BayRobin vs Tekmetric: Which Fits Your Shop? (2026)
Tekmetric is a mature, cloud shop management system with labor guides, parts ordering and payments. BayRobin is an AI front office that answers and books every call. An honest look at which one your shop needs, or whether you need both.
Tekmetric is one of the best-known shop management systems for independent auto repair shops. It says it is trusted by more than 16,000 shops, was founded by a former shop owner, and launched in 2017. It covers repair orders, digital inspections, a labor guide, parts and tire ordering, payments with buy now, pay later, and a marketing add-on with online booking and reminders.
More on this topic: Shop software pricing and alternatives, every guide in one place.
BayRobin is newer and narrower. It's an AI receptionist and front office for independent shops: it answers every call, gets the year, make and model and the concern, books the appointment, texts back missed calls, and then carries the job through inspections, an estimate the customer approves by text, the invoice and a review request. This comparison is for owners deciding whether they need Tekmetric, BayRobin, or Tekmetric with BayRobin answering the phone.
The short answer
Choose Tekmetric if you want a complete shop management system with a labor guide, parts and tire ordering, inventory, payments with financing and a technician app. Tekmetric doesn't publish an AI receptionist of its own. Choose BayRobin if missed calls are what cost you work and you want an AI receptionist, text-back, booking, inspections and estimates in one flat price, and you can live without a labor guide or parts ordering. Many shops will be best served by keeping Tekmetric and putting BayRobin in front of the phone.
Key takeaways
- Tekmetric is a far deeper shop system: labor guide (from Grow), parts ordering through PartsTech and Worldpac, Tire Suite, inventory, buy now, pay later, a mobile app and over 70 integrations.
- Tekmetric's Phones feature connects RingCentral and shows the caller's customer, vehicle and repair order. Its pages don't describe an AI receptionist, call answering or missed-call text-back.
- Tekmetric starts at $199 a month ($179 billed yearly). Two-way texting starts on Scale at $439, and online booking and reminders come with the Marketing add-on at $345 a month per shop.
- BayRobin has no labor guide, parts ordering, inventory, financing, accounting sync or native app. It's the better fit when answering and booking calls matters most.
- BayRobin is a front office more than a full shop management system: the AI receptionist, missed-call text-back, online booking and reminders come with inspections, repair orders, invoices and a dispatch board on every plan, and AI call time is paid from the plan's monthly credits.
Disclosure: we make BayRobin, so weigh our view accordingly. Everything we say about Tekmetric comes from its own public pages or published reviews, checked in October 2026 and linked at the end. BayRobin is new and does less than Tekmetric in several areas; we list them.
BayRobin vs Tekmetric at a glance
| BayRobin | Tekmetric | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI receptionist and front office for independent shops | Cloud shop management system for auto repair |
| Answers calls | AI receptionist on every plan, 24/7 | Phones (RingCentral integration) shows who's calling; no AI answering found |
| Labor guide and parts | None: your own canned jobs and prices | Labor guide from Grow; PartsTech, Worldpac and more |
| Starting price | $149/month (3 users) | $199/month, or $179 billed yearly; unlimited users |
Pricing compared
Both publish their prices. Tekmetric prices per shop with unlimited users and offers month-to-month billing or a cheaper annual plan, with no long-term contract. It offers demos but not free trials. In October 2026 its page printed "billed annually" under the monthly figures too; the annual prices below are the ones its page lists as annual.
| BayRobin plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Starter | $149/month: 3 users, 2,000 credits a month (about 150 AI call minutes), every feature |
| Pro | $249/month: 8 users, 5,000 credits a month (about 400 AI call minutes), every feature |
| Shop | $399/month: 20 users, 12,000 credits a month (about 1,000 AI call minutes), every feature plus payroll |
Every plan has every feature, including inspections, repair orders, invoices and the dispatch board; only payroll is Shop-only. Plans are month to month with no contract or setup fee, and a plan's price doesn't go up while you stay on it. Yearly billing is 10× the monthly price (two months free). Credits also pay for the phone number, call minutes and call summaries, so the AI-minute figures are approximate. The launch offer is free until your first 10 booked jobs, with no card up front: jobs booked by the AI receptionist or your online booking page count.
| Tekmetric plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Start | $199/month, or $179/month billed yearly: inspections, Smart Jobs, digital authorizations and invoicing, inventory |
| Grow | $349/month, or $309/month billed yearly: adds the labor guide, maintenance schedules, time and job clocks |
| Scale | $439/month, or $409/month billed yearly: adds two-way texting, the shop dashboard and technician board |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing: adds integrated payments and a dedicated account manager |
| Add-ons, per shop | Marketing +$345/month; Tire Suite +$39/month; Multi-Shop +$70/month; Payments price not published |
The two aren't priced for the same job. A shop that wants Tekmetric's two-way texting plus online booking and reminders pays $439 for Scale and $345 for Marketing: $784 a month before payments. BayRobin Pro is $249 a month with the receptionist, text-back, online booking, reminders, inspections, estimates and invoices, but no labor guide or parts ordering, which many shops won't give up. Keeping Tekmetric Grow ($349) for the shop floor and adding BayRobin Starter ($149) to answer calls comes to $498 a month, though the two don't sync and someone re-enters each booking. Every Tekmetric plan and add-on is broken down in Tekmetric pricing, and other shop systems are in Tekmetric alternatives.
