Tekmetric vs. Third Gear Shop: Which Shop Management Software Is Right for You?
Third Gear Shop Team · 2026-03-11 · 13 min read
Switching · Comparison · Getting Started
If you're shopping for shop management software, you've probably landed on Tekmetric. They're everywhere: well-ranked, well-reviewed, and with a marketing budget that ensures you'll see them before most alternatives.
That's not a criticism. Tekmetric is genuinely good software. For a certain type of shop, it's probably the right call.
This post is here to help you figure out whether your shop is that type, and whether a newer platform like Third Gear Shop might be a better fit. We're going to give you a straight comparison, acknowledge where Tekmetric wins, and be honest about where we think Third Gear Shop has the edge.
Who This Comparison Is For
This comparison is aimed at independent shop owners and managers who are:
- Running 3–15 technicians and looking to get serious about software
- Currently on paper, whiteboards, or an older system like Mitchell 1 or RO Writer
- Evaluating whether to move toward Tekmetric or exploring what else is in the market
- Running a performance, tuning, or custom build operation looking for a system built for longer, more complex jobs
If you're a multi-location franchise shop with 20+ techs, Tekmetric is almost certainly the better fit. Third Gear Shop is built for independent shops, and we're honest about that ceiling.
Tekmetric vs. Third Gear Shop at a Glance
Both companies publish their prices, so this table is built from published numbers rather than estimates. Tekmetric figures come from tekmetric.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-11. Third Gear Shop figures come from our own pricing, same date.
| Tekmetric Start | Tekmetric Grow | Tekmetric Scale | Third Gear Shop Starter | Third Gear Shop Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price, billed monthly | $199 | $349 | $439 | $79 | $149 |
| Price, billed annually | $179/mo | $309/mo | $409/mo | Not offered | Not offered |
| Users | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Up to 5 technicians | Unlimited technicians |
| Repair orders | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Digital vehicle inspections | Yes | Yes | Yes | Photos on work orders | Photos on work orders |
| Digital authorizations | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Labor guide (MOTOR) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Reporting | No | Yes | Yes | Basic | Advanced (revenue by tech, margin per job, P&L) |
| Two-way texting | No | No | Yes (Tekmessage) | No | No |
| Real-time dashboards, tech boards | No | No | Yes | Kanban job board on both tiers | Kanban job board on both tiers |
| Build / multi-stage tracking | Not a documented feature | Not a documented feature | Not a documented feature | Yes (core feature) | Yes (core feature) |
| Customer job status portal | Not on the pricing page | Not on the pricing page | Not on the pricing page | No | Yes |
| Multi-location | +$70/mo per shop | +$70/mo per shop | +$70/mo per shop | Not supported | Not supported |
| Marketing suite | +$345/mo per shop | +$345/mo per shop | +$345/mo per shop | Not offered | Not offered |
| Integrations | 70+ | 70+ | 70+ | Limited (Stripe for payments) | Limited (Stripe for payments) |
| Free trial | No (demo or self-guided tour) | No | No | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card |
| Long-term contract | Not required | Not required | Not required | Month to month | Month to month |
Two things that table should make obvious. Tekmetric buys you considerably more product, and Tekmetric costs considerably more. The entry price gap is $179 against $79, and the features you would most likely reach for as you grow (labor guide, reporting, two-way texting) sit on tiers at $309 and $409. Whether that is expensive depends entirely on whether you will use what it unlocks.
"Not a documented feature" and "Not on the pricing page" mean exactly what they say: we could not find the item named on Tekmetric's own site. That is not Tekmetric telling us it does not exist. If one of those rows decides your purchase, ask them.
Tekmetric: Where It's Strong
Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs)
Tekmetric's DVI tooling is among the best in the market, and it is included from the entry tier up. Techs use the mobile app to take and mark up photos, record video, and attach the media to an estimate that goes out by text or email for approval (tekmetric.com/feature/digital-vehicle-inspection, checked 2026-09-11). For shops where the inspection experience is a major part of winning customer trust, this is a meaningful differentiator, and it is one we do not match.
Integration Ecosystem
Tekmetric states "70+ integrations" on their integrations page (checked 2026-09-11), spanning parts and inventory, payments and accounting, lookups and labor guides, diagnostics, and marketing and communication. Named partners include PartsTech, Nexpart, Advance Auto Parts and OEC RepairLink. If your shop runs on a specific tool that needs to connect to your shop management system, there's a good chance Tekmetric has that integration. This is the single largest gap between the two products and it is not close.
Multi-Location Support
If you're running two or more locations, Tekmetric's Multi-Shop module gives you organization-level reports, shop-to-shop comparison and customer history shared across locations. It is a paid add-on at $70/month per shop (tekmetric.com/feature/multi-shop and tekmetric.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-11). Third Gear Shop does not support multi-location operations at all, so if this is you, the comparison ends here.
