UK. Prices read on supplier pages, 15 August 2026
Compare MOT and garage management software for UK garages
Four of the seven UK products here publish a monthly price on their own website, from £30 to £145 a month. Three will not tell you until you have spoken to a salesperson. None of them records the MOT test itself: that happens in DVSA's own MOT testing service. This table records what each supplier states on its own page, with the date we read it, and says plainly where a supplier states nothing.
| Option | supplier's own page, checked 15 Aug 2026 | DVSA's MOT history API needs its own registration | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workauto A first system for a one or two bay garage | £30 a month, or £300 a year. The page states no setup fees and no hidden charges | 50 vehicle lookups a month are included, with an option to raise that to 100 for £10 a month. The page does not name DVSA or DVLA as the source of the data | MOT and service reminders are listed on both plans, described on the page as basic email reminders to cut no-shows | Rolling monthly with no contract, cancel anytime. 14-day free trial with no card details required | Not mentioned on the page we read |
| Garage Software Solutions A garage that wants the website and the system from one supplier | Starter £49.99 a month, Standard £69.99, Premium £99.99. A Custom plan is quote only. Web hosting and a domain are included in each | Not stated. The plan tables list Vehicle Management and Booking Software but name no DVSA or DVLA data source | Not stated in the plan tables or module descriptions we read | No contract, pay as you go, with upgrades or downgrades at any time. The site carries a notice that it is currently being updated | A built-in Accounting module is included in every plan. No named third-party integration |
| Motasoft Virtual Garage Manager Published tiers with technical data bundled in | VGM Essential £65 a month, VGM Plus £95, VGM Complete £135. The comparison table states free set-up and unlimited users | MOT history (DVLA) is listed under VGM Integrations, alongside VRM lookup | MOT and service reminders are in the entry-level Essential tier | No set-up cost and no fixed-term contract, stated on the pricing page. A free demo is offered | Xero, Sage and QuickBooks integration listed, plus HMRC Making Tax Digital compatibility |
| Garage Hive One published all-in price with the MOT feed named | Starting from £145 a month. One plan rather than tiers: the pricing page lists the whole feature set under that single figure | DVSA MOT Integration is listed on the pricing page. The separate MOT history page describes retrieving DVLA MOT history inside the software, with automated expiry updates | Automated reminders for MOT, service, timing belt and more, by SMS and email | One-month rolling contract, stated on the pricing page. A free trial and a demo are offered | Xero, Sage and QuickBooks integrations, plus a built-in accountancy module |
| TechMan Tiered plans with parts and technical data integrations | Not published. Four plans (Starter, Lite, Advanced, Pro) are described with no figures against any of them | The front-of-house page describes an MOT expiry lookup that gets MOT data from DVSA records, built into the system | MOT and service reminders are listed from the entry-level Starter plan up, with custom intervals for MOTs, services and commercial vehicle inspections | Two shapes: a Partner Plan at a 20% lower monthly rate with no upfront cost on a minimum-term agreement, or a Flexi Plan on 30 days rolling with an onboarding and implementation fee | Export to Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, Kashflow or other accounting software, per the integrations page |
| MOT Manager Reminders-first, with text messages not metered | Not published. The site states a fixed monthly fee with technical support included and no hidden costs or credits, and routes you to a demo | The home page states live vehicle data integration and lists a vehicle look-up feature. It does not name DVSA or DVLA as the source | Unlimited automated MOT text reminders are stated as included, along with unlimited booking and customer service texts | No term is stated. A no-obligation demonstration and a free trial are offered, with no software installation required | Not stated on the page we read. Invoicing is listed among the features |
| MAM Autowork Online Multi-bay MOT stations wanting ledgers in the same system | Not published. The product page routes to a contact form | Not stated. The page describes a separate MOT diary that manages bookings for up to four MOT bays, but names no DVSA or DVLA data feed | Email and SMS messaging for service or MOT reminders, with all correspondence logged automatically against the record | Not stated on the page we read | Built in rather than integrated: purchase and sales ledgers and VAT accounts are part of the product |
How we chose and ordered these
Every product here is UK garage management software whose own website we could fetch and read on 15 August 2026. We included products that are sold to independent garages, MOT test stations and small workshop chains, and we recorded only what the supplier states on its own pages. Nothing in this table comes from a review site, a directory listing or a third-party blog, because the prices those carry are frequently out of date and cannot be checked against the supplier.
The order is by what the supplier is willing to tell you before you talk to them: products with a published monthly price first, cheapest to dearest, then products that quote only. That is a deliberate ranking of transparency, not of quality. A quote-only product may well be the better fit for your garage, and two of the three here are long-established systems used by hundreds of test stations.
