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GarageCal vs Garage Hive

Garage Hive is a serious garage management system and its online booking is genuinely good. If you are ready for a full GMS, buy theirs. We are for garages that are not.

Let us be straight about this one, because a comparison page that pretends otherwise would be worthless. Garage Hive is one of the best garage management systems in the UK, and unlike most of this market it publishes its pricing: from £145 a month on a one-month rolling contract.

Its online booking is not a bolt-on either. It works out available capacity from your live schedule, creates the jobsheet automatically, matches the customer to an existing record, and reports on conversion and abandoned bookings through Power BI. That is a more complete booking product than ours in almost every respect.

The difference is scope. Garage Hive replaces how you run the entire workshop: jobsheets, stock, parts, technical data, accounts, time clocking, courtesy cars. GarageCal replaces nothing. It is the booking page and the bay capacity behind it, and it is meant to sit next to whatever you already use.

At a glance

Checked 2 August 2026. Where a figure is not published, we say so rather than guess at one.

  GarageCal Garage Hive
What it is A booking layer A full garage management system
Published entry price £29/month + VAT From £145/month
Free tier Yes, one bay None published
Contract Monthly rolling One-month rolling
Online booking The whole product Included, and strong
Capacity logic Products mapped to specific bays Derived from your live schedule
Creates the jobsheet for you No Yes, automatically
Jobsheets, stock, parts, accounts No Yes, all of it
Technical data (Autodata) No Integrated
Reporting Basic booking counts Full Power BI suite
Time to first booking An afternoon A migration project

Where Garage Hive is the better buy, which is often

  • You are ready to run the whole workshop on one system. That is what it is for, and it does it properly.
  • Their online booking builds the jobsheet and matches the customer automatically. Ours hands you a booking; theirs starts the job.
  • Power BI reporting on conversion and abandoned bookings is well beyond anything we offer.
  • Autodata, stock control, parts catalogues, time clocking, courtesy cars, accounts integration. We have none of these and are not building them.
  • An established company with phone support, a large user community and years of case studies. We are one person and we are early.

The narrow place we fit

  • You are not ready to move your whole workshop onto a new system, and you want online booking working this week.
  • Your budget is nearer £29 than £145, and booking is the only gap you actually have.
  • You want to test whether online bookings even come in for your garage before committing to a full GMS.
  • You are on a system you are happy with and only the booking part is letting you down.

Questions people actually ask

Is GarageCal a replacement for Garage Hive?

No, and we would not pitch it as one. Garage Hive is a full management system; GarageCal is a booking page with bay-aware capacity. If you need jobsheets, stock and accounts, we do not compete.

Does GarageCal integrate with Garage Hive?

Not yet. Garage Hive runs on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which does expose APIs, so it is technically achievable. We would like to build it and we will say so honestly: it does not exist today.

Garage Hive already has online booking. Why would I add GarageCal?

If you are on Garage Hive and its booking is switched on and working, you almost certainly should not. Use theirs.

How much does Garage Hive cost?

Their published figure is from £145 a month on a one-month rolling contract. Final cost depends on your setup, so check with them.

Sources, checked 2 August 2026: Garage Hive pricing · Garage Hive online booking

Other comparisons

GarageCal vs Autowork Online If you run Autowork Online, its own booking partner writes bookings straight into your diary. We cannot match that yet, and we will not pretend otherwise. GarageCal vs TechMan TechMan is a full workshop system in four tiers, and its web booking tool sits in the top one. If booking is the only thing you need, you would be buying a lot of software to get it. GarageCal vs FixMyCar FixMyCar finds you strangers. GarageCal converts the people who already know you. If you are quiet, use both. If you are busy, only one of them should be costing you money. GarageCal vs BOOKAR BOOKAR is the closest thing to us in the UK, and the better choice if you want one system for the whole workshop. We are the better choice if you only want the booking to work. GarageCal vs MOT Manager MOT Manager bundles booking into a wider garage management package with a tailored monthly price. We are a smaller, cheaper, published-price alternative if booking is all you need. GarageCal vs BookMyGarage These are not the same kind of thing. BookMyGarage brings you other people’s customers and takes a cut. GarageCal converts the customers you already have and takes nothing. GarageCal vs Paper diary The counter diary is not stupid. It is fast, it never goes down, and everyone knows how to use it. It just cannot answer the phone at nine at night.

See it running on your own bays

Twenty minutes on a call, with your own bays and products set up as they actually are. Compare it against what you use now with something real in front of you.

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