Best Auto Repair Shop Names (70+ Ideas)

Scaling your auto repair business requires moving beyond simple spreadsheets and paper repair orders. You need a robust shop management software that has enterprise-level features, centralized real-time reporting, and helps you provide a consistent customer experience across locations.

This guide breaks down the top enterprise software solutions for auto repair shops with 2+ locations.

Top 5 Enterprise Solutions for Shops With Multiple Locations

Finding the right software partner for your expanding shop is critical to your success. Below you will find our top overall picks for multi-shop operators (MSOs).

1. Tekmetric

Multi-shop owners love Tekmetric because they can run their entire business, across all locations, from one platform. Featuring an all-in-one shop management solution with centralized real-time reporting, marketing, payments, and 70+ integrations, Tekmetric makes it easier for you to manage multiple locations.
Why we picked Tekmetric:

• Centralized reporting: Real-time dashboards enable you to see how each location is performing. You can track financials, employee performance, shop metrics, ARO, car count, and more.

• Unified inventory & part management: See your entire inventory availability, order parts, and transfer parts across locations as needed.
• All-in-one solution: Instead of switching between platforms, Tekmetric offers shop management, POS, and CRM in one place.
• Company history: Built by a former shop owner, Tekmetric is often praised for ease of use, simple onboarding, reliable support, and listening to customer feedback.

• Pricing: Starts at $179/mo (billed annually).

2. Shop-Ware

Shop-Ware is designed to help you maintain consistency across multiple locations with unified customer history, reporting, and employee management features.

Why we picked Shop-Ware:

• Reporting: Find the metrics that matter the most to your business.
• Customer experience: Standardize your customer experience across locations.
• Employee management: Easily compare employee productivity and manage permission levels.
• Pricing: Starts at $224/mo (billed annually).

3. Protractor

Protractor is a popular shop management system for shops with multiple locations or franchises. Protractor offers advanced reporting features and shop management features so you can run your shop confidently.

Why we picked Protractor:

• Reporting: Performance tracking, insights, and employee productivity monitoring.
• Accounting: Built-in accounting tools.
• Integrations: Multiple integration partners.
• Pricing: Starts at $359/mo (billed annually).

4. Fullbay

Fullbay specializes in heavy-duty truck and trailer repair shops. Most standard shop software struggles with the complexity of fleet maintenance, but Fullbay was built for it.

Why we picked Fullbay:

• Centralized inventory: Track parts and inventory across all locations.
• Integrations: Fullbay has plenty of industry interrogations to keep your shop running.
• Cloud-based: Manage your shop from anywhere.
• Pricing: Starting at $188/mo.

5. Garage360

If you are looking for a lighter software solution, Garage360 might be a good option for your shop. Supporting quick-lube, body/collision, and fleet, Garage360 can be used in a variety of shops.

Why we picked Garage360:

• Versatile: Can be used in multiple shop types.
• Permission control: Manage your employee permissions across locations.
• Reporting: Pull the data you need to make informed decisions.

• Pricing: Starting at $79/mo (billed annually).

Which software features should I look for when I manage multiple shops?

If you are comparing software options for your chain operations, these are the modern features to look for:

Centralized real-time reporting: Tired of trying to guess how each shop location is performing? Pick a software that can pull the data you need from any location or aggregate it across shop locations within a user-friendly dashboard.

Inventory/parts management: Tracking parts can be difficult as you expand. Find a solution that can track inventory levels and transfer parts as needed across locations.

Standardized workflows: Having standard workflows streamlines your shop operations. Select a software that can standardize your operations, prices, and procedures.

Employee permissions: Managing employee permissions is critical to ensuring the safety of your company data and holding employees accountable. Pick a software that keeps your business secure.

Customer communication: Modern customers expect a higher level of communication than they did 10 years ago. Find a shop management solution that provides online scheduling, DVIs, two-way texting, and other modern customer experience tools.

Single vs. Multi-Location Management: What are the differences?

Why can’t you just use a single-shop system? The difference lies in automation and control.

• Standardization: In a multi-location setup, you need to ensure that technicians at every shop are following the same workflow and procedures so your customer experience is consistent.
• Visibility: Single shop software may have reporting, but you need to be able to compare metrics between shops to make informed business decisions.
• Security: Multi-shop software provides employee permission settings and typically comes with advanced data protection.
• Pricing: Most single-shop software options will charge you per user or limit repair orders. Enterprise software will grow with you and charge based on the number of locations.

Final Thoughts

Choosing an enterprise-level auto repair shop software isn't just about features; it's about finding a partner that helps you maintain a consistent customer experience as you grow. Whether you prioritize inventory management, deep metrics, or standard procedures, ensure you find a solution that can grow with you.

When it comes to starting a business, you have a lot to consider.

How are you going to make sales?

Are your operations in order?

How will you approach legal, HR, and marketing?

But it’s important to not forget about one key part to getting your business off the ground: funding.

You’ll want to be well-versed in what to look for in a potential partnership whether you’re in the startup phase, the expansion phase, or even in a plateau phase.