Feature by feature: BayRobin vs Tekmetric
| BayRobin | Tekmetric | |
|---|---|---|
| Answering calls | AI receptionist answers 24/7 with your shop's name, asks what's wrong or what service they want, the year, make and model, rough mileage, whether they'll wait or drop off, and their name, then books an open time | Phones: RingCentral integration with caller identification, call history, voicemail and creating appointments from a call |
| Urgent calls | Urgent calls (won't start, brakes failing, overheating, unsafe to drive) get the earliest open time or a transfer to that day's on-call person, your choice; it suggests they don't drive it | Not described |
| Missed-call text-back | Missed-call text-back within a minute, on by default, message editable; replies land in your shared inbox; STOP honored | Not found on its public pages |
| Texting | Texts from the shop's inbox thread per customer; STOP honored | Two-way texting from Scale, one number for texting, reminders and marketing |
| Online booking and reminders | Online booking page (a link) that offers real open times, asks for texting consent and turns each booking into a scheduled job; reminder text about a day before each appointment booked ahead; the customer replies C to confirm or R to reschedule | 24/7 online booking and automated reminders in the Marketing add-on |
| Inspections | Digital inspections on the technician's phone browser: each item green, yellow or red with notes and photos, and recommended work from the findings | Digital vehicle inspections on every plan |
| Estimates | Repair orders of labor (hours at your labor rate), parts and fees, built from canned jobs; the customer approves or declines each service on one link, and phone approvals are recorded with your name | Smart Jobs and digital approval with e-signature |
| Labor guide | No labor guide or repair data (no MOTOR, ALLDATA or ProDemand); you set your own labor hours and prices | Tekmetric Labor Guide from Grow; ALLDATA integration |
| Parts and tires | No parts ordering, parts catalogs or inventory | PartsTech, Worldpac SpeedDial, Advance; Tire Suite add-on |
| Payments and financing | Approved work becomes the invoice, sent by text with a pay link; card payments through your own Stripe account, or PayPal; no consumer financing | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Text-to-Pay; buy now, pay later through Affirm, Klarna or Sunbit |
| Bringing customers back | Service-due texts by miles or months (mileage estimated from the vehicle's own readings), and texts about declined work 14 and 90 days later | Automated reminders for declined jobs and scheduled maintenance (Marketing add-on) |
| Reviews | One Google review request by text once an invoice is paid in full | Review requests in the Marketing add-on |
| Technician app | No native app: technicians use My day in their phone's browser | Mobile app for iOS and Android |
| Accounting | No QuickBooks or Xero sync | Accounting integrations like QuickBooks for accounts payable data |
What comes with BayRobin
Many independent shops pay for shop management software, a phone or answering add-on, a texting tool and a review tool, then copy the same customer between them. BayRobin puts the parts that win the job and bring the customer back in one place, starting at $149/month. If you're weighing Tekmetric, check which of these you'd pay extra for there.
| Included | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI receptionist | AI receptionist answers 24/7 with your shop's name, asks what's wrong or what service they want, the year, make and model, rough mileage, whether they'll wait or drop off, and their name, then books an open time |
| Urgent calls | Urgent calls (won't start, brakes failing, overheating, unsafe to drive) get the earliest open time or a transfer to that day's on-call person, your choice; it suggests they don't drive it |
| Missed-call text-back | Missed-call text-back within a minute, on by default, message editable; replies land in your shared inbox; STOP honored |
| Online booking and reminders | Online booking page (a link) that offers real open times, asks for texting consent and turns each booking into a scheduled job. Reminder text about a day before each appointment booked ahead; the customer replies C to confirm or R to reschedule |
| Vehicles and recalls | Vehicles on each customer, matched by VIN, then plate, then year, make and model; a VIN fills in year, make, model, trim and engine from NHTSA's free decoder; mileage on each job. Open NHTSA safety recalls for the vehicle's year, make and model on the repair order and inspection, marked "may apply" with a link to the VIN check |
| Inspections and estimates | Digital inspections on the technician's phone browser: each item green, yellow or red with notes and photos, and recommended work from the findings. Repair orders of labor (hours at your labor rate), parts and fees, built from canned jobs; the customer approves or declines each service on one link, and phone approvals are recorded with your name |
| Invoices and pickup | Approved work becomes the invoice, sent by text with a pay link; card payments through your own Stripe account, or PayPal. Ready for pickup: one button texts the customer their vehicle is ready, with the total and a pay-by-card link |
| Bringing customers back | Service-due texts by miles or months (mileage estimated from the vehicle's own readings), and texts about declined work 14 and 90 days later. One Google review request by text once an invoice is paid in full |
| Dispatch | Dispatch board on every plan: day and week views with one row per technician, drag to reassign or move, clash check, one-click text of the new time |
What BayRobin doesn't do
| Labor guide and repair data | No labor guide or repair data (no MOTOR, ALLDATA or ProDemand); you set your own labor hours and prices |
| Parts | No parts ordering, parts catalogs or inventory |
| Mobile app | No native app: technicians use My day in their phone's browser |
| Accounting | No QuickBooks or Xero sync |
| Financing | No consumer financing |
| Other shop software | No live connection to other shop software; forward calls to it and add bookings there yourself |
| Languages | The receptionist speaks English only |
Where Tekmetric is the better choice
A complete shop system
Tekmetric runs the whole shop: repair orders, inspections, a labor guide, parts and tire ordering, inventory, time clocks, reporting and payments, with a mobile app for technicians. BayRobin doesn't try to replace most of that.
