Switching from Tekmetric
Tekmetric alternatives without a front desk
Tekmetric is real auto repair software written by someone who ran a shop, and most of what makes it good assumes a shop exists. This page is for the version of you that does not have one.
Looking for the row by row table instead? Fixty vs Tekmetric
What actually moves, and what does not
The thing that decides your timeline: Fixty has no upload screen. Getting your customers over is not something you do on a page in the app, it is something support does with you, starting from whatever file Tekmetric hands back. Raise it before the renewal rather than after, because another person is involved and nothing about the timing has been promised.
Leaving Tekmetric is a smaller data problem than leaving home services software, because you are moving between two systems that both know what a vehicle is. Year, make, model, plate, mileage and owner all mean the same thing on both sides, so the file can be recognised rather than reconstructed and the conversation about it is short.
How much of it to send is still a real choice. Hand the file over and have the shop waiting for you, or deliberately bring almost none of it: keep Tekmetric readable while it is paid for, start the next repair order in the new system, and let each customer arrive the next time they book. The second version ends the quarter with the people who actually still call you rather than a database of dead rows and duplicate phone numbers.
Ask for the export before the renewal
Customers, vehicles, repair orders and invoices, in writing, while the account is live. What a vendor returns on the way out is not something we have sourced from their own pages, so their answer is the one to have on file.
There is no screen to load it yourself
Send the file, then go through it with whoever picks it up and say which parts of it you want. The good news for a shop to shop move is that the fields line up, so the discussion is about what to keep rather than what anything means.
Inspections and photos stay behind
Past inspection reports and the photos attached to them do not travel. Keep the export searchable, because these are the records a customer asks about a year later.
Decide the texting question early
If two way texting is how your customers reach you, note that in Fixty a dedicated text number sits on the Growth plan rather than Starter. That decision comes before the plan comparison, not after.
Overlap deliberately
Run both for a few weeks, write new work in one and look up old work in the other, and cancel when a week goes by without opening Tekmetric.
What you give up by leaving Tekmetric
These four are why shops stay. Read them as an operator without a counter and ask honestly which ones describe your week rather than the week you imagine having.
Parts inventory management
Fixty: No. Fixty tracks parts on a job, not stock on a shelf.
Tekmetric
Yes
“Inventory management is a Tekmetric feature included in all of our plans.”
tekmetric.com/faq, read August 29, 2026
Tire and wheel shop tools
Fixty: No.
Tekmetric
Yes
“Yes! Tekmetric's tire software allows shops to track tire inventory and sales all from within the Tekmetric platform.”
tekmetric.com/feature/tire-suite, read August 29, 2026
Multi technician teams
Fixty: No. One mechanic, one workspace. Built solo first on purpose.
Tekmetric
Yes
“As many as you want! Seriously. All your mechanics, technicians, service writers, and managers can access the platform.”
tekmetric.com/faq, read August 29, 2026
Job pipeline board
Fixty: Yes.
Tekmetric
Yes
“The Job Board lets you see work order cards under Estimates, Work-In-Progress, and Completed jobs columns.”
tekmetric.com/post/streamline-mechanic-work-orders-and-workflow-with-tekmetrics-tech-board, read August 29, 2026
When Tekmetric is the better choice, in full
- You work out of a building with a crew. Their Job Board moves work order cards through Estimates, Work in Progress and Completed columns, and the Tech Board splits the jobs inside one order across named technicians. Fixty has no equivalent for dividing a job between people.
- You stock parts. Inventory management is included on every Tekmetric plan rather than sold as an upgrade.
- You sell tires. Tire Suite covers tire inventory and sales inside the platform, which is an entire product line Fixty does not have.
- Your headcount is growing. Tekmetric puts every mechanic, technician, service writer and manager on the platform, with no cap they publish on how many people you add.
Every Tekmetric claim on this page was read from their own site, is quoted with the page it came from, and was last re-read on August 29, 2026. Where a cell says we could not confirm something, that is what it means: we looked and did not find it, which is not the same as it not existing.
