Fullbay vs Tekmetric: Which Auto Shop Software Wins?

If you’re weighing Fullbay vs Tekmetric for your shop, the answer comes down to one question: what rolls into your bays? Heavy trucks, trailers, and diesel fleets point one direction. Cars, light trucks, and walk-in customers point the other. These are two strong platforms built for two different worlds, and picking the wrong one costs you money and headaches even if the software itself is excellent.

Below we break down pricing, features, real owner complaints, and a clear decision framework so you know exactly which one fits your operation. Both earn an STS Gold tier from us, so this isn’t a case of good versus bad. It’s a case of right tool for the right shop.

STS Verdict

There is no single winner here because these platforms serve different shops. Fullbay is the system heavy-duty and diesel shops build their day around.

Tekmetric is the modern all-in-one for light-duty independents that want growth tools and flat pricing. Match the tool to your shop type and either one is a strong buy.

9.2

STS Gold (both)Two category leaders, two different shops

Fullbay vs Tekmetric at a Glance

Here’s the fast comparison before we get into the detail. Prices below are current and hand-checked against each vendor’s live pricing.

Who Each Platform Is Actually Built For

Fullbay is shop management software built for one job: heavy-duty diesel truck and trailer repair, commercial fleet maintenance, and mobile repair rigs. If you turn wrenches on Class 4 through Class 8 trucks, this is your lane.

Tekmetric is built for light-duty independent auto repair shops, service advisors, and multi-location operations that want to grow average repair order and keep customers coming back. Cars and light trucks are its world.

Why does this matter so much? Because the vocabulary and the workflow follow the customer.

Fullbay speaks fleet. It thinks in units, service orders, and fleet managers who run 40 trucks and need uptime.

Tekmetric speaks retail. It thinks in average repair order (ARO), customer retention, digital vehicle inspections you send to a driver’s phone, and the front-counter service advisor workflow.

Force a heavy-duty shop onto a light-duty tool and you’ll fight the software on every multi-day fleet job. Force a car shop onto a fleet tool and your advisors will drown in complexity they never needed.

The software isn’t broken in either case. It’s just aimed at the wrong target.

The technician shortage makes this fit even more important. With TechForce Foundation data showing shops can’t fill bays fast enough, you can’t afford a tool your crew avoids using. We expand the full decision framework further down, but keep your shop type front of mind as we go.

Fullbay Pricing Today: What You’ll Actually Pay

Fullbay doesn’t post dollar figures on its own pricing page. The page routes you to a sales conversation for a quote, which is common in the heavy-duty software space but frustrating when you’re trying to budget.

Here’s what shops actually pay based on our research. The Basic plan runs about $188/mo and includes one full user.

Pro is around $258/mo, and Elite is around $318/mo. There’s also a quote-based Enterprise tier for high-volume operations.

The number that surprises owners is the per-user add-on. Basic adds roughly $89/mo per extra user, Pro adds about $109/mo, and Elite adds about $119/mo. A team of five gets expensive fast.

All plans bill monthly under an annual agreement. We didn’t find a true month-to-month option, so plan on committing for the year.

Watch out for two other line items. Data migration is a separate startup fee that owners flag regularly, and text alerts to customers can add cost on top of the base plan.

Add it all up and Fullbay’s per-user model is the single biggest budgeting risk. Run your real headcount through it before you sign. Our shop margin calculator helps you see what that monthly software line does to your bottom line.

Tekmetric Pricing Today: Transparent Plans, Real Trade-Offs

Tekmetric takes the opposite approach: no contracts, no hidden fees, and pricing posted right on the page. That transparency is a real advantage when you’re comparing options.

The Start plan is $179/mo billed annually, or $199 month to month. Grow is $309/mo and Scale is $409/mo billed annually; month-to-month rates are approximately $349/mo for Grow and $439/mo for Scale. Enterprise is quote-based and may include implementation fees.

The headline feature is what’s included: unlimited users, unlimited repair orders, and unlimited support on every plan. You don’t pay per seat, so adding a technician or a service advisor doesn’t move your bill.

The add-ons are where cost creeps in. Multi-Shop is about +$70/mo, the Tire Suite is about +$39/mo, and Marketing tools run about +$345/mo. Each physical location needs its own plan subscription.

