Best Solar Proposal Software UK: 2026 Guide

UK solar proposals fail on export assumptions more often than on design. The Smart Export Guarantee replaced the Feed-in Tariff export element in January 2020, and it removed the thing that made UK quoting simple: a single national rate. Under SEG every licensed supplier sets its own tariff, and the spread between the best and worst is large enough to change payback by years on the same system. Meanwhile self-consumed energy avoids an import price several times higher than any SEG rate, so the sizing logic that made sense under FiT no longer holds. This guide compares the platforms UK installers should shortlist, and judges them on SEG modelling, MCS enforcement, and VAT treatment.

• SurgePV generates the proposal from the same bankable design record, at $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.
• Book a free SurgePV demo and quote a live UK job on the call.

Short version. The best solar proposal software for UK installers in 2026 is SurgePV, because it models SEG export separately from self-consumption savings, applies BS 7671 and G98 or G99 checks at design time, and produces the customer document from the same engineering record. OpenSolar is the strongest free-tier option for simple residential. Solargraf suits crews that already own a design platform.

The UK is a residential-dominated market with thin margins and a well-informed customer base, which puts unusual pressure on proposal accuracy. Homeowners here routinely compare three quotes and check the export assumptions. For the design-side comparison, see our solar design software UK guide, and the global solar proposal software ranking for the category without the UK lens.

What A UK Solar Proposal Has To Get Right

BS 7671 and the certificate. All UK solar electrical work must comply with BS 7671, 18th Edition with Amendment 2. Solar-specific requirements sit in Part 7, Section 712, covering DC isolators, cable sizing, surge protection, and earthing. A qualified electrician issues an Electrical Installation Certificate on completion. SurgePV’s BS 7671 solar guide covers the clauses that bite at design time.

The G98 or G99 route. The threshold is 16 amps per phase. G98 is fit-and-inform for systems up to 3.68 kW single-phase or 11 kW three-phase, with the DNO notified after commissioning and 28 days to object. G99 needs formal pre-approval with a 45 working day review. Most UK residential at 3 to 6 kW single-phase falls under G98. The proposal timeline has to match the route, and SurgePV’s G98 vs G99 guide sets out the boundary.

MCS eligibility, enforced at specification. MCS is not a legal requirement to install. It is a hard requirement for the customer to receive SEG payments, and both the installer and the products must be certified. Specifying a non-MCS module quietly destroys the export income the proposal is built on. See SurgePV’s MCS certification guide.

VAT, stated with its basis. Qualifying residential installations in Great Britain currently attract 0% VAT on supply and installation. The relief is time-limited and has been extended before, so a proposal should state the rate applied and the date it was prepared. Commercial work follows standard treatment.

The SEG Trap: Why Export Rate Is The Wrong Headline

Under the old Feed-in Tariff, export was a known national number and quoting was arithmetic. Under SEG it is a commercial variable set by each supplier, and it sits far below the import price.

This has a direct design consequence. Under FiT, oversizing was rational because export paid well. Under SEG, the return comes from self-consumption, which means the useful levers are load shifting, hot water diversion, EV charging schedules, and batteries. A 6 kW array on a house that is empty all day performs very differently from the same array on a house with a heat pump and a home worker, and only an hourly model shows the difference.

The practical test on any vendor demo: ask them to show the same system on two different load profiles and report the self-consumption percentage for each. Tools running an 8,760-hour engine answer immediately. Tools running annual totals cannot answer at all. Our solar shading analysis software guide covers why hourly module-level resolution is the minimum standard, and solar plus storage design software covers battery dispatch.

The Platforms UK Installers Should Evaluate

1. SurgePV, the integrated pick

Proposal generated from the same project record as the design, so the engineering numbers and the customer numbers cannot drift. Ships BS 7671 checks, 8,760-hour module-level shading, bankable P50, P75, P90, hourly self-consumption with battery dispatch, and white-label proposals with e-signature. $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year flat.

2. OpenSolar

Very widely used in UK residential, and the free tier is genuinely capable for simple jobs. Shading is simplified, which matters on the cluttered UK roofscape of chimneys, dormers, and neighbouring terraces. Add-ons stack at commercial scale. See our OpenSolar alternative breakdown.

3. Solargraf

Clean, fast residential documents with solid e-signature, Enphase-owned. Sits downstream of a design tool rather than replacing one. Roughly $1,200 to $2,400 per user per year. More in our Solargraf alternative review.

4. Aurora Solar

Excellent software built for US utility structures. No SEG library, no MCS filtering, no UK VAT handling. Defensible only if your mix is commercial and you value the design depth enough to handle the UK specifics manually. See our Aurora Solar alternative comparison.

5. Pylon

Fast residential proposals for sales-led teams, with limited engineering depth. Per-feature pricing. Covered in our Pylon alternative comparison.

6. Easy PV

Popular with UK installers for quick MCS-oriented documentation and straightforward residential layouts. Narrower simulation depth than the platforms above, so commercial work generally needs a second tool.

7. Spreadsheet plus a design tool

Still common among smaller UK installers. Free and flexible, and the main source of stale SEG rates and out-of-date VAT lines in circulating quotes.

UK Solar Proposal Software Comparison

Worked Example: 4.5 kW In Leeds, Two Households

An illustrative calculation showing why the load profile matters more than the array under SEG. Inputs identical in both cases: 4.5 kW array, 900 kWh per kW specific yield, 4,050 kWh generation, import at 26p per kWh, SEG export at 6p per kWh.

Same hardware, same roof, same town. A 58% difference in year one benefit, driven entirely by when the electricity is used. A proposal that reports one number for both households is wrong for at least one of them, and probably both. This is also the honest argument for a battery on the first profile: shifting even half the exported energy into evening use is worth more than the entire SEG income.

Who Should Choose What

• Choose SurgePV if you want SEG, self-consumption, BS 7671 checks, and proposals in one license, or you handle commercial alongside residential.
• Choose OpenSolar if you are residential-only, price-sensitive, and your roofs are simple enough that simplified shading is acceptable.
• Choose Solargraf if you already own a design tool and want a faster, cleaner customer document.
• Choose Easy PV if MCS documentation speed on straightforward residential is your main constraint.
• Choose Aurora only if commercial design depth outweighs the UK-specific gaps you will handle manually.
• Choose Pylon if proposal velocity in a small sales-led team is the priority.

After signing, pipeline and follow-up sit in a CRM rather than the design tool. QuickEstimate handles that handoff from SurgePV by API.

A proposal tool only earns its place inside a working stack. The wider solar software picture in the UK covers what sits either side of it.

The Bottom Line

UK proposal software is judged on export assumptions, and export stopped being a national constant six years ago. The tools that still treat it as one are producing documents that look precise and are not.

• Split the savings line in every quote. Avoided import at 26p and SEG export at 6p are different businesses. Showing them blended hides the case for load shifting and batteries.
• Check MCS at specification, not at handover. A non-MCS product removes the customer’s SEG eligibility entirely, and the proposal is the document that promised it.