Tekmetric says it supports mobile mechanics. Read their sentence, then read the product
It would be easy for this page to imply that Tekmetric refuses your kind of business. It does not, and they say so in their own estimate FAQ:
Auto repair shops of every size. Their own estimate FAQ says that set includes mobile mechanics alongside single shop businesses and franchises.
“Yes! We proudly support more than 15,000 shops including mobile mechanics, single shop businesses, and franchises. Tekmetric is cloud-based so you can access Tekmetric from anywhere on any device.”
tekmetric.com/feature/estimate-building, read August 29, 2026
That is a real sentence on their real site, and it means the question is not permission, it is fit. So read the rest of the product vocabulary next to it. Their mobile app is described like this:
Partial
“Tekmetric Mobile is designed for service advisors and technicians, helping your whole team stay productive and focused, from the curb to the bay.”
tekmetric.com/mobile-app, read August 29, 2026
From the curb to the bay. Service advisors and technicians. A job board with columns, a shop calendar, a technician board that splits one repair order between people. Every one of those words is correct and every one of them assumes a building with two roles in it. If you are the advisor and the technician and the curb is a customer driveway, you are using the smaller half of a product built for the larger one.
What no front desk actually changes in a working day
Front desk is not really about the desk. It is about who absorbs the waiting. In a shop, the counter holds the customer while the car is in the bay: they drop it, they leave, the advisor calls when the estimate is ready, the customer approves on the phone, and the payment happens on collection. Every one of those is a separate moment, which is why shop software is built around a repair order that outlives the visit.
Without a counter, all of it collapses into the time you are standing next to the car with the owner watching. The estimate has to be written where the vehicle is, not typed up later at a workstation. The approval has to happen on their phone while you are there, because once you drive away you are chasing a text. The extra work you found has to be sold in the same visit or it becomes a callback that never gets booked. And the payment has to close before you pack up, because an invoice you send that evening is an invoice you will be chasing on Friday.
That is why the phone matters more than the feature list here. Not because phones are modern, but because every step that requires you to be back at a desk is a step that happens hours later, to a customer who has already gone back inside. Software that assumes a counter will keep offering you the counter version of each step, and you will keep doing the mobile version of it somewhere else: in your camera roll, in your messages, on a paper pad on the passenger seat.
The honest counterweight: a counter also buys you things. Somebody answering the phone while your hands are dirty. A place to leave a car overnight. The ability to take a second job while the first one waits on parts. If the reason you have no front desk is that you cannot afford one yet rather than that you chose this shape, the right software may be the one you grow into.
You cannot try Tekmetric, so decide from the product you already have
One of the rare cases where a vendor answers the question plainly rather than staying quiet:
No
“Tekmetric offers free demos but not free trials. However, you can test drive Tekmetric 24/7 with our self-guided tours.”
tekmetric.com/faq, read August 29, 2026
Self guided tours and a demo are a fair offer, and they are not the same as running a week of your own jobs through something. It has a practical effect on how you should decide: you cannot test the alternative and the incumbent side by side inside Tekmetric, so the evidence you have to reason from is your own last month.
Go and look at it, honestly. How many of your repair orders had a second technician on them. How many parts did you sell off a shelf rather than order for the job. How many times did the shop calendar do something a phone reminder would not have. If those answers are all near zero, you are paying for a shop. If any of them are not, the front desk you do not have may be a thing you are quietly still running.
Who should not switch to Fixty
Fixty is one mechanic, one workspace, no stock, no tire tooling and no way to split a job between two people. Four kinds of operator should stay on Tekmetric, and the first one is the most common reader of this page.
You do have premises and the front desk is the only thing you dislike
Not having a receptionist is not the same as not having a shop. If there are bays, a lift and stock, the shop system is still the right shape and the counter is a staffing question.
You stock parts or store tires
Inventory is included on every Tekmetric plan and tire tooling is a whole product line. Fixty tracks parts on a job and has neither.
More than one person touches a repair order
Tekmetric splits work inside one order across named technicians. Fixty gives one mechanic one workspace and cannot divide a job.
