If you are reading a HelioScope review, you are almost certainly not a residential sales rep. HelioScope is the tool commercial and industrial solar engineers reach for when somebody is going to argue with the yield number, and it has held that position for over a decade because the simulation is good and the output is readable. It runs a module-level, 8,760-hour annual simulation and then hands you a loss tree that separates shading from soiling, mismatch, thermal and wiring, which means you can point at a line and explain where the missing four percent went. Very few tools let you do that. What HelioScope will not do is sell the job for you or get it permitted, and that single fact governs whether it belongs in your stack. Published 2026 pricing is $159 per month for Basic and $259 for Pro, and on our five-axis bench it scores 31 out of 50, a number that looks harsh until you see that it earns a 9 on the axis its buyers care about most.
Direct answer. HelioScope is a commercial and industrial solar simulation tool from Folsom Labs, now owned by Aurora Solar, priced at $159 per month for Basic and $259 for Pro (HelioScope, 2026). It scores 31 out of 50 on our review bench: 9 on simulation depth, 4 on proposal workflow. Buy it as the engineering seat in a stack, never as the whole stack.
This review covers what HelioScope actually does, the five-axis score with reasoning, the real pricing including the MW design caps most reviews miss, the reader for whom HelioScope beats everything including SurgePV, and the reader who should not buy it. If you are already shopping replacements, our HelioScope alternatives ranking does that job, and our HelioScope pricing breakdown runs the multi-seat math.
What HelioScope Is
HelioScope is a web-based solar design and performance simulation platform built by Folsom Labs, founded in San Francisco in 2012 by Paul Gibbs and Paul Grana. Its design goal was specific: make bankable-grade PV simulation fast enough that an engineer would run it during design rather than as a separate exercise after design. It succeeded, and it became one of the most widely used tools in US commercial and industrial solar engineering.
In 2021 Aurora Solar announced its acquisition of Folsom Labs, completing the deal the following year. HelioScope continues as a separate product with its own subscription and its own pricing page. Owning Aurora does not get you HelioScope, and there is no published bundle. That surprises buyers regularly, so it is worth stating twice. Our Aurora Solar review scores the sibling product separately.
The workflow is engineer-shaped. You define the site from imagery, place mechanical layouts across roof planes, carports or ground mounts, define shading objects including trees with adjustable canopy density and seasonal leaf coverage, wire the array into strings and inverters, then run the simulation. What comes back is an annual energy number plus the thing that actually matters: a step-by-step accounting of every loss between the irradiance that hit the site and the AC energy that reached the meter.
That loss accounting is the product. It handles near-field and far-field shading differently, which matters because near-field obstructions cause string-level electrical mismatch that a simple shading percentage cannot represent. It reports at module level. And it exports the hourly data as CSV, where each column is a step in the loss chain, so you can rebuild the calculation in a spreadsheet if a reviewer demands it. That auditability is why, in the review conversations we have sat in, HelioScope output tends to survive a technical adviser’s questions.
Bring one of your own sites to a free SurgePV demo. We will build the 3D roof from a satellite address, run the 8,760-hour shading simulation, and hand you the SLD, BOQ and branded proposal on the call.
Book a free SurgePV demo → Compare pricingThe 5-Axis Review Bench
Every review page on this site scores its subject on the same five axes, each out of 10, so the numbers can be compared across tools and the reasoning can be audited. We call it the Heaven Green 5-Axis Review Bench.
- Design and simulation depth. Hour-by-hour irradiance at module or string level, real obstruction geometry, and a loss breakdown that separates shading, soiling, mismatch, thermal and wiring so an engineer can defend the number line by line.
- Compliance and documentation output. Single line diagram, conductor and overcurrent sizing, placards, bill of quantities: a package a plan checker or contractor can build from.
- Proposal and sales workflow. A branded, financeable, signable customer document from the same file.
- Price against value. Cost per finished project across a realistic team, including gating and metering.
- Support and onboarding. Time from purchase to unsupervised competence.
| Axis | Score | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Design and simulation depth | 9 / 10 | Module-level 8,760-hour simulation with an auditable loss tree and seasonal canopy modelling. Loses a point on MW caps by tier |
| Compliance and documentation output | 5 / 10 | Strong wiring and string documentation. We found no permit-grade plan set, placards or stamped drawings in the published feature set |
| Proposal and sales workflow | 4 / 10 | Pro adds financial modelling and a sales proposal, but it is not a white-label closing document a residential team would use |
| Price against value | 6 / 10 | Fair for the engineering, but 10 projects a month per licence and MW caps by tier bite sooner than buyers expect |
| Support and onboarding | 7 / 10 | Excellent documentation and a technical user base. Premium support and an account manager are Enterprise |
| Total | 31 / 50 | A specialist scoring like a specialist |
Verdict. Do not read 31 out of 50 as a weak product. Read it as a narrow one. HelioScope is close to the best available at the single job it does, and it makes no serious attempt at three of the five axes. If simulation defensibility is what you are buying, the only score in this table that matters is the 9.
