Shop Management AI: Tekmetric vs Shop-Ware vs AutoFluent

I switched our three-bay independent shop from a paper RO system to Tekmetric in 2022. Before that I spent six months demoing Shop-Ware and AutoFluent. I did not make a perfect decision — no one does with software that touches every part of how the shop runs — but I learned enough during that process to know what each platform is actually good at, and what the salespeople will gloss over in the demo.

This is a comparison of those three platforms for shops actively evaluating shop management software with AI-assisted features. I am not covering Mitchell 1 or Protractor here; both are mature products with different target markets. Tekmetric, Shop-Ware, and AutoFluent are the three platforms that kept coming up in conversations with other independent owners who were specifically looking for cloud-native systems with modern UI and some level of AI or automation tooling built in.

How I evaluated these platforms

The comparison below is based on:

• Live demos with each vendor (2021–2022)
• Two years of daily use with Tekmetric
• Conversations with owners who run Shop-Ware and AutoFluent
• Published pricing and feature lists from each vendor’s own documentation

I focused on four shop contexts: single-location independents (3–8 bays), multi-location independents (2–4 shops), franchise operations, and high-volume quick-lube or tire-focused shops. Not every platform is the right fit for all four.

Feature-by-feature breakdown

Repair order creation and workflow

Tekmetric builds ROs around a digital vehicle inspection (DVI) workflow. The inspection is integrated into the RO, not bolted on. Technicians fill out the inspection on a tablet, photos attach automatically to the RO, and the service advisor gets a live view of what’s been flagged before the customer even calls back. The approval workflow is entirely digital — customers can approve individual line items via text message. In practice this has been one of the biggest workflow changes for us: customers approve work from their office instead of playing phone tag.

Shop-Ware takes a similar cloud-native approach but goes further on parts matrix pricing automation. Their Parts+ pricing module lets you set tiered markup rules based on part cost ranges, which then apply automatically every time a part is added to an RO. For shops doing high volume with consistent parts sourcing, this removes a category of advisor error that’s easy to overlook — underpricing parts on jobs where the tech had to use a more expensive alternative.

AutoFluent is the most traditional of the three in terms of RO structure. It feels closer to a classic shop management system with a modern interface. That is not a criticism — some owners specifically want a workflow that mirrors what their team already knows, with cloud access layered on top. The learning curve is lower for shops migrating from older software.

Digital vehicle inspections

All three platforms include DVI. The differences are in how tightly the inspection integrates with estimates and customer communication.

Tekmetric’s DVI includes a customer-facing vehicle health report with color-coded severity indicators (red/yellow/green). Photos and video are embedded directly. When a customer receives the inspection, they see their car, not a generic parts list. Approval rates on flagged items are measurably higher with visual evidence. We track pre-inspection versus post-implementation approval rates in our shop; the difference on yellow items (recommended but not urgent) was about 20 percentage points.

Shop-Ware’s inspection tool is comparably capable and integrates with their parts pricing matrix. If a tech flags rear brakes at 3mm with recommended replacement, the parts and labor get pre-populated into the estimate automatically at whatever margin your pricing matrix is set to.

AutoFluent includes DVI but the integration is less tight. Inspections are their own module, and getting them into estimates requires more manual steps than the other two platforms. For shops that already have a separate inspection tablet workflow they like, this may not matter.

AI and automation features

This is the category with the most marketing noise and the least clarity. All three platforms use “AI” in their materials. What that actually means varies.

Tekmetric has the most developed set of automation tools in production use. Their recommended services feature analyzes vehicle history and mileage to surface interval-based service recommendations during RO creation. This is pattern matching against your own shop’s data, not a general-purpose AI model. It works well once you have 12–18 months of your own vehicle history in the system. They also have automated follow-up for declined services — when a customer declines a service at one visit, the system flags it on the next visit and the advisor gets a reminder in the RO header.

Shop-Ware integrates with several third-party AI tools and has opened their API to allow shops to connect LLM-based assistants. As of early 2026, their native AI features are primarily focused on parts pricing optimization and workflow automation rather than customer communication. Their API approach is more developer-friendly than the other two if you want to build custom integrations.

