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Buyer's guide

Commercial solar leads in the UK: how the providers actually compare

11 minute read · Last updated

Almost every UK solar lead service is built for residential work. If your jobs are 50 kWp and above on commercial rooftops, most of the market is not built for you. This guide compares the providers that actually sell commercial solar leads and opportunities in the UK, explains the difference between a lead, an opportunity and an appointment, and shows the questions and contract terms that decide whether your spend comes back as signed contracts.

In short

  • A lead, an opportunity and an appointment are three different products. Compare providers on what they actually sell, not on sticker price.
  • Cost per lead is the wrong number. Cost per signed contract is the one that matters, and almost no provider publishes it.
  • Exclusivity, the refund rule and data ownership are contract questions. Get them in writing before you spend.

Radiant sells commercial solar opportunities, so we are in this comparison. Every claim about another provider comes from their own published material, with the month we checked it.

Commercial is a different market, not a bigger one

Residential solar lead generation is a mature, high-volume industry. Homeowner fills in a form, a provider qualifies it, an installer rings within minutes. The lead costs tens of pounds, the job is worth thousands, and the decision is made by one or two people over a few weeks.

Commercial is a different shape entirely. The decision involves a facilities manager, a finance director and often a landlord. Half-hourly consumption data matters more than the roof. Grid connection can take months. The job is worth six figures and the sales cycle runs quarters, not weeks.

That difference is why most residential lead providers struggle with commercial, and why several of them require MCS registration to join their network. MCS is a small-scale certification scheme. It tells you what size of work the network is built around.

Lead, opportunity or appointment: what you are actually buying

Half the confusion in this market comes from comparing three different things on price. A lead is a contact who enquired. An opportunity is a qualified, sited enquiry you can act on before you have spoken to anyone. An appointment is a booked meeting someone has set for you. They are generated, priced and sold differently. A shared lead at £50, an exclusive opportunity at £1,000 and a booked appointment are not the same product, and lining them up on sticker price alone tells you nothing. Work out which one each provider is actually selling before you compare a single number.

The five questions that decide this

How many installers get the same opportunity?

The single biggest driver of conversion. Sold to four, it is a price race. Sold to one, it is a conversation. Providers use "exclusive" loosely. Ask for the number.

Who carries the cost when it goes nowhere?

Pay up front and you carry it. Pay on a booked appointment and they carry it. Pay on a closed sale and they carry almost all of it, and charge accordingly. There is no free option, only a choice about where the risk sits and what it costs you.

What does the opportunity actually contain?

A name and a phone number is not a commercial lead. See the section below.

What system sizes does it actually produce?

Ask for the range, not the maximum. A provider quoting "30 kW to 30 MW" is telling you about their ceiling, not their median.

What does it cost as a share of contract value?

A £45 lead on an £8,000 domestic job is 0.56%. A £1,000 opportunity on a £130,000 commercial job is 0.77%. Comparable. Headline price alone tells you nothing.

The contract terms that decide it

The pitch is the marketing. The contract is the product. Before you spend, read for these.

  • Exclusivity, in writing, with a number. Does exclusive mean one installer ever, one at a time, or exclusive only within a region? A word is not a number.
  • The refund or credit rule. What exactly triggers money back, and is it the whole price or only a portion? Where does the risk sit when an enquiry goes nowhere?
  • Data ownership. Can you keep the contact and market to them again, or are you renting a one-time introduction?
  • Minimum spend or minimum term, and the notice period to leave.

If a provider will not put these in the contract, treat the pitch with caution.

What a commercial solar opportunity should contain

This is where commercial and residential diverge most, and where most comparison content stops.

A commercial opportunity worth paying for should tell you enough to decide whether to send a surveyor before you have spoken to anyone. That means:

  • Roof geometry. Usable area, not building footprint. Orientation and pitch. Whether there are rooflights, plant or access constraints eating into it.
  • Consumption. Annual kWh, and ideally the shape of it. A site consuming 400,000 kWh across three shifts is a different proposition from one consuming the same across weekday daytime only.
  • The unit rate they actually pay. Not an assumed average. The rate drives the savings, and the savings drive the decision.
  • Who decides, and whether they know this enquiry exists.
  • Tenure. A tenant on a four-year lease is not buying a twenty-five year asset without a conversation with the landlord.
  • An indicative feasibility model, so you know roughly what size system the site supports before you commit survey time.

