Last updated 23 September 2026
Solar leads: the price is the easy part.
Short answer: the cheapest published solar lead we found is Lead Pronto's, from £25 plus VAT. A click on a solar search on Google costs £3.43 to £15.03. Against a £7,600 panel system, either one is small money.
So the useful questions are the ones the sales copy skips. Who else was the homeowner's name sent to? Whose name did they think they were giving it to? And if the seller broke the rules getting it, whose problem is that?
We read the sellers' terms and privacy policies next to their sales pages to answer all three.
The number to know
About £208 in leads per installation sold.
That's Lead Pronto's own sums, not ours. It says "12 of every 100 solar leads our partners work end in an installation sold". At its £25 floor, 100 leads cost £2500 and sell 12 systems. Plus VAT, and before your survey time.
Where we stand
We don't sell solar leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying solar leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build solar installers a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
Read the privacy policy
One seller, two answers to "who else gets it?"
Lead Pronto publishes more about its solar leads than any other seller we read, which is exactly why it's worth reading slowly. On the same solar leads page it says:
Near the top
"Lead Pronto's solar leads are exclusive"
Further down
"Exclusive solar PV leads are sold to a single installer; shared leads are more cost-effective."
Both can be true. It sells both kinds, and you choose. But the homeowner reads a different document: the privacy policy. That one says "your details may be shared with one or more companies" and "Those companies pay us a fee for the introduction." The form the homeowner filled in doesn't know which product you bought.
Whose name was on the form?
Lead Pronto's cost article draws a line most buyers never notice: "Branded solar leads, generated under your own company name rather than a comparison brand, start from £35". So the £25 lead is generated under somebody else's name. On its consumer site the small print reads "solarsavingschecker.co.uk is a trading style of Lead Pronto Ltd".
That's a legitimate way to run a business, and we're not saying a comparison-site lead is a worse lead. It's a different one. The homeowner asked a savings checker for help. When you ring, you're a stranger calling about a form they filled in for someone else, and you start the call explaining who you are.
What to ask before you pay: is this lead exclusive or shared on my order, in writing? Was it collected under my name or a comparison brand? And which of the two prices am I being quoted? The answer to the last one tells you the first two.
Terms, side by side
72 hours, 9 days, or no window at all.
Every seller says you can send a bad lead back. Two put a time limit on it: 72 hours and 9 days. Lead Pronto and Boiler Guide don't give one. Here's what each publishes, in its own words where it matters.
| Seller | Published price | Who else gets the lead | Sending a bad one back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Pronto | From £25, branded from £35, booked hotkeys from £130, all ex VAT | Exclusive or shared, both sold | "A rejection policy is included". No time limit published |
| Leads 2 Trade | Not on its page | By tier: 1 installer, up to 3, up to 4, or first come first served | Reject "within 72 hours" |
| GMS Leads | Not on its page | "never re-sold to anyone else" | 9 days, and only "if hoax contact details were provided" |
| Boiler Guide | Pay as you go, price not on its page | Homeowners agree to hear from several companies; brokers may pass details on | "a fair returns policy". No time limit published |
| PoweredLeads | From £45 per accepted lead, in prepaid blocks | Your area, while you have a block balance | Priced per accepted lead |
All from each seller's own solar pages, terms and FAQs. PoweredLeads prices exclude VAT because, it says, it's "currently below the VAT threshold".
Leads 2 Trade prices the sharing, not just the lead
It's the most honest structure on the list, because the tier name tells you how many rivals you've got. Hot Key is "unique leads to 1 installer". Premium goes to "a maximum of 3 installers", though its FAQ describes it as "only supplied to yourself and one other company". Qualified goes out "up to 4 times", and Lead Vault is "first come first served". Notice periods run from 14 to 30 days, and "you must be MCS registered". If you're buying Premium, ask which of its two descriptions applies.
GMS Leads is exclusive and says the leads aren't checked
It promises "only exclusive Solar leads that are never re-sold to anyone else", and it's upfront that "Leads are not qualified". You get a nine-day replacement period, but only where the homeowner gave hoax contact details. A real person who has gone off the idea is yours to pay for.
