Payaca vs autarc
Operations platform vs heat pump design tool
Both get compared as heat pump installer software and solar installer software, but they are not the same kind of product. autarc covers the design and survey stage. Payaca covers the rest of the job, from the enquiry through ordering, install and commissioning to the paid invoice. Below: a feature comparison, and what each one actually costs at 25 and 40 users.
Payaca
The platform your install business runs on, from enquiry to paid invoice.
- CRM, proposals, scheduling, invoicing and payments in one system
- Purchase orders with live supplier pricing and stock
- DNO applications through ENA Connect, Xero and QuickBooks sync
- Per user pricing, 25 users included, nothing charged per project
autarc
Berlin-built heat pump and solar design software, active in the UK market.
- Heat loss, hydraulic balancing and emitter sizing built in
- LiDAR room scanning with automatic radiator detection
- Lead management, quoting and a customer portal
- Entry tier charges per project, on top of the monthly fee
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Payaca | autarc |
|---|---|---|
| Origin & focus | UK-built operations platform for clean tech install businesses | Berlin-built (2023), heat pump and solar design, expanding in the UK |
| Heat pump design | Integrates with Heatpunk and Spruce for heat loss and system design | Built in: heat loss, hydraulic balancing, emitter sizing, heating surface design, radiator detection |
| Solar design | Integrates with OpenSolar and EasyPV | Built in: photogrammetry, shading analysis, module layout, string planning, yield simulation |
| Survey capture | Mobile forms, photo and video capture against the job | LiDAR room scanning with automatic radiator detection, drone photogrammetry |
| CRM & pipeline | Full pipeline with stage automations, website enquiry capture, all customer activity logged against the project | Lead management and customer management |
| Quoting & proposals | Branded multi-option proposals. The customer picks options and pricing updates live, signs, and pays the deposit in the same flow | Offer tool with quotes and PDF output |
| Purchase orders & materials | Bill of materials straight from the accepted quote, purchase orders to suppliers, live account pricing and stock with City Plumbing | Not listed in their published product range |
| Payments & accounting | Card and bank payment collection, staged payment schedules, Xero and QuickBooks sync | Invoicing listed, and accounting sync to Lexoffice on the Premium tier. No UK accounting integration and no payment collection listed |
| Scheduling & field work | Scheduling, engineer assignment, mobile app with travel and labour capture, forms that must be completed before a job closes | Planning board and time recording listed. Field app covers construction documentation |
| Service plans | Recurring service plans with automated billing and renewal reminders | Maintenance listed on the entry tier |
| UK compliance | DNO applications submitted digitally through ENA Connect, prefilled from the project | Funding applications, energy certificates and grid registration, each sold as a paid add-on rather than included. The published set is German, down to oil tank disposal. No UK DNO submission listed |
| Pricing model | Per user. £1,199/mo with 25 users included, or £999/mo on annual billing, £30 per user above that. Nothing charged per project | Per user and, on the cheaper tiers, per project too. £39/mo for one user plus £99 per heat pump. Unlimited projects starts at £349/mo for three users, then £39 per user |
Origin & focus
UK-built operations platform for clean tech install businesses
Berlin-built (2023), heat pump and solar design, expanding in the UK
Heat pump design
Integrates with Heatpunk and Spruce for heat loss and system design
Built in: heat loss, hydraulic balancing, emitter sizing, heating surface design, radiator detection
Solar design
Integrates with OpenSolar and EasyPV
Built in: photogrammetry, shading analysis, module layout, string planning, yield simulation
Survey capture
Mobile forms, photo and video capture against the job
LiDAR room scanning with automatic radiator detection, drone photogrammetry
CRM & pipeline
Full pipeline with stage automations, website enquiry capture, all customer activity logged against the project
Lead management and customer management
Quoting & proposals
Branded multi-option proposals. The customer picks options and pricing updates live, signs, and pays the deposit in the same flow
Offer tool with quotes and PDF output
Purchase orders & materials
Bill of materials straight from the accepted quote, purchase orders to suppliers, live account pricing and stock with City Plumbing
Not listed in their published product range
Payments & accounting
Card and bank payment collection, staged payment schedules, Xero and QuickBooks sync
Invoicing listed, and accounting sync to Lexoffice on the Premium tier. No UK accounting integration and no payment collection listed
Scheduling & field work
Scheduling, engineer assignment, mobile app with travel and labour capture, forms that must be completed before a job closes
Planning board and time recording listed. Field app covers construction documentation
Service plans
Recurring service plans with automated billing and renewal reminders
Maintenance listed on the entry tier
UK compliance
DNO applications submitted digitally through ENA Connect, prefilled from the project
Funding applications, energy certificates and grid registration, each sold as a paid add-on rather than included. The published set is German, down to oil tank disposal. No UK DNO submission listed
Pricing model
Per user. £1,199/mo with 25 users included, or £999/mo on annual billing, £30 per user above that. Nothing charged per project
Per user and, on the cheaper tiers, per project too. £39/mo for one user plus £99 per heat pump. Unlimited projects starts at £349/mo for three users, then £39 per user
autarc features and pricing taken from autarc.energy, last checked 2 August 2026. Their displayed prices default to annual-in-advance rates (a monthly toggle shows higher figures), so both sides of the comparison above are shown on annual billing. Their pricing page lists the same entry tier twice, once in euros and once in sterling, with different per-project charges; we have used the sterling figures throughout. Where something is absent from their published range we say "not listed" rather than that it does not exist. Check their current pricing before you decide.
