Surface potential maps are very important for characterisation of insulator covered and bare semiconductor surfaces. Contactless methods use capacitive coupling. Vibration (vibrating capacitor) and light (SPV, surface photo voltage method) are used for the surface excitation. Both methods give information about the surface potential, and are sensitive to the surface charge, too. This article discusses the differences and similarities between the methods, concerning theory, application and evaluation of the results. Several surface potential maps an presented and evaluated too.