Best Car Maintenance Apps

Most car maintenance apps are built to answer one question: when is my next oil change? That's fine for a daily driver that lives at the dealer. If you do your own work, keep parts on a shelf, or have a project car half apart in the garage, you need more than a reminder. You need a record of every job, a plan for the next one, and help when you're stuck mid-repair.

This guide compares six apps against that job, and tells you honestly where each one fits, including the ones that aren't ours.

The short answer

• Best for project cars and DIY maintenance: GarageHub. Service history, a parts inventory, a build plan, and Rev, an AI mechanic that reads your car's records before it answers. The free plan is enough to run one car's whole history: 50 service logs, unlimited parts and 25 photos.
• Best for shop-serviced cars: CARFAX Car Care. Free, and it pulls in the service history shops have reported.
• Best for fuel and expense tracking: Drivvo. Cost-per-mile breakdowns and income tracking.
• Best for simple reminders with OBD-II: Simply Auto. A mature reminder app that also reads diagnostic codes over a Bluetooth adapter.
• Best for fuel-economy benchmarking: Fuelly. Compare your real-world MPG with owners of the same car.
• Best for reading a check-engine code right now: MECH AI. An OBD2 scanner companion with AI code explanations.

Comparison table

App	Best for	Platforms	Free tier	Standout feature
GarageHub	Project cars and DIY maintenance	iOS, macOS, Android, web	Yes: 1 vehicle, 50 service logs, unlimited parts, 25 photos, 15 Rev messages a month	An AI mechanic that has read your car's history
CARFAX Car Care	Shop-serviced cars	iOS, Android	Free app	Service history reported by shops and dealers
Drivvo	Fuel and expense tracking	iOS, Android, web	—	Cost-per-mile breakdowns and income tracking
Simply Auto	Simple reminders with OBD-II	iOS, Android; web on Pro	Yes, with limits on multiple vehicles	Mileage- and time-based reminders plus OBD-II code reading
Fuelly	Fuel-economy benchmarking	—	—	Community MPG data for your make and model
MECH AI	Reading a check-engine code	iOS, Android, web	Yes, funded by rewarded ads	OBD2 code reading, TSB lookup and wiring diagrams

A dash means we haven't confirmed that detail. Check the app's store listing.

How we compared them

We judged every app on what matters to someone who works on their own cars:

• Depth of the record. Can it log a DIY job with mileage, cost, parts used and photos, or only a date and a reminder?
• Help with the work. Does it help you figure out what's wrong and what to do next, and does that help know your car?
• Project tools. Can it hold a build plan, a parts shelf and a list of open issues, not just scheduled services?
• Getting your history in and out. Can you bring old records over, and take your data with you?
• Where it runs. Phone only, or also a computer for the long evenings of planning?

One disclosure: we make GarageHub, so weigh our pick with that in mind. The competitor details on this page match our side-by-side comparisons, linked in each section, and we point you to other apps wherever they're the better fit.

GarageHub: best for project cars and DIY maintenance

GarageHub is a garage for people who do the work themselves: every vehicle, every job, every part, with an AI mechanic that has read all of it. It runs on iPhone, Mac, Android and the web, with the same garage everywhere.

Rev, the AI mechanic that knows your cars

• Rev reads your vehicle, its service history, parts, open issues and specs before it answers, so "when should I do the timing belt?" gets checked against your mileage and your last service, not a generic interval.
• It remembers facts you ask it to keep, like the tools you don't have or a noise you're watching.
• Send a photo of a leak or a worn part for a diagnosis. On iPhone and Mac you can also talk to it.
• Rev can research a repair on the web and cite its sources.
• Tell it what you did in plain English and it drafts the service log or reminder. Nothing is saved until you confirm.

Build plan and project tracking

• Plan a build item by item, from wishlist to planned, ordered and installed, with estimated and actual cost, brand and part number.
• Link a part from your inventory to a build item and it counts as installed.
• Publish a public build page to show the project off. More on the build tracker.

Parts inventory

• Track part numbers, brand, condition, quantity, storage location and purchase details for the whole garage.
• Parts you use in a service log come off the shelf automatically, and low stock is flagged.

Service history, schedules and reminders

• Log every job with date, mileage, category, cost, parts used, photos and notes.
• Log fuel fill-ups next to the work and see your fuel economy between fill-ups. Fuel logging has no limit on the free plan. You can also tell Rev about a fill-up in chat, or send a one-line note by email or Telegram (litres and cost, like 45l 78), and it drafts the entry for you.
• Up Next keeps one list of open issues by priority, scheduled services by mileage and time, and reminders.
• When you add a vehicle, GarageHub seeds a maintenance schedule for it where it has a checked one. See our vehicle maintenance schedule guide for how intervals work.
• It handles cars, motorcycles, trucks, ATVs, boats and RVs, and costs in 38 currencies.

Getting your history in

• Forward a parts invoice or shop receipt to your garage's private email address and it becomes a draft log.
• Snap a batch of old receipts, or tell Rev what's been done, and it drafts the entries for you to review.
• On the web app, import a CSV export from another app or a spreadsheet: map the columns once, preview every draft, then commit. Duplicates are skipped. More on history import.

