--- slug: energysage-reviews-2026-cost-per-signed-install title: "EnergySage Reviews 2026: Your Cost Per Signed Install" description: "EnergySage is a solar quote marketplace where several installers bid on one homeowner. The price isn't public, and the only number that settles it is your cost per signed install." date: "2026-10-18" dateModified: "2026-10-18" readTime: "10 min read" author: "Léo Ferreira" locale: en tags: - solar-marketing - energysage - lead-generation - cost-per-install - 2026 tldr: "EnergySage is an online solar marketplace. A homeowner fills out one request, and several pre-screened installers send competing quotes into the same thread, so the homeowner can compare side by side. It's free for homeowners, and installers pay to be in the network and receive those quote requests. For a shop with no marketing engine, a steady stream of comparison shoppers has real value. Three things it won't tell you before you join: what you actually pay, how many installers you're bidding against on each request, and what those requests convert to for you. The only number that settles it is your cost per signed install, not your cost per quote request. That math is in this article." faq: - q: "How much does EnergySage cost for a solar installer in 2026?" a: "EnergySage does not publish an installer price list. The company is free for homeowners, and installers pay to join the network and receive quote requests, but the fee structure is quote-only and not posted publicly. For context, the wider solar lead market runs roughly $15 to $80 for a shared lead and $80 to $300 for an exclusive one, with screened appointments costing more again. Those are market ranges from lead-industry sources, not an EnergySage price, so treat them as background, not a quote. The practical effect is you cannot compare before you talk to them, and you cannot know what the installer in the next metro pays." - q: "Are EnergySage quotes exclusive to one installer?" a: "No. EnergySage is a comparison marketplace by design, so a single homeowner request goes to several pre-screened installers who each submit a competing quote into the same thread. That is the opposite of an exclusive appointment. The homeowner's whole reason for using EnergySage is to line up offers side by side and pick, which means you are quoting against other companies on price from the first message. That can be fine if your cost per signed install still works at a competitive price, and it's a problem if you only win by being the cheapest." - q: "Is EnergySage worth it for a solar installer?" a: "It depends on which problem you have. If you have no way to generate your own demand and strong closers who can win a side-by-side comparison, a steady feed of comparison shoppers can be worth it, and EnergySage delivers that. If your problem is thin margins or a low close rate, bidding against three or four other installers on the same homeowner can make both worse. The honest test is cost per signed install, not cost per quote request. Know that number before you decide how much to spend here." - q: "What's the difference between EnergySage and buying solar leads?" a: "A bought solar lead is contact information sold to you, often shared with several other installers who all call at once. EnergySage is a marketplace where the homeowner comes to compare quotes and you submit yours alongside competitors in one place. The homeowner is usually more informed and further along on EnergySage, which can help, but you are still visibly competing on price. Both models are rented demand: the audience, the platform, and the traffic belong to the marketplace, so when you stop paying, the requests stop." - q: "Should solar installers use a marketplace or build their own pipeline?" a: "A marketplace like EnergySage is the fastest way to see comparison-ready homeowners, and it makes sense when you're starting from zero. But it builds nothing you keep. The traffic, the audience data, and the homeowner relationship belong to the platform, so the day you stop paying, the requests stop. Building your own pipeline is slower to start and it compounds: your ad account, your pixel, your audiences, and your reviews stay yours and get cheaper to run as the system learns. The strongest position is to know your cost per signed install first, then decide how much demand to rent and how much to own." --- EnergySage does not publish its installer pricing, so the number that decides whether to stay is your own cost per signed install: everything you spend in a month to win work there, divided by the installs you actually signed from it. It's a comparison marketplace, so several installers quote the same homeowner, and nobody can tell you what that will close at for your reps and your prices. In our example, $4,000 of spend and effort produces fifteen quote requests and three signed installs, which is about $1,333 per install. If only one signs, the same month costs $4,000 per install. ## Key numbers - No public installer pricing: free for homeowners, quote-only for installers who join the network. - EnergySage is a comparison marketplace: one homeowner request goes to several installers who bid side by side. - Wider solar lead market: roughly $15 to $80 for a shared lead and $80 to $300 for an exclusive one (lead-industry ranges, not an EnergySage quote). - Residential solar customer-acquisition cost rose about 40 percent in 2026, from $0.60 per watt in 2025 to a forecast $0.84 per watt (Wood Mackenzie). - Example: $4,000 in a month, 15 quote requests, 3 signed installs, so about $1,333 per signed install. Same spend with 1 install: $4,000 per install. - Cross-industry example: a med spa in Nice put about 620 euros of ad budget through a tight funnel and got 193 leads at 3.21 euros each and 88 clients. The requests come in steady. The homeowners are informed. And every one of them is reading your quote next to three others. So you open your numbers and try to answer one question. Of the quote requests EnergySage sent last quarter, how many turned into a signed install? Not how many you quoted. Not how many replied. How many contracts. You scroll the threads, the