Cloud-based shop management for independent auto repair operations

In-Depth Review

Tekmetric is a cloud-based shop management system designed for independent auto repair shops. Founded in 2015 in Houston, Texas, it entered a market dominated by installed desktop platforms like Mitchell 1 Manager SE and RO Writer, and positioned itself as a browser-native alternative that shops can access without maintaining a local server.

What Tekmetric Does for Auto Repair Professionals

The platform handles the full repair order lifecycle: writing estimates, converting them to repair orders, assigning jobs to technicians, tracking job progress in real time, ordering parts, sending inspections to customers, and closing invoices. Service advisors work from a live board that shows each RO’s current status without requiring radio calls or bay walk-throughs.

The digital vehicle inspection (DVI) feature is tightly coupled to the repair order rather than being a separate application. A technician completes an inspection with photos and notes, the system assembles a formatted report, and the customer receives a text link where they can approve or decline individual line items. Approvals update the RO directly.

Key Features

• Repair order management: Full workflow from estimate to closed invoice, with real-time technician status visible to service advisors. Supports flat-rate and hourly pay calculations on the same job.
• Digital vehicle inspections: Photo-documented inspections sent to customers via text link, with per-item approval. Declined items stay on the vehicle record for future service reminders.
• Parts ordering via PartsTech: Access to multiple parts suppliers within the repair order interface. Parts ordered, received, and returned are tracked against the job.
• Customer two-way texting: Messaging is tied to the repair order and customer record, so conversation history is accessible when the customer returns.
• Shop analytics: Reports covering average repair order value, gross profit by job, technician efficiency, parts margin, and car count trends. Filtered by date range, advisor, or technician.

Pricing

Tekmetric publishes pricing on their website, which is a differentiator from competitors like Mitchell AI or Mechanic Advisor that require a sales call to get a number. Pricing is subscription-based and scales by location. Check tekmetric.com directly for current tier structure, as specific prices have changed since the platform’s early growth phase. The company offers a demo, and trial periods have been available for new signups.

Honest Pros and Cons

The cloud-native architecture means no local server to configure, back up, or update. Any tablet or laptop at the service counter runs the full interface. That is a real operational advantage for shops that have been managing server failures and manual update cycles on older installed software.

The DVI integration is practical: because inspections and repair orders share the same data model, a customer approval on an inspection item immediately updates the job scope without a service advisor manually transferring information between systems.

The gaps are also specific. Tekmetric does not include a labor guide. Shops need a separate Mitchell 1 or ALLDATA subscription and configure the integration to pull labor times. That is an additional cost that legacy platforms sometimes bundle. Shops migrating from installed systems should plan for a data migration process that is often incomplete for historical repair order detail.

Who This Is Best For

Tekmetric works best for independent shops doing 150 to 500 repair orders per month that are either starting fresh or moving off an older installed SMS. The feature set is appropriately scoped for that range: the reporting gives a shop owner meaningful data without requiring a data analyst, and the DVI workflow handles the customer communication volume without a separate subscription. Multi-location groups of two to five shops can run on Tekmetric, though operations at larger scale may find the reporting less configurable than they need.

One Thing to Test Before Committing

Run a live digital vehicle inspection through the full customer-facing flow before signing. Have someone do a real inspection on a vehicle in your shop, send the text link to your own phone, and go through the approval process as a customer would. The technician-facing side of DVI tools is generally fine across competing platforms. The customer-facing interface is where quality varies, and that touchpoint happens on every vehicle you write a report for. If the mobile layout is cluttered, the photos are slow to load, or the approve/decline flow is confusing, that is the experience your customers will have.