Workshop Software vs Motasoft

Workshop Software is cloud workshop management software used by more than 9,400 users, including UK garages, MOT stations and fast-fit centres. The company has been building automotive software since 1992 and has released one continuously developed cloud product since 2013. You can put it to work on your own jobs today, on a 14 day free trial with every feature switched on, no card and no sales call.

If Motasoft and its Virtual Garage Manager product are also on your shortlist, this page sets the two side by side on the things that decide it: what you can see before you commit, which accounting package is supported, what is included rather than added on, and which product you would actually be running in three years.

Why UK Garages Choose Workshop Software

• You can try it properly, today. 14 days, every feature switched on, no credit card and no sales call. Run a quote, a service with a parts order and an invoice through to your accounts, and you will know inside an afternoon.
• Xero and QuickBooks Online are native on every plan. Not an add-on, not a higher tier, not a middleware connector. Workshop Software is a listed app on the Intuit QuickBooks App Store, which Intuit re-reviews for security every year.
• The mobile app runs the job, and it is free. On iOS and Android, included on every plan. Diary, job cards, inspections with photos and video, clocking on and off, barcode and registration lookup, and invoicing and taking payment from the bay.
• One product, no legacy tier. Released continuously since 2013. There is no older version being wound down behind the scenes and no migration waiting in front of you.
• Digital vehicle inspections and online booking are included. Photos, checks and customer approval are part of the job, not a separately priced module.
• Somebody answers at 4pm on a Friday, and at 2am. 24 hour human online chat, included on every plan rather than sold as a support tier.
• Nothing to sign. Onboarding included, billing month to month, no lock-in. Data import is free where your data comes out in the correct format.

It covers job and vehicle management, the diary, estimating and invoicing, digital vehicle inspections, parts and inventory, and reporting through Workshop Intelligence. Vehicle technical data is available through WorkshopData, built on HaynesPro manufacturer-verified data, as a £29 per month add-on. UK pricing is published openly in pounds.

The comparison at a glance

What is Motasoft?

Motasoft supplies garage management software to UK independent garages, MOT stations and fast-fit tyre centres, with a published base of more than 1,200 businesses. Its main product is Virtual Garage Manager, usually shortened to VGM, covering the diary, job sheets, customer and vehicle records, MOT reminders, online booking and invoicing. Around it sit MotasoftPay for card and online payments, a Technician Companion app for vehicle health checks, motor trade website services, and technical data supplied through E3 Technical and HaynesPro. Pricing is published in three tiers with unlimited users and no fixed-term contract. The business has been owned by ClearCourse since March 2026.

What “Works With QuickBooks” Actually Means

Almost every system in this market claims a QuickBooks integration. The word covers two very different things, and it is worth knowing which one you are buying before your bookkeeper finds out for you.

Workshop Software is a listed app on the Intuit QuickBooks App Store. Getting there is not a matter of filling in a form. Intuit reviews listed apps against its published technical and security requirements, and per Intuit’s own developer guidance it then runs its own security scan of the app every year, through the third party that manages that process on its behalf. Keeping a listing means passing that review again, annually, for as long as you want to stay on the store. It is the difference between a vendor saying its integration is secure and Intuit testing it.

Motasoft’s own accounting integrations page draws the distinction itself. Xero is described as “Complete financial Integration with Xero”, where “VGM can directly integrate with your Xero account”. QuickBooks gets one line: “Export your sales and purchases to QuickBooks”. We could not find a Motasoft listing on the Intuit QuickBooks App Store when we checked in August 2026.

If your books are in Xero, both systems connect properly and this section does not decide anything. If your books are in QuickBooks Online, it may decide everything. Ask them what “export” means in practice: how often it runs, whether it is one direction only, and what you are reconciling by hand at the end of the month.

The Mobile App

This is the gap we would point at hardest, because it is where the desktop era shows.

The Workshop Software app is included on every plan at no extra cost, on iOS and Android. A technician can work the diary, open the job card, run an inspection with photos and video attached to individual items, clock on and off, scan a barcode or look up a registration, pull vehicle technical data, then raise the invoice and take the payment. That is the whole job, in the bay, on a phone.

