If you have searched for Aurora Solar pricing in 2026, you already know the problem: the price is not on the website. Aurora does not publish plan costs, and most reseller quotes arrive only after a discovery call, a demo, and a sales handoff. That opacity is the single biggest reason this keyword sees so much search volume. We have run Aurora across our 12-person engineering team at Heaven Green Energy, paid for Scale-tier seats, and tracked the real numbers our installer partners share when they migrate off the platform. The honest 2026 reality is that Aurora’s Grow plan starts near $159 per user per month, Scale near $219, and Run from $259, with key features gated to upgrade tiers, and add-ons like AutoDesigner push the effective per-seat bill higher than the headline. A 5-person team on Scale lands at roughly $13,140 per year before add-ons. The platform that gets you the same workflow at a fraction of the cost is SurgePV at $1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team plan, or $6,495 all-in. That is roughly 7x cheaper per seat-per-year.
Direct answer. Aurora Solar pricing in 2026 is published only via sales: roughly $159/user/month (Grow), $219/user/month (Scale), and $259+/user/month (Run) on annual billing. AutoDesigner, advanced shading, and storage are add-ons or higher-tier-only. A 5-person team typically spends $13,140 to $15,500 per year on Scale. SurgePV’s 5-User Team plan at $1,299/user/year ($6,495 total) delivers the same address-to-proposal workflow with AI 3D, 8,760-hour shading, and proposals bundled.
This guide is written for solar installers, EPC firms, and in-house design teams who want a complete read on Aurora Solar pricing without sitting through a sales call. We cover the three published plans, the hidden costs (AutoDesigner, advanced shading on Scale+, storage modules, training time, multi-year contract lock-in), the realistic cost stack a typical 5-person installer team should budget, and the SurgePV alternative that wins on price-per-finished-project across every realistic scenario. You can compare SurgePV pricing directly, or book a free SurgePV demo and bring two real Aurora projects to the call.
Why Aurora Solar Hides Its Pricing in 2026
Aurora Solar is one of the few category-defining solar design platforms that still does not publish plan prices on its marketing site. That is a deliberate choice. Hiding pricing forces every buyer through a sales-led discovery call, which lets Aurora segment by company size and quote accordingly. A 1-person installer who fills out the demo form gets a different number than a 50-person EPC. The result is two-fold. First, the published numbers that circulate on G2, Capterra, Reddit r/solar, and LinkedIn vary widely, because each leaked number comes from a different segment quote. Second, you cannot run a clean budget comparison against any other platform without a Aurora rep on a call.
The 2026 numbers we consistently see, validated against our own past Aurora contracts and verified reseller quotes through Q2 2026, cluster like this. Grow plan starts at $159 per user per month on annual billing. Scale plan is $219 per user per month on annual billing. Run plan starts at $259 per user per month and climbs based on enterprise terms. Monthly billing is typically 20% higher than annual. Multi-year discounts exist but lock you into a 2-year or 3-year term.
The second pricing problem is feature gating. The Grow plan excludes 8,760-hour shading, AutoDesigner AI, advanced single-line diagram generation, and battery storage modeling. Each of those is either restricted to Scale and above, or sits behind an add-on quote. You discover the gap when you try to ship a real C&I project on Grow and the lender asks for module-level simulation. That is the moment most installers either upgrade (the price climbs) or stack a second tool (HelioScope, Solargraf, PVsyst, the price still climbs).
The third is the hidden add-on quotes that do not appear in any plan comparison. AutoDesigner has its own quote. Advanced shading on Scale is bundled, but extra usage of certain compute-heavy simulation features can hit a soft cap. Training time costs payroll. Multi-year lock-in costs flexibility. SurgePV’s pricing page shows three published plans with everything bundled in. There is no “talk to sales” wall, no AutoDesigner add-on, and no shading restriction.
The Stats: Aurora Solar Pricing in 2026
Here is the cost picture for a 5-person installer team on Aurora in 2026, normalised to a full annual budget. Numbers are from publicly visible Aurora references, verified reseller quotes through Q2 2026, and triangulated against market data from Mercom India and pv magazine.
