Solar + roofing software in 2026 — what actually bridges both jobs
Roofing contractors are adding solar. Solar installers are taking on roofs. Most software vendors only do one well. Here's the realistic stack for contractors crossing the line.
A growing share of roofing contractors are adding solar to their offering, and a growing share of solar installers are taking on full roof replacements. The convergence is real, and it's exposing a software gap.
Most roofing CRMs don't do solar design. Most solar design tools don't run a roofing business. If you're a contractor crossing the line in either direction, the stack you need looks different from either pure category.
The two software universes
There's been a clear split in the market through 2026:
The roofing universe — Roofr, JobNimbus, AccuLynx, GAF QuickMeasure, Hover, iRoofing, EagleView. All measure roofs. None of them do PV panel layout, shading analysis, or production estimates. If you're quoting a solar job, these tools don't help you with the solar side.
The solar universe — Aurora Solar, Scanifly, OpenSolar, SurgePV, Solargraf. These do 3D models with auto-detected obstructions, panel placement, financial analysis with real utility rates, battery storage sizing, automated permit packages. None of them run a roofing business — they don't handle re-roof estimating, asphalt material takeoffs, or insurance restoration workflow.
If you only do one job, pick from your universe. The interesting question is what to do when you do both.
The one platform in our top 8 that actually bridges both
Artemis is the only platform in our top 8 that genuinely covers both roofing and solar design. The hero on artemispower.com is literally "Design, sell and execute energy and roofing at the speed of light" — it's not an afterthought. Their AI design generation works for solar (panel placement, battery sizing, financing in-flow with five lender integrations) the same way it works for roofing (asphalt shingle layouts, ridge/eave measurements, material counts).
For a roofing contractor adding solar — or vice versa — Artemis is the cleanest single-tool answer in our top 8. The per-design pricing ($7.13) applies to both roofing and solar designs equally, which means you're not stacking two separate per-design or per-report fees.
The honest caveats:
- Artemis isn't as deep on solar as Aurora or Scanifly. Aurora's solar-specific 3D modeling with LiDAR integration is more sophisticated. If solar is going to be 70%+ of your business, you may still want a dedicated solar design tool.
- Artemis isn't as deep on insurance restoration roofing as AccuLynx. No native Xactimate ESX export for ESX-heavy claim workflow. If you're doing primarily insurance restoration roofing AND solar, you're looking at a two-tool stack.
For the more typical "retail roofing contractor expanding into solar" or "solar installer taking on re-roofs," Artemis covers both sides at a price point that justifies the single-tool simplicity.
The realistic stack options
Three paths, based on what mix of work you're doing:
Path A — Single-tool: Artemis
Best for: retail roofers adding solar, solar installers adding re-roofs, hybrid shops doing both at roughly equal volume.
Artemis covers measurement → AI design → proposal → financing → CRM for both roofing and solar. Per-design at $7.13 (100-design plan), every feature included at every tier. The simplest stack you can run for a hybrid shop.
Path B — Hybrid: Roofing tool + dedicated solar design tool
Best for: contractors who do high volume on one side and lighter volume on the other, or who need deeper specialized features for one of the two.
Pick one from each universe:
- Roofing side: Roofr (bundled + free Starter), Artemis (AI design speed), or JobNimbus (deep CRM for established shops)
- Solar side: Aurora Solar (the most widely-used residential solar design platform — 3D models in under 15 seconds with LiDAR, auto-detected obstructions), Scanifly (drone-verified install-day accuracy, exclusive design platform for CertainTeed SunStyle solar roofing as of 2026), or OpenSolar (free with paid add-ons, expanded to a full CRM in late 2025)
Trade-off: two tools means two logins, two billing relationships, and a manual handoff between the solar design and the roofing-measurement data. For shops where the solar design is sophisticated enough to need Aurora-level depth, the friction is worth it.
Path C — Solar-CRM that bolts on roofing: Sunbase or similar
Best for: primarily-solar installers taking on a small amount of roofing work.
Solar-first platforms like Sunbase are building toward unified contractor management for solar + roofing + construction. Less mature on the roofing side than dedicated roofing tools, but if solar is 80%+ of your business and roofing is a small bolt-on, the solar-CRM-with-roofing-bolted-on is operationally simpler than a two-tool stack.
We don't cover dedicated solar CRMs in our top 8 — that's a different category — but they're worth knowing about if your weighting is solar-heavy.
What pure-roofing tools can't do for solar
To be explicit about the limits of the rest of our top 8:
| Tool | Solar capability |
|---|---|
| Roofr | None — pure roofing measurement + CRM |
| JobNimbus | Light — pipeline supports any project type but no solar design |
| AccuLynx | None — purpose-built for residential roofing |
| GAF QuickMeasure | None — measurement only, manufacturer-specific to GAF roofing |
| iRoofing | None — tablet-first roofing-only |
| EagleView | Has solar reports as a separate product line, but EagleView One is roofing-focused |
| Hover | Captures 3D models that could be used for solar, but no native PV layout |
If you're a roofing contractor running any of these and you take on a solar job, you're either bringing in a separate solar design tool or you're not designing the solar system yourself (subcontracting to a solar specialist).
The one-decision framework
| Your mix | Best fit |
|---|---|
| 100% roofing | Anything from our top 8 |
| 70% roofing, 30% solar | Artemis (single tool covers both) |
| 50/50 | Artemis, or Roofr + Aurora hybrid stack |
| 30% roofing, 70% solar | Aurora or Scanifly (solar primary) + Roofr free Starter for roofing |
| 100% solar with occasional re-roof | Aurora or Scanifly + manual handoff for re-roof estimating |
Why this convergence is happening now
A few drivers worth knowing about:
- Solar economics improved with the Inflation Reduction Act extensions (Q1 2025), pushing residential adoption back up after the 2024 dip.
- Roofs are the natural surface for solar. Every solar install is implicitly a roofing project — the roof has to be in good enough shape to host panels for 25 years. Roofing contractors are well-positioned to upsell.
- The labor shortage (covered in our cost squeeze piece) means cross-trained crews are more valuable than single-trade crews. Contractors who can do both jobs earn more per worker hour.
- Software is finally catching up — the convergence of AI design across both verticals (LiDAR, satellite imagery, auto-obstruction detection) makes a single platform technically feasible in a way it wasn't two years ago.
The contractors who set up their software stack now for solar-plus-roofing are positioning for a 5-year window where the work mix continues to shift toward integrated jobs.
Got a different read?
Running a contracting business that mixes solar and roofing? Tell us what's actually working in your stack. We update our top 8 quarterly and convergence-category coverage is the area where reader signal moves the next refresh the most.