SolisPLC Review 2026: Honest Assessment for Self-Taught Engineers

Search for a SolisPLC review and you'll mostly find SolisPLC's own testimonial pages. This is an independent assessment from the perspective of a self-taught engineer deciding where to spend training money — what the platform actually delivers, what it costs, where it genuinely beats the competition, and the gap you'll need to fill yourself.

Verdict in 60 seconds

Yes, SolisPLC is worth it — for employed technicians and engineers who need plant-floor-relevant depth in Allen-Bradley or Siemens, particularly on topics like VFD commissioning, remote I/O, and HMI development. It is not the best fit for budget-constrained beginners, who should start on the free tier before committing to a paid plan.

SolisPLC is one of the most practical PLC training platforms available, with course content that stays unusually close to real plant-floor work — VFD commissioning, remote I/O integration, HMI development, machine vision — rather than stopping at "what is a PLC?" theory. The free tutorial library and free membership tier are genuinely useful, and the catalog stretches beyond PLCs into FANUC robotics and Cognex vision, which almost no competitor matches.

The trade-offs: it's a premium-priced subscription for individual learners ($59/month for the PLC track — essentially the same band as RealPars' $60/month, or $50/month billed annually at ≈$600/year, checked June 2026), there's no built-in simulator or hosted lab — you source vendor software like Studio 5000 or TIA Portal yourself — and, like every subscription platform, access ends when you stop paying.

Worth it? Yes, if you're an employed technician or engineer (or employer-reimbursed learner) who wants vendor-specific, hands-on-oriented depth in Allen-Bradley or Siemens ecosystems. Budget-constrained beginners should start with the free tier and tutorials before committing.

Catalog and pricing checked June 2026. We have no affiliate relationship with SolisPLC.

What SolisPLC is

SolisPLC (solisplc.com) is an online industrial automation training platform founded in 2019 by Vlad Romanov (co-founder, CEO and Head of Content) and Karim Traiaia (co-founder and COO). Romanov is an electrical engineer whose public bios list plant-floor controls experience at major food and consumer-goods manufacturers including Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz before he moved into training full-time. The founding story, per the company's own about page, was frustration with the existing options: free online content that was outdated, and classroom training that cost around $5,000 for superficial coverage.

As of June 2026, the course catalog lists around 30 courses and hands-on project offerings spanning:

• Allen-Bradley / Rockwell: RSLogix 500 and Studio 5000 programming, FactoryTalk View HMI development, PowerFlex 525 VFD setup and integration, PointIO remote I/O, industrial Ethernet with RSLinx
• Siemens: TIA Portal at introductory and intermediate levels
• Codesys and PLCnext: including a PLCnext certification track
• FANUC robotics: programming, troubleshooting, Dual Check Safety
• Cognex In-Sight machine vision

Courses range from beginner to professional level, and several are structured as build-along projects — for example, a complete batching tank PLC-and-HMI system.

Pricing as of June 2026 (from the public join page):

• Free: $0 — limited access to basic courses and projects, no credit card required
• PLC Training Pro: $59/month, or $564/year billed annually (a 20% discount)
• Robotics Training Pro: $29/month, or $276/year
• Bundle Training Pro (PLC + robotics): $79/month, or $756/year
• Business plans: custom pricing; bespoke in-person training from $1,000/month

Pro plans include certificates of completion, instructor support, and quarterly course releases. The platform claims 90,000+ monthly students, 100+ enterprise customers (General Mills is named publicly), and a 4.7 average course rating.

What it does well

Plant-floor realism. This is SolisPLC's clearest differentiator. Most online PLC training stops at ladder logic fundamentals; SolisPLC's catalog includes the unglamorous, high-value work that actual controls jobs are made of — configuring a PowerFlex 525 drive, integrating PointIO over EtherNet/IP, building a FactoryTalk View HMI, wiring analog sensors into a working program. If your goal is "be useful at a plant on Monday," this content maps to the job better than most.

Breadth beyond PLCs. FANUC robot programming and troubleshooting, Cognex machine vision, OT networking, PLCnext — this is closer to a full automation-technician curriculum than a PLC-only library. The dedicated robotics track at $29/month is unusual and reasonably priced for what it covers.

A genuinely substantial free layer. The free membership tier gives limited course and project access with no credit card. Separately, the free tutorial library on the main site offers detailed, step-by-step text tutorials — Siemens TIA Portal, WinCC, Allen-Bradley, SCL, Profinet, instrumentation — plus a free PLC programming book. For self-taught learners, the tutorials alone are a legitimate reference resource you can use without ever paying.

Project-based course design. Build-along projects like the batching tank system force you to assemble a complete program and HMI rather than watching isolated topic videos. That's structurally better for retention than lecture-only formats.

Instructor support. Pro plans include instructor support and an active forum, which matters when you're stuck at 10 p.m. on an addressing error with no colleague to ask.