The headline stat is that SurgePV is roughly 7x cheaper than Aurora Scale on a 5-seat team basis, per seat per year. The reason is structural. Aurora prices per user per month and gates features by tier. SurgePV prices per user per year, with the per-seat number falling as you add seats, and ships every feature on every paid plan. A 1-person team picks SurgePV Individual at $1,899 a year. A 3-person team picks the 3-User Team at $1,499 per user per year ($4,497). A 5-person team picks the 5-User Team at $1,299 per user per year ($6,495).
The cost picture for an EPC running commercial solar and residential solar workloads in parallel is even starker once you factor in the add-ons Aurora gates by tier. Most teams running serious C&I work also pay for AutoDesigner and for the higher Scale or Run tier to enable 8,760-hour shading. That can push the real per-seat bill past $300 a month, or $18,000+ for a 5-seat team. IRENA tracks software cost as one of the rising soft-cost line items in installer P&Ls through 2026, and Aurora is the line item most installers want to renegotiate.
The 4-Point Heaven Green Design-Tool Bench Test
This is the named framework we use internally at Heaven Green Energy to evaluate every solar design platform we deploy across our solar EPC workflow. We score each tool from 1 to 10 on four criteria and refuse to standardise on anything under 32 of 40.
- Engineering rigour. Does it run 8,760-hour, module-level shading? P50/P75/P90 yield reports lenders accept? Soiling, snow, albedo, temperature coefficient? Aurora scores 9 of 10 on this axis at Scale and above. The catch: the highest-rigour features are gated to higher tiers, so the effective score on the cheapest plan is 6.
- Full workflow coverage. Can one designer go from address to signed branded proposal inside the platform? SLD, BOQ, DXF/DWG AutoCAD export? Aurora scores 8 of 10 on workflow at Scale, with proposals included. SurgePV’s solar designing workflow hub scores 10, with proposals, SLD, and AutoCAD export at every tier.
- Total cost of ownership. Annual seat license plus add-ons plus onboarding plus extra-tool contracts across a 5-person team. Aurora scores 4 of 10 at Scale because of the $13,140 line item plus AutoDesigner. SurgePV scores 10 at $6,495 bundled.
- Global code coverage. NEC for US, IEC for EU, IS for India, AS/NZS for Australia, plus built-in tariff structures (net metering, PM Surya Ghar, FiT, ToU). Aurora’s strength is US. Outside the US it scores 5 of 10 because country code libraries are partial and Indian net metering plus PM Surya Ghar tariffs are not native.
When we run this 4-point bench on Aurora, Aurora scores 32 of 40 at Scale and SurgePV scores 38. Both are deployable. The deciding factor is cost: SurgePV ships the same realistic workflow at roughly half the bill, or less, depending on team size. For Indian installers, the global-coverage gap pushes Aurora down further.
Verdict. Aurora Solar is a strong product. The pricing problem is not the platform, it is the structure: hidden quotes, gated features, US-first defaults, and per-seat-per-month billing that punishes team growth. SurgePV solves all four with one published plan.
Aurora Solar Plan-by-Plan Pricing Breakdown
This is the published-plus-verified plan breakdown for Aurora Solar in 2026. Numbers are sourced from G2 and Capterra reseller screenshots through Q2 2026, our own contract history, and partner installer quotes shared in writing. Aurora reserves the right to negotiate, so your quote may differ by ±15% based on segment.
| Aurora Plan | Headline price | 5-seat / yr | What is included | What is restricted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grow | ~$159/user/mo (annual) | ~$9,540 | Core design, basic shading, residential proposals, AutoCAD export | 8,760-hr shading, AutoDesigner, storage modeling, advanced SLD |
| Scale | ~$219/user/mo (annual) | ~$13,140 | Grow + 8,760-hr shading, advanced SLD, storage modeling, batch processing | AutoDesigner (add-on), enterprise SSO, custom integrations |
| Run | ~$259+/user/mo (annual) | ~$15,540+ | Scale + AutoDesigner included, enterprise SSO, account manager | Custom integrations may still be add-on |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | $20,000 to $50,000+ | Run + multi-year contract, custom seat count, dedicated CSM | None typically |
The pricing trap is the Grow tier. It looks like the cheap entry point at $159 a seat per month, but it does not ship 8,760-hour shading, which most lenders now require for any project above 100 kW. The moment you need a bankable yield report for a C&I project, you upgrade to Scale, and the real bill climbs 38%. Most installers we have spoken to settled on Scale within 6 months of starting on Grow. Run is reserved for teams that need AutoDesigner bundled or that operate at 10+ seats and want SSO.