Boiler Guide's terms reach past Boiler Guide
"Free to join. No contract, no membership fees, no hidden charges", and you need to be MCS "(or equivalent) approved". Its homeowners have "confirmed they're happy to hear from" solar companies, plural. Its terms also let those details go to "Marketplace Providers (third party Lead brokers), who themselves may pass those details on to relevant service providers". So the homeowner you ring may already have been passed down a chain.
One "seller" isn't selling anything yet
solarlead.co.uk ranks for solar leads, and when we read it the store said "This store is currently in development." Listings were priced at £0.00, and the promise "We never resell our leads." sat next to placeholder Lorem ipsum text. Check a seller is trading before you hand over card details.
Everything here about Lead Pronto's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 23 September 2026. For Lead Pronto that means its solar leads page, its cost article and its privacy policy. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
What you don't get
You rent the lead. They keep the machine.
Pay a seller for a year and at the end of it you have a list of names. The thing that produced them stays with the seller, and some say so in writing.
PoweredLeads
"Our methods, materials, systems and the pages a homeowner completes remain ours. You are buying leads, not the means of producing them." And "Your area is held for you for as long as you have an active block balance." Stop topping up and the area goes.
Lead Pronto
"Most of our solar leads come from Meta and Google Ads campaigns." The ads account, the forms and the history of what worked sit on its side. "No retainer, no contract" cuts both ways: you can leave, and you leave with nothing but the leads.
Leads 2 Trade
Its leads come from sites "including our flagship brand CompareCompanies.co.uk". And "On receipt of a lead provided by Leads 2 Trade you automatically become the Data Controller", so the data protection duties arrive with the lead.
Boiler Guide
The marketplace is the brand the homeowner trusted. Its terms let details travel on to third-party brokers, so the customer relationship is split before you pick up the phone.
None of that is sharp practice. A seller's ads and forms are its product, and it's entitled to keep them. It just means that buying leads never gets cheaper with time: month twelve costs what month one did, because you've built nothing that carries on.
When we run a solar installer's ads, the Google Ads account is theirs and stays theirs, with every click and conversion it has learned from. The leads and the customers are theirs too. That's the difference we're selling. For why a shared lead costs more than its price, see the shared-lead trap.
Rather have solar leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring solar customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingBuying the click yourself
On price per lead, the seller usually wins.
To turn a click price into a lead price you need a conversion rate, and the only published one for home improvement is WordStream's: 7.33% of search clicks become a lead. It's US data, so treat it as a rough guide.
| What they want | Search | Per click | Per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installation | solar panel installation | £15.03 | £205 |
| Repair | solar panel repair | £14.59 | £199 |
| Finding an installer | solar panel installers near me | £14.04 | £192 |
| Battery install | solar battery installation | £12.61 | £172 |
| Installers | solar panel installers | £11.91 | £162 |
| Panels for home | solar panels for home | £9.09 | £124 |
| Checking the cost | solar panels cost | £7.23 | £99 |
| Battery storage | battery storage for solar panels | £6.41 | £87 |
| Panel cleaning | solar panel cleaning | £3.43 | £47 |
Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 23 September 2026. These are bid-based estimates, so most advertisers pay less per click than this.
So yes: a £25 bought lead is far cheaper than the £205 a "solar panel installation" search works out at. If price per lead were the whole story, you'd buy. It isn't, because the two aren't the same product:
- Your lead contacted you, by name. Nobody else was sold it.
- You choose the searches: installs and batteries in, cleaning out.
- Your ads run in the hours you can answer, at the budget you set.
- Nobody takes a margin on the click. You pay Google directly.
- The Google Ads account and everything it learns stay yours.
That last point is the one that compounds. A seller's price in month twelve is its price in month one. Your own account keeps its history, so each month builds on the last instead of starting again. For setting a budget, see how much to spend on Google Ads, and for the same comparison in another trade, roofing leads.
What the job is worth
A panel lead and a battery lead aren't the same lead.