Pricing
HelioScope publishes its prices, which puts it ahead of most of the category. As of August 2026, the HelioScope pricing page lists three plans.
| Plan | Price | Annual | Users and projects | Design cap | Key inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $159 / month | $1,620 | 1 user, 10 projects / month | 1.25 MW DC | Core design and modelling, rooftop, carport, ground mount, within 1% of PVsyst |
| Pro | $259 / month | $2,640 | 1 user, 10 projects / month | 5 MW DC | Basic plus LIDAR-assisted modelling, AI obstruction detection, Independent Tilt, parcel boundaries, financial modelling and sales proposals, P90/P95/P99 |
| Enterprise | Custom, per project | Custom | Unlimited users, custom allowance | 30 MW DC | Pro plus single-axis trackers, PVsyst export, API, SSO, premium support, account manager |
Three details in that table do more damage to budgets than the headline price.
The MW cap is the real tier gate. Basic stops at 1.25 MW DC. That sounds generous until you quote a distribution warehouse. A single large industrial roof will cross it, and at that point your price is $259 a month, not $159. Trackers and anything above 5 MW push you to Enterprise, which is quoted per project rather than per seat.
Ten projects a month, per licence. For an engineer who runs three design iterations per opportunity, ten projects is three or four real opportunities. Teams that treat HelioScope as a quick feasibility tool across a wide pipeline hit this fast. Count your monthly opportunity flow, not your monthly wins.
P90 and P95 exceedance values are Pro. If a lender has asked you for a P90, you are on Pro. Exceedance statistics are the standard vocabulary of project finance, and this is the most common reason a Basic user upgrades. Our partner explainer on P50, P90 and P99 yield reports covers what those numbers mean and why lenders ask for them.
⚠️ Watch out
HelioScope licences are single-user. A three-engineer team on Pro is $7,920 a year, and it still produces no permit set and no closing proposal. Budget the rest of the stack in the same conversation.
Older pricing references, including our own earlier HelioScope pricing guide, cite a $99 Basic tier. That is not the currently published number and the vendor page above supersedes it.
What HelioScope Does Best
The loss tree. This is the whole argument. Most tools tell you the array will make 1,420 MWh. HelioScope tells you that irradiance delivered a certain figure, shading removed a percentage, mismatch removed another, soiling another, thermal another, wiring another, and inverter conversion the rest. Every step is separate and every step is exportable. When a technical adviser challenges your number, you do not defend a black box, you walk them down a list. Nothing else we have benched in this price range makes that as easy.
Shading modelled the way shading actually behaves. Trees get canopy density and seasonal leaf coverage rather than being solid blocks. Near-field and far-field shading are treated differently, so string-level electrical mismatch from a nearby obstruction is captured rather than smeared into an average. This is the difference between a shading number and a shading model, and it is why the shading loss figure it reports survives review.
Accuracy that stands next to PVsyst. HelioScope states agreement within 1% of PVsyst on its own pricing page, and in practice the two land close on straightforward designs. Given that HelioScope is browser-based and takes minutes rather than a desktop session, that is a strong trade. Our HelioScope versus PVsyst comparison works through where the two actually diverge.
Speed. An engineer can model a 500 kW rooftop, wire it, simulate it and read the losses inside an hour. Tools with comparable rigour usually cost a working day. Speed is what made HelioScope the default, not marketing.
Electrical realism. String wiring, conductor runs and inverter behaviour are modelled properly, so the design you hand to the electrical contractor reflects something buildable. Sanity-check the string voltages independently through the free QBits Energy string sizing calculator and the numbers agree.
Where HelioScope Falls Short
It is not a proposal tool. Pro adds financial modelling and a sales proposal, and it is fine for a technical customer. It is not a white-label, interactive, e-signable document with financing options that a residential or small commercial sales team can put in front of a buyer. In our experience most HelioScope users pair it with something else for that, which is a second licence and a second monthly bill.