By better preparing now, you’ll set your company up for future success.‍

Recently, Prasanth shared his thoughts about different kinds of funding with Texas CEO Magazine. You can read the full piece here, or check out some of the highlights below.

Determine The Right Equity Path For Your Business

The first step for any business owner should always consist of researching and selecting the right method of funding for your company. Once you’re confident in your company’s business model, your company’s current state, and any future aspirations for your company, you’ll want to determine the right equity path that can take your company where you want it to go.

1. Venture Capital

Venture capital is a more traditional route and is optimal for new entrepreneurs. If you have an idea for a potential business venture but aren’t sure exactly what to do with it just yet, venture capital could help you secure funding so that you can bring your ideas to fruition.

With venture capital, your partner will purchase a significant portion of the company, and in turn will offer support and guidance to nurture your company’s growth

2. Growth Equity

If your company has already excelled in the starting phases and needs another boost to continue expanding, you’ll want to consider growth equity—otherwise known as “rocket fuel.” Growth equity tends to be founder-centric and offers more autonomy and room to remain true to your company’s original core values and business model.

3. Private Equity

Companies that have reached the later stages of their business’ lifecycle may opt for private equity.

This route can be a good contender for companies that are at risk of going under due to lack of profits. Private equity can give your company the boost needed to prevent it from closing up shop.

Whoever you choose to partner with will take a large portion of your company’s ownership and will make significant changes to the company. However, the private equity route tends to yield bigger checks.

What Did Tekmetric Do For Funding?

Prasanth knows how important the right funding for your company is.

Prior to 2021, Tekmetric was in the startup and the small business stage, so the initial funding from friends and family was an avenue that worked out really well at the time

After 2021, Tekmetric started to expand exponentially. Tekmetric’s Co-CEOs and Co-Founders Prasanth and Sunil Patel realized that more growth could be possible if they changed from their personal network funding to the growth equity route.

Growth equity provided funding for additional initiatives, such as marketing, product research, and hiring. In turn, Tekmetric was able to pursue the vision that Prasanth and Sunil had outlined during the company’s beginning stage.

Find The Right Partner

You’ll want to be intentional about choosing any of your partnerships as a business owner, especially when it comes to finding the right funding partnerships.

The partner you decide to go with will help determine what your business’ tone and future will be like.

As you’re determining the right partnerships for you, ask yourself 5 questions:

• Is the partner aligned with my business goals?
• Do I trust this partner with my team and my business?
• What will my relationship with this partner look like?
• How much day-to-day involvement in my company does this partner expect?
• Does this partner provide a reasonable amount of funding to support my goals?

No matter what equity direction you take, you’ll want to find a partnership dynamic that works for you, your business, and your team. As you’re choosing the right partner, remain transparent about any goals and expectations you have in mind for your company.

You won’t want to choose a partner solely based on numbers. The partnership will be a long-term business relationship—a marriage of sorts—and you should treat the partnership with thoughtfulness and respect.

What Did Tekmetric Do For Funding Partnerships?

At Tekmetric, Prasanth and Sunil knew whichever partner they selected to provide funding would play a significant role in the company’s future, and would have a strong impact on Tekmetric’s overall tone, goals, and growth.

At the time Prasanth and Sunil started looking for partners, Tekmetric was a well-established name throughout the auto repair industry, so they wanted a partner that would work alongside them, not just someone who would give them money and stay at a distance.

Eventually, Tekmetric found the right partner—one who is not only sensitive to the company’s needs but also the needs of Tekmetric’s customers.

Remain True To Your Business Yourself

No matter the equity path you choose to go or the partnerships you choose to take, you’ll want to stay true to your business’ core values and who you are as a business owner.

Rather than cutting corners, you can opt for the best possible solutions.

Prasanth said it best: financial support and equity can be confusing, and it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and forget why you started your business in the first place. However, the right partner will make all the difference.

After all, if you are putting significant time and effort into your idea, your company, and your team, you should expect a partner who supports your continued success long into the future.

→ Check out our latest blog on 12 marketing strategies to help you bring in more customers, or learn how you can become the ultimate leader for your team

A special thanks to Texas CEO Magazine for providing space for Prasanth to share his knowledge.

At Tekmetric, we’ve been busy creating the most requested feature by users: true two-way texting. We’re excited to announce that this November, you and your guests will be able to communicate with each other in a seamless, hassle-free way.

Send and Receive Texts Directly in Tekmetric

Once your shop sets up two-way texting within Tekmetric, your team and customers will be able to have instant, harmonious digital conversations.

On your end, the Tekmessage interface will have a similar look and feel to social media messaging services (such as Facebook Messenger).

Your customers, however, will see the conversations as regular text messages on their phones.

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To use Tekmessage, simply click the messaging icon in the top right corner of your shop’s header within Tekmetric. Doing so will open the Tekmessage sidebar, where you’ll be able to see a full list of conversations with guests, send and receive texts, and search conversations.