Solset AI vs OpenSolar: what “free” includes, and what it leaves out

OpenSolar is the largest free solar design and proposal platform. Its own site explains the model plainly: manufacturers, finance companies, distributors and permitting firms pay to be on the platform, so installers do not. It has auto design, proposals, payments, integrated finance and a project management view, with weekly webinars in several regions.

Where OpenSolar is ahead

• Free, with no tiers to think about, and a very large installer base: its homepage cites tens of thousands of active professionals in over a hundred countries.
• Integrated finance and partner marketplace: proposals can carry loan, lease and PPA options from partner lenders in markets where those partners operate. Solset AI models the economics but does not embed lender offers.
• Onboarding at scale: nine recurring regional webinars a week, a help centre and a podcast.
• Third-party accuracy reports and a SOC 2 Type 1 trust page.

Where Solset AI is ahead

• The operations half: procurement with three-way matching, warehouse stock, crews and site updates, interconnection tracking, GST and TDS invoicing, receivables ageing, service contracts. OpenSolar’s project management is a board for the sale; it does not run the build or the books.
• A published price. OpenSolar’s pricing page does not exist, and the paid extras (payments, imagery, enterprise services, API) are not priced on the site. Solset AI’s plans and add-ons are on one page.
• Structural engineering, DXF round-trips and a cable schedule in the same design.
• Country-aware finance: Indian GST documents and subsidy slabs for Indian workspaces, plain tax everywhere else.

Pricing, side by side

OpenSolar is free of charge for installers; partners pay. Payment processing, premium imagery, enterprise services and API access are paid extras whose prices are not published. Figures are from the competitor’s own website, read on 8 October 2026; check their pricing page before relying on them.

Solset AI prices per workspace, not per user: a plan covers the company, extra seats are an add-on, and the Free plan never expires and needs no card. Subscriptions are billed in rupees or dollars, and the Design Studio can also be used one roof at a time with pay-per-design credits. Every figure is on the plans page, where it is read from the live catalogue rather than typed into a blog post.

Who should choose which

If you sell residential systems with partner financing and your back office lives elsewhere, OpenSolar costs nothing and does that well. If the design is the start of a job you also have to procure, build, invoice and service, and you want one record for all of it, Solset AI’s free plan is the place to start and the paid plans are priced per company, not per person.

If OpenSolar fits the way you sell, use it; the point of this post is that you can decide from the facts. If the job after the proposal is where your margin leaks, start a free Solset workspace, add one real enquiry and take it to a quotation. Our other comparisons are on the compare page.