It is also actively shipped rather than merely maintained. The app is on version 10, it has passed 10,000 downloads on Android, and the current release went out in August 2026, days before this page was written. That release cadence is the same point the rest of this comparison keeps arriving at.

Motasoft sells VGM Technician as an add-on at £20 per month, with a further £20 per month for the enhanced media package if you want photo and video storage on your health checks. Their own page lists what it does: manage daily tasks, perform vehicle health checks, view digital job cards, clock on and off, and send digital VHC reports to customers. It is a capable vehicle health check tool and they have continued to develop it. Raising an invoice and taking payment are not among the capabilities it lists.

So on a five-technician forecourt, the mobile side is included here and £40 per month there once you want photos on your inspections, and the two apps are not attempting the same job.

Which Product Are You Being Sold?

This is the difference that outlasts a ten pound gap in a monthly price, and it is worth putting to them directly rather than taking our word for it. Three pieces of their own published material sit awkwardly together.

Their own announcement dates the architecture. In January 2023 they published a post titled “The future of VGM and our garage management products”. It says VGM was built “approximately 15 years ago”, when “most applications were desktop-based”. That is their description of their own product, not our characterisation of it.

Their own support site calls it legacy. The help centre serving VGM users is titled “Motasoft VGM (Legacy) Help Center”, with twenty-three topic categories and no link to documentation for a newer product. We checked this in August 2026. Meanwhile motasoft.co.uk markets VGM as the current flagship and describes it as cloud-based. Both are live at once.

Their replacement has been in progress for over three years. The same 2023 post announced a new web-based product, promised an alpha “during the first quarter of this year”, said it would “run alongside VGM” using the same data, and was candid that at launch it would be “missing a lot of VGMs functionality”. By their February 2024 update the new platform was still in beta, with users invited to join the beta programme. As of August 2026 the shipping product’s help centre is still the one marked Legacy.

Workshop Software has one cloud product, released continuously since 2013. No legacy tier, no parallel rebuild, no migration ahead of you.

What the ClearCourse Acquisition Changes

ClearCourse acquired Motasoft in March 2026. Acquisitions are neither good nor bad in themselves and can bring investment a smaller supplier could not fund alone. What is worth knowing is where the new owner has said that investment is going. ClearCourse’s announced priorities for the business are embedded payments, keeping transactions inside the platform, and AI-focused product development including booking triage, estimates, customer messaging and pattern recognition across repair histories.

Those are reasonable priorities. They are also not the same thing as finishing the platform rebuild. The fair question to put to them is where the VGM replacement now sits against payments and AI, and what happens to your data and your workflows when the migration comes.

Where Motasoft May Suit You Better

Two of these are straightforward, and saying so is what should make the rest of this page worth believing.

• A larger team on the lowest monthly figure. They include unlimited users on all tiers, against one included user and £16 per additional seat here. For four or five logins Motasoft is cheaper, and the gap widens as you grow.
• Sage. If your books are in Sage, they integrate with it and we do not. That is a genuine reason to stop reading.
• Bundled technical data. Haynes data is included from their £80 Plus tier, where WorkshopData is a £29 add-on here. At Plus and above they are ahead on that line.

Settle It on Your Own Jobs

Everything above is checkable, but none of it tells you how a system feels at eight on a Monday morning with six cars in. Motasoft offers a demo booking only, so the only way to see it is with a salesperson driving. Workshop Software gives you 14 days with every feature switched on, no credit card and no sales call. Put three real jobs through it, a quote, a service with a parts order, and an invoice through to Xero or QuickBooks, and you will have your answer. Ask Motasoft for the same access and see what you are offered.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose Workshop Software if you want to try the software properly before speaking to anyone, if your books are in Xero or QuickBooks Online, if you want digital vehicle inspections and online booking included rather than priced separately, if you want a mobile app that takes a job through to invoice and payment without a monthly add-on, if you want support answered around the clock, and if you would rather run one continuously developed product than a system whose replacement is still in beta.

