Pylon vs. Easy PV
A Quick Summary
Pylon and Easy PV are the two design tools UK installers most often weigh up against each other. Both run in the browser, both know what MCS asks for, and both will get you from a satellite image to a quote. The difference worth understanding is who built each one and why.
Easy PV is made by Midsummer, a UK renewables distributor. It is free at the Basic tier, it generates MCS-compliant reports, it fills in DNO forms, and it links to a Midsummer Wholesale account so the prices in your quote are the trade prices you would pay them. That last part is the point of it. A wholesaler’s design tool is a very good way to sell that wholesaler’s stock, and if you buy from Midsummer anyway, getting the software for nothing is a genuinely good deal.
Pylon does not sell components, so it has no stake in which panel you specify. You price from whoever you buy from. Beyond that, Pylon reads the customer’s own half-hourly data rather than estimating from a profile, sizes the battery around it, and includes the high-resolution imagery, the e-signature, the branded proposal and unlimited users at £4 per project with no monthly fee.
On Easy PV several of those sit behind Pro at £35 a month: e-signing, proposal branding, and sharing a project with anyone else on your team. Whether that matters depends on how many people touch a project and how much of your quote you want to look like yours.
| Easy PV | ||
| Pricing | £4 per project
No monthly fees
|
Free, or £35 per month
Basic is free, Pro is £35, Enterprise is quoted
|
| Who builds it |
A software company
We do not sell components
|
Midsummer, a wholesaler
The tool and the stock come from one place
|
| Pricing your quote |
Any supplier
Your own costs, whoever you buy from
|
Linked Midsummer account
Trade prices and live stock from Midsummer
|
| Your team |
Unlimited users
Included
|
Pro
Project sharing and team management
|
| E-signing and branded proposals | Included |
Pro
£35 per month
|
| GetApp "Ease of use" rating | 4.5 / 5 | – / 5 |
| Designed for | Designing, quoting and winning the job | Design, MCS paperwork and ordering the kit |
Pylon's Ideal Customer Checklist
- You buy from more than one wholesaler, and want the quote priced on your costs rather than one supplier’s.
- You want the customer’s actual half-hourly data behind the battery sizing, not an assumed profile.
- More than one person touches a project, and you would rather that was not a subscription feature.
- Your proposal should look like your company, on every project.
What can you not do in Easy PV?
Less than with most tools on this site, and it is worth saying so plainly. Easy PV designs in 3D, runs the shading analysis, produces the schematic and the structural calculations, and files the DNO application, all on the free tier. Pylon does every one of those too, which is why none of them is in the table below.
What you cannot do is price the job on your own costs. Quoting runs through a linked Midsummer account, so the tool that designs the system also sells you the parts. You also cannot read the customer’s half-hourly data or size a battery against it, and you cannot share a project, brand a proposal or collect a signature without moving to Pro.
| Easy PV | ||
| Prices from any supplier Easy PV prices from a linked Midsummer trade account | ||
| Half-hourly data analysis Read the customer's own consumption data, not a profile | ||
| Battery Size Advisor How big should the battery be for my customer? | ||
| High-resolution imagery included | ||
| Unlimited users at no extra cost Project sharing and team management are on Easy PV Pro | ||
| E-signatures at no extra cost E-signing is on Easy PV Pro | ||
| Proposal branding at no extra cost Branding and customisation are on Easy PV Pro | ||
| Accounting integration Invoice from the quote, in Xero | ||
| Field service integration Raise the install job in ServiceM8 |
When should you choose Easy PV, and when Pylon?
Pylon
- You want a design tool with no stake in which components you specify.
- You want e-signing, branding and your whole team included, not gated behind a monthly plan.
- You sell batteries on evidence from the customer’s own half-hourly data.
- Your volume moves month to month and you would rather pay per project than hold a subscription through a quiet winter.
Easy PV
- Midsummer is already your wholesaler, so their trade prices in the quote are the prices you want.
- You need custom forms, user roles or a dedicated server, which Easy PV sells on its Enterprise tier.
- You are one person quoting a few jobs a month, and free matters more than what free leaves out.
- You design a high volume every month and a flat monthly fee suits that better than per project.
To be fair it's the best system I've used for generating quotes. They're far more professional looking, adaptable and editing is awesome.