Sellers price "solar leads" as one product. The jobs behind them aren't. A first install is panels, scaffolding and a connection. A battery added to panels someone already has is a smaller, separate sale, and it can go to anyone who fits batteries. The table puts a value on each, and the lead cost each one can carry at one win in 3.
| Job | Published price | Most a lead should cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery storage, fitted | £2,000 to £10,000 | about £300 | Which?, battery storage costs |
| 4 kW solar PV system, installed | £6,380 to £7,120 | about £338 | DESNZ median £/kW 2025/26, x4 |
| Typical 4.5 kWp system | around £7,600 | about £380 | Which?, citing Energy Saving Trust |
The ceiling uses a rough rule: winning a job should cost about 10 to 15 percent of what it's worth, counting the quotes you lost on the way. Worked from the middle of each range. DESNZ's cost figures include equipment, fitting, connection and VAT where it applies, but leave batteries out, so the battery range is Which?'s.
Panels carry any lead price on the market
On a £7,600 system the rule allows about £760 to £1,140 per installation won. Lead Pronto's own numbers put its leads at about £208 per sale. The margin is there. The risk isn't the price.
Batteries swing hardest
Which? puts battery storage at "less than £2,000 up to £10,000". At the top that's a panel-sized job; at the bottom the rule allows a fraction of what it does for panels. Ask a seller whether a lead is for panels, a battery, or both, before you agree a price for it.
Run your own sums
What a solar lead can cost before it eats the margin.
Pick panels or a battery, set how many quotes it takes you to win one, then type in the price a seller has quoted you. It opens on the 4.5 kWp panels system at £7,600.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A SOLAR LEAD?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.
You can pay up to about
£380
a lead, winning one in 3
- Healthy range, per won job
- £760 to £1,140
- Which per lead is
- £253 to £380
Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.
The 10 to 15 percent band is an industry rule of thumb, not a measured figure. The one-in-3 starting point is a default, not a solar figure, so change it to your own.
If you'd rather use a seller's own rate, Lead Pronto's is 12 sales in 100 leads, which is further out than the calculator's one in five. Its own figures also say "23% of solar leads book an appointment", and its cost article quotes "phone-verified leads booked into appointments at 32%". Those are its claims about its partners, with no source given, so plan on your own numbers once you have a few weeks of them. On a battery at £6,000, the rule allows about £300 a lead at one win in 3.
The market you're selling into
Record demand, and more people chasing it.
None of the pages selling solar leads mentions the market. Four facts change how you should buy.
Installs hit a record
MCS counted 267,032 certified rooftop solar installations in 2025, beating the record set in 2011 by 31%. Battery storage passed 40,000 certified installs, almost double its previous record.
A big share never needs a lead
MCS says 28% of all installations in 2025 were on new builds, rising to more than 36% for solar alone. That work goes through housebuilders, not homeowner forms.
Energy suppliers sell direct
Which? lists EDF installing panels "starting from £5,775 and batteries from £3,995", and Ovo solar packages from £5,000. The homeowner you ring may have a supplier quote in hand.
0% VAT has an end date
Panels and residential batteries are zero-rated to 31 March 2027, including retrofitting a battery. From 1 April 2027 they go to 5%. That's a real deadline for a customer, and one you can state on a quote.
Put together: more homeowners are looking, and more of them have already met an energy supplier or a comparison site before they meet you. When the customer arrives with two other prices, being the installer they found by name is worth more than being the third one a seller rang.
When they search
The busiest month for searches is September.
Searches for "solar panel installation" peaked at 14,800 in September and fell to 2,900 in December, about 5 times fewer. There's a second, smaller rise in spring.
UK searches for "solar panel installation", by month
September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.
Installs follow the same shape
DESNZ's monthly figures for 2025/26 put the most installations in March 2026 (26,590) and October 2025 (25,511), and the fewest in December 2025 (18,055). Those are install months, not search months, but the peaks line up.
What to do with it
A seller charges the same per lead in December as in September. With your own ads you can put the budget where the searches are and pull it back when they drop. Get your website and account ready before the autumn rush, not during it.