Labor times and parts at the counter
With the labor guide on Grow and up, and parts ordering through PartsTech, Worldpac and Advance, a service writer can build an estimate without leaving the system. In BayRobin, labor hours and prices come from canned jobs you set up yourself.
Financing and payments
Tekmetric offers buy now, pay later through Affirm, Klarna or Sunbit and integrated card payments. BayRobin has no consumer financing.
Unlimited users and a track record
Every Tekmetric plan includes unlimited users, and more than 16,000 shops use it. BayRobin is new and has no customer base to point to yet.
Where BayRobin is the better choice
It answers the phone
BayRobin's receptionist picks up with your shop's name, asks what the car needs, the year, make and model, the mileage and whether they'll wait, and books an open time. It never diagnoses and gives only the price ranges you set. Tekmetric's Phones shows you who's calling, but someone still has to pick up. See the AI receptionist.
Missed callers get a text
A caller nobody talked to gets a text from your shop within a minute, and the reply lands in your inbox. See missed-call text-back.
Booking and reminders included
Online booking, day-before reminders, estimate follow-ups, service-due texts and review requests are on every BayRobin plan. On Tekmetric, booking, reminders and review requests are in the $345 Marketing add-on.
A lower monthly price
BayRobin starts at $149 a month with no contract or setup fee, and the price is locked while you stay on your plan.
Who should choose which
Choose Tekmetric if
- You need a labor guide, parts and tire ordering and inventory in your shop system.
- You want buy now, pay later financing for customers.
- Your technicians want a native app.
- You have several people who need logins and want unlimited users.
Choose BayRobin if
- You lose work to voicemail and want every call answered, at night and while you're under a car.
- Your shop is small enough that canned jobs at your labor rate cover your estimates.
- You want inspections, estimates approved by text, invoices and review requests at one flat price.
- Or you're keeping Tekmetric and only want calls answered and booked.
Using BayRobin alongside Tekmetric
You don't have to choose. Forward the calls you can't answer to BayRobin's receptionist. It books the appointment on its own calendar and texts you the vehicle, the concern and a link to the recording, and you add it to Tekmetric. There's no live connection between the two.
If you later move over, BayRobin can import customers, jobs and invoices from export files (CSV or XLSX), with a preview of how it reads each column and an undo. Vehicles aren't imported. See switching from your shop software.
Frequently asked questions
Does Tekmetric have an AI receptionist?
Not that we could find. As of October 2026, Tekmetric's Phones feature integrates RingCentral and shows caller details, but its pages don't describe AI call answering. Some third-party AI receptionists advertise Tekmetric integrations.
How much does Tekmetric cost?
$199, $349 or $439 a month for Start, Grow and Scale, or $179, $309 and $409 billed yearly, with Enterprise on a quote. Marketing is $345 a month per shop and Tire Suite $39.
Is BayRobin a Tekmetric replacement?
For some small shops, yes, but it has no labor guide, parts ordering, inventory or financing. Many shops will keep Tekmetric and use BayRobin to answer calls.
Does BayRobin connect to Tekmetric?
No. Bookings are texted to you to add in Tekmetric. If you switch, there's a one-time file import of customers, jobs and invoices.
Does BayRobin have an app like Tekmetric?
No. Technicians use My day, a web page made for phones, and inspections run in the phone's browser.
Try it on your own shop's phone
Forward a few calls to BayRobin and keep Tekmetric for the shop floor. Set up your services and hours, make a test call about a real car, and listen to how it handles it. BayRobin is free until your first 10 booked jobs, no card up front. Start free or see pricing.
Related: how BayRobin handles the AI receptionist, missed-call text-back, inspections, estimates and invoices and Ready for pickup texts, or how it works for general repair shops.
Sources
Competitor details in this post were checked against these public pages in October 2026. Products and prices change, so confirm with each vendor before you decide.
More on Shop software pricing and alternatives
Best AI Receptionists for Auto Repair Shops (2026)
BayRobin vs Smith.ai for Auto Repair Shops (2026)
The Best Auto Repair Shop Software in 2026
BayRobin vs Shopmonkey: Shop Software Compared (2026)
Mitchell 1 Pricing (2026): Manager SE and ProDemand
