature set and less polish than Aurora’s premium tiers.
It’s a reasonable starting point for a small residential shop, but it isn’t marketed or built as a bankable engineering tool, larger commercial jobs and anything needing a PE-stamped permit set still route through a dedicated design or engineering service after the initial OpenSolar proposal.
Related Reading
If you’re deciding whether a free tool like OpenSolar is enough or whether it’s worth paying for Aurora’s broader feature set, our head-to-head on Aurora vs OpenSolar walks through the paid-vs-free trade-offs in more detail, and the Aurora Solar pricing breakdown is useful context on what you’d actually be paying for.
For a wider view of where OpenSolar sits among the field, see our roundup of the best solar design software in 2026 or, for teams evaluating options against Aurora specifically, Aurora Solar alternatives for US installers. SurgePV’s own comparison of the top 10 solar design platforms covers similar free-vs-paid ground from a slightly different angle.
Other residential proposal platforms include SolarPlus; see the Solargraf review and Pylon review for alternatives.
Disclosure: SurgePV is a Heaven Designs group company.
Frequently Asked Questions
3 commonly searched questions about OpenSolar.
Is OpenSolar really free?
What is the difference between OpenSolar and Aurora Solar?
Can OpenSolar produce permit-ready drawings?
Need engineering-backed solar designs?
Heaven Designs prepares solar drawings, structural calculations, electrical engineering documents, and project-specific permit plan sets.