· 7 min read
Car maintenance app: which one to choose?
Drivvo, Simply Auto, CARFAX Car Care, Fuelly, StemmaPass, paper or spreadsheet: what each car maintenance app really does, where it works and what it costs.
A paper service book gets lost, a folder of receipts can't be read at a glance, and a spreadsheet proves nothing. Car maintenance apps promise to fix all three — but they don't all do the same thing, and not all of them work where you live.
This comparison sticks to what each publisher states on its own website or app store listing, checked on 7 November 2026. It is published by StemmaPass, one of the apps compared: we also say what the others do better than us, and who they suit better.
What to expect from a maintenance app
Five questions, in the order they come up:
- Keeping the evidence. Invoices must be stored and easy to find — ideally read automatically, so you don't type everything twice.
- Warning you before things fall due. Oil change, timing belt, MOT: a reminder before, not a discovery after.
- Saying where the wear parts stand. Tyres, pads and brake fluid wear between two invoices; a good log estimates it.
- Passing the history on. When you sell, the buyer should be able to read it — and believe it.
- Working where you are. Some apps are limited to one country.
The comparison in one table
Three apps for private owners, in alphabetical order, then StemmaPass. Simply Auto, paper, spreadsheets and fleet software come after.
| CARFAX Car Care | Drivvo | Fuelly | StemmaPass | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicles | Cars | Cars, motorcycles, trucks and more | Not stated | Cars, motorcycles |
| Platforms | iPhone, Android | Android, iPhone, web | iPhone, web | Web, installable |
| Where it works | US and Canada only | Worldwide | Not stated | Worldwide |
| Invoices | Not stated | Attachments | Photo and PDF attachments (Premium) | Read by AI: 3 free, unlimited with Road |
| Reminders | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fuel and expenses | Fuel economy | Yes | Yes, its core | No fuel log |
| Wear of parts | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Each part, by mileage, track hours and age |
| Track use | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Sessions, GPS import with Track |
| Export or sharing | Not stated | CSV / Excel (paid plans) | CSV by email | Public passport, free; printable document with the Resale Pass |
| Price | Free | Free for 2 vehicles; $24.90/year or $4.90/month | Free with ads; $0.99/month or $7.99/year | Free for one vehicle; Road £4.49/month, Track £7.99/month |
"Not stated" means the publisher's own pages don't mention it, not necessarily that the feature is missing. Prices are those shown by each publisher, in its own currency.
Paper and spreadsheets: free, but silent
The stamped service book has one virtue nothing fully replaces: the garage stamp, which buyers recognise. Otherwise it gets lost, warns you of nothing and says nothing about wear. A printable maintenance log covers what the book leaves out — DIY work, wear parts, track days.
A spreadsheet is complete if you are rigorous. But you do the maths, and nothing distinguishes it from a file written the night before the sale — we explain why in spreadsheet or verifiable history.
CARFAX Car Care: the free one, for North America
CARFAX Car Care is free, with no in-app purchases. It shows when oil, tyres, filters and inspections are due, keeps a service history with alerts, estimates repair costs, rates shops and flags recalls.
Who it's for: a car in the United States or Canada — CARFAX says the app is currently only available there, so UK owners can't use it.
What it doesn't state: receipt storage, export, sharing with a buyer, motorcycles.
Drivvo: the all-rounder
Drivvo runs on Android, iPhone and the web, and covers cars, motorcycles, trucks and other vehicles. It logs maintenance with date, odometer and place, reminds you by date or mileage — tax and insurance included — and tracks fuel, expenses and cost per mile or kilometre. It is updated regularly.
It is free for up to two vehicles. The Individual plan is $24.90 a year (five vehicles, no ads); PRO is $4.90 a month or $49.90 a year (ten vehicles, two drivers). CSV and Excel export come with the paid plans.
Who it's for: anyone who wants every cost of a car or a motorcycle in one place, fuel included.
What it doesn't state: reading invoices automatically, wear of parts, track use, sharing the history with a buyer.
Fuelly: fuel economy first
Fuelly is built around fuel and MPG, with maintenance records and service reminders alongside, charts of costs, and CSV reports by email. Premium ($0.99 a month or $7.99 a year) removes ads and adds photo and PDF attachments.
Who it's for: owners who watch their fuel economy above all.
Worth knowing: the iPhone app was last updated in June 2024.
Simply Auto: cheap, but quiet
Simply Auto logs services, fuel and expenses for cars, motorcycles and trucks, stores receipt photos, logs trips by GPS and exports to CSV. It is free up to ten service or expense tasks; Gold is $9.99 one-off and Platinum, which adds reminders, $9.99 a year.
Who it's for: a low-cost log, mainly on Android.
Worth knowing: the iPhone app has not been updated since March 2022.
StemmaPass: built for the track
StemmaPass is an installable web app for cars and motorcycles. It reads invoices by AI and resets the parts that were replaced. It estimates the wear of each part on three axes: mileage, track hours — weighted by the pace measured on GPS traces — and age. Track sessions are imported from a GPS lap timer or entered by hand. The public passport can be pasted into a listing, without your name, the VIN or the amounts; partner workshops certify the invoices they issued.
Plans: Discovery, free for one vehicle, with three invoice readings and the public passport; Road, £4.49 a month or £44 a year ($5.99 / $59), for unlimited invoices, alerts from 61% wear and up to 25 vehicles; Track, £7.99 a month or £79 a year ($9.99 / $99), for wear in track hours, reminders before each outing and GPS import; and the Resale Pass, £34 per vehicle, a printable document with the cost of every job.
Who it's for: a car or motorcycle that does track days, or a vehicle being prepared for sale.
What it does less well: there is no fuel log — Drivvo and Fuelly are better there. Beyond three invoices, automatic reading is paid. Track features need the Track plan. And there is no app in the stores: it installs from the browser.
For fleets
AUTOsist is fleet software first — work orders, inspections, parts inventory, fuel cards — that can also be used privately. There is no free plan: maintenance starts at $3 to $6 per vehicle per month, with a $59 monthly minimum, after a 14-day trial. For one or two private cars, the apps above are a better fit.
Which one to choose?
- A car in the US or Canada, and nothing to pay: CARFAX Car Care.
- Every cost of a car, fuel included: Drivvo.
- Fuel economy above all: Fuelly.
- A car or motorcycle that does track days: StemmaPass, the only one in this comparison to state wear tracking in track hours.
- A sale coming up: a history the buyer can read and believe — StemmaPass's passport and its workshop-certified invoices.
A mistake, a price that has changed? Write to contact@stemmapass.com: we correct it, and date every update.
Do you do track days? The wear calculator shows in a minute what StemmaPass works out for you: where your tyres or pads stand after a day on track. Free, no sign-up.