If a provider cannot tell you which of those they supply, the opportunity is a contact record.

The providers

Commercial-focused providers

This is the short list. Of every provider on this page, only four sell anything built for commercial work, and only Radiant and CEG Ai are commercial-native. Lead Pronto is primarily residential but states it also generates commercial solar leads, so it belongs here rather than below. If you install on warehouse and factory roofs, start with these four.

Radiant

This is us

Checked August 2026

Model
Prepaid credits, priced by system size. The price splits into a data portion and a meeting portion
Risk
If the next step does not happen, the meeting portion returns to your credit balance. The data portion does not, because you hold the enquiry and can work it yourself. Subject to the terms of our Opportunity Supply Agreement
Exclusivity
One installer per opportunity
Sector
Domestic and commercial. This comparison covers our commercial and industrial product
System sizes
Recent opportunities have run from roughly 140 kWp to over 600 kWp
Network
Vetted installers, accreditations checked against the scheme registers
Included
Roof geometry, consumption data and an indicative feasibility model

Where we are strong

Exclusivity with no asterisk, commercial sizes, and a risk split we think is the fair one. You are the only installer holding it. If we said we would get you in front of someone and that did not happen, that part comes back.

Where we are the wrong choice

If you need fifty leads a week our volume will disappoint you. And if you want to pay literally nothing when an enquiry goes nowhere, Leads 2 Trade's terms go further than ours. We charge for the data either way. We think that is right, but it is a real difference and you should price it in.

Radiant in 2026 so far

48 MW

commercial solar pipeline sourced in 2026

45%

of opportunities reach a live proposal

1 in 5

close on average

best installer around 1 in 3

110 kWp

typical opportunity size

100%

exclusive, one installer per opportunity

Around £1,500

to turn a lead into a won job

best installer around £900

Early data from our first year, and growing. Pipeline is the combined system size of commercial opportunities sourced in 2026; close and conversion figures will move as the numbers grow.

What installers say

Smartly Energy
Fantastic company to work with. Couldn't ask for a better team. Super professional, approachable and amenable to our many requests.
Ross Miller, Smartly Energy
Verified Google review
The Green Shield Group
Excellent service, would recommend to business associates.
Chris Ridehalgh, The Green Shield Group
Verified Google review

Clean Energy Group Ai (CEG Ai)

Checked August 2026, source: cleanenergygroup.co

The most direct commercial specialist on this list, and an agency rather than a marketplace.

Model
Appointment setting. They book meetings into your calendar
Exclusivity
100% exclusive, per their published material
Sector
Commercial and industrial only
System sizes
Their published ranges vary across their own pages, from 30 kW upwards, with different maximums quoted in different places
Channels
AI intent mapping and a 79 million commercial property database, outreach by LinkedIn and email. They state explicitly that they do not cold call
Reach
United States, Australia, Canada and the UK. They report working with over 5,000 solar businesses
Pricing
Not published

Where they are strong

Genuine commercial focus and a decade of it. Meetings are booked directly with decision makers, and their published approach includes verifying authority and site suitability before the meeting lands.

What to weigh

They are a global operation and the UK is one of four markets, so ask what their UK volume actually looks like. No published pricing means you cannot compare cost per meeting without a call. And an appointment is not the same product as an opportunity you own: you are buying their outbound capacity, not a pipeline asset.

TNW Marketing

Checked September 2026, source: tnwmarketing.com

A UK commercial solar lead generation agency that books attended site meetings with commercial customers.

Model
Pay per lead, no retainers. They state you do not pay for a dead-end lead
Delivery
Pre-qualified attended site meetings with commercial customers
Sector
UK commercial
Pricing
Not published on their site. Our understanding is from around £400 per lead, which is our figure and not a claim of theirs
Exclusivity
Not published on their site. Our understanding is that leads are not sold exclusively, which is our figure and not a claim of theirs

Where they are strong

A commercial focus with pre-qualified attended site meetings booked for you, a published position that you do not pay for a dead-end lead, and no retainers.

What to weigh

Pricing is not published on their site, so cost per meeting needs a call. Our understanding is that leads are not sold exclusively, which is our figure and not a claim of theirs. And an attended meeting is a different product from an opportunity you own with site data attached.

