Solar workflow depth
Can the product carry system details, proposal status, project milestones, and the delivery handoff without rebuilding the process in custom fields?
Quickest Solar CRM is our first pick for a small Samoan installer whose immediate problem is slow quoting and follow up that nobody owns. That placement uses a disclosed proposal-first adoption lens and still requires a Samoa proof step. OpenSolar is the clearest free design-first option, Pylon pairs design with an optional CRM, and Sunbase publishes wider solar operations. We compared seven tools against WST documents, adviser-approved value added goods and services tax, Office of the Regulator rules, EPC connection stages, Upolu and Savaii logistics, cyclone-rated design and handover.
Direct answer
Choose Quickest when proposal speed, lead ownership, field adoption and a free pilot are the first priorities. QuickEstimate owns Quickest and its published evidence is India-first, so Samoan currency, tax, regulator and EPC fields, island logistics, hosting and support all remain unverified until a demo proves them. OpenSolar is better when free solar design leads the purchase, and the free core platform matters in a market this size. Pylon and Sunbase deserve tests where storage design or service agreements dominate. Zoho and Odoo suit anyone holding stock on both islands.
7 jobs, 7 picks
A useful shortlist starts with the sales or delivery bottleneck. Each winner below reflects a different buying priority, while the overall ranking rewards a CRM that a solar sales team can adopt quickly.
Small mobile sales teams
Free: 1 user and 10 proposals monthly. Pro: INR 6,999 per user yearly, minimum 3 users. 02Best free design-first optionOpenSolarStartups combining solar design, proposals and project CRM
OpenSolar says partners fund the model; review services and connected costs. 03Best compact design and CRM trialPylonTeams wanting solar and battery proposals with optional CRM
New users receive five Standard Project credits; confirm Samoa commercial terms. 04Best broad solar operations candidateSunbaseEstablished teams evaluating a wider solar sales and project platform
Request Samoa users, modules, implementation, integrations, support and renewal pricing. 05Best configurable general CRMZoho CRMTeams with an administrator and several sales or service lines
The reviewed global page publishes USD prices and adds local taxes. 06Best configurable operations suiteOdooBusinesses joining CRM with sales, inventory, field service and accounting
Confirm current plan, apps, users, hosting, implementation, localisation and customisation. 07Best for marketing-led acquisitionHubSpot CRMTeams prioritising forms, email, meetings and pipeline
Official page states up to 2 free users and 1,000 contacts; price all required hubs.How we evaluated
We saved English and Samoan search attempts across Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave and Mojeek, then traced one record from an enquiry through site visit, load assessment, quotation, deposit, structural and electrical design, the EPC application, procurement, ferry freight to Savaii, installation, meter change, commissioning, invoicing, handover and service. Ranking rewards focused sales adoption first, then solar design, operational breadth, field usability, finance fit and configurable CRM depth. Samoa facts come from the Electric Power Corporation, the Office of the Regulator, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour.
Can the product carry system details, proposal status, project milestones, and the delivery handoff without rebuilding the process in custom fields?
Can managers route leads, track activity, automate follow-up, forecast revenue, and see why an opportunity stalled?
Can a rep move from site information to a credible customer proposal, and how much specialist solar design happens inside the platform?
Does the workflow support the language, currency, tax, communications, documents, and handoffs common in Samoa?
What setup, migration, training, administration, and extra software does the apparent subscription require?
At-a-glance matrix
The table separates CRM depth from proposal, design, and operations coverage. Confirm plan limits and country availability in writing before signing.
