How solar lead aggregators work in plain English
The solar lead-aggregator business model has three steps:
- Drive cheap traffic. Aggregators run Google Ads, SEO content (review pages, "best installer" listicles), and partnerships with utility-rebate sites and content publishers. Whatever brings in homeowners curious about solar.
- Capture your contact info. A short form asks for your address, monthly utility bill, name, email, and phone. In exchange you're promised "free quotes from local installers."
- Sell your data to installers. Your filled-out form is now a "solar lead." Depending on the aggregator's pricing model, that lead gets sold to one installer (exclusive) or to multiple installers simultaneously (shared). Installers buy these leads at $25–$300 per lead and pay regardless of whether you sign a contract.
The math from the installer side: if a $150 exclusive lead converts at 10%, the installer pays $1,500 in lead cost per signed contract. That cost is built into your bid. On a $25,000 system, that's ~6% of your total price — an invisible "marketing tax" you didn't authorize but absolutely paid for.
The major solar lead aggregators in 2026
EnergySage Most transparent
Model: Marketplace. Homeowner submits one form, then receives 5–7 standardized written quotes from pre-vetted installers within ~48 hours. Quotes appear in EnergySage's portal in apples-to-apples format (kWh, $/W, equipment, financing). EnergySage charges installers a per-lead fee (~$50–$150 typical), and a small percentage on closed contracts.
What you give up: Your contact info goes to all the installers who pick up your project — typically 3–7 of them. Calls and emails will follow.
What you get: The standardization is genuinely useful. Comparing 5 EnergySage quotes is way easier than comparing 5 unique-format PDFs from cold-calling salespeople. Installer vetting (license, insurance, BBB) is real. The DOE backing tends to keep the platform on its best behavior. Installer network is broad enough to give meaningful local options in most states.
Honest verdict: Best of the major aggregators if you want a low-effort starting point. Pair it with one or two installers you found independently for the cleanest comparison.
SolarReviews Mixed
Model: Hybrid — runs a high-traffic review site and blog AND sells leads to installers. Different from EnergySage's portal model: SolarReviews sends your contact info to installers who call you directly, often without the standardized-quote step. Both exclusive and shared lead pricing options.
What you give up: Your data goes out. Whether it goes to ONE installer or FIVE depends on the lead-pricing tier the installer is paying for — you have no way to know which from your side.
What you get: The reviews on installer pages are decent and often more current than competitor sites. The "Get Quotes" funnel produces uneven outcomes — some homeowners report 2–3 reasonable callbacks, others report 15+ calls and emails over the next two weeks.
Honest verdict: Use the review database to research installers you found elsewhere. Skip the quote form unless you're ready for heavy sales-call follow-up.
Solar.com (formerly Pick My Solar) Mixed
Model: Marketplace-style platform with an "Energy Advisor" who walks you through quotes from a curated installer network. More high-touch than EnergySage; less standardized output. Charges installers per-lead and per-contract fees.
What you give up: Contact info goes to a small number of installers (typically 2–4) plus a Solar.com advisor.
What you get: The advisor relationship can be useful for first-time buyers who want a hand to hold. Quote quality varies; the platform's inventory is smaller than EnergySage's. Long-term stability of the platform has been uncertain through ownership changes.
Honest verdict: Reasonable secondary source. Verify any quote you receive against a self-sourced bid before signing.
Modernize Heavy lead-sharing
Model: Pure lead aggregator. Modernize doesn't run a quote-comparison portal — it just collects your form data and sells it. Many leads are sold "shared" to multiple installers simultaneously.
What you give up: Your data, often to several installers at once. Plus you're typically signed up to receive marketing email from Modernize itself.
What you get: Calls. Lots of calls. Often from out-of-state national installers who buy leads in bulk.
Honest verdict: Avoid unless you've got a throwaway phone and email and you're specifically curious how the volume feels. Most solar leads from Modernize convert poorly because the homeowners weren't expecting the call volume.
HomeAdvisor / Angi Heavy lead-sharing
Model: Pure lead-gen across all home-improvement categories. Solar leads are typically sold shared to 3–5 contractors per lead. Has been the subject of FTC enforcement and class actions over lead-quality and billing-dispute issues with their contractor side.
What you give up: Contact info to multiple contractors plus ongoing marketing email from Angi.
What you get: Mixed quality. Solar isn't their primary vertical, so installer quality is hit-or-miss. Better for one-off home services (handyman, painter) than for solar.
Honest verdict: Skip for solar. Use for non-solar home services if you must.