The gate
No MCS, no export payments, and no leads.
Ofgem says anyone applying for the Smart Export Guarantee must show "their installation and installer are suitably certified", which "may be a Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) certificate". Without it, "a SEG licensee is not obliged to offer payments under the SEG". A system fitted by an uncertified installer can leave the customer unable to get paid for what they export.
The sellers know it. Leads 2 Trade says "you must be MCS registered". Boiler Guide wants MCS "(or equivalent)". Lead Pronto says "Most of our partners are MCS certified", which is worth reading twice: most, not all.
Why homeowners are wary
MCS tells homeowners "We never share your details with installers or ask them to contact you on our behalf", and warns that "Cold callers or door-sellers often offer urgent deals." A Which? survey in June 2021 found "More than half of solar panel owners in our survey have been approached by a cold caller".
So open with who you are and how they found you, put your MCS number on your quote and your website, and never lean on an urgent deal. The VAT date is a fact you can mention; pressure is what they've been warned about.
Where the leads come from
Solar is where the ICO keeps finding fines.
Four recent ICO fines hit the solar and home-energy lead market. One is a seller from the table above.
| Company | Fine | When | What for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Improvement Marketing Ltd | £300,000 | August 2025 | 2,449,380 automated calls offering solar panels without consent |
| ZMLUK Limited | £105,000 | January 2026 | 67,772,285 emails, including solar offers, on third-party data it didn't check enough |
| Darian Bishop t/a ECO4U | £50,000 | May 2025 | 194,110 calls about boiler and solar grants, implying a government connection |
| Lead Pronto Ltd | £30,000 | November 2025 | 76,605 texts reading "Claim a Government-backed Free Boiler Grant!" |
£20 a "bite"
Home Improvement Marketing's invoices showed "275x bites @ £20 each": it paid call centres £20 a "bite" and never checked how they were getting them. The ICO's answer: "It is not acceptable to rely on assurances given by third party suppliers without undertaking proper due diligence." ZMLUK was fined on the same point, having "relied heavily on third-party data without carrying out sufficient due diligence checks".
Lead Pronto's consent named nobody
The ICO describes Lead Pronto as "a lead generation company which generates and sells leads of potential customers in the energy and home improvements sector". Its texts ran between October 2023 and February 2024, with consent bundled into its privacy policy. It gave the ICO a list of 18 clients it generated data for, and "none of these companies were listed in the privacy policy. It cannot be argued that consent was informed." The fine was about boiler grant texts, not its solar leads. But it's the same privacy policy question from the top of this guide.
The ICO says a business buying marketing data "must undertake proportionate checks and due diligence", and "It is not enough to simply accept a third party's assurances." Before you buy, ask the seller:
- Who collected this lead: you, or someone you bought it from?
- Was it a form, a call or a text, and when?
- Does the consent name my business, or just "partners"?
- Were the numbers checked against the TPS, and when?
- How do you pass on it when somebody opts out?
The ICO generally recommends not using third-party consent more than six months old, and for emails and texts the consent has to name you. In January 2024 it fined Skean Homes £100,000 for more than 600,000 home-improvement calls to TPS-registered numbers; blaming its lead provider didn't work. A seller that can't answer the questions above is selling you its risk.
After the lead lands
Two things decide whether it becomes a survey.
Be the first installer they speak to
A homeowner who came through a comparison site has agreed to hear from more than one company, so the first sensible call sets the price everyone else is measured against. Lead with what the others can't skip: your MCS certificate, and the Smart Export Guarantee it unlocks. The research on how fast to call is in our roofing leads guide.
Quote it properly at the kitchen table
If you agree the job in the customer's home, after the survey, the contract falls under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013:
- They can cancel within 14 days without a reason.
- Leave out the cancellation information and it's an offence.
- Without it, their cancellation period runs up to 12 months longer.
- Installing before day 14 needs the customer to ask, in writing.
A written quote template that covers all four protects the install you worked to win.
So which should you do?