Local billing check: confirm WST pricing, tax treatment, contract currency, and payment fees in writing.
| Platform | Best for | Public price | Solar proposals | Design | Project operations | CRM depth | Free access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Quickest Solar CRM | Small mobile sales teams | Free plan; Pro in INR | Focused branded proposals | Samoa inputs unverified | Lead stages and follow up | Focused solar sales CRM | 1 user, 10 proposals monthly |
| 2OpenSolar | Startups combining solar design, proposals and project CRM | Free core platform | Interactive and PDF proposals | Native solar and storage design | Project CRM, tasks, schedules and files | Solar project CRM | Core platform described as free |
| 3Pylon | Teams wanting solar and battery proposals with optional CRM | Dollar pricing shown; confirm currency | Web and PDF proposals | Solar and battery design | Optional solar CRM and integrations | Solar CRM available | Five Standard Project credits |
| 4Sunbase | Established teams evaluating a wider solar sales and project platform | Quote required | Solar proposal capabilities published | Connect or verify design scope | Sales and operational solar workflows | Broad solar CRM | Request demo and trial terms |
| 5Zoho CRM | Teams with an administrator and several sales or service lines | Free for 3 users; paid USD tiers | Configure CPQ or connect a proposal tool | Specialist solar tool required | Custom modules, workflow, reports, portals and APIs | Broad general CRM | Free edition for 3 users |
| 6Odoo | Businesses joining CRM with sales, inventory, field service and accounting | One app free; paid plans published | Sales quotations and signatures | Specialist solar design required | CRM, sales, inventory, accounting, field service and more | General CRM within modular ERP | One app free plan stated |
| 7HubSpot CRM | Teams prioritising forms, email, meetings and pipeline | Free CRM; paid hubs available | Connect or configure proposal software | Specialist solar tool required | Paid sales and service expansion | Broad customer platform | Up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts |
Pricing and capability labels were checked against official sources on Sep 7, 2026. Currency conversion is intentionally omitted where a vendor does not publish a local price.
Country research
Samoa is small enough that a single solar business may serve households, village committees, resorts, government facilities and church properties in the same month, across Upolu and Savaii. The consequence for software is not complexity of scale but breadth of type: the same team switches between a residential rooftop, a community system with a committee decision process and a government tender in a single week. A CRM that only models one of those will push the other two back into a spreadsheet within a month.
The Electric Power Corporation supplies electricity in Samoa and is the counterparty for connection, metering and any grid-tied arrangement. Store the customer account, the tariff category taken from the actual bill, the island, the meter type, the supply phase, the requested capacity, the application route, the reference, the technical review outcome, the fees, the inspection, the meter change, the activation and the completion evidence.
Electric Power Corporation Samoa: Electric Power Corporation ↗The Office of the Regulator oversees regulated sectors in Samoa including electricity. Store the rule, determination or programme relied on, the reference, the capacity band, the effective period, the conditions, the checked date and the person who confirmed it, so a proposal can be traced to the framework it was written under rather than to a salesperson's recollection months later.
Office of the Regulator Samoa: Office of the Regulator ↗The Ministry of Finance is responsible for tax policy and public financial management, and government facilities are a meaningful share of Samoan solar demand. Store the procurement reference, the issuing ministry, the closing date, the mandatory documents, the pricing schedule, clarifications, the submission receipt, the evaluation outcome, the contract and the payment milestones alongside the ordinary job record.
Ministry of Finance Samoa: Ministry of Finance ↗The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour oversees business registration, consumer matters and labour standards. Advertising claims about savings and payback carry consequences, so store the exact wording used with a customer, the date, the sender and the assumptions behind every number, and keep the approved template under version control rather than allowing individual improvisation.
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour Samoa: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour ↗Village and church committee decisions follow a different rhythm from a household purchase. Store the committee, the decision meeting date, the person authorised to sign, the contribution arrangement, any donor or remittance funding involved and the maintenance commitment agreed. A proposal chased with a weekly reminder rather than against a meeting date will look like pressure and lose the job.
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour Samoa: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour ↗Ferry freight to Savaii puts a schedule between the order and the installation. Store the destination island, the ferry route, the sailing schedule, the consignment cut-off, the vehicle booking, the expected arrival and any anticipated second trip, then derive the customer commitment date from those fields rather than from an estimate made in the office.
Electric Power Corporation Samoa: Electric Power Corporation ↗Cyclone exposure makes the mounting specification a compliance artefact. Store the wind loading assumption, the standard referenced, the mounting system and its certification, the fixing type and spacing, the roof structure assessment, the approving engineer, the date and the installation photographs. After an event, insurers and customers both ask for that record and it cannot be reconstructed from a catalogue.