Unlimited users is why Tekmetric works for you
They put every mechanic, service writer and manager on the platform. Fixty has no second seat to sell you at any price.
Alternatives to Tekmetric that are not Fixty
If the shape is wrong rather than the vendor, there are two other auto repair products we hold sourced data on that publish a mobile mechanic page of their own, plus one home services tool worth naming for a specific kind of reader. Fixty is the fourth option and the one we are not neutral about.
AutoLeap
Fits you if: You want the full shop feature set with stock and tire storage, and a page written for working out of a van rather than a bay.
The catch: No free trial of the shop software here either, so you would be committing from a demo a second time.
In their own words
Yes
“Built for mobile mechanics who work from a van, not a shop.”
autoleap.com/mobile-mechanic-software, read August 29, 2026
Cheapest published monthly price
$179 per month
“Power your shop with #1 Auto Repair Software starting at $179/mo. Flexible monthly and annual plans designed to streamline operations for shops of any size.”
autoleap.com/pricing, read August 29, 2026
Shopmonkey
Fits you if: You want a shop system that also markets to mobile repair, with named accounting integrations you can point a bookkeeper at.
The catch: The highest published entry price of the products here, and customer self booking is sold separately from the plan.
In their own words
Yes
“Shopmonkey brings scheduling, communication, payments, reports, and more into a single, easy-to-use platform built for mobile repair work.”
shopmonkey.io/mobile-mechanic-software, read August 29, 2026
Cheapest published monthly price
$215 per month
“Simple pricing for auto repair and shop management software. Shopmonkey offers plans starting from just $215/month with annual pricing discounts.”
shopmonkey.io/pricing, read August 29, 2026
Jobber
Fits you if: Your day is mostly driving between stops and planned routes would save you more hours than repair order history would.
The catch: It is home service software. The quoting and inspection tooling is written around a property visit, so the vehicle has nowhere to live.
In their own words
Yes
“Let Jobber automatically generate the most efficient routes for your entire crew, for one day or the whole week, all at once. [dash normalized]”
getjobber.com/features/scheduling, read August 29, 2026
Cheapest published monthly price
$29 per month
“Jobber plans from $29 to $529/mo (billed annually).”
getjobber.com/pricing, read August 29, 2026
We sell one of the options on this page, so read the quotes rather than our summary of them. Each price above is the cheapest monthly figure that vendor publishes, which is usually the annually billed rate. Paying month to month generally costs more.
Questions people ask before they switch
Does Tekmetric work for mobile mechanics?
They say yes, and we quote them saying it: their estimate FAQ names mobile mechanics among the shops they support. The caveat is everything else in the product vocabulary, which assumes a building: a shop calendar, a technician board, and a mobile app they describe as running from the curb to the bay.
What is the best auto repair software without a front desk?
It depends on what the missing counter really means. If you have no premises at all and work from a van, a phone first tool like Fixty fits the shape of the day. If you have a building and simply no receptionist, that is a staffing question and shop software is still right. AutoLeap and Shopmonkey both publish pages aimed at mobile repair and are worth reading if you want a full shop feature set as well.
Can I import my Tekmetric customers and vehicles into Fixty?
Yes, with help rather than on your own. There is no upload screen in the app, so the file goes to support and a person loads it with you. Between two auto repair systems the fields already agree, so most of that conversation is about which customers and which vehicles are worth carrying over.
Does Tekmetric have a free trial?
No, and they say so directly: they offer free demos but not free trials, plus self guided tours you can take at any time. That matters when you are deciding whether to leave, because it means you cannot run a week of real jobs through it to check.
If you are switching, start on one job
Do not migrate anything. Take your next job, write the estimate at the curb, text it, let the customer approve the lines they want, and take the card before you pack up. If that one job is better than the way you do it today, enter the next customer too.
Try Fixty free for 14 daysStarter is 14 days free. A card is collected at signup and charged on day 14. Cancel any time and access runs to the end of the cycle you paid for.