Heat pump or traditional system?

My ductwork, furnace and air conditioning units all need to be replaced, for different reasons. This is not an emergency and it gives me a unique opportunity to think about my options from scratch. The straightforward option would be to replace my gas furnace with a newer high-efficiency model, and get a new, normal AC unit. However, I also live in a part of the US with excellent solar potential, with a large south-facing roof, and I plan to eventually install solar PV panels. HVAC would come first, solar PV maybe a year later. Because of that list of considerations I started looking into heat pumps.

I do live in an area with cold winters and I read mixed things about the ability of a heat pump to perform well in subfreezing temperatures. Auxiliary heat seems recommended and it could be electric, which would however significantly change my calculations for the best size of a future solar PV installation (and significantly increase my electricity cost in the interim); auxiliary gas heating makes me think that I'd be better off with simply installing a new high-efficiency gas furnace.

A friend of mine is going to install a geothermal heat pump system, which I understand would improve both winter and summer performance, but although it might make sense for him, I think the installation cost will be too high for me to make it a sensible economical choice given my energy usage.

I am wondering whether anybody could point me to resources that would help me understand better my options. Talking to local installers I get widely different recommendations and I sometimes get the impression that everybody pushes for whatever they are comfortable with or make more money installing. Ideally I'd like to search for an installation company after I feel comfortable understanding which option is best for me.

I'm looking for any sort of resource that would help me make this decision. Online tools, personal experience, or trusted companies I could talk to to help me better understand my options.