Now the math that matters. Take a five-technician single-location shop. On Tekmetric’s Grow plan that’s $309/mo flat, no matter how many people log in.

On Fullbay’s Pro plan, that’s $258 base plus four added users at roughly $109 each, which lands near $694/mo before migration or text fees. At five techs, Tekmetric is meaningfully cheaper despite the higher sticker on the base plan.

For a broader look at what shops really spend across the market, our auto repair software pricing guide lays out the full picture.

Feature Face-Off: Core Shop Management Capabilities

Both platforms cover the basics of work order management, inventory, and invoicing. The differences show up in how each handles the flow of a job from drop-off to paid invoice.

Work order and repair order management

Fullbay’s service order is built for commercial repair: multi-step jobs, multiple units, complaints logged per truck, and labor tracked across days. Tekmetric’s repair order (RO) pipeline is tuned for fast light-duty turnaround, with a drag-and-drop job board that advisors move cars through in minutes.

If your average job is a one-day brake and oil service, Tekmetric’s pipeline is faster. If your average job is a three-day diesel engine repair with a fleet approval loop, Fullbay’s structure keeps you organized where a car tool would fall apart.

Digital vehicle inspections (DVI)

Tekmetric’s DVI is customer-facing. Techs shoot photos and video, the advisor sends the inspection to the customer’s phone, and the customer approves work with a tap. That flow drives approved work and lifts ARO, which is Tekmetric’s whole reason for existing.

Fullbay leans toward technician-side checklists built for commercial equipment inspections, not consumer-facing sales tools. Different goal, different design.

Inventory management and parts ordering

Both track parts. Tekmetric connects to more than 70 parts suppliers, so advisors order right off the RO and pull live pricing without a second screen. Fullbay handles commercial parts procurement, but owners consistently flag slow load times on the parts and inventory screens, which drags during a busy morning.

Invoicing, payments, and the customer portal

Tekmetric includes contactless payments and a customer portal where drivers see history and approve work. Fullbay invoices fine, but owners want more customization and note the templates feel rigid.

Scheduling and customer communication

Tekmetric’s appointment scheduling is customer-facing with online booking, plus two-way texting and a built-in CRM to cut phone tag. Fullbay’s scheduling is bay-and-technician focused, and its communication tools lean internal, which suits a shop dealing with fleet managers rather than walk-in consumers.

QuickBooks and reporting

Both connect to QuickBooks for accounting. The catch on Fullbay: owners used to QuickBooks-level reporting find Fullbay’s native reports thin by comparison. Tekmetric’s real-time reporting dashboard is one of its strengths, giving owners live stats on ARO, car count, and technician efficiency.

Fullbay’s AI Roadmap: Fullbay Next and the Pitstop Deal

Fullbay is in the middle of the biggest change in its history, and buyers evaluating today need to understand what’s shipping now versus what’s promised.

At its Fullbay Diesel Connect conference, the company announced Fullbay Next, a ground-up platform built with an AI-first approach. The pitch: an AI assistant for every major shop role, plus a technician-focused “wrench mode,” AI-assisted writing tools, workflow automation, and better reporting.

That reporting upgrade matters, because weak native reporting is Fullbay’s most common gripe. If Fullbay Next delivers, it patches a real pain point.

The catch is timing. Phase 1 targets solo operators and mobile repair rigs first, with shops of 3 to 19 employees coming in a later phase. So the mid-size diesel shop reading this today is buying the current product, not the demo reel.

Fullbay also acquired Pitstop, an AI predictive maintenance and fleet intelligence platform. The idea is to combine Fullbay’s deep base of real-world truck repair data with Pitstop’s models to predict fleet failures before they strand a truck.

For a fleet-heavy shop, that predictive maintenance angle is genuinely compelling. It turns your service history into a reason fleets keep their trucks with you instead of the shop down the road.

Two smaller tools round it out: an AI translation feature for shops with English-as-a-second-language crew, and Ask Spike, an assistant that answers plain-language questions about your shop data. Both are useful, but neither is a reason to buy on its own.

Tekmetric’s Growth Tools: Digital Ads, Phones, and More

Tekmetric’s recent updates all point the same direction: help light-duty shops book more cars and keep customers longer.

At its Tektonic conference in Houston, Tekmetric unveiled Tekmetric Digital Ads, geotargeted advertising that connects nearby drivers with your shop. It’s a marketing engine built right into the platform instead of a separate agency contract.

