Built by a repair shop, for repair shops

Run your shop.
Keep your keys.
Cancel anytime.

The all-in-one system for repair shops — tickets, WhatsApp updates, estimates, invoices and payments in one place. No per-message markup, no lock-in, and you can leave whenever you like.

No credit card needed · First 3 months free · Cancel in one click

riverside.benchworks.app/dashboard

Benchworks dashboard showing open tickets, money taken this month, and what is waiting on payment.

flat / month: $59; flat / month
message markup: 0%; message markup
technicians: ∞; technicians
to cancel: 1 click; to cancel

console repair shopsphone repair shopscomputer & laptop repair shopssmall appliance repairwatch repairjewellery repairmusical instrument repairbicycle repairbench-work locksmithssmall-engine repair

If you already pay for shop software

Sound familiar?

You didn't open a repair shop to fight with your software. But here you are — paying more every year for a tool that treats you like a hostage.

You can’t actually cancel.

Cancelling means a phone call during someone else’s office hours, a 30-day notice, and one last charge on the way out the door.

Charged to message your own customers.

A markup on every WhatsApp and SMS — on top of what Meta and the networks already charge you. It adds up fast on a busy week.

Billed for strangers who DM’d once.

“Monthly active contacts” means you pay for every wrong number, every supplier, and every one-word “hey” that never became a job.

The price climbs every single year.

Same software, fatter invoice. Renewals that quietly creep up — or double overnight — with no warning and no new value.

Support that blames you.

“That’s a third-party issue.” Bugs left broken for months. A bot that closes your ticket to tidy up the queue.

Your data, held hostage.

Your customer list and job history are yours — until you try to leave. Then suddenly it’s a support ticket and a long, long wait.

Built for chains, not for you.

Drowning in features you’ll never touch, paying for seats you don’t have, clicking through five screens to do one simple thing.

Down — with no apology.

When it breaks you can’t take payments or update customers. And there’s no credit, no sorry, no acknowledgement it even happened.

Nod at even three of these and here's the truth: you're not the problem. The software is.

The fix

Software should serve your shop — not own it.

We got tired of being treated like a hostage by the tools we paid for, so we built the one we always wanted — then opened it up to other shops. Everything below is something we use ourselves. If we couldn't deliver it, it isn't on this page.

See it in action

The whole job, start to finish.

Real screens from the actual app — no mock-ups. This is a phone-repair shop, but it's the same flow whatever you fix. Take it in, quote it, fix it, get paid.

Shop dashboard with ticket, revenue, and uptime KPI cards.

3.1 — Dashboard

Your whole shop on one screen — jobs in progress, money in, what needs chasing.

List of repair tickets with status, device, and assignee columns.

3.2 — Tickets

Every repair in one list — no whiteboard, no “where’s that Samsung?”

New ticket form with a customer typeahead and device details.

3.3 — Book a job

Book a job in under a minute — customer look-up as you type, auto-text on booking.

Ticket detail page with status, notes, photos, and customer timeline.

3.4 — Job detail

Everything about one job in one place — notes, photos, status, and what the customer’s seen.

An approved estimate showing line items, VAT, and the customer’s e-signature.

3.5 — Estimates

Quote it — they read it on WhatsApp and approve with a tap. No phone tag.

A paid invoice with payment history and a paid-in-full status.

3.6 — Invoices

Get paid — record card, EFT or cash and the receipt sends itself.

The day-to-day

How it works.

00
Customer drops it off.
You scan / type in their phone and a description. Benchworks creates the ticket and texts them a status link automatically.
01
You work the bench.
Mark stages — diagnosed, parts ordered, ready for collection. Every change pings the customer on WhatsApp.
02
They check status whenever.
No login. No app. Their signed status link works from any phone. They stop phoning you.
03
They collect, you close it.
Repair history stays attached to their record. Next time the same kettle / phone / mower comes in, you have context.

The trust wedge

What makes Benchworks different.

We mined a year of public complaints about every other shop CRM out there. Here's what we built differently — because we run a shop too.