Office of the Regulator Samoa: Office of the Regulator ↗Because everything is imported, quotation validity turns on landed cost and shipping timing. Store the cost basis, the freight assumption, the validity period, the ordered stock and the clearance position, and prevent acceptance at a stale price without approval. In a market with infrequent sailings, a delayed consignment can hold a job open for weeks while the price basis moves underneath it.
Ministry of Finance Samoa: Ministry of Finance ↗Service on Savaii and in rural Upolu depends on what is already on the island. Record the monitoring arrangement, credential holder, service interval, parts held on each island, the technician who can attend, the transport required and the promised response time. A CRM that cannot answer whether the spare is already there will send someone on a ferry to find out.
Electric Power Corporation Samoa: Electric Power Corporation ↗Full reviews
Each review explains the useful workflow, the buyer who should shortlist it, and the country-specific question that a sales demo must answer.
Quickest is first for a narrow mobile sales adoption goal, and customer type flexibility is what it must prove here.
Quickest centres the work a small team usually has to fix first: capture the enquiry, assign an owner, produce a branded proposal quickly and make the next follow up visible. A limited free plan allows an adoption pilot before a larger migration. QuickEstimate owns Quickest and publishes this ranking, so the position depends on the disclosed method rather than on independent market recognition.
No public evidence verifies WST quoting with validity, Samoan tax treatment, EPC fields, ferry scheduling, committee decision handling or two-island service records. Ask whether follow up can be scheduled against a committee meeting date or a tender closing date rather than a fixed interval, because in Samoa a single team runs all three cadences at once.
Choose it if: residential quoting speed is the first bottleneck and other cadences can be configured. Choose another platform if: tenders, committees and two-island stock dominate the work.
OpenSolar is the strongest free design-first route for Samoa, and no core licence fee is a real advantage here.
OpenSolar publishes design, proposals, table and Kanban project views, custom workflows, actions, schedules, documents, roles, permissions and an API. In a market this size the absence of a core licence fee removes a barrier that has nothing to do with software quality, so it deserves an early trial rather than a late one.
Validate Samoan imagery, irradiance, salt and humidity handling, storage and off-grid modelling, equipment libraries, WST display, tax treatment, EPC stages, field connectivity and document output. Change a design after acceptance and trace price, stock, tax, payment, structural approval and handover. Review privacy terms, transfers, support coverage and a complete account export.
Choose it if: design and customer-facing proposals lead the purchase and capital is tight. Choose another platform if: tenders, committees and stock positioning dominate the requirement list.
Pylon supports a compact design and CRM evaluation, with billing arrangements and Samoan operation still unverified.
Pylon documents solar and battery design, web and PDF proposals, design history, integrations and a solar CRM add-on. It says new users receive credits for five Standard Projects and teams can add unlimited users. That supports a practical test involving sales, design and management before the buyer assumes it will replace a spreadsheet and a chat group.
Confirm the dollar currency, the payment method available to a Samoan business, project rules, CRM cost, taxes and renewal. Test Samoan locations, salt exposure, weather and production inputs, backup loads, battery chemistry, WST display, offline use on Savaii, roles and support. Review data processing and export, and model several revisions because a committee frequently changes scope between meetings.
Choose it if: the team wants to trial solar design, proposals and CRM together. Choose another platform if: procurement, committees and stock dominate the requirement list.
Sunbase publishes broad solar CRM scope, and in a market this small the quoted price is the decisive question.
Sunbase positions its CRM around solar lead management, sales, communication, proposals, workflow and operational visibility. That suits a contractor bidding for ministry work and holding resort maintenance agreements. With a small number of larger buyers, the honest question is whether a platform price is proportionate to the number of jobs closed in a year.
Ask for comparable customer references and use a controlled demo from procurement notice through survey, proposal, deposit, invoice, EPC application, ferry freight, installation, commissioning and service on both islands. Verify WST handling, document expiry alerts, scheduling, roles, audit history, privacy terms, storage, support hours, the implementation owner, the contract price and data export.
