Tekmetric and Shopmonkey are both good shop management systems, and both are built for a fixed building with bays. For a mobile operator, the right question isn’t which one is better overall; it’s which one fits the parts of your day that happen at a desk, and what you add for the parts that happen in a van. This is a neutral comparison written by a team that runs mobile repair at volume, not by either vendor.
We sell software that can sit next to either system, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to be specific about where each product is strong.
The short version
| Tekmetric | Shopmonkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Independent shops, single and multi-location | Independent shops, single and multi-location |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly plans per shop, unlimited users (per its pricing page) | Tiered monthly plans (per its pricing page) |
| Public pricing | Start $199, Grow $349, Scale $439 per month; Enterprise by quote (tekmetric.com/pricing, checked September 2026) | Tiers listed on shopmonkey.io/pricing; check the current page |
| Digital inspections | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow board | Yes | Yes |
| Integrated payments | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-van dispatch with drive time | Not a core design goal | Not a core design goal |
| GPS proof of visit | Not a core design goal | Not a core design goal |
Prices and plans change. Always check each vendor’s current pricing page before you decide.
What both do well
Before the mobile gaps, credit where it’s due. Both products are mature, widely used and good at the work of running a repair order:
- Repair orders and estimates with labor, parts and fees, and customer approval by text or link.
- Digital vehicle inspections with photos and notes that customers can see.
- Workflow boards that show where each job sits.
- Integrated payments and customer messaging.
- Integrations with parts suppliers, accounting tools and a range of third-party apps. Each publishes an integrations directory worth reviewing against your stack.
If most of your work happens in a building, either one can run your shop well.
Where Tekmetric is better
- Flat, published pricing. Tekmetric’s plans are listed with prices and, per its pricing page, include unlimited users. That’s easy to budget.
- A reputation for a clean repair-order workflow that service advisors learn quickly.
- Integrations directory. A long list of connected tools, which matters if you already rely on specific parts, marketing or accounting apps.
- Multi-location shop groups. Pricing and structure are well suited to independent groups adding locations, though per-location costs add up.
Common complaints we hear from shop owners: the marketing add-on is priced separately, costs grow with each location, and some workflows take more clicks than people would like.
Where Shopmonkey is better
- Modern, flexible interface that many owners find quick to set up and customize.
- Strong customer-facing experience: messaging, approvals and payments designed to feel simple for the vehicle owner.
- Workflow customization for shops that want to shape their own process.
- Tiered plans that let a small shop start lower and move up as it adds needs.
Check the current tier list on shopmonkey.io/pricing to see which features sit in which plan; automation and reporting features are often reserved for higher tiers.
Where both fall short for mobile work
Neither product was designed around vans. That isn’t a flaw in a shop system; it’s a different job. Here’s what a mobile operator runs into:
Dispatch across several vans
A shop schedules bays. A mobile business schedules people who move. Choosing which tech takes a new job depends on where each van is now, what’s already on their route, their skills and the value of the job. Calendar views and bay schedules don’t answer “who should take this brake job in 20 minutes?”
On our own operations, moving from nearest-tech assignment to scored assignment produced +30% revenue per job from ML dispatch, in our backtest. That’s the difference dispatch logic can make. See Dispatch AI.
Drive time in the schedule
A 90-minute job with 35 minutes of drive time on each side is a 160-minute block. Shop schedulers don’t model that, so mobile calendars built on them are optimistic every day and late every afternoon.
Proof of visit
When a customer says “your tech never showed,” or a fleet client asks when the van actually arrived, you need GPS-verified arrival and departure, not a status a tech tapped later. Neither shop system is built around location proof. See Tech App & GPS Proof.
The phone
Mobile techs are under a car, not at a front desk. Across auto shops, 55% of calls go unanswered (Invoca) and 68% of callers who reach voicemail don’t call back (Marchex). With an average repair order around $450, missed calls are the most expensive gap in most mobile businesses, and neither shop system answers the phone for you.
Payments and the tech cash ledger
Both shop systems handle card payments at the counter and by text link well. Mobile work adds a wrinkle: techs collect in the field, sometimes in cash or by check, and the owner needs to know who is holding what at the end of the day. A shop system records the payment against the repair order; it usually doesn’t track a per-tech balance of cash collected, payouts owed and deposits made. If your techs are paid per job or collect cash, you’ll want a ledger that reconciles each tech’s day, not only each invoice. See Payments & Payouts for how we handle it.
How to add a mobile and front-office layer
You don’t have to replace a shop system you like. The common setup we see:
| Job | Keep in Tekmetric or Shopmonkey | Add on top |
|---|---|---|
| Repair orders, estimates, inspections | Yes | |
| Parts ordering and accounting sync | Yes | |
| Answering calls and booking jobs | AI receptionist | |
| Working unbooked leads | Lead desk | |
| Choosing the tech and routing vans | Dispatch | |
| GPS arrival, photos, proof of visit | Tech app | |
| Field payment and tech cash ledger | Optional | Payments and payouts |
Ride N Repair OS covers the right-hand column. The AI Receptionist answers every call, quotes from your price list and books the job. Automatic write-back of booked jobs into Shopmonkey and Tekmetric is rolling out; until it’s live for your account, booked jobs appear in our dashboard and notifications for your team to enter. We’ll tell you the date for your setup before you sign.
Which should you choose?
- You run a bay and occasionally send a tech out: pick the shop system whose workflow your advisors prefer. Trial both demos with a real repair order.
- You run one van and do your own admin: either can work. Prioritize simple invoicing and payments, and add call answering if you miss calls while working.
- You run three or more vans: the shop system matters less than dispatch, drive time, proof of visit and answering the phone. Choose the shop system you like for repair orders and add a field layer, or run the field operation on software built for it. See mobile mechanic software.
A practical test: take last Tuesday’s jobs and try to schedule them in each tool with realistic drive times between addresses. The gaps show up in ten minutes.
Questions to ask each vendor in the demo
- How do I assign a new job to the best of four techs who are all in the field?
- Where does drive time appear in the schedule?
- How do I prove when a tech arrived at a customer’s address?
- What happens to a call at 7:40 PM when nobody is at the desk?
- Which features in my plan are add-ons, and what does the total come to with them?
Key takeaways
- Tekmetric and Shopmonkey are both solid shop systems built for fixed bays.
- Tekmetric publishes flat plans ($199 / $349 / $439 per month, tekmetric.com/pricing, checked September 2026); Shopmonkey publishes tiers on shopmonkey.io/pricing.
- Neither is designed for multi-van dispatch, drive-time scheduling or GPS proof of visit.
- You can keep either one and add a front-office and field layer on top.
- Test with a real day of jobs and drive times, not a sales script.
Read the full comparisons: Ride N Repair OS vs Tekmetric and Ride N Repair OS vs Shopmonkey, or watch a simulated mobile day.