Gearboxly vs Protractor
Last updated: October 2026. Competitor details checked October 2026.
The short answer
Protractor is a long-running shop system with integrated accounting, parts and labor matrices and a digital marketing suite, with published plans from $399 a month. Gearboxly starts at $99, runs entirely in the browser, and adds AI estimate drafting. Choose Protractor if built-in accounting and matrices are central to how you run.
Side by side
Core $99/mo
Core $399/mo ($359/mo billed yearly)
AI $249/mo (every AI feature); Growth $399/mo adds website, online booking and marketing
Elite $1,299/mo ($1,169/mo billed yearly)
Unlimited on every plan
Not stated on their site
Month to month, cancel any time
Not stated on their site
In the browser on computers, tablets and phones
Not stated on their site
Invoices and payments; QuickBooks Online sync is coming soon
Integrated accounting on every plan
Every plan, processed by Stripe at Stripe's standard rates; Gearboxly adds no fee
Integrated payments; transaction fees apply
Labor rates and canned jobs on every plan; AI labor time lookup on the AI plan
Parts and labor matrices, Epicor guides
Every plan, with photos and measurements
Basic on Core; advanced on Performance and up
On the AI plan: labor time lookup, estimate drafts from the customer's concern, inspection findings to a priced estimate, Shop Brain, deferred-work follow-ups
No AI features described on their home or pricing pages
14 days of the AI plan, no card required
Demo; no free trial listed
What Protractor does well
- Built-in accounting listed on its features and on the Core plan.
- Parts and labor matrices and Epicor parts and labor guides.
- Digital marketing suite with website, SEO, Google Ads enablement and call tracking on higher plans.
- Partner list that includes 360 Payments, Epicor, PartsTech, CARFAX, Back Office and ProDemand.
Who each is best for
Protractor fits if
- Shops that want accounting inside the shop system rather than a separate sync.
- Shops that already run matrix-based parts and labor pricing.
- Owners who want one vendor for software plus SEO, website and ads.
Gearboxly fits if
- Shops that want a lower price: Gearboxly's top plan, Growth, is $399 a month, the same as Protractor's entry plan.
- Shops that prefer a browser-based system and a no-card trial.
- Shops that want AI estimate drafting and inspection write-ups.
Pricing compared
Protractor publishes four tiers. Prices are per month from its pricing page as of October 2026; the page says prices apply to new customers or upgrades only.
- Protractor: Core
- $399 monthly, $359 billed yearly
- Protractor: Performance
- $599 monthly, $539 billed yearly
- Protractor: Prestige
- $1,099 monthly, $989 billed yearly
- Protractor: Elite
- $1,299 monthly, $1,169 billed yearly
- Protractor: Advanced Tools add-on (CRM and scheduler)
- $249 per month
- Protractor: Fees
- Payment transaction fees apply; marketing management fee and ad spend are extra
- Gearboxly
- Core $99, AI $249, Growth $399 per location per month. Month to month, unlimited users, 14-day trial of the AI plan with no card. See the pricing page or plain-text pricing.
Protractor's page does not state user limits, contract length or cloud versus installed deployment, so ask them. Gearboxly's Growth plan, with website, online booking and marketing, is $399 a month.
Switching from Protractor
- Gearboxly has a self-service Import data screen (Settings, then Import data) that brings in customers, vehicles, repair order history and inventory from CSV files. It is included on every plan. You see a dry run before anything is written, nothing is sent to your customers, imported history is read-only, and every import can be undone.
- Protractor has no single export of everything. Its help describes saving reports as CSV from the report toolbar, and exporting inventory to Excel, which you then save as CSV. What you get depends on which report you run.
- On the Growth plan, free data migration is included: send us the export and we import your customers, vehicles and visit history and check it for you.
- What does not come over: open repair orders are skipped by default, and we do not import parts orders, inspections and photos, appointments, labor guides and canned jobs, text message history, declined work, loyalty balances, QuickBooks links or staff accounts. Plan the move for a slow week, and keep Protractor read-only for a month so you can look things up.
More on the switching page, and the step-by-step guide Move from Protractor to Gearboxly. Related help: getting started, two-way texting, inspections, estimates.
When to choose Protractor instead
- Integrated accounting is a requirement and you do not want a QuickBooks sync.
- You use Epicor guides or matrix pricing as the core of your estimating.
- You want a managed marketing suite from the same vendor.
Gearboxly vs Protractor: common questions
How much does Protractor cost?
Its pricing page lists Core at $399, Performance at $599, Prestige at $1,099 and Elite at $1,299 a month, with lower rates billed yearly, as of October 2026.
Is Protractor cloud-based?
Its home and pricing pages did not say, and directory sites disagree. Ask Protractor how it is deployed. Gearboxly runs in the browser.
Does Protractor include accounting?
Yes, its pricing page lists integrated accounting on its Core plan. Gearboxly handles invoices and payments, and a QuickBooks Online sync is listed as coming soon.
Does Protractor have AI?
We did not find AI features described on its home or pricing pages in October 2026. Gearboxly's AI plan is $249 a month.
Can I move from Protractor to Gearboxly?
Yes, from CSV files. Gearboxly imports customers, vehicles, repair order history and inventory, and import is included on every plan. Whether Protractor lets you export each of those is up to Protractor, so check with Protractor support. On Growth we also import your customers, vehicles and visit history from the export for free and check it for you. Open repair orders are skipped by default, and parts orders are handled by hand. See the switching page for the details.
Can I try Gearboxly before leaving Protractor?
Yes. Gearboxly gives 14 days of the AI plan with no credit card, so you can run real jobs side by side. Protractor offers a demo; we did not find a free trial listed.
Try it on your own shop
14-day free trial of the AI plan. No credit card. No contract, cancel anytime.
Start freeSources
Protractor details come from the public pages above as read in October 2026, and may have changed since. Where a detail could not be verified we say so rather than guess. Protractor is a trademark of its owner; Gearboxly is not affiliated with it. Spotted something out of date? Email support@gearboxly.com and we will fix it.
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