Lead Pronto

Checked September 2026, source: leadpronto.co.uk/solar-leads

A UK pay-per-lead agency whose solar product is mainly residential, but which states on the same page that it also generates commercial solar leads for commercial and industrial projects.

Model
Three published ways to work with them: pay per lead or revenue share, pay per appointment, and managed campaigns run under your own brand charged at 25% of ad spend
Pricing
Published. Solar campaigns from £25 per lead, branded solar leads from £35, booked hotkeys from £130. Whether those figures are shown before or after VAT is not published
Exclusivity
Both offered. Exclusive leads run as a branded campaign under your own name, or you can take non-exclusive lead generation
Sector
Residential solar, and they state they also generate commercial and industrial solar leads
Qualification
Qualified by their in-house call centre against criteria you set, including homeowner status, ability to pay and roof suitability
Commitment
They state no retainer and no contract, and that you pay per lead and nothing else
Their published figures
10,000 solar leads a month, 28 solar clients, 12% lead to sale and 23% lead to appointment, all per their own site

Where they are strong

The clearest published entry price on this page, from £25 a lead, with branded and booked hotkey options priced openly alongside it. Several buying models means you can start on pay per lead and move to a branded campaign without changing supplier, and there is no retainer or contract behind it.

What to weigh

The product is built around residential volume, and commercial is a line on the page rather than the core of it. A non-exclusive option exists, so exclusivity here is something you buy rather than something you get, and their published qualification criteria are homeowner criteria. There is no site data attached: you are buying a qualified contact, not an opportunity carrying roof geometry and consumption.

The rest of the UK market is residential only

Most UK solar lead providers sell domestic enquiries and nothing else, so they are not compared here. Leads 2 Trade, GreenMatch, PoweredLeads, Capital Leads, Leads Everyday, Watts Marketing, Synergy Advertising, HelloClicks, GMS Leads and Imperio Leads are all profiled, with the same source stamps, in our companion guide to residential solar leads in the UK.

Comparison table

UK commercial solar lead providers compared by sector, exclusivity, risk position, pricing transparency and founding year
ProviderSectorExclusivityRisk positionPricing publishedFounded
RadiantDomestic and commercial1 installerMeeting portion refundedBy system size2026
CEG AiCommercial onlyExclusivePay for appointmentsNoNot published
TNW MarketingCommercialNot exclusive (our understanding)No pay on a dead-end leadNo, around £400 per lead is our understandingNot published
Lead ProntoResidential, and they state they also generate commercial solar leadsExclusive branded campaign or non-exclusive, both offeredPay per lead or revenue share, no retainer and no contractYes, from £25 per lead, branded from £35, booked hotkeys from £130Not published

No numeric scoring. We are in this table and scoring ourselves would tell you nothing.

Radiant serves both domestic and commercial installers, and the other columns in our row describe the commercial and industrial offer that this guide compares; our residential offer is a separate product.

Founding dates are in the table because you asked for them and we are the youngest name on it. Worth saying plainly though: what decides a commercial lead's value is whether it is exclusive to you and what site data comes attached, not how long the provider has been trading.

The maths that actually matters

Cost per lead is the wrong number. Cost per sale is the right one, and it is the number almost nobody in this market will put in front of you.

A cheap lead is only cheap if you close it. A £50 lead shared with three rivals that you win once in twenty has cost you £1,000 a sale. A dearer exclusive opportunity you close far more often can be cheaper per sale despite the higher sticker price. Cost per lead flatters the cheap, shared model. Cost per sale is what exposes it, which is exactly why you will rarely see it published. Ask any provider on this page for their cost per sale, or even an honest conversion rate, and you will struggle to get a straight answer: a shared lead has no single owner to measure, and a low close rate is not a selling point. None of them publishes one.

Commercial

Under 4%

Early data from our own commercial opportunities, indicative rather than settled, from a small initial sample. Installers working them close around one in five, and because each opportunity goes to a single installer, that is one installer's own close rate, not a number diluted across a shared pool. Put one in five against a £1,000 opportunity on a £130,000 job and the lead cost is roughly £5,000 per win, under 4% of contract value.

Residential

Over 11%

Now the same exercise at £45 per residential lead, one in twenty converting, on an £8,000 job. That is £900 per win on £8,000.

