Pricing and documentation checked: September 30, 2026. Published by SurgePV, a solar software vendor. This guide uses vendor documentation for product and price information; the evaluation worksheet is editorial guidance, not a measured customer result.
Answer: What is the PVcase price?
PVcase’s public pricing page directs buyers to request pricing rather than displaying a numeric subscription rate. Ask for the modules, users, data coverage and support your team needs. Ground Mount and Roof Mount also require a compatible Autodesk environment. Compare the written quote with any additional CAD licenses, hardware, training and recurring costs before calculating payback.
What the public pricing page actually tells you
PVcase’s pricing page describes quote factors including team size, product scope, enterprise requirements and geographic data coverage. It presents a request-pricing route, without a numeric subscription rate on the page checked for this guide.
That leaves a specific procurement task: get an itemized offer for your required workflow. Do not turn an unverified reseller figure, a community comment or another company’s historic contract into a current list price.
Ask which of the four named solutions you are evaluating: Prospect for site selection, Ground Mount for ground-mounted design, Roof Mount for rooftop design, or Yield for energy modeling. Use these distinctions to define the scope of your quote; they do not establish a bundle price or a promise that one product replaces every downstream engineering review.
A pricing page also cannot establish your license reassignment rights, billing schedule or cancellation terms. Request the applicable order form and license terms before signing.
Autodesk costs: publishable, but separate from the PVcase quote
The Autodesk subscription FAQ displays an annual AutoCAD subscription of $2,095 for one user, a monthly option of $260, and $6,285 for three years on its English-language page checked September 30, 2026. Autodesk says pricing depends on term and region and directs buyers to their local website. These displayed amounts are not a PVcase price or a universal all-in invoice.
Capture a current local purchase quote, currency, taxes, term and renewal basis. If your team already owns suitable entitlements, count only the additional purchases needed for this evaluation. Do not automatically multiply every proposed PVcase user by the price of a new AutoCAD seat.
PVcase’s system requirements and compatibility document specifically covers Ground Mount and Roof Mount. It lists supported Autodesk versions, Windows and hardware requirements, and states that those products do not run on virtual machines. Check the exact host/version combination with the vendor before procurement. A license for a different Autodesk product, a Mac installation or a browser-based drawing viewer should not be assumed to satisfy these requirements.
The installation guide is a useful technical handoff for an evaluation. Have IT confirm the chosen installation path before allocating training sessions.
Build an itemized total-cost worksheet
Separate the offer price from the cost of adopting the workflow. Use the same currency, evaluation period and tax treatment across all shortlisted products.
| Cost line | Evidence to collect | How to avoid double counting |
|---|---|---|
| PVcase subscription | Written module, user and term quote | Do not add assumed bundle fees |
| Additional CAD entitlement | Local Autodesk offer and existing-license inventory | Count incremental purchases |
| Hardware | Compatibility review and supplier quote | Exclude suitable equipment already owned |
| Onboarding | Planned hours by role and any vendor fees | Separate paid training from internal labor |
| Data and integrations | Included scope and written extra charges | Check geographic and access limitations |
| Output review | Time needed to approve real deliverables | Include review in both competing workflows |
| Retained software | Tools still needed after the pilot | Remove a cost only when replacement is demonstrated |
| Renewal and exit | Contract terms and data-export requirements | Distinguish initial discounts from recurring cost |
First-year incremental cost = new subscription costs + additional host licenses + required hardware + implementation costs + retained incremental tools.
For later years, remove genuine one-time costs and update recurring charges. Also record internal implementation hours separately: they have an economic value, but may not create a new cash payment if salaried staff perform the work.
For a five-person team, first identify who will create drawings, who only reviews outputs, and who needs each product. Then ask for the appropriate license model and access rights. Five people do not necessarily imply five identical subscriptions to every product.
A break-even calculation you can replace with your own inputs
The following figures are hypothetical teaching inputs, not PVcase pricing, customer results or industry benchmarks.
Assume an incremental annual software-and-support cost of $12,000. A controlled pilot releases four hours per completed design package, and your assigned labor value is $60 per hour.
- Capacity value per package: 4 × $60 = $240.
- Packages needed to equal the annual cost: $12,000 ÷ $240 = 50.
- At 30 equivalent packages: capacity value is $7,200, leaving a $4,800 shortfall against that cost.
- At 80 equivalent packages: capacity value is $19,200, or $7,200 above that cost.
Those last amounts are capacity-value comparisons. They are not guaranteed profit or cash savings. If payroll is unchanged and no extra work is completed, released hours may not reduce spending. If hours avoid documented contractor invoices, that avoided expense can be counted as cash savings instead. Do not count the same hours in both categories.