Motasoft may suit you better if you need several logins at the lowest possible monthly cost, if your books are in Sage, or if you want Haynes data bundled rather than added on. If two of those describe you, we are probably not the right answer.

Start a free trial or see UK pricing.

Still building a shortlist? See how Workshop Software compares with ten alternatives, and which garages each one suits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Workshop Software a good alternative to Motasoft?

For a UK garage that wants to try the software before speaking to a salesperson, Workshop Software offers a 14 day free trial with every feature switched on and no card required, where Motasoft offers a demo booking only. It is one cloud product that has been released continuously since 2013, with native Xero and QuickBooks Online on every plan, digital vehicle inspections and online booking included, onboarding included, month to month billing and 24 hour human online chat. Motasoft is cheaper for a larger team because it includes unlimited users, so the honest answer depends on how many logins you need.

How does Workshop Software pricing compare with Motasoft?

Workshop Software publishes three UK plans from £99 per month billed yearly, or £119 monthly, with one user included and £16 for each additional user. Onboarding is included and billing is month to month. Motasoft publishes Essential at £50, Plus at £80 and Complete at £120 per month, all with unlimited users and no fixed-term contract. For a single operator the two are close. For a garage with four or five people needing their own login, Motasoft is cheaper, and we would rather say that here than have you discover it later.

Is Motasoft Virtual Garage Manager an old product?

Motasoft’s own January 2023 announcement states that VGM was built “approximately 15 years ago”, at a time when “most applications were desktop-based”. They market VGM today as cloud-based and continue to ship updates to it. At the same time, the help centre serving VGM users is titled “Motasoft VGM (Legacy) Help Center”, checked in August 2026. Both are on their own record. The fair thing to do is ask them directly which product you are being sold and what its roadmap is. Workshop Software has one cloud product with no legacy tier and no parallel rebuild.

Does Motasoft offer a free trial?

No self-serve free trial is advertised on their site. They offer a demo booking, which means the only way to see the software is with a salesperson driving. Workshop Software gives you 14 days with every feature switched on, no credit card and no sales call, so you can judge the software on your own jobs.

Does Workshop Software work with Xero and QuickBooks?

Yes. Xero and QuickBooks Online are native on every Workshop Software plan, with no add-on and no higher tier required. Motasoft integrates with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. If your books are in Sage, they cover something Workshop Software does not.

Is Workshop Software certified by QuickBooks?

Workshop Software is a listed app on the Intuit QuickBooks App Store. Intuit reviews listed apps against its published technical and security requirements, and per Intuit’s own developer guidance it runs its own security scan of listed apps every year. Xero and QuickBooks Online are native on every Workshop Software plan as live two-way integrations. Motasoft’s own accounting page describes its QuickBooks support as an export, in the words “Export your sales and purchases to QuickBooks”, and reserves “Complete financial Integration” for Xero. We found no Motasoft listing on the Intuit QuickBooks App Store when we checked in August 2026.

Does Motasoft have a mobile app?

Yes. Motasoft sells VGM Technician for iOS and Android as an add-on at £20 per month, with a further £20 per month for an enhanced media package covering photo and video storage. Their own page lists it as managing daily tasks, performing vehicle health checks, viewing digital job cards, clocking on and off, and sending VHC reports. Raising an invoice and taking payment are not among the capabilities listed. The Workshop Software app is included on every plan at no extra cost, on iOS and Android, and covers the diary, job cards, inspections with photos and video, time tracking, barcode and registration lookup, invoicing and taking payment, and is on version 10 with releases shipping continuously and more than 10,000 downloads on Android.

Who owns Motasoft?

Motasoft was acquired by ClearCourse, announced in March 2026. ClearCourse’s stated plans for the business are embedded payments and AI-focused product development. Workshop Software is independently owned by Workshop Software Pty Ltd.

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Competitor information on this page was taken from Motasoft’s own published material, meaning their website, their product announcements, their help centre and their parent company’s acquisition announcement, and was checked in August 2026. Direct quotations are marked as such. Where they do not publish a figure, this page says so rather than estimating. Products change, so confirm current pricing, features and roadmap with the vendor directly before deciding. Company names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.