Commercial opportunities look expensive per unit and are usually cheaper per pound of revenue. That is the entire argument for the sector, and it only works if the conversion rate is real. Which brings you back to exclusivity, because a shared enquiry converts at a fraction of an exclusive one.

The one-in-five close rate is our own early data, from a small initial sample of our commercial opportunities, and it may move as the sample grows. The pound figures here are illustrative, to show the method, and we do not claim them for any other provider.

Radiant versus the alternatives, head to head

Radiant vs Clean Energy Group Ai (CEG Ai)

Why Radiant wins

  • You own the opportunity as a lead with site data you keep, rather than renting a booked appointment.
  • Radiant shows the exact price before you take a lead; CEG Ai does not publish pricing.
  • Radiant is UK only, while CEG Ai spreads across four markets.
  • The opportunity carries roof geometry, consumption and a feasibility model so you can qualify before speaking to anyone.

Why CEG Ai wins

  • If you specifically want meetings booked into your diary, done for you, and outbound capacity rather than opportunities you work yourself, that is what they are built for.
  • A decade of commercial focus sits behind the service.

Radiant vs TNW Marketing

Why Radiant wins

  • Every Radiant opportunity goes to one installer, where our understanding is that TNW leads are not sold exclusively, which is our figure and not a claim of theirs.
  • You get an opportunity you own, carrying roof geometry, consumption and a feasibility model, rather than an attended site meeting.
  • Radiant publishes its price by system size; TNW does not publish pricing on their site.

Why TNW Marketing wins

  • They book pre-qualified attended site meetings with commercial customers, so if you want meetings arranged rather than opportunities to work yourself, that is what they sell.
  • Their published position is that you do not pay for a dead-end lead, and there are no retainers.

Radiant vs Lead Pronto

Why Radiant wins

  • Every Radiant opportunity goes to one installer. Lead Pronto publish both an exclusive branded option and a non-exclusive one, so exclusivity is something you buy rather than the default.
  • Radiant is built for commercial. Their solar product is residential volume, with commercial stated as something they also generate.
  • You own the opportunity, and it carries roof geometry, consumption and a feasibility model rather than a qualified contact record.

Why Lead Pronto wins

  • The lowest published entry price on this page, from £25 per lead, with branded leads from £35 and booked hotkeys from £130.
  • Several buying models in one place, pay per lead or revenue share, appointments, or a managed campaign under your own brand, with no retainer and no contract.

For a commercial installer who wants exclusive opportunities they own, with the site data to qualify them, Radiant's commercial offer is the strongest fit of the four. That is mostly a statement about the market rather than about us: only three of the providers here are aimed at commercial roofs at all, and the rest of the UK market is residential. Each alternative wins only for a buyer with a different need: done-for-you appointments, meetings arranged for you, or the lowest published price per lead. The residential providers, and how they compare against generating your own domestic enquiries, are in the residential solar leads guide.

Red flags in a provider's pitch

Any one of these is a reason to ask harder questions before you spend.

  • Exclusive with no number attached.
  • Pricing they will not put in writing.
  • A headline system-size range that quotes the ceiling, up to 30 MW, rather than the median.
  • A lead that turns out to be a name and a postcode.
  • A conversion or cost-per-sale rate they cannot or will not share.

How to run a fair trial

There is one honest way to choose. Pick two providers, run them side by side for a full quarter, and measure a single thing: cost per won job. Not leads received, not appointments booked, cost per signed contract. Give each the same speed of response and the same follow-up so the test is fair to both. A quarter is long enough for commercial sales cycles to close. At the end, the provider with the lower cost per sale wins, whatever their price per lead claimed at the start. Every provider, ourselves included, will show you whichever number flatters them, so measure the one that does not.

What commercial solar leads actually cost

There is no single market price, because the providers are not selling the same thing. The published and reported figures we could stand behind sit in three bands. Residential names quote roughly £22 to £45 for a shared or exclusive domestic enquiry. Commercial brokers sit far higher, with around £400 per lead reported for one of the providers above, because a commercial enquiry takes real work to find. Appointment sellers charge more again, since they are selling a diary slot rather than a name, and the cost of a no-show sits with whoever carries the risk in the contract.

