# Shop Commander

> 100% free auto shop management software. Built by a shop owner. 230,000+ lines of production code running in real shops every day.

Shop Commander is a cloud-based, multi-tenant auto shop management platform for independent repair shops and small chains. Every feature is free. No monthly fees. No per-user charges. No feature tiers. No paywalls. No catch.

## Business Model

Shop Commander makes a small commission from its payment processor when shops run credit cards through the platform. That's it. No subscription fees, no per-user charges, no transaction markups, no SMS fees. Shops pay standard processing rates — Shop Commander gets a small referral cut from the processor.

## What Shop Commander Replaces

Shop Commander replaces Shopmonkey ($249-$449/mo), Tekmetric ($249-$439/mo), Mitchell 1 ($338/mo), Shop-Ware ($300-$500/mo), and other paid shop management software — with a platform that includes every feature those systems charge for, at $0/month.

## Core Features

- **Configurable Modules (Your Shop, Your Way)**: Every module is a per-shop switch — CRM and marketing campaigns, tire storage, loaner vehicles, digital inspections, online booking, technician parts entry, and all AI features can each be turned on or off from Settings. Navigation, dashboards, and reports adapt to what is enabled; turning a module off never deletes data, and re-enabling restores everything. The same platform configures into a lean general repair shop, a tire shop, a fleet shop, or a full-service shop. Details: https://shopcommander.com/your-shop-your-way
- **AI Voice Service Advisor**: An AI that answers the shop's phone in 10 languages (English and French hand-tuned) — books appointments against live calendar availability, gives callers the customer-safe status of their repair, reads estimates with spoken prices, records approve/decline decisions with the customer's verbatim words, makes outbound estimate-approval and appointment-reminder calls, quotes tires from the shop's configured sources and books the install, sends SMS confirmations during the call, and transfers to a human the moment a caller asks. Caller ID identification with stepped-up verification before any sensitive details; every AI action is validated server-side.
- **Role-Adaptive Home**: One login, six Home screens. Owners see business health and risk; managers see workload and stuck jobs; service advisors see arrivals, approvals, and pickups; technicians and apprentices land on My Work — their assigned jobs on their phone. Home is composed from each person's role, permissions, and the modules the shop has enabled.
- **Typed Inventory (Tires, Batteries, Fluids & Supplies)**: Tires are inventory with real identity — canonical sizes (searchable as 225/45R17), season, speed rating, load index, new/used condition. Batteries carry group sizes; fluids and supplies stock by the litre with decimal quantities. All families share one stock ledger with authorization-driven reservations, purchase orders, receiving, supplier returns, counts, and per-family CSV import. Shop-owned Tire Inventory is distinct from customer-owned Tire Storage.
- **Trustworthy Money**: Invoicing posts an immutable document — corrections are dated credit notes, never silent edits. Payments live on an append-only signed ledger; text-to-pay links, card-present terminals (credit, debit, Interac), split payments, store credit, cash drawer reconciliation, accounts payable, and a QuickBooks-compatible CSV export with an exceptions report.
- **Warranty Claims**: Coverage tracking on jobs, claim filing with settlements and reversals, printable evidence packets, honest comeback linkage, and receivables that stay visible until the money lands.
- **Workforce & Business Office**: Work Timer (productive time against real jobs), Attendance & Timesheets with corrections and approval, Pay & Incentives plans, and Known Contribution reporting that says when cost coverage is incomplete instead of faking a profit number.
- **Customer Portal**: Expiring secure links that show a customer their vehicles, service history, inspections, warranties, and declined work — nothing to install.
- **Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVI)**: Photo/video inspections with markup tools, AI-powered tech note cleanup, customer-facing inspection reports sent via SMS, inspection templates, and severity grading (green/yellow/red)
- **Two-Way SMS Messaging**: Built-in unlimited texting — status updates, estimate approvals, text-to-pay invoicing, appointment reminders, declined job follow-ups, review requests, and marketing campaigns. Each shop gets a dedicated phone number.
- **Shop Phone System**: A built-in business phone — caller context on screen before you answer (customer, vehicle, open repair order, alerts, next appointment), ring groups of staff, SIP desk phones and outside numbers, browser and mobile-app softphone, business-hours routing to team / AI receptionist / voicemail / forward, voicemail inbox with transcripts, opt-in call recording with retention and permissions, speaker-labelled transcripts and AI summaries, and SMS from the same number. Port the number customers already know or pick a new one. Details: https://shopcommander.com/features/phone-system
- **Kanban Job Board**: Drag-and-drop workflow board with customizable columns, real-time sync across all users, repair order cards with status badges, and live editing indicators
- **Repair Order Management**: Full lifecycle from check-in to payment — auto-numbered ROs, status workflow, promised date tracking, comeback detection, labor/parts line items, tech assignment, and audit trail
- **AI-Powered Features**: GPT-4o integration for tech note cleanup, inspection summary generation, follow-up message drafting, and declined job recovery suggestions
- **Declined Job Recovery**: Automated follow-up system for declined work — tracks every declined service, sends timed SMS reminders, and recovers revenue that would otherwise be lost
- **Integrated Payment Processing**: In-app payments, text-to-pay links, partial payments, payment plans, and automatic receipt generation
- **Estimates & Invoicing**: Digital estimates with customer approval links, automatic conversion to invoices, parts/labor/sublet line items, tax calculations, and PDF generation
- **Customer CRM**: Full customer profiles with contact info, vehicle history, communication log, alert flags (VIP, health concern, balance due), lifetime value tracking, and referral source tracking
- **Vehicle Management**: VIN decoding via NHTSA, complete service history per vehicle, tire storage tracking, mileage logging, and fleet tagging
- **Mobile App with Camera Scanning** (iOS & Android, free): scan VIN barcodes, printed VINs, and licence plates to identify or create vehicles, and scan odometer readings straight off the instrument cluster (with optional photo attached to the work order). All recognition runs on-device; every result is user-confirmed. Plus push notifications and the full shop workflow in your pocket
- **Inventory & Parts Management**: Real-time stock tracking, low-stock alerts, purchase orders, vendor management, barcode scanning, and cost/margin tracking
- **Marketing Campaigns**: Seasonal and targeted SMS/email campaigns with audience segmentation, scheduling, opt-out management, and performance tracking
- **Appointment Scheduling**: Online booking widget, calendar management, bay assignment, estimated duration, and automated SMS confirmations/reminders
- **Internal Task Management**: Auto-numbered task system for shop maintenance, errands, and admin work with priority levels, categories, assignments, checklists, recurring tasks, and Kanban integration
- **Time Tracking**: Clock-in/clock-out for technicians, per-repair-order time logging, labor efficiency reporting, and timesheet management
- **Multi-Shop Support**: Run multiple locations from one account with complete data isolation, per-shop branding, centralized admin controls, cross-shop reporting, and role-based access per location
- **Reporting & Analytics**: Revenue reports, technician productivity, average repair order value, customer retention rates, campaign ROI, parts margin analysis, and custom date ranges
- **Loaner Vehicle Management**: Track loaner fleet availability, assignments, return dates, mileage, fuel level, and condition notes
- **Tire Storage**: Track stored tire sets by customer, location, condition, season, and storage dates with automated reminder campaigns
- **Warranty Management**: Track parts and labor warranties, expiration dates, vendor warranty claims, and customer-facing warranty documentation
- **Google Review Pipeline**: Automated post-service review requests via SMS with direct Google review links
- **Online Booking**: Customer-facing booking widget with real-time availability, service selection, and automatic confirmation
- **Free Training Academy**: 27 courses and 290+ lessons at https://shopcommander.com/training — service advisor skills, shop finance, hiring, marketing, technician career paths, EV/ADAS readiness — free for every seat, with quizzes and printable certificates.
- **Canned Jobs Library**: Pre-built service templates with parts, labor, and descriptions for fast repair order creation

