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bestCRM
Solar CRM#1 of 11 in solar energy

OpenSolar

Free end-to-end solar platform — AI design, branded proposals, integrated finance options, e-signature, payments, and a built-in project CRM from lead through install.

Best for
Solar installers and EPCs that want design, proposals, and CRM in one place
Price
Free (core app); API and connectors are paid add-ons
HQ
United States / Australia (global product)
Profile updated
September 26, 2026

Worth it for your operation?

Pros

  • Core product is free of charge for design, proposals, CRM, and project workflows
  • Integrated finance options inside the proposal (cash, loan, lease paths by market)
  • Project Management CRM with Kanban, stages, scheduling, and calendar sync
  • E-signature and online payments tied to the same proposal

Watch-outs

  • No Meta WhatsApp inbox on the lead card
  • Plant-level production monitoring is not the product — O&M stays elsewhere
  • API and deep connectors are paid add-ons (core stays free)
  • Free does not mean “zero vendor stack” if you already run Salesforce or HubSpot beside it

Score by criterion

The dark mark on each bar is the average of the 11 CRMs in this ranking. Criteria with higher weight pull the overall score more.

Proposal generatorweight 1.5×
8.8

PV sizing, shading, production estimates, and a customer-ready proposal or PDF without a parallel spreadsheet.

Financingweight 1.2×
8.5

Quote and, when it exists, pre-approve solar loans, leases, or PPAs without retyping the homeowner in another portal.

Post-sale and monitoring
7.8

Installed systems, service tickets, and a clean handoff from sales into install / O&M without an orphan spreadsheet.

Native messagingweight 0.9×
3.5

Native SMS or messaging inbox on the lead card, with team history. WhatsApp Business API also counts. Marketplace apps, extensions, and website buttons do not.

Price and transparencyweight 0.8×
9.8

Public plan, currency, trial, and whether you can start without a vendor sales call.

Learning curveweight 0.8×
8.0

English UI, solar vocabulary (kW, shade, PTO, TPO), and time to the first usable proposal.

What ships natively

We only mark “yes” when the feature is part of the product — marketplace integrations or third-party apps do not count.

  • Yes

    Proposal generator

    Builds photovoltaic proposals inside the CRM

  • Yes

    Financing

    Credit simulation or underwriting in the product — solar or real estate, depending on the vertical

  • No

    Native messaging

    Native SMS or messaging inbox on the lead/contact card (history preserved). WhatsApp Business API also counts. Marketplace apps, Zapier, browser extensions, website chat buttons, and sibling-SKU modules do not

  • No

    Monitoring

    Tracks installed solar systems

  • No

    Website simulator

    Simulator for the integrator’s website

  • Yes

    Project management

    Installation and engineering stages

  • No

    Native marketing

    Marketing automation in the same product

  • Yes

    Sales pipeline

    Visual sales pipeline

Editorial analysis

OpenSolar in detail

OpenSolar is the unusual case in US solar software: a full design-to-CRM stack at $0 for the core app. The public pitch is blunt — 100% free of charge — and the product pages cover AI auto-design, branded proposals, finance comparisons, e-signature, payments, and a Project Management CRM with stages, assignments, and calendar sync.

Who it is for

Installers who are tired of paying per seat for design and another seat for CRM, and who want the proposal and the job record in one place. Teams that already standardized on Salesforce or HubSpot still show up in OpenSolar’s own API narrative — which is a hint that “free” and “system of record” are not always the same decision.

What drives the score

Price and proposal pull the ranking. Financing is real inside the proposal (cash vs finance paths, provider status tracking), which is why financing sits near the top of the vertical tools. Post-sale scores for project workflows, not for plant monitoring — monitoramento stays false. Messaging stays low — SMS/email live outside this product’s lead card.

How we read the sources

Profile based on opensolar.com, the Pro, Project Management CRM, and Integrated Finance pages. “28,000+ active solar professionals” and similar figures are vendor claims, not our measurement.

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenSolar really free?

The core design, proposal, CRM, and project tools are free of charge on the public site. OpenSolar documents paid API access and connectors for teams that sync an external CRM or accounting stack. Confirm the current add-on list before you budget for integrations.

Does OpenSolar replace a monitoring platform?

No. The post-sale score reflects project handoff, scheduling, and payments — not inverter telemetry. If O&M is the product you need, you still pair OpenSolar with a monitoring vendor.

Sources consulted

Everything on this profile comes from the pages below. We did not lab-test the platform.

Profile updated September 26, 2026. Found something outdated? Corrections are welcome.