Most commercial providers will not publish a price at all, as the comparison table above shows. That is not always evasion. Commercial pricing usually moves with system size, sector and how much site data comes attached, so a single headline number would be misleading. It does mean you have to ask directly, and ask what the number covers: is it one installer or four, is a dead site refunded, and is there a minimum monthly spend underneath the per lead price.

Whatever band you land in, convert the price into cost per won job before you compare anything. The worked example in the maths section above shows how, and the companion article on what commercial solar leads cost puts the pricing models side by side.

Buying leads against generating your own

Buying is a rented channel. You pay per enquiry, the volume can be turned up quickly, and it stops the month you stop paying. Generating your own is an owned channel. It is slower to build, the cost sits in your subscription and your own effort rather than in a per lead price, and the enquiries keep arriving once it is running. Neither one is the right answer on its own for most installers.

  • Speed. Bought leads land this week. An owned channel takes weeks to warm up, because it depends on local search visibility and on people finding your quote tool.
  • Cost shape. Bought volume is a variable cost that rises with every enquiry. An owned channel is closer to a fixed cost, so the cost per enquiry falls as the volume grows.
  • Exclusivity. An enquiry that arrives on your own page is yours by definition. A bought lead is only exclusive if the contract says so in writing.
  • Intent. Someone who searched for you, entered their address and looked at indicative figures is further along than someone who filled in a comparison form and now has four installers calling.
  • Control. You can change the questions your own tool asks. You cannot change what a broker collects.

The practical position for most installers is both: an owned channel building underneath, and bought opportunities on top to fill the gaps while it does. OpenLead is how Radiant handles the owned side, and the C&I Marketplace the bought side.

How to generate your own commercial leads instead

If you would rather not buy at all, four things do most of the work: local search and your Google Business Profile, a quote tool on your own site, reviews asked for as a habit, and referrals run as a channel rather than a hope. We have written that up properly, with the timescales and what each one takes, in how to get solar leads without buying them.

A qualified enquiry against a poor one

Two enquiries can carry the same price and be worth entirely different amounts. The difference is whether you can decide what to do next without a discovery call.

A qualified commercial enquiry

  • Named site with usable roof area, orientation and pitch, not just a postcode.
  • Annual consumption in kWh, and the shape of it where it is known.
  • The unit rate the site actually pays, rather than an assumed average.
  • Tenure clear, so you know whether a landlord has to be in the conversation.
  • The decision maker identified, and aware the enquiry was made.
  • A stated driver and a rough timescale, such as a lease event or a budget round.

A poor one

  • A company name, a mobile number and the word solar.
  • Building footprint quoted as roof area, so the size is wrong from the start.
  • No consumption figure, which means no savings model and no proposal.
  • Contact is a facilities or office manager with no budget and no mandate.
  • Form filled weeks ago and sold on more than once since.
  • No stated reason for enquiring, so there is nothing to build urgency on.

Ask any provider to send you three real, recent examples with the commercial detail redacted. What they send tells you more than the pitch does. Our framework for working an enquiry is in how to qualify a commercial solar enquiry.

Common questions

What do commercial solar leads cost in the UK?
There is no single market price, because the providers are not selling the same thing. Residential names quote roughly £22 to £45 for a shared or exclusive domestic enquiry. Commercial brokers sit far higher, with around £400 per lead reported for one of the providers on this page. Appointment sellers charge more again, since they are selling a diary slot rather than a name.
Which UK providers sell commercial solar leads?
Four of the providers we checked sell anything built for commercial work: Radiant, Clean Energy Group Ai and TNW Marketing, plus Lead Pronto, whose solar product is mainly residential but who state they also generate commercial solar leads. The rest of the UK market is residential only.
Is an exclusive commercial solar lead worth paying more for?
Usually, because cost per signed contract is the number that matters rather than cost per lead. A cheap lead shared with three rivals that you win once in twenty can cost more per sale than a dearer exclusive opportunity you close far more often. Ask for exclusivity in writing with a number attached.
Should I buy commercial solar leads or generate my own?
Most installers should do both. Bought opportunities land this week and can be turned up quickly, while an owned channel takes weeks to warm up but produces enquiries that are exclusive by definition and gets cheaper per enquiry as it grows.

Related reading

Done comparing and want to act on it?

This guide is the research. If you want to see how Radiant supplies exclusive commercial opportunities and helps you generate your own, that sits on our lead generation page.

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