What site selection software is
Site selection software is a platform your team logs in to. It usually combines maps of land, grid and environmental data with filters and reports. Your analysts set the criteria, run the search, read the results and decide what to do next. The vendor supplies the data and the tool. The judgment is yours.
What a site selection service is
A site selection service takes your requirements and does the search. You describe the project. The provider screens the market and returns a shortlist with its reasoning. You review the result instead of building it.
Voltane works this way. You send MW, target energization year, region and acreage through a request form and book a call. Voltane screens Texas with its internal map engine and returns a priced shortlist with a report on each site. See Find me a site.
How they differ
| Question | Software | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Model | A tool you operate yourself | An engagement someone runs for you |
| What you get | Access to data, maps and filters | A shortlist and a report |
| Who does the work | Your team | The provider |
| Staffing | Needs people who can use the tool well | Needs someone to brief the provider and review the result |
| Control | You can change every filter and rerun at will | You set requirements and ask for changes |
| Best suited to | Ongoing pipelines and many searches | A specific requirement or a new market |
Whichever you choose, ask the same questions about power. Is a figure a sourced fact or an estimate? What is the date? Is "capacity" a study result or a proxy? Voltane's capacity signal is a proxy and never available MW.
Which fits when
Software may fit when you have analysts on staff, search often, work across many regions and want to test your own ideas.
A service may fit when you have a clear requirement, limited time or no GIS team, or when you are entering a market you do not know.
Many teams use both: software for wide scanning, and a service for the searches that matter most.
Product details change. Check each company's own site before deciding. All trademarks belong to their owners.
Questions people ask
Is a service slower than software?
It depends on your team. Software gives instant maps, but someone still has to do the analysis. A service takes that work off your desk. Ask any provider for its expected timeline before you start.
Does Voltane offer software access?
No. Voltane's Texas map is its internal engine. Clients receive the shortlist and report, with the evidence behind each site.
Does a shortlist mean the sites are ready to build?
No. A Voltane shortlist is screening only, not a site suitability determination. Utility studies, title work and field checks still come after.
Related
- Find me a site
- Analyze my site (by request)
- All comparisons
- Data center site selection companies
- Voltane vs site selection brokerages
- Glossary: time to power
More compare
- Voltane vs LandGate
- Voltane vs Paces
- Voltane vs Transect
- Voltane vs Regrid
- Voltane vs PVcase Prospect
- Voltane vs Orennia
- Voltane vs Ardus
- Voltane vs site selection brokerages and consultancies
Need a site, or have one?
Tell us what you need and Voltane finds, reports on and prices candidate sites in ERCOT. Or bring a site you already have for a path-to-power report (by request for now).