Teams searching for a Zeitview alternative usually already run aerial inspections and want to know what else is on the market. Zeitview is an established provider of aerial inspection data for solar. ClearSpot is an AI and drone automation platform for utility-scale solar O&M. The two overlap on drone imagery, but they are built around different outputs, and for many portfolios the better question is whether to replace one or combine them.
This page compares Zeitview and ClearSpot for owners, IPPs and O&M contractors running 50 MW to 1 GW of solar, and covers the questions buyers ask when they look at Zeitview competitors.
In short: ClearSpot is an AI and drone automation platform for utility-scale solar O&M. It combines autonomous drone inspection, AI fault detection and your existing monitoring and SCADA data to produce prioritised work orders and automated reports. It works alongside existing systems, including inspection data you already collect, rather than replacing them.
Quick comparison: Zeitview vs ClearSpot
| Area | Zeitview | ClearSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Aerial inspection data and inspection software for solar and other infrastructure | AI and drone automation platform for solar O&M |
| Primary data source | Visual and thermal imagery captured by aircraft, drones and drone-in-a-box systems | Drone thermal and RGB imagery plus existing monitoring and SCADA feeds |
| Core output | Inspection findings with anomaly location, severity and imagery, viewed in Zeitview Asset Insights | Faults ranked by impact, prioritised work orders and automated reports |
| Typical buyer question | What is the physical condition of my modules and sites? | Which problems should my crews fix first, and has the fix worked? |
| Relationship | Inspection data provider | O&M automation layer that can use inspection data from any source |
Zeitview descriptions are based on Zeitview’s own public pages, linked below, as described on the Zeitview site, November 2026. Confirm current services with Zeitview before making a decision.
What is Zeitview?
Zeitview is the company formerly known as DroneBase. In 2023, the company announced the new Zeitview brand and, in that announcement, described itself as an advanced inspection software company for the sustainable energy and infrastructure economy.
For solar, Zeitview’s solar inspection page describes collecting visual and thermal inspection data with fixed-wing aircraft, drones, drone-in-a-box systems and mobile devices. It says findings are produced with AI-assisted analysis and reviewed by domain experts, who identify anomalies and document their location and severity.
Results are delivered in Zeitview Asset Insights, which the company describes as a place to view anomaly locations, severity and imagery, compare inspections from different dates and track remediation. Zeitview also describes aerial monitoring during solar construction.
For owners who want a periodic, independent view of module and site condition across many plants, that inspection-data model is a well-established option.
What is ClearSpot?
ClearSpot is an O&M automation platform. Drone inspection is one input, not the end product. The platform focuses on what happens after an anomaly is found: confirming the cause, ranking it by energy and revenue impact, and turning it into work a technician can act on.
- Autonomous solar panel drone inspection with thermal and RGB imagery
- AI fault detection, with 99% fault detection
- Correlation of inspection findings with monitoring, SCADA and alarm data
- Prioritised work orders and follow-up checks after repairs
- Automated performance, inspection and portfolio reporting
ClearSpot connects to the monitoring, SCADA and maintenance systems you already run. The integrations page lists the connection methods.
Where Zeitview and ClearSpot differ
Inspection snapshot vs continuous operations
An aerial inspection shows the physical condition of a site on the day it was captured. Many losses then appear between campaigns: an inverter derates, a string trips, a tracker stalls. ClearSpot reads monitoring and SCADA data continuously and links those events to the most recent inspection evidence, so the picture does not age between flights.
Findings vs actions
Zeitview describes severity ratings and remediation tracking for the anomalies it finds. ClearSpot’s focus is the step after that: grouping related faults, estimating their impact, creating the work order, and checking production data once the repair is done. If your team already has a strong process for turning inspection reports into tickets, this difference matters less. If engineers spend days converting reports into jobs, it matters a lot.
Data provider vs automation layer
Zeitview captures and analyses imagery as its core service. ClearSpot can run its own autonomous drone inspections, and it can also take in inspection results from other sources alongside operating data. That means switching is not the only option.
When to choose which
Zeitview may be the better fit if you need
- Periodic, large-area aerial inspections across many sites, including capture by crewed aircraft, for example as a condition record for due diligence
- Aerial monitoring during construction
- Inspection data for an O&M team that already handles prioritisation and ticketing well
ClearSpot may be the better fit if you need
- Inspection findings linked to live monitoring and SCADA data
- Faults ranked by impact instead of a long anomaly list
- Automatic work orders and reports across a multi-site portfolio
- One platform for inspection, monitoring analytics and O&M follow-up
If you are also weighing other inspection software, see ClearSpot vs Raptor Maps or ClearSpot vs Sitemark.
Using Zeitview and ClearSpot together
Some owners keep an existing aerial inspection programme and add ClearSpot as the operating layer. A typical workflow:
- An aerial inspection records module and string anomalies with location and severity.
- ClearSpot takes in those findings, where data access allows, next to monitoring and SCADA data.
- AI agents match anomalies to production losses and group faults that share a cause.
- ClearSpot ranks the issues and creates work orders for the highest-impact repairs.
- After the repair, monitoring data confirms recovery, and the result goes into the automated report.
The import method depends on how your inspection data is delivered and on your contract with the provider, so confirm it during a demo.
ClearSpot results
ClearSpot customers target 30–50% O&M cost reduction, 65% downtime reduction and 97%+ availability, with 99% fault detection. In one deployment, a 100 MW solar portfolio in India cut reporting and analysis time by 90% after ClearSpot combined its inspection and monitoring data and closed gaps such as SCADA drop-outs and findings that were not linked to assets. At a California commercial site, ClearSpot found an underperformance problem that had taken about three weeks of guesswork, and gave the team real-time visibility instead.
To estimate the value for your own portfolio, try the solar O&M ROI calculator.
Pricing
ClearSpot runs from $50 to $1,000 per MW per year (platform subscription), depending on portfolio scale, site size and the depth of automation and monitoring. See ClearSpot pricing for details. For Zeitview pricing, contact Zeitview directly.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Zeitview alternative for a utility-scale portfolio?
It depends on what you want to change. If you want another inspection data provider, compare inspection services. If you want inspection findings turned into ranked work orders and reports, an O&M automation platform such as ClearSpot is the closer fit.
Is Zeitview the same company as DroneBase?
Yes. Zeitview has announced that DroneBase is now Zeitview.
Can ClearSpot use inspection data from Zeitview or another provider?
ClearSpot is designed to take in inspection results alongside monitoring and SCADA data. The method depends on the format of your data and your provider contract, so confirm it for your sites during a demo.
Does ClearSpot fly its own drone inspections?
Yes. ClearSpot offers autonomous drone inspection with thermal and RGB imagery and AI fault detection, and links the findings to operating data.
How much does ClearSpot cost compared with Zeitview?
ClearSpot is priced as a platform subscription from $50 to $1,000 per MW per year. Zeitview sets its own pricing, so ask Zeitview for a quote and compare on a per-MW, per-year basis.
Who is ClearSpot built for?
Independent power producers, asset owners, O&M contractors and EPCs managing utility-scale solar portfolios of roughly 50 MW to 1 GW.
See how ClearSpot would work with the inspection data and monitoring you already have.