TL;DR
- SurgePV is a specialist: cloud solar design, physics-based shading analysis, and branded proposals — nothing else.
- Powerlily is a generalist: design plus CRM, invoicing, plan sets, and fleet monitoring in 1 flat subscription.
- SurgePV has no native CRM, invoicing, or fleet monitoring. Powerlily has all 3.
- Powerlily’s flat $199.99/month with unlimited users suits small Canadian teams. SurgePV suits teams that already own their CRM.
- Try SurgePV free at the demo page before deciding.
SurgePV and Powerlily overlap on solar design and proposals, then split. SurgePV goes deep on 3D modeling, shading physics, and financial simulation. Powerlily goes wide, bundling design with CRM, invoicing, and fleet monitoring for Canadian installers. This comparison covers features, pricing, and the specific buyer each platform serves best — as of July 2026.
Quick Overview
| SurgePV | Powerlily | |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Solar design, simulation, proposals | All-in-one installer platform |
| 3D design | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shading analysis | ✓ (physics-based) | ✓ |
| Proposals | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRM | — | ✓ |
| Invoicing | — | ✓ |
| Fleet monitoring | — | ✓ (Enphase, SolarEdge, APsystems) |
| Deployment | Cloud-only | Cloud + mobile app |
| Pricing model | Per user | Flat $199.99/month, unlimited users |
| Best for | Design-led teams with existing CRM | Canadian installers wanting 1 subscription |
What SurgePV Does
SurgePV is cloud-only solar design, simulation, and proposal software. There is no desktop install. A team opens a browser and starts modeling.
The core workflow runs through 4 tools. Solar designing covers 3D rooftop modeling, module layout, string sizing, and bill of materials. Solar shading analysis applies physics-based irradiance and obstruction shading on a cloud-rendered 3D model. The solar financial analysis tool runs energy yield simulation with payback, IRR, and NPV in the same workspace — no export to a separate financial package. Solar proposals turns that work into a branded PDF with financials and visuals.
Clara AI assists with design decisions and proposal copy inside the same environment.
What SurgePV does not do matters just as much. There is no native CRM, no invoicing, and no fleet monitoring. SurgePV assumes you either have those tools or do not need them. It integrates around your existing stack rather than replacing it.
What Powerlily Does
Powerlily is an all-in-one solar SaaS built by the founders of Watts Up Solar, aimed at Canadian installers. Its pitch is direct: 1 subscription instead of stitching together Aurora or OpenSolar, a CRM, a proposal tool, and a monitoring platform.
The feature set is broad. It includes 3D design, proposals, single-line diagrams, plan sets, and battery backup modeling. Around that design core sit the business tools: a CRM with pipelines and workflow automation, a client portal, invoicing, and an equipment library. Fleet monitoring connects to Enphase, SolarEdge, and APsystems hardware, so installers can watch installed systems from the same platform that sold them. A mobile app supports field work and canvassing.
Powerlily’s Canada focus shows in its code packs aligned to the Canadian Electrical Code. Pricing is flat: about $199.99/month for unlimited users and unlimited quotes.
The trade-off is depth. A platform covering design, CRM, invoicing, and monitoring spreads engineering effort across all of them. Powerlily also publishes almost no educational content or case studies, so independent validation of its design accuracy is thin.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | SurgePV | Powerlily |
|---|---|---|
| 3D rooftop modeling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Module layout and string sizing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physics-based shading analysis | ✓ | Limited |
| Energy yield simulation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Financial modeling (payback, IRR, NPV) | ✓ | Limited |
| Branded PDF proposals | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single-line diagrams | Limited | ✓ |
| Plan sets | — | ✓ |
| CRM and pipelines | — | ✓ |
| Invoicing | — | ✓ |
| Fleet monitoring | — | ✓ |
| Equipment library | Limited | ✓ |
| AI design assistant | ✓ (Clara AI) | — |
| Mobile app | — | ✓ |
5 Key Differences
1. Specialist depth vs platform breadth
SurgePV puts its engineering budget into 1 workflow: design, simulate, propose. Shadow analysis runs physics-based irradiance on cloud-rendered 3D models, and financial outputs — payback, IRR, NPV — live in the same workspace as the design. Powerlily spreads across design, CRM, invoicing, and monitoring. That breadth is genuinely useful for a small team replacing 4 subscriptions. But installers who win deals on production estimates and shading accuracy will feel the difference in a specialist tool. The question is whether your bottleneck is design quality or business admin.
2. CRM: built in vs bring your own
This is the sharpest split. Powerlily includes a full CRM with pipelines, workflow automation, canvassing tools, and a client portal. SurgePV has none. If you run your sales process in spreadsheets today, Powerlily’s CRM is real value — it is the difference between buying software and buying a business system. If you already run HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho, Powerlily’s CRM is a duplicate you would pay for every month. SurgePV fits into an existing stack; Powerlily asks to become the stack.
3. Pricing structure
Powerlily charges a flat $199.99/month for unlimited users and unlimited quotes, as of July 2026. For a 5-person team, that is predictable and cheap per seat. SurgePV uses per-user pricing listed on the pricing page, with a free trial. For 1 or 2 designers, SurgePV can cost less than Powerlily’s flat fee. For a 10-person company where only 2 people design, per-user pricing also wins — you pay for the 2 designers, not the whole org. The math flips if everyone in the company needs platform access.
