Solar energy offers a sustainable pathway to meet residential demand for hot water and electricity, yet comparative community – scale assessments of solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) systems remain limited. This study presents a techno – economic comparison of solar water heaters and PV systems to meet the combined hot – water and electricity needs of a 2000 – home residential community in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Using RETScreen software, the annual hot – water load for a five – occupant household was modelled and a detailed energy audit was conducted to estimate its annual electricity demand. Community – scale requirements were then derived by scaling the results for an individual home by 2000. Two solar water heaters (ThuSolar and SunEarth) and three PV modules (Longi Solar, Jinko Solar, and REC Solar) were compared in fixed – tilt and one – axis tracking configurations across five metrics: annual energy output, capital expenditure, CO₂ reduction, payback period, and land use. SunEarth water heaters achieved the highest thermal yield of 6.19 million kWh, offsetting 3.44 million kg of CO2, while occupying 7400 m2 of land with payback period of 14.6 years. For electricity, Jinko Solar with one – axis tracking generated the highest output of 63.37 million kWh, cutting CO₂ by 35.22 million kg with a footprint of 142568 m² and 12.3-year payback. These findings highlight that optimized solar thermal and PV technologies can play complementary roles in delivering cost – effective, sustainable energy solutions for large residential communities.