AutoFluent offers AI-assisted service recommendations and some customer communication templates, but their AI tooling is the least developed of the three. It is a functional system that does the core job well; if sophisticated AI features are a primary decision criterion, it is not the strongest option.

Customer communication

Tekmetric has the most polished customer-facing experience of the three. Text-based approval, automated status updates, digital inspection reports, and a customer portal all work together in a way that feels designed rather than assembled. For shops that compete on customer experience and transparency, this is meaningful.

Shop-Ware’s customer communication tools are functional and include automated appointment reminders and follow-up, but the customer-facing portal is less visually refined than Tekmetric’s. Their strength is more on the shop-side workflow than the customer experience layer.

AutoFluent has solid communication features including email and SMS, and it integrates with several CRM and marketing tools via API. The customer portal is straightforward and practical.

Pricing comparison

Pricing for all three platforms is subscription-based. Published pricing as of early 2026:

Implementation costs are separate from subscription fees. Tekmetric offers self-serve onboarding with video guides; assisted onboarding is available at an additional cost. Shop-Ware and AutoFluent both offer more hands-on implementation support in their standard packages, which matters if your team is not comfortable configuring software independently.

Best-fit recommendations

Tekmetric is best for: Independent shops with 2–8 bays that compete on customer experience and want a modern, visually polished platform. If digital inspections, customer-facing transparency, and high approval rates on recommended services are priorities, Tekmetric is the strongest native product in this category. It is also the most actively developed platform — their release cadence is fast and features that were on the roadmap 18 months ago have shipped.

Shop-Ware is best for: Shops that do high parts volume and need granular control over parts pricing margins, or shops with technical staff who want to build custom integrations via API. Their parts matrix is the most sophisticated of the three. Multi-location operations that want to standardize pricing across locations will find their tooling more flexible than Tekmetric at that layer.

AutoFluent is best for: Shops migrating from older management software who want a cloud-native system without a steep retraining curve, or smaller operations that do not need advanced AI features and want a lower monthly cost. It is a practical, stable platform. If you are currently on a Windows-based legacy system and want to modernize without rebuilding your entire workflow around new processes, AutoFluent is the most conservative upgrade path.

Honest verdict

After two years on Tekmetric, I would make the same call again for our shop. The digital inspection and customer approval workflow genuinely changed how we sell recommended services. But I would not pretend it is the obvious choice for every shop.

The things that frustrated me early: the parts ordering integration with our preferred supplier took two months to get working correctly, their phone support during peak hours is inconsistent, and the reporting module has gaps that required us to build some manual exports. None of these were dealbreakers, but they were real.

Shop-Ware is the better technical platform if you want API flexibility or very precise control over parts pricing. The customer experience layer is less polished but the shop-side tooling is more configurable.

AutoFluent does not get enough credit for being a reliable, practical system. It is not winning awards for AI features, but it handles the core work orders, parts lookup, labor times, and customer communication without friction. For a single-location shop that wants cloud-based access without rethinking every workflow, it earns its price.

The question I’d ask before choosing: what is the one problem you’re trying to solve that your current system is failing at? If it is customer approval rates, choose Tekmetric. If it is parts margin consistency across multiple advisors, look hard at Shop-Ware. If it is just getting off old software without a painful transition, AutoFluent is worth demoing.

What to do before you sign anything

Request a full trial with your own data, not just a guided demo. The demo will show you the best-case workflow. The trial will show you what breaks when your parts supplier’s catalog doesn’t match, when a customer has an unusual approval path, or when your techs use the inspection module differently than the trainer expected.

Ask specifically about data portability. If you want to leave in three years, how do you export your complete vehicle history, customer records, and RO archive? All three platforms have export options, but the format and completeness vary.

Check the integration list against every tool you currently pay for. Labor time guides (Mitchell, Chilton, ALLDATA), parts suppliers (PartsTech, Nexpart, OEC), and accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero) all need to connect. Gaps in the integration list mean manual data entry, which erases efficiency gains elsewhere.