Energy & Utilities · ranked shortlist
Best Energy & Utilities software for Startups in 2026
20 approved energy & utilities listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- Tools ranked
- 20
- Entry price range
- $9.99-$5,000
- Publish a $0 plan
- 3 of 20
How this ranking is derived
The sort key
Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.
Where the ratings come from
No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.
What the pool is
Approved energy & utilities listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the energy & utilities category page.
The ranking
Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.
- #1
Aurora Solar
Highest rated hereThe leading solar design and sales platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $250 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $500 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- solar, renewable-energy, design software, sales
- #2A
AutoGrid Flex
AI-powered distributed energy resource management
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- der-management, ai, utilities, virtual-power-plant
- #3
AVEVA PI System
Industrial data infrastructure for real-time insights
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- one-time
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- industrial-data, time-series, operations, energy
- #4A
Azelio Energy Storage
Thermal energy storage system design and optimization
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- energy-storage, thermal-systems, renewable-energy
- #5
Bidgely UtilityAI
AI-powered energy disaggregation and customer engagement
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- customer-engagement, ai, utilities, analytics
- #6
Clean Power Research PowerClerk
Interconnection and DER program management
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- interconnection, der, solar, utilities
- #7
Enel X DER Optimization
Distributed energy resource and demand response platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- der-management, demand-response, utilities, energy-markets
- #8E
Enerex
Energy procurement and market intelligence
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $500 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $1,500 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- procurement, market-intelligence, energy-trading, commercial
- #9
EnergyCAP
Utility bill and energy management software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $1,000 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $2,500 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- energy-management, utility-bills, sustainability, Enterprise
- #10E
Enphase Enlighten
Microinverter monitoring and management platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $9.99 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Tags
- solar-monitoring, microinverter, cloud, Free
- #11
Enverus Energy Analytics
Data-driven energy intelligence platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- energy-analytics, oil-gas, data-platform, market-intelligence
- #12
ETAP
Electrical power system design and analysis software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $5,000 a month, with no free plan.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $15,000 plus a tier sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- power-systems, electrical-engineering, utilities, simulation
- #13
Fluence Energy Management
Battery energy storage system software and services
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- energy-storage, battery-management, grid-services
- #14
Fronius SOLARWEB
Solar inverter monitoring and analytics platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Model not published
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- solar-monitoring, inverter-management, Free
- #15
GE Digital Grid Software
Advanced distribution management and grid optimization
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- distribution-management, outage-management, utilities, grid-operations
- #16
GE Digital GridOS
Advanced distribution management for the modern grid
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- smart-grid, adms, derms, utilities
- #17
Generac Grid Services
Virtual power plant and distributed energy management platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- virtual-power-plant, der-management, grid-services, utilities
- #18
Helioscope
Accurate solar design for commercial projects
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $95 a month.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- solar, design software, commercial, pv
- #19
HOMER Energy
Microgrid and distributed energy optimization software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $1,500 a month.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- subscription
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- microgrid, renewable-energy, optimization, simulation
- #20
PowerFactory DIgSILENT
Advanced power system analysis and grid simulation
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Billing
- quote
- Tags
- power-systems, simulation, utilities, electrical-engineering
What energy & utilities software costs
Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $9.99Enphase Enlighten
- Median entry price
- $500across 7 priced
- Dearest entry price
- $5,000ETAP
- Publish a $0 plan
- 3of 20
Paid energy & utilities plans in this set start anywhere from $9.99 a month for Enphase Enlighten to $5,000 for ETAP. The median entry price across the 7 tools that publish one is $500, half of them start below that figure and half above it.
Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is ETAP's at $15,000 a month, 3× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.
3 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 1 of those charge nothing at all. 5 tools have no free tier of any kind.
10 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.
How these vendors bill
The billing model each of the 20 energy & utilities listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.
- quote
- 9
- subscription
- 8
- one-time
- 1
Separately, 10 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.
