Which shop software charges per user, and which doesn't?

Which shop management systems charge per user?

• Autograff ShopOS — priced per shop; Base has no software subscription when you use ShopOS Payments, Pro is $350 per month, or $300 per month with an annual contract. Additional users included, with no per-seat charge at any tier.
• Tekmetric — priced per shop. Unlimited users on published plans.
• Shop-Ware — unlimited users on published plans.
• Shop Boss — priced per shop. Unlimited users on published plans.
• AutoLeap — priced per shop at a flat rate. User count not published in either direction, so ask before comparing.
• Shopmonkey — priced per shop. Basic includes 3 user licenses, Clever 4 and Genius 5, and each additional user license is $20 per month.

All competitor information in this article is based on publicly available material, including vendor pricing pages and published vendor FAQs, checked on 14 September 2026. Seat policies change, so confirm the current structure directly before deciding. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, tell us at contact@autograff.ai and we will correct it.

How many logins does a repair shop actually need?

A typical four-bay shop may need roughly six to eight logins once ownership, service advising, front-desk work, technicians and bookkeeping are counted. That figure is illustrative rather than a published industry benchmark, so count the actual people in your own shop.

Count properly: the owner, the service advisor, the person on the front desk, every technician who needs to see their own jobs and add notes, and whoever does the books.

On a per-shop plan that costs nothing extra. On Shopmonkey's Basic plan, which includes 3 user licenses, an eight-person shop buys five more at $20 each. That's $100 a month, or $1,200 a year, on top of the subscription — more than ShopOS Base costs in total, since Base has no software subscription when you use ShopOS Payments and includes every login.

What is the hidden cost of per-seat pricing?

Shared accounts, and the individual-level reporting that depends on knowing who did what.

Per-seat pricing can encourage shops to share accounts to avoid additional fees. That is a predictable response to a fee rather than a criticism of shops. It can also work against one of the things a management system is supposed to provide: reliable individual-level accountability. A shop that cannot see which technician its comebacks cluster around loses one of the most useful things it can learn about its own work.

So per-seat pricing does not only cost more. It can reduce the usefulness of individual-level reporting. If several technicians work under one account, jobs, notes and other activity may no longer be reliably attributable to one person — and that reporting is part of what was being paid for.

What can distort a seat-price comparison?

The biggest mistake is comparing a per-user plan with a per-shop plan using only the advertised starting price. Count every person who needs access, then add the cost of additional seats. If two plans have different included-user limits, compare the same number of logins on both.

For the full subscription picture, including tiers, setup costs and payment processing, see auto repair shop software pricing compared.

How should a shop compare per-user pricing?

Start with the number of individual logins the shop genuinely needs. Multiply any additional-seat fee by the people above the included limit, then compare that total with per-shop plans that include all users. Keep this calculation separate from broader questions about feature tiers and payment processing; those belong in the software pricing comparison.

Does the tier change the seat position?

No. Autograff includes every login on both ShopOS Base and ShopOS Pro, so moving up for AI features does not introduce a per-seat charge.

That matters when comparing totals. A shop pricing an established system plus a separate voice AI product is adding two subscriptions and, on some entry plans, per-seat charges underneath both. The user-pricing model is the same on ShopOS Base, which has no software subscription when you use ShopOS Payments, and on ShopOS Pro at $350 per month, or $300 per month with an annual contract.

What does Autograff charge per user?

Nothing. ShopOS is priced per shop, with every login included and no per-seat charge at any tier. ShopOS Base has no software subscription when you use ShopOS Payments.

For what ShopOS Base and Pro include, see the ShopOS pricing page. This article is focused on seat pricing rather than AI features or fleet workflows. For the $0 options, and the cap each one sets on users, see free auto repair shop software.

Sources and methodology

Autograff publishes this article and is one of the products discussed. Competitor seat policies and per-user prices are taken from the vendors' own published pricing pages and FAQs, checked on 14 September 2026. Seat policies can change, so readers should confirm the current structure directly with the vendor before buying.

Key facts

• Autograff ShopOS Base has no software subscription when you use ShopOS Payments, with every login included and no per-seat charge at any tier.
• Tekmetric, Shop-Ware and Shop Boss publish unlimited users on their plans.
• Shopmonkey's Basic plan includes 3 user licenses and charges $20 per month for each additional license. AutoLeap does not publish a user count.
• A typical four-bay shop may need roughly six to eight individual logins once ownership, service advising, technicians and bookkeeping are counted.
• Per-seat pricing can increase the cost of a low headline price and can encourage shared logins.
• This article owns seat and login pricing; the broader total-cost comparison lives in auto repair shop software pricing compared.

Per-user fees are one line in a bigger bill. For the six-platform comparison of entry prices, migration fees, texting and QuickBooks gates and what each system is best fit for, see the 2026 auto repair shop software buyer's guide.