What you'd actually pay
Headline prices are misleading here, because autarc charge per user and, on their cheaper tiers, per project as well. Below is the monthly cost for a business with a team doing both heat pumps and solar, on the cheapest autarc tier that covers unlimited projects for both. These are the sizes where you would genuinely be choosing between the two.
Both columns are annual-billed rates, so the comparison is like for like. autarc's displayed prices default to annual-in-advance rates, with a monthly toggle showing higher figures. Payaca is shown on the equivalent basis, £999/mo on annual billing rather than the £1,199 monthly rate. Neither column includes one-off onboarding, which is €290 on their side and £1,500 on ours.
| Your team | Payaca | autarc |
|---|---|---|
| 25 users | £999/mo Growth, 25 users included | £1,207/mo All in One £349 + 22 users at £39 |
| 40 users | £1,374/mo £999 + 15 users at £25 | £1,792/mo All in One £349 + 37 users at £39 |
We're cheaper at both, and we cover more of the job. Their extra seats are £39 against our £25 on annual billing, so the gap widens as you grow.
Their cheap tiers are cheap for a reason. They include one to three users and charge per project: £99 for every heat pump and £49 for every solar job on the £39 entry tier, so ten heat pumps in a month is £39 plus £990. That is a price list built for a surveyor or a two-person outfit, not for a business running installs at volume.
Which is worth holding next to the "all-in-one" claim. There is no purchase ordering, supplier ordering or payment collection in their published product range, and the only accounting sync listed is to Lexoffice, a German package. For a one-man band that may not matter. For any business with a team and a van fleet, it is most of the week.
Payaca figures above are Growth on annual billing, £999/mo equivalent; the monthly rate is £1,199. If you were incorporated in the last 24 months with eight or fewer employees, Accelerator is £299/mo for the first 12 months. Full detail on our pricing page.
Which is right for you?
Choose Payaca if:
- You need the operations half: ordering, materials, payments, accounts
- You want one system from the enquiry to the paid invoice
- DNO submission and MCS paperwork are part of your week
- You have a team and you'd rather not pay per project
Consider autarc if:
- Your acute pain is heat loss calculations and survey time
- You want LiDAR capture and hydraulic balancing in the same tool
- You're a small team doing a handful of projects a month
- You already have systems for ordering, payments and accounts
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between Payaca and autarc?
- They get shortlisted against each other as heat pump installer software, but design is one stage of a job and it is not the biggest one. autarc is a heat pump and solar design tool: heat loss, hydraulic balancing, emitter sizing, LiDAR survey capture, solar layout. Payaca is the operations platform underneath: enquiry to quote to purchase order to install to paid invoice, with DNO submission and accounting sync. Think of a job as enquiry, qualification, survey, design, quote, deposit, DNO, compliance paperwork, materials and ordering, scheduling, install, commissioning, invoicing, payment and aftercare. autarc does one of those well. We do the others.
- Which is the better heat pump design tool?
- autarc, on what each of us sets out to do. They build design tools and we don't: heat loss, hydraulic balancing and emitter sizing are built into their product, and they publish LiDAR room scanning with automatic radiator detection, which we have no equivalent of. We haven't put their design output side by side with ours, so take that as a description of their published range rather than a verdict on how well it works. We integrate with Heatpunk and Spruce for heat pumps, and OpenSolar and EasyPV for solar, so you use the design tool you rate and the output lands on the job.
- Which one handles ordering, payments and accounts?
- Payaca. This is the gap that matters when you are choosing solar installer software or heat pump installer software for a team rather than for one surveyor. Purchase orders raised from the accepted quote's bill of materials, live supplier account pricing and stock, card and bank payment collection with staged schedules, and sync to Xero or QuickBooks. autarc list invoicing and an accounting sync to Lexoffice, which is German; the purchase ordering, supplier pricing and stock, payment collection and UK accounting sync do not appear in their published product range. Design takes a few hours on a job. Ordering, scheduling, chasing payment and reconciling it runs for weeks and touches all the money. That is the part that decides whether the software was worth buying.
- Is autarc cheaper than Payaca?
- Not at the sizes where you would genuinely be choosing between them. Comparing annual-billed rates on both sides, at 25 users it is £1,207 against our £999, and at 40 users £1,792 against our £1,374, because their extra seats are £39 and ours are £25 on annual billing. Their headline £39 is a different product: one user, and £99 for every heat pump and £49 for every solar job on top, so ten heat pumps in a month is £39 plus £990. Ask any heat pump installer software vendor, us included, for the figure at your real user count and project volume rather than the tier price.
- Can I use both?
- Yes, and plenty of businesses do run a specialist design tool alongside us. That's exactly how our Heatpunk, Spruce, OpenSolar and EasyPV integrations work: the design happens in the specialist tool and comes back onto the Payaca project, so the quote, the order, the install and the invoice all stay in one place.
Ready to run your install business on one platform?
Book a demo and see how Payaca handles everything from enquiry to paid invoice.