Match the route to the installer you are.
Buy exclusive leads if
- You need surveys booked this month
- The seller puts "exclusive" in writing
- You can ring back within the hour
- You can test a small batch first
Walk away from a seller if
- It won't say shared or exclusive
- It can't show you the consent
- It publishes no return window
- It calls itself a store and sells nothing
Run your own if
- You want leads with your name on them
- You want to choose panels or batteries
- You want the account to keep improving
- You plan to be fitting past 2027
Plenty of installers do both: buy a tested batch of exclusive leads to keep the surveyors busy now, and build their own ads alongside so each month leans less on somebody else's forms. For the full order to do things in, read how to get more leads.
Our angle
We'd rather you ran your own. Here's our working.
We build websites and run Google Ads for trades, so we're not neutral, and we've said where a £25 bought lead beats our route on price. Everything about a seller comes from its own pages, terms and privacy policy, quoted rather than paraphrased where it matters.
The sellers were read on their own sites, and the click prices and search volumes are Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 23 September 2026. System costs and monthly installs are from DESNZ; market figures from MCS; battery and supplier prices from Which?; the VAT rule from HMRC's VAT Notice 708/6; the enforcement from the ICO, including its notices on Home Improvement Marketing, ZMLUK, ECO4U and Lead Pronto. The response-time research is covered in our roofing leads guide.
Straight answers
What solar installers ask about leads.
- What is the typical cost of solar leads?
- Lead Pronto publishes the clearest prices: solar leads from £25, branded leads under your own name from £35 and booked hotkeys from £130, all excluding VAT. PoweredLeads charges from £45 per accepted lead, paid in blocks upfront. Leads 2 Trade, GMS Leads and Boiler Guide don't put a solar price on their pages. Paying Google for the click yourself costs £3.43 to £15.03 depending on the search.
- How can I get solar leads?
- Four ways: buy them one at a time from a seller such as Lead Pronto or GMS Leads, join a pay-as-you-go marketplace such as Boiler Guide, buy a tier from Leads 2 Trade that sets how many installers share each lead, or run your own Google Ads to your own website so the homeowner contacts you directly.
- How can I get solar leads for free?
- Nobody sells them for nothing, and Boiler Guide being free to join still means paying per lead. The closest thing to free is the customers you have already fitted. Batteries have qualified for 0% VAT since 1 February 2024, including retrofitting one to an existing system, and that zero rate runs to 31 March 2027. A past panel customer without a battery is a warm lead you already own.
- Are exclusive solar leads really exclusive?
- Read how each seller defines it. GMS Leads says its solar leads are "never re-sold to anyone else". Leads 2 Trade sells four tiers, from one installer up to "first come first served". Lead Pronto's solar page says its leads are exclusive and, lower down, that exclusive and shared are both available. Its privacy policy tells homeowners their "details may be shared with one or more companies".
- Do I need MCS to buy solar leads?
- At most sellers, yes. Leads 2 Trade says "you must be MCS registered", and Boiler Guide requires MCS "or equivalent". It matters to the customer too: Ofgem says a Smart Export Guarantee licensee is not obliged to pay for exported power unless the installation and installer are suitably certified, which usually means an MCS certificate.
- Is buying solar leads legal?
- Yes, but the checks are yours. The ICO says a business buying marketing data must do proportionate due diligence and cannot simply accept the seller's assurances. It fined Home Improvement Marketing Ltd £300,000 in 2025 over 2.4 million automated solar calls made without consent, and Lead Pronto £30,000 over "Government-backed Free Boiler Grant" texts.
- When does 0% VAT on solar panels end?
- The zero rate on installing energy-saving materials, which covers solar panels and residential batteries, runs to 31 March 2027. From 1 April 2027 it goes back to the reduced rate of 5%, according to HMRC's VAT Notice 708/6.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
A full diary of solar installs, from leads with your name on them.
Nobody else sold the lead, nobody else holds the account, and the homeowner rang the installer they meant to. See what it costs, or tell us about your business and we'll show you what running your own solar leads looks like.