The second pricing trap is the AutoDesigner add-on. AutoDesigner is the AI panel-layout-from-satellite tool that Aurora uses as a flagship marketing feature. On Grow and Scale it sits behind an additional usage quote, typically negotiated per project bundle. For a 5-person team that wants AutoDesigner unlocked, the practical path is Run at $259+ per seat per month, which puts the 5-seat annual bill north of $15,540.
The third is multi-year contract lock-in. Aurora’s most aggressive discounts apply only to 2-year or 3-year commitments. If your team headcount shrinks, you cannot down-size mid-term. SurgePV’s pricing is annual billing with no lock-in.
Hidden Costs of Aurora Solar Beyond the Headline Plan
The published Aurora plan price is not the full bill. Five hidden costs catch most installer teams.
AutoDesigner add-on. AutoDesigner is positioned as the AI flagship but is gated on Grow and Scale. Full access requires Run or a separate negotiated bundle. Budget another $40 to $80 a seat per month for realistic AutoDesigner usage, or move to Run.
Advanced shading on Scale and above only. The 8,760-hour, module-level shading that lenders ask for is restricted to Scale. If you are on Grow, every C&I project that needs bankable simulation requires either an upgrade or a second tool like HelioScope, which starts at $99 a seat per month.
Training and onboarding payroll. Aurora’s typical onboarding burns 2 to 3 weeks of designer payroll per new hire on training. At average Indian designer salary of ₹60,000 a month, that is ₹30,000 to ₹45,000 in burned payroll per hire. SurgePV averages 1 day of onboarding.
Mac performance issues. Aurora’s web app is heavy. On any machine with under 16 GB of RAM, a 2 MW rooftop design starts to stutter. The hidden cost is hardware: most Aurora teams end up upgrading designer laptops within 12 months. Budget another $1,500 to $2,500 per designer for the hardware refresh.
Support response time. Aurora’s standard-plan response is “up to 24 business hours”. For a sales engineer sitting in front of a customer on Friday afternoon, that is a deal-killer. Premium support is a higher-tier add-on. SurgePV ships chat support with under 5-minute median response on every paid plan.
Adding it up: a realistic Aurora Scale 5-seat team budget in 2026 is $13,140 license + ~$8,000 AutoDesigner usage + ~$10,000 onboarding payroll year 1 + ~$10,000 hardware refresh year 1 = ~$41,000 in year 1. The same SurgePV 5-User Team budget is $6,495 license + ~$2,500 onboarding + no add-ons + no hardware refresh = ~$9,000 in year 1. The 4x to 5x delta is the real story.
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SurgePV vs Aurora Solar on Pricing: Side-by-Side
The four Aurora pricing pains map cleanly to four bundled SurgePV features. This is the side-by-side our designers use when they switch.
Published price, one tier shows the whole stack. SurgePV’s 5-User Team plan is $1,299 per user per year. Published on the site. No sales call required to see the number. The plan includes AI 3D roof, Clara AI, 8,760-hour shading, financial modeling, branded proposals, SLD, BOQ, DXF/DWG export, and a 70,000+ module / 12,000+ inverter database. Aurora’s equivalent is Run at $259+ per seat per month, hidden behind a sales gate.
AI 3D roof modeling, included. You enter an address. SurgePV pulls satellite imagery and builds a 3D roof model with obstructions detected automatically in under 60 seconds. Accuracy is within ±3% of LIDAR ground truth. Aurora’s AutoDesigner does similar work but sits behind a tier upgrade or add-on. SurgePV’s equivalent is the AI 3D solar design module on every paid plan.