Market Maturity
Tekmetric has been in the market longer than Third Gear Shop. They have a larger installed base, more community resources, and a support infrastructure built for enterprise scale.
Where Tekmetric Has Limitations
Pricing
Credit where it's due: Tekmetric publishes its pricing, which is more than several competitors in this category do. Per tekmetric.com/pricing (checked 2026-09-11), Start is $199/month billed monthly or $179/month billed annually, Grow is $349 or $309, Scale is $439 or $409, and Enterprise is quoted. Multi-shop is an extra $70/month per shop, the tire suite $39, the marketing suite $345.
For a shop that's just getting off paper or running lean on margins, that entry price is a meaningful line item, especially when not all the features in it are things you'll actually use. It's also worth looking at which tier holds the feature you came for. Two-way texting is on Scale, at $409/month annually. The labor guide and reporting are on Grow. The published entry price and the price you would actually pay are often two different tiers apart, which is true of most software in this market and is worth pricing out honestly before you compare it to anything.
Complexity for Smaller Shops
Tekmetric was built for shops that need enterprise-level controls. If you're a 4-bay shop with six techs and you don't need multi-location reporting, role-based permission structures, or a 70-integration ecosystem, you're paying for a platform that's bigger than your operation. That is a fit problem, not a quality problem.
No Documented Build Tracking
This is the gap that matters most for performance and custom build shops. Tekmetric was designed around the high-volume service-and-repair model: fast jobs, standardized operations, quick customer approvals. A 6-week engine build with 80+ parts, multiple phases, and multi-stage invoicing doesn't map cleanly onto that model.
To be exact about the evidence: we reviewed Tekmetric's own feature list, job board material and pricing page on 2026-09-11 and found repair-order status tracking and a configurable job board, but nothing named as a multi-stage or long-duration build workflow. Their job board is a good repair-order board. We found no claim that it is anything else, and no statement from Tekmetric that they lack build tracking either. If this decides your purchase, ask them rather than trusting a competitor's blog post about it.
No Free Trial
Tekmetric's own FAQ says it plainly: "Tekmetric offers free demos but not free trials. However, you can test drive Tekmetric 24/7 with our self-guided tours" (tekmetric.com/faq, checked 2026-09-11). A self-guided tour is a genuinely useful way to see the product, and it's available at 11pm without booking anything. It is not the same as running last week's real repair orders through the software before you pay.
Interface Style
Tekmetric's interface is dense and information-heavy, which is a deliberate choice for service writers who live in it all day and want everything on one screen. Some shops love it for exactly that reason. Others find it a lot to take in on day one. This is taste, not a defect, and the self-guided tour is the honest way to form your own opinion rather than taking ours.
Third Gear Shop: Where It's Strong
Built for Independent Shops
Third Gear Shop was designed with the independent shop as the primary customer, not enterprise scale, not franchise networks. The feature set reflects that: everything your shop needs without the overhead of tools designed for operations three times your size. Setup is measured in hours, not weeks.
Performance and Build Tracking
This is where Third Gear Shop is meaningfully differentiated. Build jobs live in their own workflow, with phase tracking, parts assignment per build stage, progress notes, and customer-facing updates baked into the core product. If you run a tuning shop, fabrication operation, or any shop where jobs span weeks and customers want to stay informed on progress, Third Gear Shop is built for that in a way Tekmetric isn't.
Kanban Job Board
Third Gear Shop's drag-and-drop Kanban job board gives every tech and service advisor real-time visibility into every active vehicle, its stage, and its assigned technician. It's the operational hub of the shop, not an add-on or a separate scheduling screen.
Pricing
$79/month for Starter, $149/month for Shop Pro, published on the site, no setup fee and no long-term contract. Tekmetric also states that no long-term contract is required, so that part is not a differentiator. The 14-day free trial is: you can run your actual shop data through the system, without a card, before committing to anything.
Modern UI
Third Gear Shop was built from the ground up in 2025–2026. It runs on a modern stack with a clean interface that techs pick up quickly. Multiple color themes and full dark mode are included.
Where Third Gear Shop Has Limitations
Integrations
Third Gear Shop does not have 70+ integrations. It has very few. Payments run through Stripe, into your own account. If your operation depends on a direct integration with a parts supplier, a tire catalog, an accounting package or a marketing tool, assume we do not have it and check before you switch. This is the clearest single reason to choose Tekmetric over us.
No Labor Guide
Third Gear Shop does not include or integrate a MOTOR labor guide. Tekmetric includes one from the Grow tier up. If you price jobs off book times every day, that is a real workflow you would be giving up, and you would need a separate subscription to replace it.
