Best Solar Software France: The Complete 2026 Stack

Every French solar proposal written before 5 June 2026 contained two revenue lines that no longer exist. The prime à l’autoconsommation was abolished for new installations under the revised S21 arrêté, and surplus buyback for new applications fell to 1.1 centimes per kWh excluding tax. Against a retail price many times higher, exported energy became close to worthless in the space of a single day. Quotes issued the week before were correct. Templates that were accurate in May now promise an upfront bonus the customer will not receive and export revenue roughly twenty times larger than what arrives. This guide covers what the French stack has to do now.

Short version. The best solar software for a French business in 2026 is whichever tool has been updated for the post-S21 rules and can dispatch a battery against an hourly load profile. The first is a correctness test and the second is a capability test, and a surprising number of platforms fail both.

This page covers the category as a whole. For the tool-by-tool comparisons see our best solar design software France and best solar proposal software France guides.

The Six Categories, And Where The Damage Is

What Is Genuinely France-Specific Right Now

Two populations of systems. Pre-5-June connections keep old rates for twenty years. This is not a transitional detail, it is a permanent feature of the French market for the next two decades, and it means every sales conversation includes a comparison against economics that were real and are unavailable. Address it in the proposal rather than leaving it to the salesperson.

Sizing inverted. Under the old regime the bonus scaled with size and surplus had a buyer, so both pushed toward capacity. Now nothing does. Capacity beyond the daytime load curve earns roughly a twentieth of what the household pays to import.

Storage as core economics. A battery now captures nearly the entire retail spread on everything it shifts. Whether it pays still depends on cost and the household’s evening demand, but the arithmetic starts from a far better place than a year ago.

The honest small export line. At 1.1 centimes, a residential system exporting several thousand kilowatt-hours earns a few tens of euros. Showing that plainly makes the argument for self-consumption better than any assertion could.

NF C 15-712-1, NF C 15-100 and Consuel. Installation standards and the attestation of conformity required before commissioning.

Latitude range. France spans enough latitude that Lille and Marseille differ in the self-consumption balance, not just in total yield. Site weather rather than a national assumption.

Where French Teams Overbuy And Underbuy

Underbought: hourly self-consumption modelling. The defining requirement now, and French quoting never needed it under the old tariff.

Underbought: battery dispatch simulation. The natural answer to the reform, and unsellable on assertion alone.

Underbought: updated tariff data. Not a purchase so much as a maintenance failure. The single highest-return action available to most French installers is auditing their template for a prime that no longer exists.

Overbought: nothing significant. As in the Netherlands and Italy, the French problem is correctness rather than overspend.

The Platforms French Businesses Should Evaluate

1. SurgePV, the integrated core

Design and proposals from one record, with post-reform tariff logic, hourly self-consumption analysis, battery dispatch modelling, NF C 15-712 and NF C 15-100 references, Consuel-aware documentation, site-specific weather and 8,760-hour module-level shading. White-label proposals with e-signature in 9 languages including French. $1,299 to $1,899 per user per year.

2. PV*SOL

Strong European residential and small commercial modelling with capable self-consumption and storage tooling, which positions it reasonably for the new regime. Desktop-based. Our PV*SOL alternative guide covers the trade-offs.

3. PVsyst

The bankable simulation reference, frequently named by lenders on commercial and ground-mount work. No proposal layer and no French incentive logic. See our PVsyst alternative review.

4. OpenSolar

Free, fast, and produces a decent customer document. Weaker on the hourly dispatch the reform made essential. See our OpenSolar alternative comparison.

5. Aurora Solar

Strong residential design built around US net metering, which France has never operated and is now further from than ever. See our Aurora Solar alternative comparison.

6. Spreadsheets plus a yield tool

Common in smaller French practices, and the single most likely place an abolished prime is still being subtracted from a customer’s total.

France Solar Software Stack Comparison

Worked Example: 6 kWp Near Lyon, Three Ways To Quote It

An illustrative comparison, not a specific customer project. Household consuming 4,000 kWh a year, roof supporting 6 kWp, roughly 7,200 kWh generation, 35% self-consumption without storage rising to about 70% with a battery.

Column A is what a stale template produces and it is simply wrong. Column B is honest and will look worse to a customer comparing quotes, which is the commercial problem the reform created for careful installers.

Column C is the answer to that problem. Doubling self-consumption roughly doubles the only benefit that still exists. Whether the battery cost justifies it depends on the household’s evening demand and hardware pricing, which is a calculation to run rather than a claim to make. But an installer who can only offer columns A and B is choosing between dishonesty and a weak quote.

Who Should Choose What

• Choose SurgePV if you need post-reform tariff logic, hourly self-consumption and battery dispatch in one tool.
• Choose PV*SOL if you are desktop-based, work mainly residential, and value its component depth.
• Choose PVsyst where a lender names it on commercial or ground-mount work, paired with separate quoting.

After signing, pipeline and follow-up sit in a CRM. QuickEstimate takes the handoff from SurgePV by API.

The Bottom Line

France did not trim its solar incentives in June 2026. It removed them, and most tooling has not caught up.

• Verify your tool has been updated. A platform still applying the prime or the old buyback is confidently wrong.
• Stop sizing to the roof. Surplus earns 1.1 centimes, so capacity beyond the daytime load is close to free energy for the grid.
• Put storage in the main comparison. It captures nearly the full retail spread and it is the answer to a weakened export case.