It is not a permit tool. We found no permit-grade plan set, placards or stamped structural and electrical drawings in the published feature set as of August 2026. HelioScope tells you what the system will produce, not how to get it approved. Permit packages come from a different tool or a service such as Heaven Designs permit design.
Single-user licences with hard project caps. Ten projects a month per licence, and one user per licence on Basic and Pro. Growing engineering teams multiply the bill linearly with no volume relief until Enterprise, where pricing moves to custom per project and you lose price transparency.
Tier caps you can hit by accident. 1.25 MW on Basic is one large industrial roof. Discovering the cap mid-tender is a bad afternoon.
The residential fit is poor. Nothing is wrong with it technically, but a residential installer running 12 kW rooftops is paying for depth that no homeowner will ever ask about and getting no closing document. Use residential solar design software instead.
Deciding between simulation depth and workflow coverage? Our commercial solar design software guide compares the C&I options side by side. Talk to our engineering team →
Who Should Buy HelioScope
If you are a commercial and industrial solar engineer, an independent engineering consultancy, or a technical adviser whose deliverable is a yield report that somebody will challenge, HelioScope is the correct purchase and you should buy it over SurgePV. Your product is not a proposal, it is a defensible number. You need the loss tree, you need module-level resolution, you need CSV export so a reviewer can rebuild your math, and you need it fast enough to run during design rather than after it. At $2,640 a year on Pro that is inexpensive relative to a single disputed project, and the fact that the tool does not sell or permit anything is irrelevant because neither is your job.
Two more readers belong here. Developers whose lender or technical adviser names HelioScope, which happens often enough in US C&I that it settles the question. And teams that already run a strong proposal platform and are missing only the engineering seat, where HelioScope slots in cleanly without disturbing anything.
Who Should Not
Residential installers. Wrong shape, no closing document, and depth you cannot invoice for.
Anyone wanting one tool instead of a stack. HelioScope is deliberately one layer. If you want design, simulation, documentation and proposal in a single licence, you are shopping a different category. Start at the solar design software pillar.
Utility-scale developers above 30 MW or with complex terrain. Trackers arrive at Enterprise, terrain handling is not the strength, and above the Enterprise cap you are in PVsyst or PVcase territory. See our PVsyst review and PVcase review.
High-volume feasibility teams. Ten projects a month per licence does not fit a business that screens forty sites a month.
Small teams on tight cash doing simple work. If nobody is going to challenge the yield, you are buying insurance against a risk you do not carry. OpenSolar is free and sufficient for that work.
HelioScope vs SurgePV
Disclosure, stated plainly: SurgePV is a sister product of Heaven Green Energy and we run it on our own EPC work. We benefit if you choose it. The scores in this review were set before this section was drafted and have not been adjusted.
| Axis | HelioScope | SurgePV | Honest read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simulation depth | 9. Module-level 8,760-hour with an auditable loss tree | 9. 8,760-hour module-level on every paid plan, no MW cap by tier | Line ball. HelioScope’s loss tree presentation is still the clearest in the category |
| Compliance output | 5. No plan set, no placards | 7. SLD, BOQ, DXF and DWG export bundled | SurgePV wins |
| Proposal workflow | 4. Technical proposal only | 9. White-label proposals in 9 languages, e-signature | SurgePV wins decisively |
| Price against value | 6. $1,620 to $2,640 per single-user licence, 10 projects a month | 8. $1,299 per user per year at five seats, no project cap | SurgePV wins on total stack cost, not on sticker price alone |
| Support and onboarding | 7. Strong documentation, Enterprise-gated premium support | 8. Contracted support on every paid plan | SurgePV wins narrowly |
| Total | 31 / 50 | 41 / 50 | The gap is stack coverage, not simulation quality |
SurgePV’s named weaknesses. Brand recognition is thin since the 2025 launch, and in C&I engineering that matters more than it does in residential, because a lender’s technical adviser has heard of HelioScope and has not heard of SurgePV. That is a genuine reason to keep a HelioScope seat even after adopting SurgePV. There is no drone capture. There is no structural stamping, so any professional engineer seal goes to an outside partner. And the racking database is thinner than the module and inverter databases, which shows up as manual entry on unusual mounting systems.
The honest summary: on the simulation axis these two are close, and HelioScope presents its results better. SurgePV wins on everything around the simulation. If your business is only the simulation, that argument does not reach you, and you should buy HelioScope.
How Heaven Green Energy Uses This In Practice
We run a 12-person engineering team across residential, commercial and industrial work, and HelioScope has been in our C&I workflow for years. Three observations from operating it rather than demoing it.