Alongside it came Tekmetric Phones, which folds call management into the shop workflow so an advisor sees who’s calling and their history without hunting through a separate phone system.

The Tire Suite add-on serves shops that sell and mount tires, and the Marketing add-on handles retention campaigns. These are extra monthly fees, so add them to your budget only if you’ll actually use them.

The core growth story stays the same: unlimited repair orders and unlimited users mean the platform never penalizes you for getting busier or hiring more people.

Tekmetric points to a multi-shop operator that doubled monthly revenue after switching, and while that’s the vendor’s own number, the mechanism is straightforward. Better DVIs plus two-way texting plus live reporting means more approved work per car and fewer customers lost to voicemail. We dig deeper in our full Tekmetric review.

What Shop Owners Say About Fullbay

Documented owner feedback on Fullbay is consistent, and it splits cleanly into what fleet shops love and what frustrates smaller teams.

On the praise side, heavy-duty operators say nothing else handles their world as well. Technician time tracking on multi-day jobs, fleet management, and purpose-built diesel workflows come up again and again as the reasons they stay.

The complaints are just as consistent. Reporting is the top one: owners used to pulling detailed QuickBooks reports find Fullbay’s native reporting limited.

Second, slow load times on the parts and inventory screens interrupt busy periods. Third, cost surprises from per-user charges and migration fees push monthly bills higher than owners expected.

Fourth, setup is complex. Owners warn that if you don’t configure Fullbay correctly at onboarding, you’ll live with functionality gaps for months. Invest in the setup or pay for it later.

What Shop Owners Say About Tekmetric

Tekmetric’s reputation among light-duty shops is strong, and the feedback backs up why.

The most common praise is how easy it feels to use. Service advisors coming off legacy systems pick it up fast, and the day-to-day workflow feels intuitive instead of buried in menus.

Customer communication tools get called out constantly. Two-way texting and digital authorization cut phone tag and get approvals faster, and the photo-and-video DVI reports generate more approved work and lift ARO.

The concerns are mostly about cost at scale. The per-location subscription means multi-shop groups add up quickly, and the Tire Suite, Marketing, and Digital Ads add-ons can push total spend well above the base plan.

Onboarding is generally smoother than Fullbay’s, though enterprise setups can carry extra fees. The most common real complaint we see: the mobile app lags behind the desktop experience. Techs who work away from a workstation notice it.

Which One Is Right for Your Shop?

Here’s the decision guide, no hedging. Match your shop to the profile that fits.

Choose Fullbay if:

• You primarily service Class 4 through 8 trucks, trailers, or commercial equipment
• You run a mobile diesel repair operation
• Fleet predictive maintenance is a revenue line, not an afterthought
• You need detailed technician time tracking across multi-day jobs
• Your customers are fleet managers, not individual drivers

Choose Tekmetric if:

• You run a light-duty independent auto repair shop
• Growing ARO and customer retention are your top numbers
• Your team has service advisors who need a fast front-counter workflow
• You’re scaling to multiple locations and want one consistent platform
• Online marketing and customer texting matter to you

The gray zone: mixed shops

Some shops service both cars and the occasional box truck or work van. Trying to force either platform to do both well creates friction: Fullbay overcomplicates the light stuff, and Tekmetric isn’t built for real commercial workflows.

If most of your volume is light-duty with a handful of medium-duty jobs, lean Tekmetric and handle the commercial work manually. If it’s the reverse, go Fullbay. A shop that’s truly 50/50 should look hard at alternatives before committing.

Worth evaluating in that gray zone: Shopmonkey, AutoLeap, and traditional options like Mitchell 1 or NAPA TRACS. Our find-your-match tool can point you toward the closest fit for an odd shop profile.

Size and cost fit

Fullbay’s per-user pricing gets expensive as you add techs. Tekmetric’s unlimited-user model is more predictable for a growing crew.

For a small one-or-two-person diesel shop, Fullbay’s Basic plan is affordable. For a growing light-duty team, Tekmetric’s flat pricing wins.

If neither feels right, our full roundup of the best auto repair shop management software ranks the wider field, and our independent shop software reviews cover every platform we’ve scored.

Switching, Migration, and Onboarding: What No One Tells You

The demo never shows you the messy part. Here’s what moving in actually looks like.

