All three are built and priced for shops larger than three bays. Tekmetric and AutoLeap start at $199 a month and Shopmonkey at $239, and two of the three state on their own sites that they do not offer a free trial. For a one-to-three bay shop the honest answer is that one of them fits, and it depends on what you already do every day.
Prices below were checked on each vendor’s own pricing page in July 2026: Tekmetric, Shopmonkey, AutoLeap. We do not quote review directories in this category, because their structured fields and their own review text contradict each other on basic facts like trial availability.
⚠️ Pricing note. Every price in this article was read on the vendor’s own pricing page in July 2026, and each one is linked so you can check it. Software pricing moves without notice: plans get renamed, tiers get split, and fees get added. Open the vendor’s page and confirm the current number before you decide anything. If you find one of these out of date, the vendor’s page wins, not this article.
Every existing comparison of these three is written either by one of them or by a directory that earns a fee on the click. They also compare enterprise to enterprise. Nobody cuts the question down to a shop with three bays, one lift that is always busy, and an owner who is also the writer, the tech, and the person chasing the parts truck. That is this article.
The short version
- Tekmetric: $199 / $349 / $439 per month. Add-ons include multi-shop at $70/mo, tire at $39/mo, marketing at $345/mo.
- Shopmonkey: $239 / $399 / $499 per month, plus $20/mo per additional user.
- AutoLeap: $199 / $349 / $449 per month, AI receptionist at $99/mo, and a setup fee that exists but is not published.
- Tekmetric states it offers free demos but not free trials. AutoLeap states it does not offer a free trial because the system is custom-built with your shop information.
- All three are reasonable purchases for a shop with a service advisor and parts ordering inside the repair order.
- Garage is $39 for one user and $69 for up to seven, with no integrations, no parts ordering, no labor guides, and no automated texting.
When each of the three is the right call
Read this section as written, not as setup for a pitch. If you land in it, buy one of them.
Tekmetric fits the shop that runs on numbers. Their reporting depth is the reason people stay, and the modular add-on structure means a tire shop or a two-location owner can buy exactly the piece they need at $39 or $70 rather than jumping a whole tier. If you already look at technician efficiency and gross profit per repair order weekly, you will use what you are paying for.
Shopmonkey fits the shop with a real front counter. The workflow separation between writing, dispatching, and cashing out is what the price buys, and it is genuinely good at it. The $20/mo per-seat charge is a fair trade when every one of those seats is a person working a full day in the software. It is a bad trade when it covers a part-timer who logs in on Fridays.
AutoLeap fits the owner who’d rather be set up than set it up himself. The custom-build onboarding they describe is exactly why they do not offer a self-serve trial, and for an owner who does not want to configure anything, having someone else build it is a feature and not a delay.
All three fit you if you order parts inside the repair order, quote from labor time guides, send automated texts to customers, or sync invoices to your accounting. Those four capabilities are the actual product at this tier. A shop that runs on those and drops to a $39 product will be back in three months, minus three months.
What Garage doesn’t have
High on the page, in plain language, no softening.
- No parts ordering or supplier catalogs
- No labor time guides or estimating database
- No QuickBooks or accounting integration
- No automated text reminders or bulk SMS
Those four are exactly what the three platforms below are built around, which is why this comparison is about who each product is for and not about who wins. The complete list is in the full list of what Garage doesn’t do.
The three, side by side, for a small shop
Price at the size you actually are
For a 1-3 bay shop the entry tier is the only relevant row, because the middle and top tiers are priced against staff counts you do not have. Tekmetric and AutoLeap open at $199, Shopmonkey at $239. Over twelve months that is $2,388, $2,388, and $2,868 before anything else.
Then the modifiers. Shopmonkey’s $20/mo per additional user is the clearest one to model: two extra logins is $480 a year. AutoLeap’s setup fee is the least clear, because the pricing page acknowledges it without publishing a number, so you cannot budget the first year until you are in a sales conversation. Tekmetric’s structure is the most predictable, with add-ons priced individually and visibly.
What a small shop actually uses
Be honest about which parts of a platform built for eight bays you will touch. Repair orders, estimates, invoicing, scheduling, and vehicle history: yes, daily. Multi-shop reporting, advanced dispatch boards, and marketing automation at $345/mo: probably not in year one. That gap is not a criticism of the products, it is a mismatch between the buyer and the design target, and it is the single most common reason small shops churn off expensive software.
Getting in the door
This is where the three differ in a way you can verify yourself. Tekmetric’s pricing page states that it offers free demos but not free trials. AutoLeap’s page states that it does not offer a free trial because the system is custom-built with your shop’s necessary information. Shopmonkey does not publish trial terms on its pricing page either way, so ask them directly rather than trusting a directory listing.
Neither position is a scandal. A configured, sales-assisted onboarding is a legitimate model, and it is arguably the right one for a complex platform. It does mean that at this tier you commit before you have written a repair order in the software, and for a three-bay shop with no slack in the month, that is a meaningful risk to price in.
Before you shortlist any of the three
The five disqualifying questions are the same whichever of the three you’re looking at, and they’re written out in Shopmonkey alternatives under $100. Short version: if you order parts inside the software, quote off a labor guide, sync invoices to accounting, send automated texts, or run more than one location, you belong on this tier and the verdicts above are how you pick between them.
If none of that describes you, the $199-and-up tier is selling you capability you’ll never open, and the under-$100 field is the right place to look.
Where we differ from the three: the terms, not the features
Garage does not compete with these platforms on capability and this article is not going to pretend it does. What differs is the shape of the commitment.
No setup fee. The subscription is the whole bill.
Month to month. A bad fit costs you one month.
Seven days, no card. You write real repair orders on real vehicles before you decide. That is not unique in the budget tier, where several products offer trials on similar terms, but it is the clean break from the $199-and-up tier.
Published pricing with no per-seat surprise. Essential is $39 for one user. Premium is $69 for up to seven, with an additional charge from the eighth user on.
That is the entire argument. If the feature list above matters to your shop, the argument does not apply to you.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheapest, Tekmetric, Shopmonkey, or AutoLeap?
Tekmetric and AutoLeap both open at $199/mo and Shopmonkey at $239/mo, checked July 2026. AutoLeap’s undisclosed setup fee and Shopmonkey’s $20/mo per-seat charge can change that ranking in year one.
Does Tekmetric have a free trial?
Their pricing page states they offer free demos but not free trials. AutoLeap states the same about trials, citing custom setup.
Are any of these worth it for a two-bay shop?
Yes, if you order parts in-system, quote from labor guides, or sync accounting. If none of that describes you, you are paying for a design target you do not match.
What breaks first when a small shop buys enterprise software?
Usually adoption. The features that justify the price need a service advisor and a dispatcher to be worth anything, and an owner-operator ends up using the same five screens a $39 product has.
Bottom line
For a 1-3 bay shop, the question is not which of the three is better. It is whether your shop runs on the four capabilities that make them worth $199 to $239 a month. If it does, pick by fit: Tekmetric for reporting, Shopmonkey for the front counter, AutoLeap for hands-off setup. If it does not, stop shopping at that tier entirely.
You have 7 days to find out, no card, no contract.
Related reading: what shop software really costs in your first year · repair order vs work order · how to reduce comebacks in your shop
