Garage Hive GMS Alternative: Pricing and Features Comparison
Garage Hive gets plenty right, so if you are comparing it with Autopilot the useful question is what is actually different. Autopilot is built by developers working day to day with a garage owner who has run his own workshop for over fifteen years, it starts at £99 a month, and the roadmap is shaped by what garages ask for rather than what a platform release allows.
A 30-day trial on the full plan, your data moved across within 48 hours, and UK support from people who know workshops.
Garage Hive pricing and terms last checked September 2026
No upfront cost
Nothing to pay to get started. Just the monthly price.
No cost per user
Reception, technicians and owners included, however many you add.
30 days on the full plan
Real jobs, real invoices, before you commit to anything.
Data moved in 48 hours
Customers, vehicles and invoice history brought across for you.
Four steps, and most of the work is ours
Account and kick off call
You sign up, we book you straight in with a UK onboarding specialist. Company details, VAT, labour rates and users get set on the call, along with your parts and accountancy integrations and your service packages built out for you.
Your data comes across
Send us an export from your old system. Customer records, vehicle history and invoice history are mapped, imported and checked back with you.
Team training, your way
We offer a range of training packages to suit different garages, whether that is remote over a call, us coming to you, or your team coming to us, with sessions as short or as thorough as you need.
Run it for real, free
Book real jobs, send real invoices, on the full plan. Support is UK based and on the end of a phone. If it does not earn its keep, cancel and pay nothing.
Side by side on the things garage owners ask about
What it costs
Cost per technician
None. Your price does not change as your team grows.
Charged per technician, so the bill grows every time you take someone on.
Cost per user
None. Add reception, techs and owners at no extra cost.
Charged per user, so reception and management seats add to the monthly cost.
Starting price
£99 a month for AutoPilot Basic, with no upfront cost.
From £145 a month.
What you get
Support & Development
UK support from people who know garages. You get through to a human.
Development is slow, and some changes cannot be made at all because of the platform it is built on.
Trial on the full plan
Yes. Book real jobs and send real invoices before you commit.
No free trial advertised.
AI assistant
Built in from the entry plan, answering questions and drafting customer messages.
No AI assistant.
Who shapes what gets built
A garage owner of 15+ years is a partner in the business and signs off what gets built.
Feedback gathered from their user community.
Scroll the table sideways on a phone. Comparison based on publicly available information, last reviewed September 2026.
What actually decides it
The headline price is not the price
Garage Hive advertises from £145 a month, which looks higher than Autopilot’s £99 and lower than our £179 and £279 plans. On a single-technician workshop the comparison is close.
What changes it is that technicians and users are charged for individually. The bill rises every time you take someone on, and reception and management seats add to it as well.
One garage we spoke to was paying around £1,500 a month once everyone was counted. The same workshop on AutoPilot Pro pays £279. That is not a criticism of their product; it is a different pricing model, and it is the single most important thing to understand before signing.
The gap grows with the garage
Per-user pricing is manageable at two people and painful at ten. If you are planning to grow, the decision you are really making is about what the bill looks like in three years, not this month.
Autopilot charges nothing per technician or per user. Whatever your headcount, AutoPilot Pro is £279 a month.
Trying it before you commit
Garage Hive does not advertise a free trial. Autopilot gives you 30 days on the full plan, booking real jobs and sending real invoices.
For a system you will live in every day, running your own work through it beats any demo.
Where Garage Hive is strong
No system is the right answer for every garage. These are the things Garage Hive does well.
- ✓A one-month rolling contract with no minimum term, which is as fair as contract terms get.
- ✓Their full feature set is included rather than split across tiers, so you are not buying your way up to the useful parts.
- ✓Support is something their customers consistently praise, and they lead with it for good reason.
- ✓Development is shaped by an active user community, and they are visibly responsive to it.
Built to be picked up without training
The diary
Every technician and job on one screen, colour coded, drag and drop to reassign.
Technician app
Job details, checklists and vehicle health checks on a tablet in the workshop.
Reporting
Revenue, throughput and technician efficiency, without exporting to a spreadsheet.
Switching from Garage Hive? Your questions answered
How much does Garage Hive cost?+
Garage Hive advertise from £145 a month on a one-month rolling contract. What that grows to depends on your team, because technicians and users are charged for individually. One garage we spoke to was paying around £1,500 a month once everyone was counted. Autopilot is £99, £179 or £279 a month whatever the size of the team.
Does Garage Hive charge per user?+
Yes. Technicians and users are charged separately, so the monthly bill rises every time you take someone on and reception and management seats add to it as well. Autopilot has no per-user or per-technician cost at all.
Does Garage Hive have a free trial?+
Garage Hive do not advertise a free trial. Autopilot gives you 30 days on the full plan, booking real jobs and sending real invoices, before you commit to anything.
Can I move my data from Garage Hive to Autopilot?+
Yes. Send us an export and we bring your customer records, vehicle history and invoice history across within 48 hours, then check it back with you before you go live.
Is Autopilot a good Garage Hive alternative for a busy workshop?+
It is where the difference shows most. Because Autopilot does not charge per technician or per user, the bigger your team the wider the gap gets. AutoPilot Pro is £279 a month with the technician app, online booking and the full reporting suite included, and it stays £279 whether you run three technicians or fifteen.
Sources
Claims about Garage Hive on this page come from their own published pages. Check them yourself:
Last reviewed September 2026. Other providers change their pricing and features at any time, so check before deciding.
Ask Scott what he made us change
Scott Walsh co-owns MB Liverpool and is a partner in Autopilot. He has used most of the systems on the market, so he knows what you are living with and what you want instead. Nothing gets built here without going past him.
Every garage we have shown Autopilot to has told us the same thing: it is simpler and easier to use than what they had. Talk to Scott and judge it for yourself.
See it on your own jobs before you decide
Twenty minutes on a call is usually enough to tell whether Autopilot suits your workshop. If it does, we will bring your data across and get your team trained. If it does not, we will tell you.