Sharing

• Create a history report link for a buyer or an inspection: you choose whether costs, shops, photos and the VIN show, set when it expires, and revoke it anytime. A forum signature badge links back to the same page.
• Family sharing lets up to four other people join with their own logins, with an optional shared garage everyone can read and write.

Where it falls short

• It doesn't connect to an OBD2 scanner yet. That's on the roadmap. Today you can type a code into Rev and it explains it in the context of your car.
• It has no community fuel-economy data. If comparing MPG with other owners matters to you, Fuelly does that.
• CSV import is on the web app only, and voice input isn't on Android yet.

Free vs Premium

Free covers 1 vehicle, 50 service logs, unlimited parts, 25 photos, 10 build items and 15 messages a month with Rev. Premium removes those limits and adds receipt scanning, the spec sheet, the shareable history report, family sharing, and CSV and PDF export (JSON export is free on every plan). There are no ads on any plan. See the pricing page for current prices.

Pick it if: you wrench on your own cars, run a project or more than one vehicle, and want a mechanic on call who knows what's been done to yours.

CARFAX Car Care: best for shop-serviced cars

CARFAX Car Care is a free app from CARFAX, the vehicle-history company. Its standout feature is one no other app here can copy: it pulls in service records that participating shops and dealers have reported to CARFAX.

• A car that has always been dealer-serviced can arrive with its history already filled in.
• It sends service reminders and recall alerts.
• Reported history only covers what shops report. The oil change you did in your driveway doesn't exist in that database unless you enter it yourself.
• No parts inventory, issue list or build tracking.

Pick it if: your car goes to a shop for everything and you mostly want a nudge when something is due. GarageHub vs CARFAX Car Care

Drivvo: best for fuel and expense tracking

Drivvo is a well-designed tracker for fuel, expenses and mileage.

• Log fill-ups and see fuel-efficiency charts and cost-per-mile breakdowns.
• Income tracking makes it useful for rideshare and delivery drivers.
• Maintenance reminders are there, but it doesn't track parts, look at photos, or support builds.

Pick it if: you want a clean expense ledger for your car, or you drive for work and track income. GarageHub vs Drivvo

Simply Auto: best for simple reminders with OBD-II

Simply Auto is a mature maintenance tracker that has been around for years.

• Logs services, tracks fuel economy and expenses, and sends mileage- and time-based reminders for each vehicle. The reminder system is one of its strongest features.
• Supports OBD-II Bluetooth adapters for reading diagnostic codes.
• The free tier limits multiple vehicles, and the web version comes with Pro.
• No AI help, parts inventory or build tracking.

Pick it if: you want a set-and-forget reminder app with OBD-II support. GarageHub vs Simply Auto

Fuelly: best for fuel-economy benchmarking

Fuelly is a long-running fuel-economy tracker with a large community dataset.

• Log fill-ups and watch your MPG over time.
• Compare your numbers with other owners of the same make and model, which is useful when you're shopping for a car or suspect your economy has drifted.
• Maintenance is a side feature. There's no parts inventory, issue list or build tracking.

Pick it if: fuel economy is your main interest. It pairs well with a separate maintenance app. GarageHub vs Fuelly

MECH AI: best for reading a check-engine code right now

MECH AI is diagnostics-first: pair an ELM327 OBD2 scanner, read the code, and its AI explains what it means and what to check.

• It can look up technical service bulletins and generate wiring diagrams, which most maintenance apps, GarageHub included, don't offer today.
• Its free tier is funded by rewarded ads, with paid tiers above it.
• It isn't built to be a long-term logbook: no service history, maintenance reminders, cost tracking or parts inventory.

Pick it if: you mainly want a scanner companion for the repair in front of you today. GarageHub vs MECH AI

Which app fits how you use your car

• You're building or restoring a project car: GarageHub. The build plan, parts shelf and Rev are made for it.
• You do your own maintenance and want detailed records: GarageHub. Parts by number, photos, costs in your currency, and receipts that turn into logs.
• Your car goes to the shop for everything: CARFAX Car Care, free, with shop-reported history.
• Operating costs matter most, or you drive for work: Drivvo.
• You want simple reminders and a code reader in one: Simply Auto.
• Fuel economy is the hobby: Fuelly.
• The check-engine light is on right now: MECH AI with a scanner, or start with our guide to reading OBD2 codes.

GarageHub logs fill-ups and fuel economy alongside the work, so most people only need one app. A dedicated fuel app is still worth adding if you want community MPG comparisons (Fuelly) or income and expense reports for driving for work (Drivvo).

The best app is the one you keep using

A simple app you update after every job beats a feature-rich one you open twice a year. Whatever you pick, the goal is the same: a complete, searchable history of everything done to your car. That record pays off when you sell, when you diagnose a problem, and every time you're standing at the parts counter trying to remember which filter you used last time.

To get the habit right, start with how to keep a car maintenance log and what to write in a car service record. For what's due when, see the car maintenance checklist by mileage. Buying used? A shared history report pairs well with our used car inspection checklist.