Most cloud-based auto-repair shop management systems for a single independent shop land between roughly $180 and $500 per month, depending on the plan tier and how many features you need. Some vendors publish these prices openly; others only give a number after a demo. Here’s what the leading systems actually cost, what drives the price up, and the extra costs worth asking about before you sign.
The short answer (our analysis)
Budget ~$200–$250/mo for an entry plan, ~$350–$450/mo for a mid/upper plan with two-way texting, dashboards and analytics, and custom pricing for enterprise/multi-location. Annual billing usually shaves ~10%. The sticker price isn’t the whole story — payment-processing rates, onboarding/migration and add-on modules can matter just as much.
Published monthly pricing, side by side
Entry, mid and upper published tiers for the systems we’ve verified (monthly billing; most are cheaper billed annually):
| Vendor | Entry | Upper published |
|---|---|---|
| Tekmetric | $199 | $439 |
| Shopmonkey | $239 | $499 |
| AutoLeap | Not published | Not published |
Both Tekmetric and Shopmonkey also offer custom “enterprise” pricing above their top published tier. AutoLeap publishes no prices at all — it quotes after a demo (see below).
What drives the price up
- Plan tier. Higher tiers unlock two-way texting, real-time dashboards, technician boards and employee-performance analytics. Moving from entry to upper roughly doubles the monthly cost.
- Per-user vs flat billing. This is a big one. Tekmetric charges a flat price with unlimited users and repair orders — adding staff doesn’t raise your bill. Not every vendor works this way, so always confirm whether pricing is per seat.
- Add-on modules. Tire suite, multi-shop/multi-location, marketing, bookkeeping, heavy-duty and accounting are commonly priced on top. Example (Tekmetric, published): multi-shop +$70/mo/shop, tire suite +$39/mo/shop, marketing +$345/mo/shop.
- Billing term. Annual billing typically saves up to ~10% versus month-to-month.
Extra costs to ask about (they’re often not in the sticker price)
- Payment processing rates. If you use the built-in payments, the per-transaction rate can dwarf the software fee. Ask for the exact percentage and any per-transaction fee.
- Onboarding, data migration & training. Moving your customer/vehicle history over can carry a one-time cost or require paid onboarding — confirm what’s included.
- Texting/SMS. Check whether texts are truly unlimited or metered.
- Contract length & cancellation. Month-to-month vs annual lock-in changes your real risk if it doesn’t work out.
“Quote-only” vendors: how to get a real number
Some systems — AutoLeap among them — don’t publish pricing. You book a demo and receive a custom quote. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it means you can’t comparison-shop on price without a sales call. When you get a quote, pin down: the monthly rate, whether it’s billed per user, contract length, payment-processing rates, onboarding/migration cost, and anything billed as an add-on. Then line it up against a published price like Tekmetric’s or Shopmonkey’s.
How to budget it properly
The monthly fee is usually small next to your labor revenue. Divide the plan price by your monthly billed labor hours to see the true cost per billed hour — it’s often just a dollar or two. Our free effective labor-rate calculator helps you put the software cost in context of what your bays actually bring in.
Compare the systems in detail
Our vendor-neutral head-to-heads break down pricing and features for each pairing:
How we sourced these prices (and our limits)
All published figures come from each vendor’s official pricing page, verified 26 August 2026. We don’t estimate prices for vendors that don’t publish them, and we don’t run hands-on trials or publish ratings we didn’t collect. Vendors change plans often — confirm current pricing before buying. Opinions are labeled “our analysis.”
Sources
- Tekmetric pricing — tekmetric.com/pricing (accessed 26 Aug 2026)
- Shopmonkey pricing — shopmonkey.io/pricing (accessed 26 Aug 2026)
- AutoLeap pricing — autoleap.com/pricing (accessed 26 Aug 2026 — no prices listed)
Related: all comparisons · labor-rate calculator · our methodology