A Shopmonkey alternative built in a working truck shop.
Shopmonkey’s pricing page promises “purpose-built plans for every type of shop,” and their site lists sixteen shop types, from auto body to marine to RV. Heavy-duty repair is one of them. We built Diesel Genie for one kind: the truck and trailer shop we run. We’ve never run Shopmonkey in our own shop, so every Shopmonkey price and feature below comes from their own public pages, including the places they beat us.
The short version
We run a truck shop. We couldn’t find software that matched how we actually worked, so we built our own, for our own shop, in house. A couple of friends in the same line of business asked what we were using, tried it, loved it, and told us to take it to market. That’s the whole story.
This page is the comparison we wish existed back when we were the ones shopping. Every Shopmonkey price and feature below comes straight from their own public pages, checked October 15, 2026. The customer quotes come from a public review site, and each one says where.
What a 5-person shop pays
Shopmonkey’s entry plan, Basic, is $239 a month, month to month, and it comes with three users. Every user after that is $20 a month, so a shop with five people on it pays $279 a month. Full parts inventory isn’t in Basic. It starts on their Clever plan at $399 a month. An annual plan takes up to 10% off. [1]
Ours: $179.99 a month for the shop, everybody in, parts inventory included.
- Yes
- Partly, or only on a higher plan or for a fee
- No
| What you get | Diesel Genie | Shopmonkey |
|---|---|---|
| 5-person shop, monthly | $179.99 flat | $279 month to month (Basic $239 + 2 × $20 for the two users past the three included) [1] |
| Month to month vs. contract | Month to month. Cancel anytime from inside the app, effective at the end of the billing period | Month to month (cancel by speaking with a representative; they ask for 30 days notice before your next billing date) or annual, which renews automatically unless cancelled in writing 30 days before it ends [1] [3] |
| Leave anytime, take everything | Export everything, anytime, even if your account lapses. Cancelling never deletes your data | Temporary, per-request access after you cancel, through their support team. Their terms say that no later than 90 days after the account ends, they may delete it and everything in it [1] [3] |
| Setup fees | None | None to start; a one-time $500 fee applies if they move your old data over [1] |
| Parts inventory in the base price | Included in the $179.99 | Basic has parts lookup and ordering; inventory management starts at their Clever plan, $399/mo [1] |
| Fleet billing and statements | Statements and aging included in the base price | Yes. Bulk invoice statements on every plan; their invoices page also lists payment terms and customer aging [1] [4] |
| Free trial vs. demo | Free trial | Free demo. No trial signup on their site; their terms say a trial, if one is given, is set out in writing [2] [3] |
| Where Shopmonkey beats us | ||
| Two-way texting | Not yet. Coming soon | Yes, every plan: unlimited 2-way texting and email, with a built-in shop phone number [1] |
| QuickBooks | No live connection. A monthly accounting export (invoices, payments, sales tax) your bookkeeper can import into QuickBooks or open in Excel | QuickBooks Online built in from their Clever plan, $399/mo; QuickBooks Desktop from Clever too, for an additional fee [1] |
| Ordering parts from vendors | No | Yes, every plan: search and order from PartsTech, RepairLink, and Nexpart [1] [4] |
| App for your techs | No app to download. Techs use it in their phone’s web browser | Yes, every plan: an iOS and Android app for technicians [1] |
| Heavy-duty labor guides | No | A paid Heavy Duty add-on, custom pricing: lookups, labor guides, and service procedures for Class 4 to 8 trucks [1] |
| Moving your old records in | No migration team. You bring in your customers, equipment, and price list from a spreadsheet | A migration team that brings over customers, vehicles, service history, and open repair orders, from 70 other systems so far (the one-time $500 fee above) [1] [2] |
Checked against Shopmonkey’s own public pages on . Prices change, so we re-check every quarter.
- [1] Shopmonkey’s pricing page, its plan comparison, add-ons and questions, checked October 15, 2026.
- [2] Shopmonkey’s demo page and its questions, checked October 15, 2026.
- [3] Shopmonkey’s terms of service (last updated June 5, 2026), checked October 15, 2026.
- [4] Shopmonkey’s invoices and inventory pages, checked October 15, 2026.
One quiet fact that doesn’t fit a table row: your data lives on two clouds, run by two different companies, every shop’s data sits in its own isolated database, backups get restored every month to prove they work, and every change is logged.
Where Shopmonkey is the better pick
Shopmonkey is a bigger company with a bigger product, and some of it is simply better than what we have today: texting customers from the software, a built-in QuickBooks connection, parts ordering from the big catalogs, an app your techs download, a team that moves your old records over, and phone support with published answer times. [1] [2] Plenty of shops like it, too: 4.6 out of 5 across 271 reviews on Software Advice as of October 15, 2026.
We don’t have two-way texting, maintenance reminders, or a customer portal yet. They’re coming. But if any one of those is a must-have for your shop today, we’re not your software yet, and we’d rather tell you straight now than after you’ve moved your data over. Everything else on this page, we stand behind.
What their own customers say
A Shopmonkey customer, on Software Advice, August 2025“We would prefer to switch programs, but we have just over 5 years’ worth of data essentially stuck in the program.”
That’s why you can export everything from Diesel Genie, anytime, even if you quit paying.
A Shopmonkey customer, on Software Advice, July 2026“The monthly pricing is quite steep for a smaller independent shop.”
Ours is $179.99 a month for the shop, with every user included.
Leave anytime, take everything
Shopmonkey’s own pricing page, checked October 15, 2026“Your data belongs to you. If you cancel, we offer temporary account access on a per-request basis if you need to retrieve anything after canceling. To request access or export your data, contact our support team.”
Diesel Genie works the other way. You can export everything, anytime, on your own, even if your account has already lapsed. No support ticket, no per-request approval. And cancelling never deletes anything: your records stay in the account until you ask us in writing to delete them.
See it yourself
Free trial. Free demo. No one is going to rush you into a decision.
Or write to sales@dieselgenie.com