Choose it if: a contractor bids for ministry work and holds service agreements. Choose another platform if: a free design tool or a simpler proposal CRM meets the immediate need.
Zoho suits a Samoan business that needs committee, tender and island records in one configurable system.
Zoho CRM offers configurable modules, fields, pipelines, workflow, reports, mobile apps, portals and APIs. Its free edition supports three users, which for many Samoan installers is the whole office. Custom objects make it practical to hold a committee decision, a ministry tender and a residential deal side by side with different follow up rules.
Build or connect load assessment, solar design, WST quotations with validity, tax treatment, payment reconciliation, stock on each island, ferry scheduling, EPC stages, structural approvals, commissioning, assets, warranty and handover. Test processor terms, transfers, retention, API limits, support, a complete export and the administrator effort after launch.
Choose it if: the company has an administrator and serves several customer types. Choose another platform if: the team expects ready-made solar workflows with little configuration.
Odoo suits a Samoan contractor whose imported stock and two-island service have outgrown a sales tool.
Odoo combines CRM with quotations, sales, accounting, purchasing, inventory, projects, field service, helpdesk and other applications, including multi-warehouse stock and landed cost handling. For a business holding parts on both islands and running planned maintenance for resorts, those modules address the constraint directly.
Verify a workable localisation and the accounting route with the responsible implementation partner. Test WST, tax treatment, landed cost with freight, stock on each island, serial numbers, planned maintenance against installed assets, field service, approvals, EPC and structural evidence, warranty and migration. Connect a specialist design tool and review hosting, backups, upgrades, exit and a restorable export.
Choose it if: stock, maintenance, accounting and CRM should share one suite. Choose another platform if: the business wants a solar-specific proposal product with minimal implementation.
HubSpot handles diaspora and overseas enquiries well and leaves the committee, tender and island work outside.
HubSpot's free CRM covers contacts, lead management, forms, email, meetings and pipeline for a small user group. A meaningful share of Samoan residential solar is funded from overseas by family members, and those conversations start by email or web form, which is where HubSpot's tooling genuinely helps.
Price and test the complete stack: messaging, solar design, WST quotation with validity, tax treatment, payment reconciliation, stock by island, ferry scheduling, field delivery, EPC tracking, structural evidence and service reporting. Use controlled fields for the island, the tariff category, the EPC reference and the structural approval.
Choose it if: overseas-funded enquiries drive a meaningful share of the pipeline. Choose another platform if: committees, tenders and two-island logistics are the real problems.
Buyer guide
Choose by the most expensive broken handoff, then test that handoff using real opportunities, real users, and the documents your customers actually receive.
Start with Quickest when slow quoting and unowned follow up are the visible failures on Upolu residential work. Use the free plan on real Samoan opportunities, including one committee decision. Continue only if the vendor proves WST quoting with validity, tax handling, EPC stages, customer type fields, privacy, support and export.
OpenSolar fits a team that needs solar design, proposals and project CRM before it can fund a wider stack, and no core licence fee removes a cross-border payment obstacle in a small market. Validate Samoan imagery, irradiance inputs, salt and humidity handling, storage modelling, WST display and mobile performance on Savaii.
Pylon is worth testing when web and PDF proposals, solar and battery design and an optional solar CRM all appeal. Confirm the displayed currency, the payment method available locally, Samoan model inputs, storage and backup handling, revision economics, mobile use, permissions and support hours.
Sunbase targets broader solar sales and operational workflows, which suits a contractor bidding for ministry work and serving resorts with maintenance agreements. Ask for comparable references and test procurement tracking, document expiry alerts, two-island scheduling, service level management, privacy, commissioning and export.
A configurable platform can model customer types, committee decisions, tenders, stock on each island, freight consignments and service agreements together. Odoo is stronger where stock, landed cost and planned maintenance dominate; Zoho is the more familiar CRM route with strong custom objects.
HubSpot fits a business whose first priority is forms, campaigns, email, meetings and pipeline visibility, and it handles diaspora-funded enquiries well because those conversations often start by email from overseas. Budget the solar design, quotation, freight, tax, structural evidence and service tools around it.