EcoWatch / Forbes Home / Today's Homeowner Affiliate-driven
Model: Editorial review/listicle content ("Best Solar Companies in [State] 2026") with embedded "Get Free Quote" buttons that route to lead-gen partners (often EnergySage, SolarReviews, or direct to specific installers like Sunrun). The site is paid for each lead generated.
What you give up: Same data, same sales calls. The branding makes it feel editorial; the data flow is identical to a direct lead aggregator.
What you get: The articles are sometimes useful for high-level orientation. The recommendations are influenced by which installers pay the highest commission, not by independent quality assessment.
Honest verdict: Read the articles for context, but don't fill out their forms. Click directly to installer websites instead.
SaveOnEnergy / Choose Energy / Direct Energy quote pages Adjacent
Model: Originally built for deregulated electricity markets (TX, OH, PA, etc.) to sell energy plans. Have added solar lead-gen as a sideline. Sell solar leads on similar shared/exclusive basis.
Honest verdict: Skip for solar. Their installer network is thinner than the dedicated solar aggregators, and the lead handoff process is less polished.
SunValue / SolarPanelsUp / OhmSnap / Project Solar Smaller players
Model: Same playbook as bigger aggregators — review content + lead form — at a smaller scale. Project Solar is a notable exception: it sells DIY-style solar kits and online-managed installations rather than acting as a pure lead-broker.
Honest verdict: Generally skip. The bigger sites do the same thing with better-vetted installer networks. Project Solar is its own thing — useful if you specifically want a low-touch DIY-friendly path, but not what most homeowners are after.
Quick comparison: who shares your data, with whom
| Aggregator | Lead type | Typical # installers your data goes to | Standardized quotes? | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EnergySage | Marketplace | 3–7 | Yes (apples-to-apples) | Yes — best of the bunch |
| SolarReviews | Hybrid review + lead | 1–5 (varies) | No | Use reviews; skip the form |
| Solar.com | Marketplace + advisor | 2–4 | Partial | OK as a secondary source |
| Modernize | Pure lead-gen | 3–6 | No | Skip |
| HomeAdvisor / Angi | Pure lead-gen | 3–5 | No | Skip |
| EcoWatch / Forbes Home | Affiliate routing | Routes to other aggregators | No | Read articles only |
| SaveOnEnergy / Choose Energy | Adjacent lead-gen | 2–4 | No | Skip for solar |
The hidden cost: lead-acquisition cost is in your bid
This is the part the aggregator doesn't advertise. When an installer pays $150–$300 per lead, and converts ~10% of those leads to signed contracts, their customer acquisition cost (CAC) per signed contract is $1,500–$3,000. That number doesn't disappear — it gets built into the price they quote you.
For a typical 8 kW residential system at $24,000:
- Aggregator-sourced bid: $24,000 includes ~$1,500–$3,000 of marketing/lead cost (6–12% of the price)
- Self-sourced bid (you contacted the installer directly): Same $24,000 list price, but the installer's margin is 6–12% higher — meaning they have more room to negotiate, throw in extras, or simply do better work because they're not bleeding margin to a lead broker
This is why at least one of your bids should be from an installer you found independently — through a state directory, NABCEP database, neighbor referral, or your utility's approved-vendor list. That bid sets a floor. If your aggregator-sourced bids are 10–15% higher than your self-sourced bid for equivalent equipment, the lead-acquisition cost is what you're paying for.
How to use aggregators without getting buried in calls
- Use a Google Voice number. Free, blocks per-aggregator if you choose, easy to forward to your real phone or silence entirely. voice.google.com.
- Use a throwaway email alias. Gmail's
+-suffix trick works ([email protected]), or use a paid service like SimpleLogin or Apple's "Hide My Email." Disable the alias when you're done. - Pick ONE marketplace aggregator, not three. EnergySage covers the most ground; submitting to multiple aggregators just multiplies the call volume.
- Set a hard cutoff date. Decide upfront: "I'll evaluate quotes that come in within 7 days, then stop responding." Aggregator leads tend to recycle for 30–90 days.
- Find one installer independently. Use your state contractor licensing board, the NABCEP-Certified Installer search, your utility's approved-installer list, or this site's state-by-state directory. Call them yourself. That's the bid that anchors your comparison.
- Run all the bids through this analyzer. The whole point of solarbidanalyzer.com is to put aggregator-sourced and self-sourced bids on the same scoring framework so the lead-cost markup becomes obvious.