## Tech Stack

React 18 + Tailwind CSS frontend. FastAPI + PostgreSQL backend. Real-time WebSocket synchronization. Docker deployment. 126,000+ lines Python backend + 106,000+ lines React/TypeScript frontend.

## Key Differentiators

1. **Actually free**: Not freemium. Not "free trial." Not "free for one user." Every feature, unlimited users, unlimited locations, $0/month.
2. **Built by a shop owner**: Not by VCs or MBAs. Built by someone who runs an auto shop and got tired of paying $300-500/month for software that should be free.
3. **No feature gating**: Every shop gets every feature. DVI, SMS, AI, payments, campaigns, multi-shop, reporting — all included.
4. **Real production software**: 230,000+ lines of code running in real shops with real customers and real repair orders every day.
5. **Free data migration**: Switch from Shopmonkey, Tekmetric, Mitchell, Shop-Ware, or any other system. Customers, vehicles, and service history migrated at no cost.
6. **Unlimited everything**: Unlimited users, unlimited repair orders, unlimited inspections, unlimited SMS messages, unlimited locations.

## Company

- **Website**: https://shopcommander.com
- **App**: https://app.shopcommander.com
- **Location**: Canada
- **Founded by**: A shop owner who got tired of paying rent to software companies

## Pages

### Core
- [Home](https://shopcommander.com/)
- [Features](https://shopcommander.com/features)
- [Pricing](https://shopcommander.com/pricing)
- [About](https://shopcommander.com/about)
- [Compare](https://shopcommander.com/compare)
- [Mobile App (iOS & Android)](https://shopcommander.com/app)
- [AI Voice Advisor](https://shopcommander.com/ai-advisor)
- [Documentation](https://shopcommander.com/docs/)
- [Training Academy](https://shopcommander.com/training)
- [Contact](https://shopcommander.com/contact)