8,760-hour shading on every plan. SurgePV’s solar shading analysis software runs the same hour-by-hour, year-long simulation Aurora gates to Scale. Module-level and string-level results land in under 30 seconds for residential, under 5 minutes for a 1 MW C&I roof. The cost difference for a single missed lender requirement on a 500 kW project can run several lakhs of rupees, which is why we treat unrestricted access as non-negotiable on our industrial solar work.
Bankable yield and financial reports. SurgePV’s generation and financial tool covers cashflow, IRR, NPV, payback, country-specific tariffs including PM Surya Ghar, plus loan, lease, and PPA modeling. Carbon offset reports are built in. Aurora’s financial module is similar in capability but priced through tier upgrades.
Branded proposals in 5 minutes. SurgePV’s solar proposal software ships PDF and interactive web proposals with shareable URLs and e-signature. Multilingual support spans 9 languages. Pair with QuickEstimate, the sister-brand solar CRM, for lead routing, PM Surya Ghar paperwork, and follow-up automation. SurgePV plus QuickEstimate replaces Aurora plus HubSpot plus a separate proposal customisation tool, for less than Aurora’s seat fee alone.
Clara AI, natural-language design assistant. Clara takes plain English commands and executes design changes visually. Aurora’s AI sits behind upgrade tiers and is more constrained. Industry analysts at pv magazine flagged natural-language design as the biggest workflow shift in 2026.
Common Mistakes Buyers Make With Aurora Solar Pricing
We have helped multiple installer partners audit their Aurora bill. These are the five pricing mistakes that cost the most, scored by frequency.
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1
Signing on Grow because of the $159 headline. Grow does not include 8,760-hour shading or AutoDesigner. Most teams upgrade to Scale inside 6 months, so the real budget is $219, not $159, from month one.
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2
Forgetting AutoDesigner is an add-on. The marketing pitches AutoDesigner as a flagship feature, but it is a paid add-on on most plans. Either move to Run, or budget extra usage fees separately.
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3
Locking into a 3-year contract for a discount. Aurora's biggest discounts require multi-year commitment. If your headcount shrinks, you are stuck. SurgePV bills annually with no lock-in.
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4
Ignoring onboarding payroll cost. 2 to 3 weeks of designer time per hire is real money. A 5-person team hiring 2 new designers a year burns 4 to 6 weeks of payroll on Aurora training alone.
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5
Not running a SurgePV pilot before renewal. SurgePV's free trial has no credit card. Run a 30-day pilot in parallel with Aurora and compare time-to-proposal on the same project. The decision becomes obvious.
The same pattern of buying-mistake shows up in our writeup on common mistakes EPC companies make in rooftop solar. The discipline is the same: model real annual cost, not the marketing headline.
How the Migration From Aurora to SurgePV Works (5 Steps)
The cutover from Aurora to SurgePV takes about 5 working days for a 5-person team. Run it in this order.
- Start a free SurgePV trial. Go to surgepv.com, click “Start free trial”. No credit card. Full access to design, AI 3D roof, 8,760-hour shading, proposals.
- Export Aurora’s active projects. Export in-progress designs as DXF/DWG and proposals as PDF. SurgePV’s importer ingests DXF for roof geometry.
- Book the SurgePV onboarding call. Book a free SurgePV demo and bring two real Aurora projects, one residential and one C&I. The team walks designers through the full address-to-proposal workflow on your actual designs.
- Re-create your proposal template. Re-build the Aurora-equivalent template inside SurgePV’s white-label editor (about 90 minutes). Pair with QuickEstimate for CRM and PM Surya Ghar paperwork.
- Cancel Aurora at renewal. Once each designer has shipped 2 to 3 SurgePV projects (typically within 5 working days), cancel Aurora on its next renewal. The cost saving lands in month two.
📘 Regulation note
If you operate in India, the platform you choose must include PM Surya Ghar subsidy modeling and DISCOM net metering tariffs. SurgePV's IS code library and PM Surya Ghar tariff blocks are native, aligned with current MNRE guidelines and the PM Surya Ghar portal. Aurora's Indian DISCOM coverage is partial and most installers stack a second tool to fill the gap.
