Pylon vs. Free Alternatives
A Quick Summary
When choosing a solar design platform, businesses often compare Pylon against free alternatives available in the market.
Pylon operates on a pay-per-project model with no monthly fees, offering affordability and flexibility. Our comprehensive Solar Component Database includes the latest panels, inverters, batteries, ev-chargers, heat-pumps and more, all pre-configured and ready to use.
Pylon integrates seamlessly with popular third-party software, including Xero for accounting, Mailchimp for email marketing, and ServiceM8 for field services management, providing a complete ecosystem for your solar business needs.
While free alternatives might seem attractive initially, they often come with hidden costs such as charges for additional services, custom forms, and high-resolution imagery. Some may also include in-app advertisements as part of their free model.
If ease-of-use, high-res imagery, and flexible pricing are important to you, Pylon may be the better fit for your business.
| Free Alternatives | ||
| Pricing |
All-inclusive
Pricing publicly available
|
Free
Add-ons with additional costs
|
|
Solar Components
Panels, Inverters, Batteries, EV chargers, Heat pumps
| Fully managed | Enhanced by advertising partners |
| High resolution imagery | Included | Optional paid per project |
| Integrations | Included | Optional paid add-on
via 3rd party provider
|
| GetApp "Ease of use" rating | 4.5 / 5 | – / 5 |
| Support | Live-chat, email, phone | Email, community forum |
| Data Sharing with Advertisers |
None
| Potentially (anonymized data) |
Pylon's Ideal Customer Checklist
- The productivity of your team is your #1 priority
- You don't want to spend weeks setting up
- You're looking for a scalable system to match your team's growth
- You're looking for simplicity in your Solar Design Tool, so your team can start from day one—no training required.
- You're looking for a Single Source of Truth (SSOT)
What can you not do in Free Alternatives?
Free solar design platforms can provide basic functionality, but they often require significant time investment in setup and maintenance. Your team may need to manually add and update solar components, configure design settings, and manage ongoing processes.
Additionally, free alternatives typically lack advanced features crucial for professional solar design and sales. These might include, Voltage Rise Calculator, Design Comparison Table, and an Ad-free experience
| Free Alternatives | ||
| Real-time customer usage data | ||
| Voltage Rise Calculator | ||
| Design Comparison Table | ||
| EV Chargers | ||
| Air-con units | ||
| Digital Commissioning Form | ||
| Installer Job Sheets | ||
| Free Solar Sales Contract | ||
| Solar (PV) Site Information AS/NZS 5033:2021 | ||
| Battery Location Signage AS/NZS 5139:2019 | ||
| Xero Integration | ||
| ServiceM8 Integration | ||
| Mailchimp Integration |
When should you choose Free Alternatives, and when Pylon?
Pylon
- You want to double your solar sales productivity with a streamlined, user-friendly design tool.
- You prefer zero commitment with Pylon’s Pay-As-You-Go pricing, paying only when you use it.
- You’re looking for a solution that requires no setup and offers a shallow learning curve for quick onboarding.
- Appreciate features like real-time customer usage data to create compelling and accurate solar proposals.
- Prefer an ad-free experience and complete control over your data.
- Prioritize the security and privacy of your company's sensitive business data
- Value professional support and regular platform updates
Free Alternatives
- You're willing to trade advanced features for cost savings
- Your team has time to dedicate to setup, configuration, and ongoing manual processes.
- You’re comfortable with in-app advertisements as part of the free offering.
- You have the resources to regularly add and update new solar components as they become available
- You have dedicated resources for configuring your design tool and managing your solar components
Trusted by solar industry leaders
Our customers say it best
Pylon's really good, I love the panel layout tool and the simplicity of the program. Pylon's much easier to use than OpenSolar.
Pylon is fantastic! I switched from Nearmap last year. My customers love the proposals. You can punch out proposals in 2 minutes.
I just left OpenSolar today to start using Pylon. 🤣 OpenSolar is too difficult to use in terms of organising the settings…
Pylon is amazing to work with. Their software make it simple for our staff to produce high quality solar proposals in minutes. I highly recommend them and their software for solar quotes.
Just got to say I love using this platform. So quick and easy to use. Also the SLD is a dream, it makes my job so much quicker. It's much easier to use one service to do everything.
I couldn't recommend this design software enough. It's very easy to use, constantly updating in all aspects, from tech you can design with, to calculators and integrations!
We have been using Pylon solely to prepare for our solar installation. Nelson and his team is exceptional and very proactive. Cannot recomend these guys enough.