Free shop management software built in Canada by a Canadian shop owner. SMS, AI, digital inspections, invoicing, tire storage, marketing — everything your shop needs for $0/mo. Not $0 for the first month. $0 forever.
Here's the thing most Canadian shop owners figure out the hard way: the vast majority of auto repair software on the market is built by American companies, for American shops. Tekmetric is out of Austin, Texas. Shopmonkey is in San Francisco. Mitchell 1 is in San Diego. Shop-Ware is in the Bay Area. They build for US shops first, and Canadian support is an afterthought — if it's there at all.
That means you end up dealing with US-only SMS numbers that your Canadian customers don't trust, tax systems that don't understand HST or PST or QST, payment processors that don't work smoothly with Canadian banks, and pricing in USD that fluctuates with the exchange rate. You're paying $300–500 USD per month for software that wasn't designed for how you actually run your shop.
Shop Commander was built from scratch in Canada by a shop owner who runs a real shop in Canada. Every line of code — all 82,650+ of them — was written with Canadian shops in mind. Canadian tax rates. Canadian phone numbers. Canadian payment processing. Canadian dollars. No adapting, no workarounds, no "close enough." It just works the way your shop works.
And it's free. Not a free trial. Not freemium. Not "$0 for 14 days then we hit you with a bill." Free forever. $0/mo for every feature, every user, every shop. That's the whole deal.
Running an auto repair shop in Canada isn't the same as running one in Texas or California. The tax system is different. The seasons are different. The way customers communicate is different. Here's what Shop Commander gets right that US-built platforms miss.
Set your province's exact rate — 13% HST in Ontario, 5% GST in Alberta, 15% HST in Nova Scotia, GST + QST in Quebec. One setting, applied automatically to every RO and invoice. No workarounds. No plugins.
Your shop gets a real Canadian phone number for two-way SMS. Status updates, estimate links, inspection reports, review requests, and marketing campaigns all send from a number your customers recognize and trust.
Everything displays in Canadian dollars. Credit card processing, text-to-pay invoices, payment tracking, and reporting — all in CAD. No exchange rate math. No USD surprises on your processor statement.
Canadian shops deal with winter/summer tire swaps that US shops don't. Shop Commander has a full tire storage system with QR labels, tread depth tracking, automated seasonal reminders (October and April), and a printable pull list. Most US platforms don't even have this feature.
Day, week, and month calendar views with drag-and-drop scheduling, bay assignment, color-coded service types, and tire changeover linking. Book seasonal swaps directly from tire storage records.
AI tech note cleanup converts your tech's shorthand into professional customer-facing language. AI job suggestions, AI-drafted marketing messages, and AI inspection narratives — all included free. No add-on fees.
Every major auto repair software platform is built by a US company and priced in USD. When you're a Canadian shop paying $300–500 USD per month, that's even more in Canadian dollars. And you're paying for software that wasn't built for you. Here's what the landscape looks like.
| Platform | Shop Commander | Tekmetric | Shopmonkey | Mitchell 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Canada 🍁 | Austin, TX | San Francisco, CA | San Diego, CA |
| Monthly Cost | $0 CAD | $199–439 USD | $179–475 USD | $150–350 USD |
| Canadian Tax Support | ✓ Native | Basic | Basic | Basic |
| Canadian SMS Numbers | ✓ | Limited | Limited | ✗ |
| CAD Pricing | ✓ | ✗ USD | ✗ USD | ✗ USD |
| Tire Storage Management | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Two-Way SMS | Included | $439/mo tier only | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI Features | Included | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Marketing Campaigns | Included | Paid add-on | Higher tiers | ✗ |
| Annual Cost (CAD approx.) | $0 | $3,400–7,500+ | $3,100–8,500+ | $2,600–6,000+ |
CAD estimates based on approximate exchange rate. See our full comparison page for detailed feature breakdowns.
Shop Commander isn't a stripped-down free tool that pushes you toward a paid plan. Every feature is included for every shop. Here's the full list of what Canadian shops get at $0/mo.
Full lifecycle RO management with auto-numbering, status workflow, line items, parts tracking, technician assignment, warranty terms, drag-to-reorder, comeback detection, and promised date tracking. Everything from estimate to paid invoice.
Template-based DVIs with three-color condition rating, photo and video capture, photo annotation, health scores, safety flags, timers, offline support, and AI note cleanup. Shareable inspection links with customer engagement tracking.
Full two-way SMS with Canadian phone numbers. Automated status updates, estimate delivery, inspection reports, pickup notifications, review requests, and text-to-pay. Threaded conversations with real-time delivery via WebSocket.
Seasonal campaigns, declined job recovery with 30/60/90-day automated follow-up, customer reactivation sequences, service reminders, review requests, and custom campaigns with advanced audience filters. Full CRM with lifecycle tracking.
Embedded payment processing in CAD. Credit, debit, e-transfer, cheque, and cash. Split payments, text-to-pay invoices, payment voiding with reason tracking, and real-time balance calculation. PCI-compliant processing.