4. Fleet monitoring and post-sale work
Powerlily monitors installed fleets through Enphase, SolarEdge, and APsystems integrations. That matters for Canadian installers with O&M revenue or long-term service relationships — alerts, performance checks, and service visits all tie back to the original project. SurgePV stops at the signed proposal. There is no monitoring module. If post-install service is part of your business model, this is Powerlily’s clearest functional win, and no design tool on either side changes it.
5. Geography and code compliance
Powerlily is built for Canada, with Canadian Electrical Code packs and a team that came out of a Canadian installation business. For a residential installer in Ontario or Alberta, that focus reduces permitting friction. SurgePV serves installers across 50+ countries and does not target any single code regime. Neither approach is wrong. A Toronto installer gets more from Powerlily’s localization; a design firm working across the US, Europe, and the Middle East gets more from SurgePV’s flexibility.
Pricing Comparison
As of July 2026:
| SurgePV | Powerlily | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Per user, per plan | Flat monthly |
| Entry price | See pricing | ~$199.99/month |
| Users | Per seat | Unlimited |
| Quotes | Per plan | Unlimited |
| Free trial | ✓ (demo) | Limited |
Real-cost analysis. A 3-person design team on SurgePV pays for 3 seats and gets specialist design depth. On Powerlily, the same team pays $199.99/month flat — but also gets CRM, invoicing, and monitoring it may already pay for elsewhere. Duplicate subscriptions are the hidden line item here. If your CRM and invoicing tools cost $150/month and you keep them anyway, Powerlily’s flat fee is additive, not a saving. If Powerlily genuinely replaces 3 tools, the math favors it for small Canadian teams.
Neither platform is expensive relative to a lost deal. The cost question is secondary to fit: paying for a generalist platform when you need design accuracy, or for a design tool when you need a CRM, both waste money.
Who Should Choose SurgePV
Choose SurgePV if your competitive edge is design quality. That means installers and design firms that win on accurate production estimates, defensible shading numbers, and polished proposals — and that already have a CRM they like.
It fits teams working across multiple markets, since SurgePV is not tied to Canadian code packs. It fits organizations where 2 or 3 specialists design while the rest of the company never touches the tool, because per-seat pricing matches that reality. And it fits anyone who wants yield simulation and financial modeling in the same workspace as the 3D layout, instead of exporting between tools.
If that sounds like your workflow, book a demo and run 1 real project through it.
Test SurgePV on a real project — start your free demo and compare the shading and financial output against your current tool.
Who Should Choose Powerlily
Choose Powerlily if you are a Canadian residential or small commercial installer who wants 1 login for the whole business. Its sweet spot is the 3-to-10-person company currently stitching together OpenSolar or Aurora, a separate CRM, an invoicing app, and a monitoring portal.
The flat $199.99/month for unlimited users is genuinely good value for that profile. The Canadian Electrical Code packs, fleet monitoring across Enphase, SolarEdge, and APsystems, and the mobile canvassing app all point at the same buyer. Powerlily’s founders built it from their own installation business, and it shows in the workflow choices.
Be aware of the trade-offs: no content library to learn from, few public case studies, and design depth that serves generalists rather than shading-analysis purists.
Verdict
These tools solve different problems. Powerlily is the better buy for a Canadian installer consolidating CRM, invoicing, monitoring, and design into 1 flat subscription — that buyer is better served by Powerlily, and we would say so to their face. SurgePV is the better buy for teams whose bottleneck is design accuracy and proposal quality, especially outside Canada or with an existing software stack.
We also compared SurgePV against the tools Powerlily positions against — see Aurora Solar vs SurgePV and OpenSolar vs SurgePV.
The fastest way to decide: run the same address through both. Compare the shading methodology, the financial outputs, and the proposal a homeowner would actually receive. Start a SurgePV demo and do that test this week.
FAQ
Is SurgePV better than Powerlily?
SurgePV is better for installers who want dedicated, high-accuracy solar design and proposal tools without paying for CRM and invoicing features they do not need. Powerlily is better for Canadian installers who want an all-in-one platform that includes design, CRM, invoicing, and fleet management.
What is the main difference between SurgePV and Powerlily?
SurgePV focuses on solar design, shading analysis, and proposal generation. Powerlily bundles design with CRM, invoicing, equipment library, and fleet monitoring. SurgePV is a specialist tool; Powerlily is a generalist platform.
Which is cheaper, SurgePV or Powerlily?
SurgePV offers transparent per-user pricing with a free trial. Powerlily charges a flat $199.99 per month for unlimited users. For small teams, Powerlily can be cheaper. For teams that already have CRM and invoicing tools, SurgePV avoids paying for duplicate features.
Does Powerlily have better CRM than SurgePV?
Yes. Powerlily includes a built-in CRM with pipelines, workflow automation, and canvassing tools. SurgePV does not include a native CRM; it integrates with existing tools and focuses on design-to-proposal workflow.
Can SurgePV replace Powerlily?
SurgePV can replace Powerlily’s design and proposal functions but not its CRM, invoicing, or fleet management. If you need those features, you would keep them in a separate tool or choose Powerlily.