Where it falls short

No built-in simulator or hosted lab environment. Courses are taught in real vendor software — Studio 5000, TIA Portal, Codesys — and you're responsible for sourcing it. SolisPLC's own free tutorials walk you through installing tools like RSLogix Emulate, which is helpful, but Studio 5000 itself isn't free, and the platform doesn't provide hosted virtual machines or a browser-based practice environment as of June 2026. Plan for this before subscribing, or the "hands-on" courses become watch-along courses.

Premium pricing for individuals. At $59/month ($564/year), the PLC track sits in the same premium band as RealPars ($60/month, or $50/month billed annually — ≈$600/year as of June 2026); annual billing actually makes SolisPLC slightly cheaper of the two. For employer-funded learners this is irrelevant; for self-payers it's the main reason to exhaust the free tier first.

Subscription access, not ownership. Like RealPars, it's a membership: stop paying and you lose course access. Udemy-style one-time purchases this is not (though annual PLC and Bundle plans do bundle in a Studio 5000 lab-projects book you keep).

Smaller video footprint than RealPars. SolisPLC's YouTube channel sits in the tens of thousands of subscribers — useful free previews, but a fraction of RealPars' 700k+ channel. If you learn primarily from polished free video, RealPars' free funnel is larger.

Certificates are completion records, not accreditation. Fine for LinkedIn and training logs (the PLCnext certification track is the exception, being vendor-aligned), but don't expect them to substitute for SITRAIN or Rockwell credentials in credential-driven hiring.

SolisPLC vs RealPars

We've published a full RealPars review; here's the head-to-head.

The honest split: RealPars is the better structured on-ramp for complete beginners — more polished, bigger free video library, near-identical price. SolisPLC is the better choice once you know your target ecosystem and want applied, hardware-adjacent depth — drives, remote I/O, HMIs, robots, vision. Neither platform solves hands-on practice for you.

Who should (and shouldn't) buy it

Buy it if:

• You're a maintenance tech or junior controls engineer working in an Allen-Bradley plant and want job-mapped depth (Studio 5000, FactoryTalk, PowerFlex) — this is SolisPLC's strongest lane
• Your employer reimburses training — the price objection disappears and the content quality holds up
• You need robotics or machine vision alongside PLCs — almost no competitor bundles FANUC and Cognex this way
• You already have access to vendor software at work and just need structured instruction

Skip it (or stay on the free tier) if:

• You're a complete beginner on your own budget — free YouTube content, RealPars' 7-day free trial, and SolisPLC's own free tutorials cover your first months for far less
• You expect an all-in-one environment with built-in practice — no subscription here includes a simulator
• You want a formal, accredited credential — vendor training (SITRAIN, Rockwell Authorized) remains the certification path

How to supplement it with hands-on practice

The single biggest mistake with any video-led platform — SolisPLC or RealPars — is treating watching as learning. You can finish every course and still freeze when asked to write a motor-control rung from scratch. Close the gap deliberately:

1. Set up a free practice environment first. Before subscribing, get something you can write code in: SolisPLC's own tutorial on installing the RSLogix Emulate, TIA Portal trial downloads, Codesys (free IDE), or a browser-based simulator that needs no install. Our guide to how to practice PLC programming at home walks through every option by budget.

2. Pair each course module with practice reps. Finish a SolisPLC lesson on timers? Immediately build three timer problems yourself without looking at the video. Our 50 practice exercises are sequenced for exactly this — pull two or three after every module.

3. Build one complete project per month. SolisPLC's batching tank project course is a good template; replicate the pattern on your own scenarios until specifying, programming, and testing a full machine feels routine.

A subscription plus a free practice environment plus weekly reps beats a subscription alone, every time.

FAQ

Is SolisPLC worth it?

Yes, for employed technicians and engineers who want practical Allen-Bradley or Siemens depth, robotics, or vision training — especially if employer-funded. At $59/month for the PLC track, self-paying beginners should exhaust the free tier and tutorial library first, and budget separately for practice software since none is included.

Is SolisPLC free?

Partially. A free membership tier offers limited access to basic courses and projects with no credit card required, and the site hosts a substantial free text tutorial library plus a free PLC programming book. Full course access requires a Pro subscription, from $29–$79/month as of June 2026.

SolisPLC or RealPars — which is better?

RealPars is more polished for structured beginner video learning, at a near-identical price ($50–$60/month versus SolisPLC's $59/month, as of June 2026). SolisPLC goes deeper on applied plant-floor topics — drives, remote I/O, HMIs, FANUC robots, Cognex vision. Beginners who want maximum polish and structure: RealPars. Working techs targeting Allen-Bradley ecosystems: SolisPLC. Neither includes hands-on practice software, so plan for that either way.

Related Reading

• RealPars Alternative: Honest 2026 PLC Training Comparison
• How to Practice PLC Programming at Home
• 50 PLC Programming Practice Exercises