### Feature Pages
- [Free Auto Repair Shop Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/free-auto-repair-shop-software)
- [Digital Vehicle Inspection Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/digital-vehicle-inspection-software)
- [Auto Repair Scheduling & Appointments](https://shopcommander.com/features/scheduling-software)
- [Auto Shop SMS Marketing & Campaigns](https://shopcommander.com/features/sms-marketing)
- [Auto Shop Phone System](https://shopcommander.com/features/phone-system)
- [Auto Shop Invoicing & Payments](https://shopcommander.com/features/invoicing-payments)
- [Automotive CRM & Customer Management](https://shopcommander.com/features/crm-customer-management)
- [Auto Repair Workflow & Job Board](https://shopcommander.com/features/workflow-job-board)
- [Auto Shop Reporting & Analytics](https://shopcommander.com/features/reporting-analytics)
- [Technician Productivity & Task Management](https://shopcommander.com/features/technician-productivity)
- [Multi-Location Auto Shop Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/multi-location-software)
- [Tire Storage Management Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/tire-storage-management)
- [Loaner Vehicle Tracking Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/loaner-vehicle-tracking)
- [AI-Powered Auto Shop Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/ai-features)
- [Auto Shop Parts & Inventory Management](https://shopcommander.com/features/parts-inventory)
- [Auto Repair Online Booking Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/online-booking)
- [Warranty Management Software](https://shopcommander.com/features/warranty-management)
- [Free VIN Decoder for Auto Repair Shops](https://shopcommander.com/features/vin-decoder)
- [Google Review Management for Auto Repair](https://shopcommander.com/features/google-review-management)
- [Canned Jobs & Service Templates](https://shopcommander.com/features/canned-jobs)

### Competitor Comparisons
- [Shop Commander vs Tekmetric](https://shopcommander.com/vs/tekmetric)
- [Shop Commander vs Shopmonkey](https://shopcommander.com/vs/shopmonkey)
- [Shop Commander vs Mitchell 1](https://shopcommander.com/vs/mitchell)
- [Shop Commander vs Shop-Ware](https://shopcommander.com/vs/shopware)
- [Best Tekmetric Alternative](https://shopcommander.com/alternatives/tekmetric-alternative)
- [Best Shopmonkey Alternative](https://shopcommander.com/alternatives/shopmonkey-alternative)
- [Best Mitchell 1 Alternative](https://shopcommander.com/alternatives/mitchell1-alternative)
- [Best Shop-Ware Alternative](https://shopcommander.com/alternatives/shopware-alternative)
- [Best Auto Repair Shop Software 2026](https://shopcommander.com/best-auto-repair-software)

### By Audience
- [Software for Shop Owners](https://shopcommander.com/software-for-shop-owners)
- [Software for Service Advisors](https://shopcommander.com/software-for-service-advisors)
- [Software for Technicians](https://shopcommander.com/software-for-technicians)
- [Auto Repair Software for Small Shops](https://shopcommander.com/auto-repair-software-small-shops)
- [Fleet Repair Shop Software](https://shopcommander.com/fleet-repair-software)
- [Tire Shop Management Software](https://shopcommander.com/tire-shop-software)

### By Location
- [Auto Repair Software Canada](https://shopcommander.com/auto-repair-software-canada)
- [Auto Repair Software USA](https://shopcommander.com/auto-repair-software-usa)

### Guides
- [How Shop Commander Makes Shops More Money](https://shopcommander.com/guides/make-more-money)
- [How to Start an Auto Repair Shop](https://shopcommander.com/guides/new-shop)
- [How to Increase Average Repair Order Value](https://shopcommander.com/guides/increase-aro)
- [Service Advisor Training Guide](https://shopcommander.com/guides/service-advisor-training)
- [Digital Vehicle Inspection Best Practices](https://shopcommander.com/guides/digital-inspection-best-practices)
- [Independent Auto Shop vs Dealership](https://shopcommander.com/guides/independent-vs-dealership)
- [How to Stop Losing Money in Your Auto Shop](https://shopcommander.com/guides/stop-losing-money)
- [Why Your Technicians Are Always Behind Schedule](https://shopcommander.com/guides/technicians-behind-schedule)
- [How to Reduce Comebacks in Auto Repair](https://shopcommander.com/guides/reduce-comebacks)
- [How to Improve Technician Efficiency](https://shopcommander.com/guides/improve-technician-efficiency)
- [Why Your ARO Is Stuck](https://shopcommander.com/guides/why-your-aro-is-stuck)
- [How to Fix Shop Bottlenecks](https://shopcommander.com/guides/fix-shop-bottlenecks)
- [How to Run a Paperless Auto Repair Shop](https://shopcommander.com/guides/paperless-auto-repair-shop)

### Blog & Authority Content
- [Average Auto Repair Shop Profit Margins](https://shopcommander.com/blog/auto-repair-profit-margins)
- [Auto Repair Labor Rate Guide](https://shopcommander.com/blog/labor-rate-guide)
- [How Much Does Auto Shop Software Cost?](https://shopcommander.com/blog/how-much-does-shop-software-cost)
- [Auto Shop KPI Benchmarks](https://shopcommander.com/blog/auto-shop-kpi-benchmarks)
- [Flat Rate vs Hourly Pay for Technicians](https://shopcommander.com/blog/flat-rate-vs-hourly)
- [How to Price Auto Repair Jobs](https://shopcommander.com/how-to-price-auto-repair)