Left out, and why. Autoflow (autoflow.co.uk) refused every connection we made to it. CarVue (carvue.com) did not resolve at all. MOT GMS (motgms.co.uk) serves a TLS certificate that does not match its own hostname, so a browser cannot open it cleanly either. SeSar (sesar.co.uk) answered, and its own page title states £89.99 a month, but the site is a JavaScript application that served us no readable product content, so we could not verify a single feature from the source and left it out rather than publish a row we could not check. A product's absence here means we could not read its site on the day, not that it is unsuitable.
What this table does not tell you. It is not a rating, a test or a review: we have not run any of these systems in a working garage. It says nothing about support quality, how a migration from your current system goes, or what a supplier will actually charge you after a negotiation. Where a supplier publishes a price, treat it as the list price for the smallest plan, not as your bill. We take no commission from any supplier on this page and carry no paid placements.
- Workauto workauto.co.uk
- Garage Software Solutions garagesoftwaresolutions.com
- Motasoft Virtual Garage Manager motasoft.co.uk pricing
- Garage Hive garagehive.co.uk pricing
- TechMan techmangms.com pricing
- MOT Manager motmanager.co.uk
- MAM Autowork Online mamsoftware.com, Autowork Online
MOT Software is an independent site operated by Ellul Solutions Ltd. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to DVSA, DVLA or any software supplier named here, and nothing on it is legal or compliance advice. We take no commission from any supplier in this comparison and carry no paid placements. Supplier prices and features change without notice: every figure carries the date we read it on the supplier's own page, and DVSA fees should be confirmed on gov.uk before you rely on them.
What UK garage software suppliers publish about price and MOT data, August 2026
Last updated
Most comparisons of garage software quote prices that came from somewhere else. This one records only what each supplier states on its own website, and marks the gaps as gaps. Four of the seven publish a monthly figure; three do not.
Each row was read on the supplier's own website on 15 August 2026, using the URL given in the comparison above, and is reproduced rather than estimated or converted. Where a supplier's page states no price, the row says 'Not published' instead of carrying a figure from a directory or a review site. The MOT data column records only what the supplier itself claims about where its MOT or vehicle data comes from; we have not tested any of these lookups, and an absence in that column means the supplier's own pages did not name a source, not that the feature is missing. Suppliers change prices and pages without notice, so confirm the current position on the supplier's site before buying.
| Product | Published price, read 15 August 2026 | What the supplier says about MOT data |
|---|---|---|
| Workauto | £30 a month or £300 a year, no setup fee, no contract | 50 vehicle lookups a month included, 100 for £10 a month more. No data source named. |
| Garage Software Solutions | £49.99, £69.99 or £99.99 a month, plus a quote-only Custom plan | Nothing stated. Vehicle Management and Booking Software are listed as modules. |
| Motasoft Virtual Garage Manager | £65, £95 or £135 a month, free set-up, unlimited users | MOT history (DVLA) listed under integrations, alongside VRM lookup. |
| Garage Hive | From £145 a month on a one-month rolling contract | DVSA MOT Integration listed; the MOT history page describes retrieving DVLA MOT history in-app with automated expiry updates. |
| TechMan | Not published. Four named plans, plus a 20% lower Partner rate on a minimum term | MOT expiry lookup described as getting MOT data from DVSA records. |
| MOT Manager | Not published. Stated as a fixed monthly fee with support included and no credits | Live vehicle data integration and a vehicle look-up feature. No data source named. |
| MAM Autowork Online | Not published. The product page routes to a contact form | A separate MOT diary for bookings across up to four MOT bays. No data feed named. |
- DVSA charges £2.05 for each MOT test slot, and one slot is used for each pass a business records on the MOT testing service. VAT is not charged on MOT slots (gov.uk, read 15 August 2026).
- The maximum fee an MOT test station may charge is £54.85 for a car and £29.65 for a standard motorcycle, and you do not pay VAT on the fee (gov.uk).
- No garage management system records an MOT test result. gov.uk describes the MOT testing service as the service an MOT tester uses to record results, print certificates, buy test slots and check the station's balance.
- Of the seven UK garage management products compared here, four publish a monthly price on their own website and three quote only (checked 15 August 2026).
- The published monthly prices we could read on supplier pages ran from £30 to £145 a month (checked 15 August 2026).
- DVSA's MOT history API is a separate registration, not something a garage gets automatically: gov.uk says it can take up to 5 working days to review a request and send the API key.
Cite this page
“What UK garage software suppliers publish about price and MOT data, August 2026”, MOT Software, https://motsoftware.co.uk/ (updated 2026-08-15). Each row was read on the supplier's own website on 15 August 2026, using the URL given in the comparison above, and is reproduced rather than estimated or converted. Where a supplier's page states no price, the row says 'Not published' instead of carrying a figure from a directory or a review site. The MOT data column records only what the supplier itself claims about where its MOT or vehicle data comes from; we have not tested any of these lookups, and an absence in that column means the supplier's own pages did not name a source, not that the feature is missing. Suppliers change prices and pages without notice, so confirm the current position on the supplier's site before buying.