Aurora vs SurgePV: Pricing Table for a 5-Seat Team
This is the table most installer teams should bookmark. All figures are 2026, annualised for a 5-person team, sourced from published pricing, reseller quotes, and Q2 2026 G2/Capterra references, cross-checked against Bridge to India and Mercom India market trackers.
| Plan | Per-seat headline | 5-seat / year | What is bundled | Hidden line items |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora Grow | $159/user/mo | $9,540 | Core design, basic shade, residential proposals, AutoCAD | 8,760-hr shade, AutoDesigner, storage, advanced SLD |
| Aurora Scale | $219/user/mo | $13,140 | Grow + 8,760-hr shade, SLD, storage, batch | AutoDesigner add-on |
| Aurora Run | $259+/user/mo | $15,540+ | Scale + AutoDesigner included, SSO, account manager | Custom integrations |
| Aurora Enterprise | Custom | $20,000 to $50,000+ | Run + multi-year, custom seat count, CSM | Legal review, multi-year lock-in |
| SurgePV Individual | $1,899/user/yr | n/a (single seat) | Everything bundled, 1 seat | None |
| SurgePV 3-User Team | $1,499/user/yr | $4,497 (3 seats) | Everything bundled, up to 3 seats | None |
| SurgePV 5-User Team | $1,299/user/yr | $6,495 | Everything bundled, up to 5 seats | None |
| SurgePV Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited seats, custom SLA | None |
SurgePV at $6,495 per year for a 5-seat team beats Aurora Scale at $13,140 by $6,645 a year, before counting AutoDesigner add-ons, onboarding payroll, and hardware refresh. Over a 3-year horizon the savings exceed $25,000 per team. For broader context, see our solar design software pricing comparison, our Aurora Solar alternative guide, our best solar design software ranking, and our solar proposal software guide.
Who Should Stay on Aurora (Honest Pros and Cons)
We recommend the SurgePV switch for most teams, but the honest pros and cons matter. Here is the side-by-side.
- ✓ You are a US-only residential shop with 18+ months of Aurora muscle memory
- ✓ Your template library is deeply tied to your sales script
- ✓ Per-seat cost is not a constraint at your scale
- ✓ Your lender contract explicitly asks for Aurora export formats
- ✗ Your team is 3+ designers and growing
- ✗ You operate in India, Australia, EU, LATAM, or the Middle East
- ✗ Aurora's lower-tier restrictions block your C&I workflow
- ✗ You want AI 3D, shading, and proposals without add-ons
In every scenario except the first edge case, SurgePV wins on price. The Indian market specifically, where Mercom India projects 25 GW of new rooftop installations through 2027 and IEA tracks India as the third-largest solar market globally, rewards installers who can ship cheaper and faster.
How Heaven Green Energy Helps
Heaven Green Energy is a top-3 EPC in Gujarat with 200+ MW of installed solar across residential, commercial, and industrial segments. Our 12-person engineering and design team uses SurgePV internally because it gives us bankable rigour in one license at less than half the Aurora bill we ran two years ago. We recommend SurgePV to channel partners and installer customers when they ask which platform to standardise on.
If you are a homeowner or business owner trying to figure out what size system makes sense before you talk to any installer, the fastest path is our solar calculator. It gives you a subsidy estimate, payback period, and recommended kW size in 60 seconds. If you want an actual engineered design, site survey, and turnkey installation, here is what we offer:
- Residential Solar: 1 to 10 kW rooftop systems with PM Surya Ghar subsidy handled end-to-end and SurgePV-bankable yield reports included.
- Commercial Solar: 10 to 100 kW with custom ROI modelling, AD tax planning, and SurgePV-generated financial models.
- Industrial Solar EPC: 100 kW+ turnkey projects with performance guarantees, solar EPC workflow built around SurgePV.
- Solar Calculator: see your subsidy plus 25-year savings in 60 seconds.
For installer partners and EPC firms looking to standardise their design stack, see SurgePV for solar installers, explore the solar designing workflow, or book a free SurgePV demo and bring two real Aurora projects to the call. Engineers who care about solar simulation depth and AutoCAD-compatible DXF/DWG export will find both wired in. For switch-intent reading, see our HelioScope alternative, PVsyst alternative, OpenSolar alternative, solar design software guide, and 2026 top solar inverter companies in India.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Aurora Solar cost in 2026?