Full seasonal tire storage with QR code labels, 4-point tread depth measurements, visual tire diagrams, storage location tracking, automated seasonal reminders, swap scheduling, and a printable tire pull list. Built for Canadian winters.
Visual Kanban board with customizable columns, drag-and-drop, real-time sync across all devices, internal task cards, customer alert highlights, and live editor badges. Your entire shop on one screen.
AI tech note cleanup, AI job suggestions, AI service recommendations, AI sales scripts, AI inspection narratives, and AI message drafting. All powered by GPT-4o and included free. No add-on fees.
Day, week, and month calendar views. Drag-and-drop scheduling, bay assignment, color-coded service types. Online booking portal with real-time availability. QR code self-check-in for your waiting area.
Comprehensive customer profiles with multiple phone numbers, fleet account support, tax-exempt flags, custom tags, alerts, referral tracking, lifetime value analytics, and a customer portal with service history and inspection reports.
Detailed vehicle records with VIN decoding, odometer tracking, service history timeline, warranty alerts, tire size records, fleet fields for commercial vehicles, and predicted next service dates based on driving patterns.
15 report types including revenue, ARO, technician productivity, DVI metrics, declined job recovery, parts margin, customer retention, comeback rate, campaign ROI, and more. CSV export on every report. All in CAD.
Whether you're running an auto repair shop in downtown Toronto, a garage in rural Alberta, a fleet operation in Vancouver, or a tire shop in Halifax — Shop Commander works for you. Set your local tax rate, get a local phone number for SMS, and start managing your shop for free.
Shop Commander supports auto repair shops, independent garages, tire shops, fleet maintenance operations, and multi-location chains across all Canadian provinces and territories:
Shop Commander was built by a shop owner who was tired of paying $400+/month for software that didn't even do everything he needed. The business model is simple and transparent:
We make a small commission from our payment processor when your shop runs credit cards through Shop Commander. You pay the same standard processing rates you'd pay anywhere else — we just get a small referral cut from the processor. That's it.
No monthly fees. No per-user charges. No feature paywalls. No premium tiers. No "starter plan" missing half the features. No credit card required to sign up. Every feature listed on this page is included for every shop, every user, forever.
The software is 82,650+ lines of code — 36,122 lines of Python backend and 46,528 lines of React frontend. It's a real, production-grade platform running live in a real shop with real cars every day. It's not a side project. It's not a demo. It's the real deal.
Every screen in Shop Commander updates instantly when another team member makes a change. Your service writer creates an estimate, your tech sees it on the job board immediately. A customer approves work from their phone, your front counter gets an instant notification. No refreshing. No stale data. No "I didn't know you already started that." This is WebSocket-powered real-time sync — the same technology that powers Slack and Google Docs — built into every part of the platform.
Shop Commander's digital inspection system is one of the most comprehensive on the market. Three-color condition rating (green/yellow/red), photo and video capture with annotation tools, health scores, safety flags, and AI-powered note cleanup that converts your tech's shorthand into professional language your customers actually understand. Customers get a shareable link they can view on any device, and you can see when they opened it, how long they looked, and which items they clicked on. That data helps your service writers follow up on the right items at the right time.
In Canada, seasonal tire swaps are a major part of the business. Shop Commander was built by someone who deals with this every year. The tire storage system tracks every set with storage numbers, QR code labels, 4-point tread depth measurements with color-coded health indicators, and storage location tracking so your team can find any set quickly. Automated SMS reminders go out October 1 for winter tires and April 1 for summer tires. Swap dates get reminders 2 weeks before. Low tread alerts notify customers when they need replacements. You can schedule swap appointments directly from the storage record and print a pull list sorted by storage location.
Most shops don't have time to run marketing campaigns. Shop Commander's automated marketing handles it for you. Declined job recovery sends automatic follow-ups at 7, 30, and 60 days with escalating urgency. Customer reactivation catches inactive and lost customers with a 3-attempt series. Service reminders go out based on each customer's personal visit frequency. Review requests only go to qualified customers. And the built-in CRM tracks every customer's lifecycle state automatically — new, active, due soon, overdue, inactive, or lost — so you always know where your revenue is coming from and where it's leaking.
Full parts inventory management with vendor tracking, purchase orders, receiving workflows, returns, core charges, and parts kits. Set up your parts markup matrix once and it applies automatically. Low stock alerts keep you from running out. Part cross-references map equivalent numbers across brands. And every stock movement is logged with a full audit trail. Whether you stock a few hundred items or a few thousand, the system scales with you.
No per-user fees means you can add your entire team — service writers, technicians, shop managers, owners — without watching your software bill climb. Role-based access controls let you decide who sees what. Time tracking lets techs clock in and out of specific jobs. Internal tasks keep non-RO shop work organized. And the job board gives everyone a real-time view of every active job in the shop.
Stop paying $300–500 USD/mo for American software that barely works in Canada. Shop Commander includes everything — SMS, AI, inspections, tire storage, marketing, payments — for $0/mo. Built here. For shops like yours.
Free migration. Same-day setup. No credit card. No catch.