Better ways to find a solar installer in 2026
- Your state contractor licensing board — verifies that the company actually has an active electrical contractor license. Most state boards have a free public lookup. solar building & electrical codes guide.
- NABCEP-Certified Installer search — the industry's leading professional certification. nabcep.org has a public directory.
- Your utility's approved-installer list — many utilities (Xcel, MN Power, ComEd, ConEd, NYSERDA-QSI list, etc.) maintain their own lists of installers they've worked with. Often a good filter for "knows local interconnection process."
- State energy-office programs — NJ Clean Energy, MA SMART, NY-Sun, MN Solar*Rewards, Illinois Shines — all maintain lists of installers approved to participate in the state incentive program. You usually want one of these anyway to qualify for the rebate.
- Neighbor referral — the highest-conversion source for installers; they don't pay for it; quality is usually good. Check NextDoor, Facebook neighborhood groups, or just ask a neighbor with panels.
- Solar Bid Analyzer's installer directory — we maintain state-by-state directories of locally-rooted installers without taking referral fees from them. The recommendations don't change based on who's paying us, because nobody's paying us.
Got 3+ bids from a mix of aggregator and self-sourced sources?
Upload all of them here. The analyzer scores them on the same criteria, flags any with hidden lead-cost markup, and tells you which to sign.
Analyze My Bids →Frequently asked questions
Is EnergySage actually unbiased?
It's the most unbiased of the major aggregators — the standardized-quote portal genuinely helps you compare apples-to-apples, and the DOE backing keeps platform behavior reasonable. But EnergySage is still paid by the installer side, and ranking/visibility within the platform is influenced by installer participation. Treat the platform's recommendations as one signal, not as gospel.
Why does my data go to so many installers when I only filled out one form?
Aggregators monetize each form-fill by selling the lead. Selling shared (to multiple installers at once) generates more revenue per lead than selling exclusive (to one). The aggregator's terms of service typically grant them broad rights to share your data with their "partners." Read the privacy policy before you submit — the data-sharing scope is almost always there in plain language.
Will my contact info ever stop being sold?
Eventually. Most aggregators sell each lead for 30–90 days. After that, the lead is considered "stale" and stops moving through the system. New leads from new form-fills start fresh. If the calls continue past 90 days, ask each caller specifically how they got your info and remove yourself from their list per their state's call-suppression rules.
Can I just call installers directly?
Yes — and you should. Direct outreach to a state-licensed local installer cuts out the lead-acquisition cost entirely, gets you a real human on the phone, and often produces the cleanest written proposal. Use your state contractor licensing board, NABCEP directory, or this site's state directory to find them.
If aggregator-sourced bids include a lead-cost markup, why aren't all bids self-sourced?
Three reasons. (1) Most homeowners don't know how to find installers without an aggregator. (2) Marketing — installers spend on aggregators because the leads, however expensive, are still cheaper than building their own marketing channel. (3) Convenience — getting 5 quotes through one form is genuinely easier than calling 5 installers individually. The right move is to mix sources: 1–2 self-sourced bids + 1–3 aggregator-sourced bids gives you a useful comparison.
Do the "Best Solar Companies in [State] 2026" listicles on review sites mean anything?
Mostly no. Those rankings are heavily influenced by which installers pay for placement, which ones have affiliate agreements, and which ones are aggressively buying leads. They are not independent quality assessments. Use the listicles for general orientation only — don't pick an installer based on a third-party "best of" list without independent verification.
What's the difference between a "lead aggregator" and a "review site"?
The clean distinction is fading. Most major review sites (SolarReviews, EcoWatch, Forbes Home, Today's Homeowner) now also operate lead-gen funnels — the review content is the traffic-driver, the lead-form is the revenue source. EnergySage is the closest thing to a separation, but even there installers pay to be on the platform.
Are these aggregators required to disclose that they sell my data?
Yes — the privacy policy must disclose data-sharing practices in most states. California (CCPA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), and several others give you the right to opt out of "sale" of your personal information after the fact. The opt-out doesn't unwind the sale that already happened, but it can stop future sales. Look for "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" links on the aggregator's footer.
How do I tell if a "Get a Quote" button is going to an aggregator or directly to an installer?
Hover over the button (desktop) or long-press it (mobile) to see the destination URL. If it goes to a known aggregator domain (energysage.com, solar.com, modernize.com, homeadvisor.com, etc.) or a third-party domain you don't recognize, that's a lead-gen funnel. If it goes to the installer's own domain, you're contacting them directly. The same article can have BOTH kinds of buttons mixed throughout.