On Fullbay, budget for a separate migration fee on top of your subscription. The bigger risk is configuration: owners who rush setup end up with gaps that haunt them for months. Structured onboarding isn’t optional here.

Tekmetric onboarding is generally smoother, and unlimited support is included on every plan, which helps during the transition. Enterprise setups may add an implementation fee, so ask.

Know what usually moves and what doesn’t. Customer history, repair order history, parts catalog, and employee profiles often migrate, but the depth varies. Custom canned jobs and labor times frequently need rebuilding by hand, so plan for data entry time.

Staff training follows the learning curve. Tekmetric’s lower curve means faster adoption. Fullbay’s complexity needs more structured training, especially for staff who haven’t worked heavy-duty software before.

Before you sign either contract, ask the vendor five things: exact migration cost, timeline, data backup policy, who your dedicated onboarding contact is, and what happens to your data if you cancel. The answers tell you a lot.

Integrations and the Tools You Already Use

Integration depth decides how much manual work your team does every day. The goal is ordering parts off the RO, taking payment without a separate terminal, and syncing accounting without exporting spreadsheets.

Tekmetric connects to more than 70 parts suppliers, plus QuickBooks for accounting and various payment and marketing tools. That breadth is one of the highest in the light-duty segment and a real time saver at the counter.

Fullbay connects to QuickBooks and focuses its integrations on commercial fleet and parts procurement. The Pitstop acquisition adds fleet intelligence connectivity that light-duty tools simply don’t have.

One integration note owners miss: accounting syncs are often one direction. Changes you make in QuickBooks may not push back into the shop system, so decide which tool is your source of truth and stick to it.

If your shop depends on a specific parts supplier or accounting setup, confirm it’s supported before you commit. A missing integration you rely on daily is a genuine dealbreaker.

Want to line these two up against a third option? Use our side-by-side compare tool.

Head-to-Head Pricing Verdict

Let’s settle the money question with real numbers for a five-technician single-location shop.

Fullbay Pro: $258 base plus four added users near $109 each, which lands around $694/mo before any migration or text-alert fees. That’s on an annual agreement.

Tekmetric Grow: $309/mo flat with unlimited users, month to month or annual. Adding techs doesn’t change it.

At five techs, Tekmetric is roughly half the monthly cost despite the higher base plan price. The gap only widens as you hire. That’s the practical case for Tekmetric’s flat model in a light-duty shop.

Where Fullbay earns its price is value, not sticker. For a true heavy-duty shop, no lighter tool serves the use case well, so the comparison isn’t really about dollars. It’s about having the only system that runs your kind of work.

Two more cost factors. Tekmetric offers explicit month-to-month billing, so you can walk if it doesn’t fit.

Fullbay locks you into an annual agreement, so factor exit timing into your decision. Both scoring breakdowns come from the same rubric, which you can read in how we score.

The Bottom Line: Fullbay or Tekmetric?

This isn’t a close call once you name your shop type, and that’s the point. Fullbay and Tekmetric both earn an STS Gold 9.2, but they win for different shops.

Fullbay wins for heavy-duty diesel and commercial fleet operations. If you fix trucks and trailers, need real technician time tracking on multi-day jobs, and want fleet predictive maintenance as a revenue line, no light-duty tool comes close. The Fullbay Next and Pitstop roadmap makes the future compelling for fleet operators, just confirm what’s live today before you pay for it.

Tekmetric wins for light-duty independent shops. If you want cost-predictable pricing, unlimited users, the strongest customer-facing DVI in the category, and growth tools that lift ARO, it’s the clear pick. Read our Tekmetric vs Shopmonkey comparison if you’re also weighing Shopmonkey.

Neither fits every shop. Truly mixed shops and budget-tight small shops should also look at Shopmonkey and AutoLeap before signing. Whichever way you lean, get real evaluation time with the platform that matches your shop type, and don’t lock into an annual plan until your crew has actually run real repair orders through it.

Shop standards referenced in our scoring: Automotive Service Association (ASA).

Shop Tech Score Team

We spent 14 years owning and running an independent auto repair shop before building Shop Tech Score. Now that experience has one job: scoring every major platform on the same five-factor rubric and maintaining the industry's only editor-verified pricing index. If a vendor raised prices this quarter, the number on this site is already updated.