Commusoft vs BigChange for Garages & MOT Centres: Cost Compared

If you run a garage or MOT centre and started comparing job management platforms, Commusoft and BigChange are two names that turn up in general trades-software searches - but neither vendor’s own site is built specifically around booking MOT slots, chasing service reminders, or holding a car’s history the way a dedicated garage system would. Here’s what each vendor’s own pages actually show once you look past the marketing built for plumbers, electricians and HVAC engineers.

What each one costs

Area	Commusoft	BigChange
UK pricing shown today	Not published; three tiers - Go Paperless, Customer Journey, Automation - priced individually [1]	Not published; page routes to a “Request pricing” demo instead of a price list [5]
Licence structure	Contracted (12-month, price locked), monthly-rolling, or daily licences for subcontractors [1]	One standard feature set (CRM, scheduling, mobile app, live tracking, quoting) bundled across plans, with paid add-ons [5]
Add-ons named	Not itemised on the plans page [1]	AI Dashcams, Fleet vehicle leasing, Fuel Cards, DaaS data integration [5]
Headline pricing claim	None stated on the plans page [1]	“Customers using BigChange save £5 for every £1 spent,” per its own pricing page [5]

Neither vendor publishes a GBP price on its own site, so getting an actual figure for either one means booking a call with sales [1][5]. Commusoft’s plans page names three tiers - Go Paperless, Customer Journey and Automation - but shows a price for none of them, sorting customers instead into contracted, monthly-rolling or daily licences depending on how long they need someone logged in [1]. BigChange’s pricing page lists the same feature set as standard across every plan - CRM, job scheduling, a mobile app, live tracking, and quoting and invoicing - then adds paid extras such as AI dashcams, fleet vehicle leasing and fuel cards, but the only number on the page is a claim that its customers save £5 for every £1 spent, not a subscription price [5].

Booking slots and reminders

Commusoft’s job-scheduling page describes two live paths into a booking: a new customer can request a service directly through your website, or an existing customer can follow a link sent inside a recurring service reminder to pick an open appointment slot themselves, which drops straight into your diary without a phone call [3]. If plans change, Commusoft’s confirmation link lets that same customer reschedule themselves rather than ringing the office to move the slot [3]. BigChange’s customer booking portal works in a similar shape: booking confirmations go out automatically with a calendar invite attached, and a separate service or maintenance reminder is sent on its own schedule to prompt a customer to rebook before work falls overdue [8]. Neither vendor’s booking or reminder page describes a number-plate lookup or a DVSA MOT-expiry check feeding the reminder automatically - both describe a generic rule you set by date or by a recurring interval, which you’d configure by hand against your own MOT records rather than have pulled in from a car’s plate [3][8].

Job history and the “MOT” feature that isn’t for customer cars

Commusoft’s customer portal gives a customer their own complete job and invoice history, an “asset information” record, and compliance certificates they can download themselves, and that same asset record is what triggers Commusoft’s automated maintenance reminders [4]. BigChange’s job management page describes a similar customer-facing portal - job histories, financial documents, job cards and images - sitting next to a separate fleet feature that notifies you of vehicle issues, MOT dates and insurance renewals [7]. That fleet MOT tracking is explicitly about the trade business’s own company vans and cars rather than a customer’s vehicle brought in for work, since BigChange’s own page frames it as keeping “employees safe and vehicles in good condition,” which reads as compliance for your fleet rather than a booking or reminder system built around the public’s cars [7]. Put together, neither vendor’s own site describes a feature where a customer’s number plate pulls up its MOT history and its last few services the moment it’s booked in - that would mean building it yourself out of Commusoft’s generic asset record or BigChange’s job-history log, rather than switching on something already there [4][7].

Which trades each one is actually built for

Commusoft’s industries page names plumbing and heating, gas engineering, electrical work and renewable energy installation as the trades it serves, alongside broader mechanical and facility maintenance work such as boiler, chiller and refrigeration servicing, and garages or MOT testing don’t appear on that list [2]. BigChange’s industries page reads much the same way: plumbing, heating and HVAC, industrial doors, fire and security, facilities management, electrical contracting, equipment hire, and drainage and environmental services, with no automotive or vehicle-repair trade named anywhere on the page [6].

Which one if…

• You want online booking wired straight into an automated service reminder: Commusoft’s own scheduling page describes exactly that flow, from reminder to booking link to diary [3].
• You want one customer portal showing job history, invoices and compliance documents together: both vendors describe a version of this - Commusoft’s asset-linked portal [4] and BigChange’s job-and-document portal [7].
• You’re hoping the word “MOT” inside the software means customer MOT bookings: on BigChange’s own description it doesn’t - that field tracks your own fleet’s compliance, not a customer’s car [7].
• You want a GBP price before you pick up the phone: neither vendor’s own pricing page gives you one [1][5].

What to do next

Neither vendor’s own site says whether its generic job-and-asset history can be adapted into a proper MOT-and-service record for a customer’s car without extra setup work, or what that setup would add on top of an unpublished subscription price [1][4][5][7]. Loomwork Ai runs a short paid audit that maps your current booking and MOT-reminder workflow against both platforms before you commit to either.