Tekmetric is a cloud shop management system aimed at growing shops, with plans that scale up to multi-location operations. CROW is built for one-to-five-bay shops and mobile mechanics who need a job board, estimates and invoices without a growing-shop price. Here’s an honest comparison.
Price
Tekmetric’s Start plan is $199/month billed monthly ($179/month billed annually). Grow is $349/month and Scale is $439/month. All Tekmetric plans include unlimited users. CROW’s Mechanic Pro is $29.99 CAD/month (about US$21), or $249 CAD a year.
What Tekmetric has that CROW doesn’t
Tekmetric’s Start plan includes:
- Digital vehicle inspections.
- Digital authorizations: customers approve work electronically.
- Inventory and vendor management.
- Unlimited users, so every tech and service writer can log in.
Higher Tekmetric plans add a labor guide, time and job clocks, two-way texting, a technician board and performance reports. CROW has none of these today.
What CROW has
- AI diagnosis on every job: ranked likely causes for that vehicle, what to check next, and suggested parts and labor that you turn into an estimate in one step. See AI diagnosis.
- Recalls and maintenance alongside the diagnosis: the NHTSA safety recalls issued for that year, make and model, and the vehicle’s maintenance schedule, ready to add to the estimate.
- Customer intake before there’s a job: log a call, then turn it into a job with everything filled in.
- Estimates and invoices with parts, labor, tax and discounts, saved to the job and downloadable as a PDF.
- A phone-friendly web app: nothing to install. See mobile mechanic software.
Who should pick which
Pick Tekmetric if you have a team who all need logins, you want customers to approve work digitally with inspection results, or you track parts inventory.
Pick CROW if you’re a small or mobile shop that mostly needs a job board, estimates and invoices, and the AI diagnosis matters more to you than inspections and inventory, at about a tenth of Tekmetric’s entry price.
If all you need is invoices, a simple invoicing app such as AutoRepairBill starts at $7.99/month for 25 invoices (checked Oct 17, 2026). It’s cheaper than CROW, without the job board or the diagnosis.
Switching to CROW
CROW doesn’t import data from Tekmetric. Most small shops switch by starting new jobs in CROW and keeping their old system open, read-only, until open jobs close. Customers and vehicles come into CROW as you create jobs for them. The 30-day free trial needs no card, so you can run both side by side before you cancel anything.