Cancel in one click. We won't fight you tooth and nail.
No retention call, no 'are you sure', no hostage support ticket. The Cancel button cancels.
No 20% WhatsApp markup. You pay Meta what Meta charges.
Most CRMs add their own per-message surcharge on top of Meta's. We pass Meta fees through at cost.
Your data is yours. Export it any time — no ransom.
CSV / JSON export of every ticket, message, and customer, from any plan including the free trial.
We bill you for customers you actually serve — not strangers who DM "hey".
A DM that never becomes a ticket is free. We only count contacts you've actually engaged with.
Bring your own AI keys. We don't markup tokens.
Plug in your Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini key. The bill goes to you direct. Our flat platform fee stays flat.

Why we built this

We're a repair shop. Not a software company.

I've spent fifteen years on a repair bench — tens of thousands of devices through the door. For most of that time I paid for shop software that got more expensive every year, charged me to message my own customers, and went quiet the moment something broke.

So we built the system we always wished we had — by people who actually stand at the counter, not in a boardroom. Everything on this page is something we use ourselves. If we couldn't deliver it, it isn't here.

We're keeping it small and onboarding shops one at a time. So when you email us, you get us — not a ticket number and a queue.

Shaun

Founder, Benchworks · still on the bench

The fine print, in plain English

Your data is yours. Full stop.

The whole point of Benchworks is that you're never trapped. Here's exactly how we keep that promise.

Export anytime

Every ticket, customer, message and invoice — CSV and JSON, on any plan, no support ticket required.

Cancel in one click

No phone call, no notice period. Your account stays read-only for 90 days in case you change your mind.

Walled off from other shops

Every shop’s data is isolated at the database level. No other tenant can ever see yours — it’s our number-one rule.

Bring your own AI keys

Plug in your own AI key and your usage bills you direct. We don’t touch it and we don’t mark it up — not a cent.

Pricing

One price. No surprises.

Bring your own AI keys (Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini). You pay the AI bill direct — usually $5–15/month. No markup from us.

Every shop, unlimited technicians

$59/mo · BYOK

Founding offer — first 100 shops

$29/mo — locked at that price for life, it never goes up. $59/mo after the first 100.

One flat price for your whole shop — every technician, every workbench. No per-seat fees, no per-location upsell.

Start a shop

No credit card needed. First 3 months free, then full price if it's earning its keep — in exchange for honest feedback.

Straight answers

Questions you're right to ask.

Can I really cancel any time?

Yes — there’s a Cancel button in your settings and clicking it actually cancels. No phone call, no retention department, no 30-day notice. Your account drops to read-only for 90 days afterwards so you can still export, then it’s gone.

Is there a contract or a setup fee?

No contract and no setup fee. It’s month-to-month — pause or cancel whenever. We’ll never lock you into an annual term you can’t escape.

What does it actually cost? Any hidden fees?

$59 a month — one flat price for your whole shop, no matter how many technicians. Right now the first 100 shops to join get a founding price of $29 a month, locked in for life — it never goes up. That’s the whole platform fee. WhatsApp and SMS are passed through at exactly what Meta and the networks charge, with zero markup. Telegram is free. The only other cost is your own AI key (usually $5–15/month), billed to you directly.

Who owns my data, and can I get it out?

You do. You can export every ticket, customer, message and invoice as CSV and JSON at any time, on any plan — no support ticket, no waiting. We never hold your data to ransom.

Do I need to be technical to use it?

No. If you can use WhatsApp and a web browser, you can run Benchworks. Setup is a short wizard, and the screens speak your trade’s language — a phone shop sees phone fields, a watchmaker sees movements and straps.

What’s this “bring your own AI keys” thing?

The AI features (like drafting customer messages) run on your own account with an AI provider. You paste in your key, the usage bills you directly at cost, and we don’t mark it up or make a cent on it. It also means your data stays under your account, not pooled into ours.

How long does it take to get going?

Most shops are taking in their first ticket the same day. There’s no data-migration project required to start — add customers as they come in, or import a CSV when you’re ready.

What if your service goes down?

We publish a live uptime page and a plain-English promise. If we miss our uptime bar in a month, the account credit is calculated and waiting for you automatically — you don’t have to chase us for it.

What kinds of shops is this for?

Independent drop-off-and-collect repair shops — phones, consoles, computers, watches, jewellery, bikes, small appliances, instruments, small engines, locksmiths. One to ten people. If a customer drops something off and you fix it and they collect, Benchworks fits.

One product, your language