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The detail
Sourced, dated, kept current.
- How much does garage management software cost in the UK?
Published UK garage software prices we read on supplier pages, from £30 to £145 a month, the three suppliers that publish nothing, and what actually moves a quote.
- Does garage software connect to the MOT testing service?
What DVSA's MOT testing service actually does, what the separate MOT history API gives your software, and why no garage system records an MOT result for you.
- MOT reminder software: what to check before you buy
MOT reminders are the feature UK garages actually use, and the commonest hidden cost. What each supplier includes, and the questions that decide the real bill.
- Garage management software for a small garage: where to start
A one or two bay garage does not need a 120-module system. What matters at that size, which published prices are realistic, and what to test before you migrate.
Frequently asked
Does garage management software connect to the MOT testing service?
Not for recording tests. gov.uk describes the MOT testing service as the DVSA service an MOT tester signs in to in order to record results of MOTs they carry out, print MOT certificates, and buy test slots and check the station's balance. What garage software connects to is DVSA's separate MOT history API, which returns a vehicle's past MOT tests and expiry date. Registration for that API is its own process and DVSA says it can take up to 5 working days to issue the key.
How much does garage management software cost in the UK?
The published prices we could read on supplier websites on 15 August 2026 ran from £30 to £145 a month. Workauto publishes £30 a month or £300 a year, Garage Software Solutions £49.99 to £99.99 a month, Motasoft £65, £95 or £135 a month, and Garage Hive from £145 a month on a one-month rolling contract. TechMan, MOT Manager and MAM Autowork Online publish no figure and quote instead.
Do I have to pay DVSA separately from the software?
Yes. You buy MOT test slots from DVSA in advance and use one slot for each pass you record on the MOT testing service. gov.uk states each slot costs £2.05, that VAT is not charged on slots, and that you can buy 25 to 125,000 slots per transaction, by Direct Debit, card, cheque or postal order. No garage management system removes that cost.
What is the maximum I can charge for an MOT?
gov.uk publishes a maximum fee by vehicle class. The maximum for a car with up to 8 passenger seats is £54.85 and for a standard motorcycle £29.65, and you do not pay VAT on the fee. A motorcycle with a sidecar and a three-wheeled vehicle up to 450kg unladen are both capped at £37.80. The figures on this page were read on gov.uk on 15 August 2026.
Which garage software publishes its price?
Of the seven UK products compared here, four do: Workauto, Garage Software Solutions, Motasoft and Garage Hive. Three do not: TechMan describes four plans and two contract shapes with no figures, MOT Manager states a fixed monthly fee with no amount, and MAM Autowork Online routes to a contact form. Publishing a price is not a measure of quality, but it is the only part of a supplier's claim you can check before you speak to them.
Is MOT reminder software worth paying for on its own?
Six of the seven products here include MOT and service reminders in their standard offer rather than selling them separately, so reminders alone are rarely a reason to pick one system over another. The differences that matter are whether text messages are included or metered, how many vehicle lookups the plan allows, and whether the reminder schedule runs without someone remembering to start it. Ask for the per-message SMS rate before you compare monthly prices.
Why are some well-known garage systems missing from this comparison?
Because we could not read their websites on 15 August 2026 and we do not publish a row we cannot source. Autoflow refused our connections, CarVue did not resolve, and MOT GMS serves a TLS certificate that does not match its hostname. SeSar answered and its own page title states £89.99 a month, but the site served no readable product content to us, so we could not verify anything else about it. That is a limitation of this comparison, not a judgement on any of those products.
Am I legally required to use garage management software?
No. MOT test results are recorded in DVSA's MOT testing service and MOT slots are bought through your DVSA account, neither of which needs third-party software. DVSA does publish an IT specification covering the equipment, internet connection and printer an MOT garage needs to use the MOT testing service, last updated on 23 June 2022, but that is about the DVSA service itself. Garage management software is a commercial decision about admin time and repeat bookings.
Sources
- gov.uk, record MOT test results (the MOT testing service)
- gov.uk, buy and manage MOT slots for your MOT testing business
- gov.uk, MOT costs and the maximum test fee by vehicle class
- gov.uk, running an MOT centre (DVSA collection)
- gov.uk, MOT testing service: IT specification (updated 23 June 2022)
- DVSA, MOT history API documentation
- DVSA, register for the MOT history API
Start from what suppliers publish, not what directories claim
Seven UK garage systems, four published prices, three quote-only, each traceable to the supplier page it came from and the date we read it.