Nobody buys HelioScope alone. Every team we know running it runs at least one other platform beside it, usually for proposals and always for permits. When you budget HelioScope, budget the stack. The realistic number for a three-engineer C&I team is the HelioScope licences plus a proposal platform, and that total is what you should compare against a bundled tool, not the $2,640.
The loss tree changes conversations, not just designs. The most valuable thing HelioScope has done for us is not a better layout, it is walking a client’s technical adviser down a list of losses until the disagreement resolves. That is worth the licence on its own for anyone doing lender-facing work, and it is why we still keep seats even though our primary design work now runs through SurgePV.
Watch the caps before the tender, not during it. We have hit the Basic MW cap mid-quote. Check the DC size of your largest realistic project against your plan cap when you buy, not when you need it.
For related reading, our commercial solar design software comparison covers the whole C&I category, the solar shading analysis software guide covers what a defensible shading study requires, and industry coverage from pv magazine tracks the simulation tools that lenders currently accept. HelioScope remains, in our assessment, the best commercial solar simulation tool for engineers who need speed and auditability in the same session.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does HelioScope cost in 2026?
HelioScope publishes three plans. Basic is $159 per month per licence, which works out to $1,620 a year, and covers one user with 10 projects a month and designs up to 1.25 MW DC. Pro is $259 per month, $2,640 a year, also one user and 10 projects a month, with designs up to 5 MW DC. Enterprise is custom priced per project with unlimited users and designs up to 30 MW DC. Older sources quoting a $99 entry tier are out of date.
Is HelioScope as accurate as PVsyst?
HelioScope states agreement within 1% of PVsyst, and on straightforward rooftop and ground-mount designs the two land close in practice. PVsyst remains the reference for lender-specified bankability in many markets, particularly for utility-scale projects and where a financing document names the tool explicitly. HelioScope’s advantage is speed and readability: an engineer can complete a design, simulation and loss review inside an hour rather than a working day.
Does HelioScope generate solar proposals?
Not in the sense a sales team means. The Pro plan adds financial modelling and a sales proposal output, which is adequate for a technical buyer. It is not a white-label, interactive, e-signable customer document with financing options. In our experience most HelioScope users pair it with a separate proposal platform, which means a second licence and a second monthly bill. Budget the stack rather than the HelioScope line alone.
Is HelioScope owned by Aurora Solar?
Yes. Aurora Solar announced the acquisition of Folsom Labs, HelioScope’s developer, in 2021 and completed it in 2022. The two products remain separate with separate subscriptions and separate pricing pages, and there is no published bundle discount. Buying an Aurora seat does not include HelioScope access, and buying HelioScope does not include Aurora. Confirm this in writing with a rep before you assume otherwise.
What is the HelioScope loss tree and why does it matter?
The loss tree is a step-by-step accounting of everything that reduces energy between the sunlight hitting your site and the AC energy reaching the meter. It reports shading, soiling, mismatch, thermal, wiring and inverter conversion losses as separate line items rather than one combined derate factor. It matters because when a lender or technical adviser challenges your annual yield, you can point at the specific line responsible instead of defending a single number from a black box.
Can HelioScope do permit drawings?
Not on the evidence we have. HelioScope produces design documentation covering layout, string wiring and simulation results, and we found no permit-grade plan set, placards or stamped structural and electrical drawings in the published feature set as of August 2026. Teams using HelioScope generally get permit packages from a separate design tool or from an engineering service. This is the single biggest gap between HelioScope and a bundled platform, and it is a deliberate product decision rather than an oversight.
What is the best HelioScope alternative for a small team?
It depends on what you are replacing. If you want the same simulation depth, PVsyst is the reference standard and PVcase covers terrain and CAD. If you want simulation plus proposals plus documentation in one licence, a bundled platform makes more sense than two subscriptions. If you are a residential team that bought HelioScope by mistake, almost anything else fits better. Our HelioScope alternatives ranking lays out the options with current prices.
Does HelioScope work for utility-scale solar?
Up to a point. Single-axis trackers and designs up to 30 MW DC are available on Enterprise, and PVsyst export lets you hand a model to a bankability workflow. Beyond that, or where terrain grading, civil layout and complex site optimisation drive the design, purpose-built utility-scale tools do the job better. See our utility-scale solar design software guide for that category.
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Free trial, no credit card · $1,299 per user per year on the 5-User Team planDisclaimer: SurgePV is our own product. It is built by the Heaven Group, the same company as Heaven Green Energy, so treat this as a recommendation from its maker.