Aurora's 15% Transaction Take Rate
Aurora Solar
The 15% fee matters because it turns Aurora from a seat based software vendor into a company that gets paid when customers push real projects through its workflow. Aurora already charges for access through per user plans and credit based project usage, then layers paid services and workflow features on top, so a transaction take rate lets it capture more value from each sold system without looking like a large fixed software bill to installers.
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Aurora’s core pricing already mixes subscriptions and usage. Basic starts at $159 per user per month, Premium at $259, and project work consumes credits, with residential designs using 150 to 220 credits and commercial designs around 2,000 credits. That means a transaction fee sits on top of an existing meter, not in place of one.
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In practice, Aurora is replacing outsourced design and proposal work as much as it is selling software. Its Expert Design Services let installers hand Aurora an address and utility bill and get back a permit ready design, which helps explain why a percentage fee can feel closer to a service charge than a pure SaaS surcharge.
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This also separates Aurora from cheaper or free alternatives. OpenSolar pushes free basic tools, while HelioScope and PVsyst are more engineering focused. Aurora is monetizing the full sales to design workflow, where pricing, proposals, contracts, financing options, and project output all happen in one system.
Going forward, the strongest software businesses in solar will look more like workflow toll booths than simple design tools. As soft costs stay a large share of system cost, Aurora has room to keep attaching monetized services and transaction linked products to the installer workflow, which should raise revenue per customer as project volume grows.