Similar name, similar spirit — both are self-serve, budget-friendly answers to the $100+/month detailing CRMs. DetailPilot is a slick booking-and-payments app, built iPhone-first, free to start and $29–$119/month once you outgrow the free tier. ShinePilot Pro does the online booking and runs the rest of the business: crew, routes, memberships, loyalty, before & afters, expenses. Flat $20/month, every feature, no cut of your payments.
| What matters | ShinePilot Pro | DetailPilot |
|---|---|---|
| Online booking page with live availability | ✓ /book link + QR + embed | ✓ their core product |
| Deposits at booking (no-show protection) | ✓ via Stripe, straight to your account | ✓ |
| Booking-source tracking (Instagram / Google / Facebook) | ✓ views → bookings funnel per channel | ✓ |
| Vehicle-size pricing | ✓ per-size surcharges | ✓ vehicle tiers |
| Travel fee by distance (free radius, then per mile) | ✓ quoted live from the customer's address | ✓ |
| Day-before reminders to the customer | ✓ text + email, replies go to you | ✓ SMS + email |
| Crew accounts + a phone-friendly crew day | ✓ unlimited crew, My Day view | team features not published — check their paid tiers |
| Day routes with one-tap optimizing | ✓ | — |
| Memberships auto-invoiced monthly | ✓ | — |
| Loyalty punch cards | ✓ | — |
| Before & after showcase pages + social captions | ✓ one tap per job | — |
| Vehicle condition reports with trend | ✓ 1–5 scores | — |
| Quotes, invoices, campaigns, expenses & P&L | ✓ all included | payments-focused |
| SMS confirmations | ✓ through your own Twilio account | ✓ |
| Tap to Pay on iPhone | web app — invoices & deposits instead | ✓ native iOS |
| Price | ✓ $20/mo flat, every feature, keep 100% of payments | free + 1% of payments, or $29 / $59 / $119 a month |
Brand-new solo detailers who live on iPhone and just want bookings: a polished booking page, SMS confirmations, Tap to Pay at the car, and a free tier that only takes 1% of what you collect. If you're taking your first ten customers and nothing else matters yet, it's a clean way to start.
The same booking page — link, QR, deposits, source tracking — plus the operating system around it: crew accounts and routes for the day you hire help, memberships that auto-invoice, loyalty punch cards, before/after showcase pages that market for you, condition reports, quotes, campaigns, expenses & P&L. And the pricing math: the free tier's 1% passes $20 once you collect about $2,000/month through the platform, and the paid tiers start at $29 — with branding and analytics held back for $59. Every ShinePilot Pro feature is in the one $20 plan.
DetailPilot nailed the "stranger books you from your Instagram bio" moment, and if that's genuinely all you need, it's free to try. But a booking page isn't a business system — and the price grows with you, first as a cut of every payment and then as tiers that unlock the features a real business needs. ShinePilot Pro gives you the same booking front door at a flat $20 with the whole back office behind it.
Everything included · $20/month flat after the trial · no card, no demo call, no per-user math.
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