What shops notice first
A calmer front desk, a clearer floor, and fewer approval dead ends.
The point is not more software. It is getting the customer, the writer, and the work order back onto the same thread.
Command center for service shops
Run the shop. Show the work. Keep customers saying yes.
Home Base is a command center for serious service shops: sales, work orders, customer communication, video, AI, and reporting in one connected platform. Free to self-host, or $37 a month hosted.
Free forever to self-host$37 a month hostedSource on GitHub, no lock-in
Hosted or self-hosted
$37
Flat hosted plan
MIT
License on GitHub
Daily view
Command center
Owners and managers see the floor clearly
Home Base dashboard
Monday live snapshot with work, approvals, timers, and closeout pressure
dashboardservicesalesreports
12
active work orders
Mixed across open, in progress, QC, and ready-to-bill.
4
pending approvals
Waiting on customer response with proof already attached.
92%
captured time
Tracked against current-day work with only two open timers.
3
jobs near closeout
Ready for final review and invoice prep.
Shop board
Work in motion
Open
WO-2401 Brake noise
Writer waiting on inspection notes
WO-2414 F-150 intake
Customer approved diagnostic
In progress
WO-2420 Alignment + tires
Bay 2 active, parts ready
WO-2426 AC complaint
Tech added Lens walkaround
Closeout
WO-2417 QC complete
Invoice review before release
WO-2408 Warranty follow-up
Awaiting final message
Approvals waiting
Ramirez | Silverado
Estimate + Lens clip sent with summary from service writer.
11:32 AM
Nguyen | Accord
Customer asked one follow-up question before approving change order.
2 lines
Gauge assist
Draft a customer follow-up for WO-2426 using the latest inspection notes and Lens clip.
Draft prepared
Confirmation required before send. Audit trail attached to the action.
The sharper angle
Shops do not need more software noise. They need trust, control, and visibility.
Shops win when the front desk, the floor, and the customer stop pulling in opposite directions. Home Base is built to make that alignment feel immediate.
1
connected operating story
One workflow from intake to closeout instead of disconnected modules.
3
core emotional promises
Trust for the customer, control for the team, and visibility for ownership.
6
major product layers
Sales, operations, portal, video, AI, and reporting all reinforce the same narrative.
0
interest in rushing this
This build is meant to get sharper over time, not settle for fast-but-generic.
Core promise
Built for the parts of the shop that usually break apart
Home Base gives the shop one coherent operating model instead of a loose stack of features, tools, and handoffs.
Why it matters
That coherence is part of what makes the product feel different from generic management software.
01
Run the shop from one command center
Bring sales, work orders, customer messaging, parts flow, and reporting into one system instead of stitching together five tools.
02
Turn communication into a differentiator
Package-tracker style updates, estimate approvals, uploads, and Lens video make the customer side feel current instead of chaotic.
03
Give the team help without losing control
Gauge can answer questions, draft updates, and prepare actions against shop data while keeping role checks and confirmation steps in place.
04
Make the state of the shop legible
Service, sales, parts, and closeout reporting give owners and managers a faster read on bottlenecks, risk, and momentum.
Workflow
One job, one thread, one source of truth.
Quotes, work orders, customer updates, proof, and reporting stay tied together so the shop is not reconstructing context all day.
01
Capture the work clearly
Leads, quotes, vehicle context, and customer history are organized before the job starts slipping through handoffs.
02
Operate without swivel-chairing
Work orders, bays, time, estimates, parts, and inspections stay inside the same operating environment.
03
Explain what is happening
Customers can approve, upload, review, and watch what the shop is showing them instead of guessing through text fragments.
04
Learn from live shop reality
Dashboards and reports make the operational state visible quickly enough for managers to actually react to it.
By role
Serious shop software should respect the seats inside the shop
Owners, service writers, managers, technicians, parts teams, and sales all need different visibility into the same operating reality.
Why it matters
Each seat gets what it needs without losing the shared picture.
01
Owners
Get a truer picture of production, approvals, sales pressure, and closeout without waiting for end-of-day spreadsheets.
02
Service writers
Move faster between intake, estimates, customer updates, and work-order changes without bouncing between systems.
03
Technicians
Track work, attach context, and support customer trust with less friction from the bay floor.
04
Managers
Spot stalled work, overloaded queues, and team bottlenecks early enough to do something about them.
05
Parts teams
Work from cleaner reservation, issue, and stock signals instead of trying to reconstruct what is really committed.
06
Sales reps
Keep leads, opportunities, follow-up, and quoting tied to the same customer story the service side will eventually inherit.
Pricing
Free to self-host. $37 a month if you'd rather we host it.
Pull the source from GitHub and run it on your own server for nothing, or let us run it for you at a flat monthly price. Same software, different support model.
No per-seat pricingNo per-bay surchargeCancel any month
Common questions
What shops usually ask before getting in
The ones that come up most often, answered without the sales-deck gloss.
1What is Home Base at the highest level?+
That Home Base is the command center for serious service shops: one place to run the work, explain the work, and see the state of the work.
2How is Home Base different from generic shop software?+
It is grounded in bays, approvals, stalled jobs, front-desk pressure, customer trust, and closeout instead of generic horizontal SaaS language.
3Why lead with customer trust so strongly?+
Because operational depth matters, but trust is easier to feel. Portal, Lens, and clearer approvals give a shop owner something immediate to recognize instead of another feature spreadsheet.
4How does AI fit into Home Base?+
As serious operational assistance with guardrails, not as a novelty. Gauge signals confidence, context, role-awareness, and human confirmation.
Two ways to get started
Start the 14-day trial, or clone the repo and run it yourself.
The hosted version is the fastest way in: we set it up, you point your domain, and you are running Home Base the same day. Self-hosting costs nothing and takes about an evening if you have a server ready.