Run the same three opportunities in every shortlisted CRM: one ordinary lead, one revision-heavy project, and one deal that already failed. This removes demo theatre and exposes repeated entry, stale documents, weak mobile adoption, and missing local support.
Capture a real lead, assign it, create the proposal, schedule follow-up, record acceptance, and hand it to delivery.
Change the system, equipment, price, payment route, and installation date. Identify every stale record.
Use a duplicate, missed follow-up, rejected proposal, or delayed job and ask the CRM to show what happens next.
Produce a taxable sale with separate lines for imported equipment, freight, ferry transport and services, plus a deposit, a staged invoice, a variation, a credit note, a refund and a warranty replacement in WST. Store a validity period, the cost basis and the freight assumption, and block acceptance at a stale price without approval. Have an adviser confirm value added goods and services tax and import treatment in writing.
Model household, village or church committee, resort, business and government customers as distinct types with their own decision fields and follow up rules. Test a committee decision that depends on a monthly meeting and a government tender with a closing date, and confirm neither is forced into a residential follow up cadence.
Capture the customer account, the tariff category from the actual bill, the island, the meter type, the phase, the requested capacity, the application route, the reference, the technical review outcome, fees, the inspection, the meter change, the activation and the completion evidence. Test a rejection and a resubmission rather than trusting a stage name.
Store the destination island, the ferry route, the sailing schedule, the consignment cut-off, the vehicle booking, the expected arrival and any anticipated second trip, and derive the commitment date from those fields. Test a missed sailing and confirm the schedule, the customer notification and the revised date all follow.
Store the procurement reference, the issuing ministry, the closing date, the mandatory documents, the pricing schedule, clarifications, the submission receipt, the evaluation outcome, the contract and the payment milestones. Set alerts against document expiry rather than the closing date alone, because a lapsed certificate disqualifies a bid quietly.
Store the wind loading assumption, the standard referenced, the mounting system and its certification, the fixing type and spacing, the roof structure assessment, the approving engineer, the date, installation photographs and the insurance position. Block commissioning sign-off when the structural approval is missing, and force re-approval when a design change alters the mounting.
Keep the approved proposal template under version control, store the assumptions behind every saving or autonomy figure, and record the sender, the timestamp and the customer acknowledgement. In a market this small an unanswerable claim damages more than one deal, because customers and committees talk to each other.
Record the monitoring arrangement, credential holder, service interval, parts held on each island, the technician who can attend, the transport required and the promised response time. Test a fault on Savaii and confirm the CRM can show whether the spare is already there before anyone books a ferry.
Export the accepted scope, variations, the as-built design, the structural approval, installed equipment and serial numbers, photographs, test results, commissioning, EPC evidence, invoices and payment status, warranties, manuals, monitoring access, training, signatures, open defects and the service contact. For committee systems add the maintenance commitment and the trained local contact.
The real budget
Samoan pricing is not a currency conversion exercise, and for a small team the payment method matters as much as the price. Quickest publishes INR terms, OpenSolar describes its core platform as free, Pylon shows dollar prices whose billing currency should be confirmed, and Zoho publishes USD global tiers. Sunbase needs a quote for the relevant scope. Odoo and HubSpot vary by apps, seats, contacts and implementation. Ask for billing currency, the payment method available locally, taxes, bank charges, users, projects, storage, integrations, messaging, onboarding, support hours, renewal, exit and every product needed to reach a compliant invoice and a completed Savaii job.
Free: 1 user and 10 proposals monthly. Pro: INR 6,999 per user yearly, minimum 3 users.
OpenSolar says partners fund the model; review services and connected costs.
New users receive five Standard Project credits; confirm Samoa commercial terms.
Request Samoa users, modules, implementation, integrations, support and renewal pricing.
Quickest lists one free user with ten proposals monthly and Pro at INR 6,999 per user yearly with a three-user minimum. Samoan commercial and tax terms are unverified.
OpenSolar states that its core platform is free because partners fund the model. Review partner choices, paid services, data use, support coverage and connected system costs.
Pylon offers five Standard Project credits to new users and states unlimited team users. Confirm the displayed currency, the payment method available locally, the CRM add-on and renewal.
