Garage management software in the UK, compared honestly

Five systems, side by side on the things that decide the bill: published price, setup fees, how many users you actually get, minimum terms, and what is charged extra.

Every figure taken from each vendor's own pricing page on 10 August 2026. We make one of these, so check the links.

AuteraTorq'dTorqueflowMotasoftGDS
Monthly priceFree, then £29 / £79 / £149£90 / £199£75 annual / £100 monthly£90 (Essentials)£149 / £249 / £299
Setup feeNoneNot publishedNoneNot published£350 / £450 / £1,500
Users includedUnlimited mechanics and unlimited office staff on every paid plan. Free plan is one mechanicUnlimitedUnlimitedNot publishedNot published
Free trial14 days, no card1 month, no card30 days, £1 card checkNot publishedNot published
Minimum termMonthly, cancel any timeNot publishedMonthly or annual6 months minimumNot published
Data migrationFree, we do it for youIncludedIncludedNot publishedNot published
Worth knowingDVLA and MOT history lookups includedTyre modules, GroupTyre supplier linkAI credits, top-up packs availableFree trade website included with the packageSMS, VRM lookups and Haynes Pro charged as credits
SourcePricing pagePricing pagePricing pagePricing pagePricing page

“Not published” means the vendor does not state it publicly, not that the answer is unfavourable. Prices change; if anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

How to read that table

Headcount never changes our price

Autera is free for a one-man operation and £29 a month after that, with unlimited mechanics and unlimited office staff on every paid plan, so taking someone on does not move the bill. Nobody else in this table has a free plan, and the next cheapest paid option is £75 to £90.

Where the others still beat us

Torq'd bundles tyre modules and a GroupTyre supplier link, and Autera has no equivalent: a tyre here is an ordinary stock part, with no sizing, no fitment lookup from the reg and no supplier feed. Torqueflow's £75 annual rate also sits under our £79 monthly Workshop price. If tyres are most of your work, look at them properly before you look at us.

Check the setup fee and the credits

A monthly price is not the bill. GDS publishes setup fees of £350 to £1,500 and charges SMS, reg lookups and Haynes Pro data as credits on top. Motasoft's Essentials package has a six month minimum term. Those are the numbers that decide what you actually pay in year one.

Ask who does the moving

Every system here has an import tool and hardly anyone uses one, because exporting fifteen years of customers out of the old system is a proper job. Torq'd and Torqueflow both include migration. So do we, free, on every plan including the free one. Anyone who does not include it is asking you to do the hard part.

Try it with your own data in it

You cannot judge any of these on a blank system

Send us your customers, vehicles and job history in whatever format they are in and we will load them free, within one working day of your file reaching us. Then judge it properly, on your own workshop.

Get your free migrationSee Autera pricing

Common questions

It depends on how much work you put through it, not on how many people you employ: Autera includes unlimited mechanics and unlimited office staff on every paid plan, so hiring never changes the bill. Autera is free for a one-man operation, which none of the others offer, and £29 a month covers a whole team up to 40 jobs a month. Past that, Workshop is £79 against Torq'd at £90 and Motasoft at £90, while Torqueflow's £75 annual rate is the one published figure in this table that sits under it. Setup fees and credit charges move the real bill further than the headline price does, so check those before you decide.

Some vendors quote per workshop after a demo. That is a legitimate way to sell, but it makes comparison impossible and usually means the price varies by who is asking. Everything in the table above is a published figure from the vendor's own site. Where a vendor does not publish something, the table says "not published" rather than guessing on their behalf.

It is a one-off charge to get you onto the system, and it is the number most often left out of a monthly-price comparison. GDS publishes setup fees from £350 up to £1,500 depending on tier. Autera and Torqueflow both publish no setup fee. Over a first year, a £1,500 setup is worth more than £100 a month of difference.

Several UK systems bill DVLA reg lookups, SMS and technical data as credits on top of the subscription. If you look up sixty registrations a week that is a real running cost and it does not appear in the headline price. Autera includes DVLA and MOT history lookups. Check this carefully whoever you go with, because it is the most common source of a bill that is bigger than the plan.

Getting your data out of the old system is the hard part, not getting it into the new one, and it is where most switches quietly die. Ask any vendor you are considering two questions: will you export my data for me if I leave, and will you load my data for me when I arrive. Autera does the second one free on every plan including the free one, within one working day of your file reaching us.

We make one of these products, so treat it accordingly and check the links. Every figure came from the vendor's own public pricing page on 10 August 2026, each row links to its source, and where a competitor beats us on price or features we have said so. Prices change. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.