Tekmetric pricing & alternatives
Tekmetric pricing: what it really costs a small shop
The plan-by-plan numbers, the add-ons reviewers end up paying for, and an honest look at when Tekmetric fits — and when a 1–5-bay shop is better off with something simpler.
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The sticker price
Three tiers, per location, per month
Tekmetric’s published pricing is $199 a month for Start, $349 for Grow, and $439 for Scale — each per location, billed month to month. Commit to a year up front and those drop to $179, $309, and $409; the annual rate is the one that tends to get quoted, so check which of the two numbers you are being shown. Running more than one shop adds a multi-shop fee, which Tekmetric lists at $70 a month per shop. Two locations on the cheapest month-to-month tier is $199 each, so $4,776 a year in subscription alone — before the multi-shop fee and before any other add-on.
Credit where due: the pricing is public, and it bills month to month — Tekmetric’s own pricing page leads with no contracts or hidden fees. That already puts it ahead of competitors who hide the number behind a sales call.
The real cost
What the tiers don’t cover
The recurring theme in Tekmetric’s critical reviews isn’t the subscription — it’s what you pay on top, in money and in time. The built-in labor guide is the loudest example: one Capterra reviewer called it “so full of holes it is unuseable” and reported support recommending a Mitchell 1 subscription as a supplement — roughly $180 a month extra. QuickBooks sync goes through a third-party connector rather than a native connection.
Then there’s the time cost. Reviewers describe day-to-day work where “everything takes a million mouse clicks,” with one counting 30–40 clicks before even starting an estimate, and another wrote “Schedule system crazy complicated.” Several also note the trade-off of a 100% cloud system: if the shop’s internet goes down, so does the software. And more than one reviewer reports that responsive pre-sale communication dropped off after signing.
None of that makes Tekmetric a bad product. It means the $199 headline is the entry point of a system that assumes someone at the shop has time to run it.
On inspections
Tekmetric digital vehicle inspections, and where BayDocket differs
The DVI is the part of Tekmetric reviewers praise hardest, and it has earned that. The inspection sheets are thorough, the report the customer opens looks sharp, and shops that run their whole day through it say so out loud. If the inspection is why you are looking at Tekmetric, you are looking at a good one. What follows isn’t a claim to beat it — it’s a different shape, and the difference is where the inspection gets captured and what happens the second a tech flags something.
BayDocket’s DVI is photo-first, on the phone already in the tech’s pocket. Shoot the photo at the car, mark the item green, yellow, or red, add a note, move to the next one. There is nothing to install — it runs in the phone browser, so a new tech is capturing on their own handset the same morning. Each photo uploads as it is taken; a weak signal means one photo waiting a moment, not a lost capture or a re-done inspection.
Then the part that saves the writer the most time: a yellow or red finding promotes onto the RO in one tap. The job lands on the estimate unpriced, you put your number on it, and it goes out for the customer to approve by text, job by job. Nobody re-types the finding into the ticket, so nothing gets lost between the bay and the counter. The customer opens one link and sees the findings and their photos next to the priced jobs, then approves the ones they want. The honest trade: BayDocket’s inspections are photos and notes, not video, and capture needs a live connection rather than storing the walkaround on the handset.
Honest fit
When Tekmetric is the better choice
Tekmetric is a strong product for bigger operations: multi-advisor shops, multi-location groups, and anyone who wants a large integration catalog and deep reporting. Its digital vehicle inspections are widely praised as best-in-class, and month-to-month billing means trying it isn’t a trap. If that’s your shop, book their demo — you’ll be in good company.
Where it fits worse is the 1–5-bay shop where the owner is also the service writer. There, the tier ladder, the add-ons, and the click count are the product. BayDocket exists for exactly that shop: one price with everything included, estimates in 3 clicks, DVI, text approvals, and text-to-pay — and honestly, not yet the things a bigger shop needs, like a labor guide or parts-ordering integrations. We’re young, built with a pilot shop; the table below marks what we don’t have yet, because you’ve probably been burned by a checkmark wall before.
Tekmetric vs BayDocket at a glance
| What to compare | Tekmetric | BayDocket |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | $199 / $349 / $439 per location per month, tiered ($179 / $309 / $409 on annual billing) | One price, everything included |
| Contract | Month to month | Month to month |
| Digital vehicle inspections | Yes — widely praised by reviewers | Yes — photo-first, from the tech’s phone |
| Estimates | Yes — reviewers report a heavy click count | Yes — 3 clicks to start one |
| Text approvals | Yes — two-way texting | Yes — carrier-registered and live; customer approves each job by text |
| Text-to-pay | Yes | Yes |
| Labor guide | Built in — reviewers report needing a Mitchell 1 supplement | Not yet — canned jobs cover your repeat work |
| QuickBooks sync | Via a third-party connector | Yes — built-in one-way push |
| Needs an operator? | Reviewers describe a busy interface and multi-step tasks | Built so the owner runs it from a phone |
Frequently asked questions
How much does Tekmetric cost?
Tekmetric publishes three plans: Start at $199, Grow at $349, and Scale at $439 — each per location, per month. Commit to annual billing and those drop to $179, $309, and $409. Add-ons are quoted on top of whichever tier you pick: multi-shop management is another $70 a month per shop, the Tire Suite another $39 a month per shop, and the marketing module another $345 a month per shop. Reviewers also report paying for supplements the plans don’t cover, like a Mitchell 1 labor-guide subscription at around $180 a month, so the sticker price is the floor, not the total.
Does Tekmetric have a contract?
No annual contract — Tekmetric bills month to month, and its own pricing page advertises no contracts or hidden fees. That is genuinely better than annual-contract competitors like AutoLeap, and it is the same stance BayDocket takes: month to month, cancel anytime.
Tekmetric vs Shopmonkey — which is better?
Both are capable cloud platforms with tiered pricing, and both draw the same core complaint from reviewers: too many clicks for simple tasks. Tekmetric earns stronger marks for its digital vehicle inspections and bills month to month; Shopmonkey took a wave of one-star reviews after its forced v2.0 migration, and reviewers report chat-only support and a data-export trap. If you are choosing between the two, Tekmetric is the safer pick — but a 1–5-bay shop may not need either one’s tier ladder.
What is a simpler Tekmetric alternative for a small shop?
BayDocket is built for 1–5-bay shops: estimates in 3 clicks, photo-first DVI, text approvals, and text-to-pay, at one price with everything included — no tiers, no per-location math, no contract. It is a young product built with a pilot shop, so the honest pitch is the live demo and a published price, not a promise that it does everything Tekmetric does today.
Try the live demoStart your shop
Prefer a walkthrough? Book a 15-minute demo
One price, one subscriptionNo contractYour data is yours