What comes as standard, and what you pay extra for
Every capability named in a published pricing tier by any of the 11 energy & utilities tools here that break their plans down, counted once per vendor. This measures what vendors choose to advertise as a selling point, not everything the software does, an absence below is silence, not a missing feature.
Named by most of the category
- API access , 6 of 11
- Dedicated support , 6 of 11
Named by fewer
- Advanced analytics , 5 of 11
- Custom integrations , 5 of 11
- Unlimited users , 4 of 11
- Basic analytics , 2 of 11
- Basic design tools , 2 of 11
- Community support , 2 of 11
- Consulting services , 2 of 11
- Custom modules , 2 of 11
Named by exactly one vendor: Advanced analysis, Basic modules, Dedicated success manager, M&A intelligence, Price forecasting, Standard interfaces. Those are differentiators rather than table stakes.
What “Energy & Utilities” covers in practice
The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.
- utilities9
- der-management3
- Enterprise3
- renewable-energy3
- simulation3
- solar3
- ai2
- analytics2
- commercial2
- design software2
- electrical-engineering2
- energy-storage2
Carried by a single tool: adms, customer-engagement, distribution-management, energy-markets, interconnection, operations, program-management, sustainability. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.
How to choose between them
Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.
Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them
3 of 20 energy & utilities tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with api access, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.
Read the spread before you read the features
$9.99 to $5,000 is a $4,990.01 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $5,000 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.
Check which tier you actually land on
10 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, api access, dedicated support, advanced analytics, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.
The billing model matters more than the headline number
This category splits across 3 billing models: quote on 9 listings, subscription on 8, and 1 other arrangement across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.
Compare energy & utilities tools directly
Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.
- Aurora Solar vs AutoGrid Flex
- AutoGrid Flex vs AVEVA PI System
- AVEVA PI System vs Azelio Energy Storage
- Azelio Energy Storage vs Bidgely UtilityAI
- Bidgely UtilityAI vs Clean Power Research PowerClerk
- Clean Power Research PowerClerk vs Enel X DER Optimization
- Enel X DER Optimization vs Enerex
- Enerex vs EnergyCAP
Go straight to the numbers
- Aurora Solarpricingalternatives
- AutoGrid Flexpricingalternatives
- AVEVA PI Systempricingalternatives
- Azelio Energy Storagepricingalternatives
- Bidgely UtilityAIpricingalternatives
- Clean Power Research PowerClerkpricingalternatives
Questions people ask about energy & utilities software
Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.
- How is this energy & utilities ranking decided?
- Mechanically. The 20 approved energy & utilities listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
- Is this list re-ordered for startups?
- No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
- How much does energy & utilities software cost?
- Across the 20 energy & utilities tools listed here, paid plans start between $9.99 and $5,000 a month, with a median entry price of $500. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $15,000 a month (ETAP). 3 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
- What is the cheapest energy & utilities software?
- 1 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Enphase Enlighten has the lowest published entry price at $9.99 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
- Is there free energy & utilities software?
- Yes, 3 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 1 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
- What features should energy & utilities software have?
- Judging by what vendors put in their own published pricing tiers, the most frequently named capabilities in this category are api access (6 of 11 tools that publish plan detail), dedicated support (6) and advanced analytics (5). Treat those as the category baseline. Anything named by only one vendor, such as advanced analysis or basic modules, is a differentiator rather than a standard, so it is worth deciding whether you need it before it narrows your shortlist to one.
- How is energy & utilities software usually billed?
- quote (9), subscription (8), one-time (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 10 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
- What does energy & utilities software actually cover?
- The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are utilities (9), der-management (3), enterprise (3), renewable-energy (3), simulation (3). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under energy & utilities may overlap on very little.
- How many pricing tiers do energy & utilities tools offer?
- 11 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 10 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
- How many energy & utilities tools are listed on Softwr?
- 20 approved energy & utilities listings appear on this page, including Aurora Solar, AutoGrid Flex, AVEVA PI System, Azelio Energy Storage. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/energy-utilities, which ranks the same set by published rating.
Keep reading
More on Energy & Utilities
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