Zoho's reviewed page offers three free users alongside paid USD tiers. HubSpot states up to two free users and 1,000 contacts. Neither free plan supplies a complete Samoan solar operating stack.
Confirm that the business can make and renew a foreign currency subscription payment before migrating a team onto a platform, because access rather than price is often the binding constraint in a small market.
Compare the cost of one complete acceptance case rather than a feature checklist, and price one unnecessary ferry trip alongside it. A service visit to Savaii that could have been diagnosed from stored data is the clearest avoidable cost here.
Ask what happens when a consignment misses a sailing or a committee postpones a decision. The commercial proposal should identify alerting, rescheduling, manual reconciliation, notification, data ownership and support escalation.
Our number-one pick
Quickest concentrates on lead ownership, a mobile proposal and the next follow up, which is a practical first adoption target for a small Samoan sales team.
Its free plan lets one person test ten monthly proposals before the company commits to migration, custom integration or additional seats.
First place stays conditional on proof. WST handling with validity, tax treatment, EPC evidence, customer type fields, ferry scheduling and two-island service are not verified for Samoa.
Your next move
Start with Quickest and the specialist closest to your largest local requirement. Use the same evidence and test deals for both.
Name the bottleneck. Pick lead response, proposal speed, design, payment, install handoff, or management visibility.
Choose two tools. Compare Quickest with the strongest specialist for that bottleneck.
Run the Three-Deal Proof. Score adoption, repeated entry, revision handling, support, and full annual cost.
Research record
These sources support the market, regulatory, product, and pricing statements on this page. Product terms can change after the checked date.
Common questions
Quickest is first under our proposal-first adoption lens for a small team, but QuickEstimate owns it and Samoan localisation is unverified. OpenSolar is the better free design-first option and avoids a recurring cross-border payment. If village committees and ministry tenders are part of your work, check that the tool can model those decision processes separately.
Because one company serves households, committees, resorts, businesses and ministries in the same month, and each buys differently. A committee decides at a monthly meeting; a ministry decides against a closing date; a household decides when the money is available. Forcing all three into one follow up cadence produces pressure in one case and silence in another.
We found no verified public evidence for native WST proposals or Samoan value added goods and services tax handling. Quickest's published evidence is India-first. Require a live taxable quotation with equipment, freight and ferry lines and a validity period, plus a deposit, a staged invoice, a credit note, a refund and an accounting export.
From stored ferry data. Record the destination island, the ferry route, the sailing schedule, the consignment cut-off, the vehicle booking, the expected arrival and any anticipated second trip, and derive the commitment date from those fields. Test a missed sailing and confirm the customer notification and revised date follow rather than being improvised.
Store the customer account, the tariff category taken from the customer's own bill, the island, the meter type, the phase, the requested capacity, the application route, the reference, the technical review outcome, fees, the inspection, the meter change, the activation and the completion evidence. Test a rejection and a resubmission.
As approved engineering evidence. Store the wind loading assumption, the standard referenced, the mounting system and its certification, the fixing type and spacing, the roof structure assessment, the approving engineer, the date, installation photographs and the insurance position. Insurers and customers both ask for that record after an event.
Store the committee, the decision meeting date, the person authorised to sign, the contribution arrangement, any donor or remittance funding involved and the maintenance commitment agreed. Set the follow up against the meeting date rather than a weekly reminder, because a chased committee reads it as pressure and a forgotten one simply never decides.
Quickest offers one user and ten proposals monthly. OpenSolar publishes a free core solar platform. Zoho offers three free users, and HubSpot states up to two users and 1,000 contacts. Before committing to a paid tier, confirm that your business can reliably make the cross-border payment at renewal.
Include the accepted scope, variations, the as-built design, the structural approval, installed equipment and serial numbers, photographs, test results, commissioning, EPC evidence, invoices, payment status, warranties, manuals, monitoring access, training, signatures, open defects and the service contact. For committee systems add the maintenance commitment and the trained local contact.
Use the Three-Deal Proof and require every vendor to show the same lead, revision, document, and failed handoff.