follow-ups, the "still deciding" notes. Plenty of activity. What you can't find fast is that one number, the cost of a signed job. After ten minutes you close the tab and keep quoting, because the pipeline needs to stay full. That gap is the whole story. Not the platform. An installer who knows their cost per signed install decides in ten seconds whether EnergySage pays. One who doesn't keeps bidding on feel, every month, hoping this batch closes better. This article isn't here to tell you to quit EnergySage. It's here to hand you the number that decides it yourself. ## What is EnergySage, exactly? EnergySage is an online solar marketplace. A homeowner fills out one request about their roof and their bill, and several pre-screened installers send competing quotes into one place so the homeowner can compare them side by side. The scale is real, and it's worth saying plainly. It's an established marketplace that a lot of homeowners use to shop solar before they ever pick up the phone, and it's free on the consumer side. The people who land there are usually further along than a cold lead: they're comparing, not just curious. The company's pitch to installers is that it lowers your sales and marketing cost by sending you homeowners who are ready to evaluate quotes, instead of you paying to find them one by one. That's what you're joining. Keep it in mind, because what follows is not a hit piece. ## What does EnergySage do well? One thing, and it's a real thing. It puts informed, comparison-ready homeowners in front of you without you running a single ad. For a solar company with good closers and no marketing engine, that has value. Building your own demand from scratch takes months. EnergySage skips that. The homeowner has already done some homework, already knows roughly what a system costs, and is sitting there asking for quotes. That beats a cold list where you're explaining what net metering is before you can talk price. There's a second honest point. Because the homeowner chose to be there and chose to compare, the conversation starts warmer than a shared lead where five strangers call at once. If you have no way to generate your own demand, that head start is the real product. Say it plainly so the rest of this reads fair: a steady feed of homeowners who are ready to compare quotes is a good thing to sell, and EnergySage sells it. Now here are three things you can't fully check before you commit, and they decide whether it pays off. ## How much does EnergySage cost an installer? The price is not public. Anywhere. We looked on their site and across the review pages. There's no installer price list, no "starting at," no posted tiers. The company is free for homeowners, and installers pay to be in the network and receive quote requests, but what that costs you is settled quote-only and moves with your market and your volume. For background, the wider solar lead market runs roughly $15 to $80 for a shared lead and $80 to $300 for an exclusive one, with screened appointments costing more again. Those are ranges from lead-industry sources, not an EnergySage quote, so don't treat a market number as your number. We're passing them along so you walk in with context, nothing more. Those costs also climbed in 2026: Wood Mackenzie reports residential solar customer-acquisition cost jumped about 40 percent, from $0.60 per watt in 2025 to a forecast $0.84 per watt, as the 30 percent tax credit for owned systems ended. That's why [building a solar marketing budget from cost per signed install matters more this year than last](/en/blog/solar-marketing-budget-2026-percent-of-revenue). Marketing sold quote-only isn't a scandal on its own. But it has two concrete effects on you. You can't compare before you talk to them. And you can't know whether the installer one metro over pays the same to see the same homeowners. At the table, the information is on their side. The only way to even it out is to walk in with your own number, and we'll get there. ## Are EnergySage quotes exclusive? No, and this is the part to understand before anything else. EnergySage is a comparison marketplace, so you are not the only company in the conversation. You are one of several. A single homeowner request goes to a set of pre-screened installers, and each of you submits a quote into the same thread. The homeowner's whole reason for being there is to compare offers side by side and choose. That's genuinely better for the homeowner than a shared lead getting called by five companies in an hour, because it's organized and transparent. But for you, it means you're quoting against other installers on price from the first message. Here's what that does to the math. When the homeowner is lining up three or four quotes, the easy way to win is to be the cheapest, and the cheapest install is usually the thinnest-margin install. Industry numbers show exclusive, one-on-one appointments convert at roughly 40 to 60 percent, against 25 to 40 percent for shared leads, and a side-by-side bid behaves more like the shared end of that range. So the question isn't whether EnergySage sends real homeowners. It does. The question is what your win rate and your margin look like when you're visibly competing on price, and whether your cost per signed install still works after you've discounted to win. Ask yourself that before you ask anything else. ## What will those quote requests convert to for you? Nobody can tell you, and anyone who quotes you a close rate is quoting someone else's. EnergySage can show installer testimonials and success stories, and some of them are surely real. But a marketplace-supplied conversion number is exactly that: supplied by the marketplace and unaudited, from a different company with different closers, different prices, and a different metro. There is no independent benchmark for what a marketplace quote request closes at for you, because your close rate depends on your reps, your price position, and how fast you respond, none of which the platform controls. So the honest answer is the uncomfortable one. You won't know what these requests are worth to you until you quote a batch and count the signed