If you sell rooftop solar in India, your leads arrive on WhatsApp, IndiaMART and Meta ads, your proposals depend on PM Surya Ghar subsidy slabs, and your sale is not finished until a DISCOM approves the net meter. A CRM built for selling software subscriptions does not know any of that.
This guide compares the three realistic options with real prices from October 2026, and says when each stops working.
Option 1: a generic CRM, usually Zoho
Zoho is the default choice for Indian SMBs, and the pricing explains why. From Zoho's own price list, per user per month, GST extra:
- Standard: Rs 800 billed annually, Rs 1,300 monthly
- Professional: Rs 1,400 annually, Rs 2,100 monthly
- Enterprise: Rs 2,400 annually, Rs 3,000 monthly
- Ultimate: Rs 2,600 annually, Rs 3,200 monthly
Up to three users are free. Zoho's India prices are well below its US list price of $14 to $52 per user per month.
What you get: a mature, flexible CRM with good reporting and the rest of the Zoho suite next to it.
What you do not get: anything solar. There is no official Zoho solar template. Solar installers on Zoho rely on partners who build solar records, inspection forms and inventory on Zoho Creator, which is licensed separately. One solar CRM vendor lists the common complaints: no kW fields, no subsidy logic, paid WhatsApp connectors that break when the provider changes its API, and a slow mobile app for field staff on 4G. That vendor sells a competing product, so weigh it accordingly, but the missing fields are easy to confirm.
Best for: installers with an in-house or partner admin who will maintain the customisation.
Option 2: a solar-specific CRM
A newer group of Indian products is built around the installer's sales process. Typical features, as the vendors describe them: lead capture from Meta and IndiaMART, mobile site surveys, proposals generated in about a minute with the subsidy slab applied, GST on the bill of materials, WhatsApp follow-ups, and the DISCOM step as a pipeline stage.
Published prices are low. One lists a free tier (1 user, 10 proposals a month) and a Pro plan at Rs 6,999 per user per year with a three-user minimum. Design-led tools such as Arka360 cost more (Rs 46,000 to Rs 1,00,000 a year in India) and sell CRM as an add-on.
What you get: speed in sales. Proposals that are right first time are worth a lot when customers compare three quotes.
What you do not get: most of these products list no inventory, serial-number tracking, installation management, maintenance or accounting. The sale is well tracked; the job is not.
Best for: installers under about 20 installations a month whose main problem is converting leads.
Option 3: a custom system or ERP
The third option is a system built around your own process, usually on a framework such as ERPNext, Odoo or a custom stack. It costs more up front. Published examples range from build-to-order ERPNext solar apps starting around US$999 before scoping, to fully custom systems costing lakhs.
What you get: one record per installation from lead to the last maintenance visit, with the stages that matter after the sale: consumer agreement approval, DISCOM status, serial numbers, milestone invoices, subsidy tracking and maintenance schedules.
Best for: installers past roughly 30 to 50 installations a month, or any installer whose files are getting stuck after the sale rather than before it.
How to choose
Ask where your money is actually waiting.
- If it is waiting on leads, buy a solar CRM. It is the cheapest fix and you will be live in days.
- If it is waiting on your team (follow-ups missed, quotes slow), a customised Zoho with good discipline will do.
- If it is waiting on DISCOMs, consumers, banks and your own stock room, no CRM will fix it, because those stages happen after the CRM considers the deal closed.
That last case is now common, and the regulator is adding steps after the sale, not removing them. Since September 2026 the consumer has to approve the agreement on the national portal before installation can be uploaded, which is one more wait that a sales CRM will never show you.
A note on what we do
We built SolarOS, a 16-module ERP for a solar EPC, covering CRM, projects, DISCOM liaison, serialised inventory, generation monitoring, finance and maintenance on one database. It sits in the third option. If you are in the first or second, buy one of the products above; it will serve you better and cost far less.
Prices from vendor pages and Zoho's published price list, checked 6 October 2026. GST extra unless stated. Vendor feature descriptions are the vendors' own. Programme figures: Mercom India and Business Standard, August 2026.