Measure onboarding and review effort too. Hypothetical implementation of 40 hours at $60 adds $2,400 of labor value, raising first-year economic cost to $14,400 and the equivalent break-even volume to 60 packages. A change in loaded rate, package complexity or accepted time saving changes the result.
A practical annual ROI calculation uses the same boundary throughout:
ROI = (annual attributable benefit − annual incremental cost) ÷ annual incremental cost.
Label whether your benefit is cash savings, capacity value or incremental contribution from additional accepted work. Revenue from additional projects is not itself profit. For a multi-year decision, use your finance team’s cash-flow assumptions rather than treating this simple ratio as a discounted return.
Run an evaluation that tests the work you sell
Use a representative project with a known starting dataset and an agreed final deliverable. A polished demonstration is useful for understanding the interface; a controlled task is more useful for budgeting adoption.
- Define the accepted output. Specify drawing formats, layout constraints, equipment schedules, model inputs and review requirements that matter to your client or engineering process.
- Establish the baseline. Record preparation, design, correction and review time using your current workflow.
- Repeat the task. Keep assumptions, site inputs and deliverable scope comparable. Record training time separately.
- Review the output. Check dimensions, constraints, equipment and exports through your normal approval process. Reject time savings that depend on skipping required checks.
- Test handoff and revisions. Include a changed module, updated site constraint or revised design request. Check whether another team member can reproduce the output.
- Price the demonstrated scope. Ask for a quote for the modules and access needed to repeat the accepted task, with support and renewal terms documented.
For an existing checklist to structure that handoff, use the solar design workflow guide. If the project requires a lender-facing production report, agree the acceptance requirements with the relevant reviewer; no software brand or project-size threshold automatically guarantees acceptance.
Compare alternatives on deliverables and total cost
Request the same representative outputs from each shortlisted vendor. Compare the cost of an accepted package, revision effort, compatibility with your clients’ files, data portability and support response terms. A cheaper headline subscription can leave paid work elsewhere; a broader bundle can include capabilities your team will not use.
Do not infer that a residential workflow is always cheaper, or that a utility-scale workflow always pays back faster. Complexity, repeatability, existing tools and actual project volume are the useful inputs.
As the publisher, SurgePV has a commercial interest in software evaluation. You can review SurgePV’s solar design software and request a demonstration against the same deliverable checklist. Validate the capabilities and commercial offer for your own project rather than assuming equivalent outputs or lower total cost.
What to send with your quote request
Send a short specification with the intended modules, user roles, country or dataset coverage, existing Autodesk products and versions, example project types, required exports and planned evaluation period. Ask the vendor to return the following in writing:
- Included products and access rights, with any restrictions.
- Contract currency, term, billing schedule and applicable taxes.
- Evaluation access conditions and technical prerequisites.
- Included support, onboarding and any extra implementation fees.
- Renewal terms, cancellation conditions and data-export arrangements.
Once these are clear, replace the hypothetical worksheet inputs with the quoted costs and your measured pilot results. That produces a decision you can review internally without relying on an invented public PVcase price.
Frequently asked questions
How much does PVcase cost in 2026?
PVcase’s pricing page offers a request-pricing route without a numeric subscription rate. Obtain a written quote specifying modules, users, term, data coverage, support, taxes and renewal conditions. A price for another team or an unsourced online estimate is not your procurement budget.
Does PVcase pricing include AutoCAD?
Do not assume the quote includes Autodesk licensing. PVcase documents Ground Mount and Roof Mount compatibility with Autodesk desktop products. Ask which supported host and version your workflow needs, what the quote includes, and whether your existing entitlements already cover the intended users.
Is there a free trial for PVcase?
Ask PVcase about evaluation access, its duration, included modules and any required host software. This guide does not verify a universal trial length or education entitlement. Set acceptance tests before the evaluation so you can judge the actual deliverables and effort.
What is the ROI of PVcase for a solar design team?
Calculate ROI from your incremental costs and measured workflow results. Time released can improve capacity without reducing payroll. Count cash savings separately from capacity value, and do not assume a project size alone guarantees a return.
What additional costs should I budget for with PVcase?
Check additional CAD entitlements, compatible workstations, onboarding labor, data or integration charges, support scope, review effort and any tools still needed for your deliverables. Include only confirmed costs; avoid counting existing subscriptions twice.
Should a small EPC buy PVcase?
Evaluate the actual workflow rather than applying a universal size cutoff. A team with compatible CAD entitlements and demanding drawing requirements may assess costs differently from one needing mainly proposals. Test the required outputs, support and total cost against alternative tools before choosing.
Where this fits
This article is part of SurgePV's Solar Business & Operations hub, which works through the topic from first principles to the decisions a project team actually has to make.