Aurora Solar pricing in 2026 starts at roughly $159 per user per month for the Grow plan, $219 for Scale, and $259+ for Run, billed annually. A 5-person installer team typically lands between $9,540 (Grow) and $15,540+ (Run) per year before add-ons like AutoDesigner. Monthly billing is about 20% higher. Aurora does not publish prices on its site, so the numbers you find vary by source and segment. SurgePV’s published 5-User Team plan at $1,299 per user per year ($6,495 total) ships the same workflow at roughly half the cost.
Why doesn’t Aurora Solar publish pricing on its website?
Aurora uses a sales-led model that lets it segment pricing by company size and use case. Small installers get one quote, mid-market EPCs get another, enterprise teams get a third. Hiding pricing also creates a forced discovery call that pulls every buyer into the sales pipeline. The trade-off is that you cannot run a clean budget comparison without a rep. SurgePV publishes its three plans ($1,899, $1,499, $1,299 per user per year) on the site, so you can budget without a call.
Is Aurora Solar worth $219 per user per month?
Aurora Scale at $219 is worth the price if you are a US-only residential and small-C&I shop with a small designer team and an Aurora-deep template library. For most other teams, the answer is no. SurgePV at $1,299 per user per year (5-User Team) ships the same engineering capabilities (AI 3D roof, 8,760-hour shading, bankable yield, branded proposals) bundled, at less than half the seat cost. The economics flip the moment your team grows past 2 designers or you start operating outside the US.
What are the hidden costs of Aurora Solar?
Five hidden costs catch most teams. AutoDesigner add-on ($40 to $80 per seat per month on top of Scale). 8,760-hour shading restricted to Scale+ (forces an upgrade or a second tool). Training payroll of 2 to 3 weeks per new designer at standard Aurora onboarding. Hardware refresh because Aurora’s web app needs 16 GB+ RAM for C&I designs. Standard support response of up to 24 business hours which forces premium tier add-ons. Total realistic year-1 cost on a 5-seat Scale plan is closer to $40,000 than the $13,140 headline.
How does Aurora Solar pricing compare to SurgePV?
Aurora Scale at $219 per user per month equals $2,628 per user per year. SurgePV’s 5-User Team plan is $1,299 per user per year. That is roughly 2x cheaper per seat per year, or up to 7x cheaper than Aurora Run on a per-month basis depending on team size. For a 5-person team, Aurora Scale lands at $13,140 a year, SurgePV at $6,495, a $6,645 annual saving before add-ons. Both ship AI 3D roof, 8,760-hour shading, financial modeling, and branded proposals. SurgePV bundles them, Aurora gates them by tier.
Can I get a free trial of Aurora Solar?
Aurora typically offers a guided product walkthrough rather than a self-serve free trial. Access requires a sales call. SurgePV offers a true free trial at surgepv.com with no credit card and full access to design, AI 3D roof, 8,760-hour shading, and proposals. You can design and export real projects during the trial. Most teams confirm the SurgePV switch within a week of trying it on their own pipeline, because the time-to-first-proposal benchmark is significantly shorter than Aurora.
What is the cheapest Aurora Solar plan?
The cheapest published Aurora plan is Grow at roughly $159 per user per month on annual billing. The plan excludes 8,760-hour shading, AutoDesigner, advanced SLD, and battery storage modeling. For solo or 2-person US residential installers it is workable. For anyone running C&I work or operating outside the US, Grow’s restrictions force an upgrade to Scale at $219 within months. SurgePV’s cheapest plan is Individual at $1,899 per user per year ($158 per month equivalent) with every feature bundled, so the entry price is similar and the bundled-feature gap is large.
How does AutoDesigner pricing work in Aurora?
AutoDesigner is Aurora’s AI panel-layout-from-satellite tool. It is included by default in the Run plan ($259+ per user per month) and is an add-on for Grow and Scale, typically priced as a per-project usage bundle. The realistic budget for a 5-seat team that wants AutoDesigner unlocked is to move to Run, which puts the annual bill north of $15,540. SurgePV’s equivalent is AI 3D roof modeling plus Clara AI, both included in every paid plan at no extra cost.