DVI Depth
Third Gear Shop supports work order photos and documentation. It does not have a multi-point digital inspection workflow with video, markup, and a customer authorization trail. Tekmetric does, on every tier. If DVI is central to how you sell work, this gap is not small.
No Two-Way Texting
Third Gear Shop has no in-app two-way texting. The build communications log records what you told a customer and opens your phone's messaging app with the message prefilled, so the record stays attached to the job, but the conversation happens on your phone. Tekmetric's Tekmessage does this properly, on the Scale tier.
Community and Track Record
Tekmetric has been around longer. There are more shops running it, more resources in the wild, and a larger user community.
How to Decide
Choose Tekmetric if:
- You're running a multi-location shop or planning to expand to multiple locations
- Your shop does high volume of general repair (30+ repair orders per week) and optimizing that throughput is the primary goal
- You need specific integrations from their ecosystem
- DVI quality is the cornerstone of your customer experience
Choose Third Gear Shop if:
- You're an independent shop with 1–15 techs and don't need enterprise-scale overhead
- You run a performance shop, tuning shop, or fabrication operation where build tracking matters
- You want to be up and running in an afternoon, not after a three-week onboarding
- You want to evaluate the software on your own real jobs before paying, which the 14-day trial allows and Tekmetric's demo-and-tour path does not
- You want a job board that your techs will actually use
If you're genuinely on the fence, get hands on both. Tekmetric offers a demo and a self-guided tour rather than a free trial; Third Gear Shop offers a 14-day trial with no card. The right call is whichever one your team actually adopts and uses. A system nobody uses is worse than a whiteboard.
The Bottom Line
Tekmetric is the established market leader in shop management software for growth-stage repair shops. For the right operation, it earns that position.
Third Gear Shop is built for a different customer: the independent shop that wants a modern, capable system without the complexity, pricing, or overhead designed for enterprise scale, and the performance shop that needs build-stage visibility in a tool where it actually fits.
Start your free 14-day trial. 14 days free, no credit card required. Put it against your real shop and decide for yourself.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Third Gear Shop or Tekmetric better for a small shop?
It depends on what the shop needs, and we have a stake in the answer, so here is the split. Third Gear Shop starts at $79 per month against Tekmetric's $179, is designed to be set up and running in a day, and has build tracking in the core product. Tekmetric has digital vehicle inspections, a MOTOR labor guide, two-way texting on its Scale tier and 70+ integrations, none of which we match. If price and build tracking lead your list, we are the better fit. If DVI, a labor guide or integrations lead it, Tekmetric is, at more than twice the entry price.
Does Tekmetric have build tracking?
Not that Tekmetric documents. We reviewed their feature pages, job board material and pricing page on 2026-09-11 and found repair-order status tracking and a configurable job board, but no named multi-stage or long-duration build workflow. Tekmetric is designed for standard repair orders. If build tracking is a requirement for your shop, Third Gear Shop is one alternative under $200/month, and running Tekmetric alongside a separate project management tool is another, at the cost of a second subscription and a second place to look.
Which is cheaper, Tekmetric or Third Gear Shop?
Third Gear Shop is less expensive. Third Gear Shop Starter is $79 per month for up to 5 technicians and Shop Pro is $149 per month for unlimited technicians. Tekmetric now publishes its pricing at tekmetric.com/pricing: as of 2026-09-11, Start is $199 per month billed monthly or $179 billed annually, Grow is $349 or $309, and Scale is $439 or $409, with multi-shop, tire and marketing add-ons priced separately. An earlier version of this post said Tekmetric did not publish pricing. That was true when it was written and is no longer true, so we have replaced the estimate with their published numbers.
Can I try Third Gear Shop before deciding?
Yes. Third Gear Shop offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Tekmetric does not offer a free trial. Their FAQ states: "Tekmetric offers free demos but not free trials. However, you can test drive Tekmetric 24/7 with our self-guided tours" (tekmetric.com/faq, checked 2026-09-11). So the honest comparison is a trial on one side and a demo plus a guided tour on the other.
What size shop is Third Gear Shop designed for?
Third Gear Shop is designed for independent shops with 1 to 15 technicians. The Starter plan supports up to 5 technicians at $79 per month. The Shop Pro plan is $149 per month with no technician limit. It is not designed for dealer groups or large multi-location chains. Tekmetric or similar enterprise platforms are the better fit for those operations.
Does Third Gear Shop require a contract?
No. Both plans are month to month, with no per-seat fees, no setup costs and no annual contracts. There is no annual billing option at all, discounted or otherwise. You can cancel any time.