contracts. Which is exactly why the number below matters more than any case study on the sales call. > **Questions to email EnergySage, or any marketplace, before you commit** > > 1. On a typical request in my area, how many installers see it and submit a quote? Get the number in writing. > 2. What exactly do I pay, and is it per request, per month, per quote, or per signed deal? > 3. If I leave, what do I keep: the homeowner contacts, the reviews, any audience, or nothing? > > A clear written answer beats any testimonial, including this article. If the answer stays verbal, that's already an answer. ## The only number that settles it: your cost per signed install Not your cost per quote request. Not the number of homeowners you quoted. The cost to turn a stranger into a signed, installed job. The math fits on the back of the invoice. **Everything you spend to win work on the marketplace in a month, divided by the installs that actually got signed from it.** That's it. Add up the fees plus the real time your team spends quoting. Count the ones that became contracts. Divide. An example with round numbers, to swap for your own. You put $4,000 of fees and quoting effort into a month. Fifteen quote requests come through. You bid on all of them, and three sign. Your cost per signed install is about $1,333. Whether that's good depends on one thing: your margin on an install. On a job that nets $6,000, paying $1,333 to sign it works. On a thin, discounted job you won by being cheapest, it might not. Now change one variable. Same $4,000, same fifteen requests, but you're bidding against four other installers each time and your close rate drops, so only one signs. Your cost per signed install jumps to $4,000. Same spend. Same requests. Three times the cost, because of how many you closed, not how many you saw. See where the game is won? Not in how many quote requests you receive. In how many you actually sign, and at what margin. ## Should you leave EnergySage? No, not on a hunch, and not because of this article. Here's the honest read, in three cases. **Your closers win comparisons and your calendar was empty.** Keep it, for now. You're buying comparison-ready homeowners you couldn't find yourself, and if your reps close at a competitive price without gutting margin, it's working. Just track cost per signed install every month, because the day the requests thin out, the fees climb, or you're winning only on price, that number is your only leverage. **You only win by being the cheapest.** This is the quiet trap of a comparison marketplace. If the sole reason you sign EnergySage jobs is a lower price, you're buying revenue at a margin that may not survive a bad install or a hard warranty year. Fix your positioning and your close process first, so you win some of these on trust and speed, not just price. Pouring more into a marketplace you only win on price just books thinner jobs faster, at 2026 acquisition costs. **You've been paying for a year and own nothing.** A year in, you have no ad account of your own, no audience data, no pixel, no reviews engine, nothing that keeps working if you stop. You've rented a seat at someone else's comparison table and built no asset. That's fine as a bridge. It's a problem as a permanent strategy, because the day you stop, the requests stop and you're back to an empty pipeline with nothing to show for twelve months of fees. ## What if the tap were yours? There's a second model, and it's slower to start and it compounds. When you own the acquisition machine, the ad account, the pixel, the audiences, the reviews, the homeowner comes to you directly. They see your local ad, recognize your name, read reviews from their own town, and reach out to you, not to a thread with three competitors in it. That's a warmer conversation than any marketplace bid, because familiarity did the first job and you're not opening on price. And it gets cheaper over time as the account learns, instead of costing more every year as acquisition costs rise. It also survives the thing every solar buyer is now scared of. Homeowners watched a national brand vanish and leave hundreds of thousands of systems orphaned, so trust is the product now, and [selling solar after SunPower means proving you'll still be here](/en/blog/selling-solar-after-sunpower-homeowner-distrust-2026). A pipeline you own is part of that proof. A rented one disappears the moment the fees do. The same ownership question sits under a rented appointment feed too, which is why [the cost per signed install, not the cost per appointment, is what settles whether any rented tap is worth it](/en/blog/solar-exclusive-leads-2026-cost-per-signed-install). We keep our client numbers out of an industry we don't publish figures for, so here's a cross-industry order of magnitude instead, not a solar figure. For a med spa we work with in Nice, €620 of ad budget produced 193 leads at €3.21 each and 88 clients, with the first lead answered at 1h27 after launch. That's not your trade, and your cost per signed install will be far higher on a big-ticket solar job. What transfers is the shape. When you own the machine and answer fast, the cost drops as it learns. When you rent the quote requests and measure by how many came in, it just costs more as the market tightens. ## 30-Second Audit Three honest questions before your next EnergySage renewal. Answer yes or no. 1. Can you say, without opening a spreadsheet, what a signed install costs you this month through EnergySage? 2. Do you know how many installers you're bidding against on a typical request, and whether you win on anything besides price? 3. If you stopped paying tomorrow, would you keep any ad account, audience, or homeowner relationship, or would the requests just stop? If any answer was no, that's not a marketplace problem, it's a measurement problem, and it's faster to fix than you think. [Book a free audit](https://audit.independence-network.com/?lang=en&source=blog) and we'll pull your real cost per signed install, even if you decide to keep everything exactly as it is. A seat at someone else's comparison table isn't a pipeline. A signed job you can trace is.