Crew Chief vs Garage 61
Quick summary
Verified pricing differs — Crew Chief: Free · Garage 61: Free (alpha).
Verdict
Which one should you pick?
Choose Crew Chief when you want a free voice spotter & engineer — it has a verified free tier.
Worth knowing: Distribution and docs live on a vBulletin forum behind Cloudflare bot protection, and the Android companion app is marked EOL on the official forum
Choose Garage 61 when you want free iRacing reference laps — it has a verified free tier.
Worth knowing: iRacing-only, and top drivers can set their data private, shrinking the reference-lap pool; official site states paid tiers are coming (FAQ: 'Will it stay free? Not all of it')
No universal winner — both entries are human-verified (dates in the Verification row below); weigh the limitations against your own setup.
Field by field
The verified fields
What it is
Crew Chief
Garage 61
Pricing
Crew Chief
Free
- Free download (CrewChiefV4.msi) — donations accepted via the site's donate link
Garage 61
Free (alpha)
- Everything free during alpha (official docs: 'Is it free? Yes, all of it')
- Optional Pro supporter plan via Patreon (price not shown on site) — unlocks extras like Pro lap-search filters and custom display units
Free access
Crew Chief
Garage 61
Platforms
Crew Chief
Garage 61
Standout feature
Crew Chief
Human-like radio engineer + spotter voice calls — free, MIT-licensed open source (GitHub: mrbelowski/CrewChiefV4) with community voice packs, translations and name personalisations
Garage 61
Compare against community-shared telemetry/reference laps from other drivers across most car/track combos, all free right now
Limitations
Crew Chief
Distribution and docs live on a vBulletin forum behind Cloudflare bot protection, and the Android companion app is marked EOL on the official forum
Garage 61
iRacing-only, and top drivers can set their data private, shrinking the reference-lap pool; official site states paid tiers are coming (FAQ: 'Will it stay free? Not all of it')
Verification
Crew Chief
Garage 61
“—” means the official site does not state it — we leave it blank instead of guessing.
Straight answers
Common questions
Do Crew Chief or Garage 61 have a free tier?
Crew Chief does, and Garage 61 does. A free tier can mean the whole product or a heavily capped version, so check the pricing detail on each card rather than the yes or no alone.
How much does Crew Chief cost?
Crew Chief has a free tier, and its paid pricing starts at Free as listed on its own pricing page. Tiers change — the card above shows every tier we verified, with the date we checked.
How much does Garage 61 cost?
Garage 61 has a free tier, and its paid pricing starts at Free (alpha) as listed on its own pricing page. Tiers change — the card above shows every tier we verified, with the date we checked.
What does Crew Chief support?
Crew Chief's own site lists iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, RaceRoom, rFactor, rFactor 2, GTR2, Automobilista, Project Cars 1 & 2, F1 2018/2019, Richard Burns Rally, Windows. We only record platforms a site names explicitly — a generic "100+ games" claim is not counted as support for any particular title.
What does Garage 61 support?
Garage 61's own site lists iRacing. We only record platforms a site names explicitly — a generic "100+ games" claim is not counted as support for any particular title.
What are the drawbacks of Crew Chief and Garage 61?
Crew Chief — Distribution and docs live on a vBulletin forum behind Cloudflare bot protection, and the Android companion app is marked EOL on the official forum. Garage 61 — iRacing-only, and top drivers can set their data private, shrinking the reference-lap pool; official site states paid tiers are coming (FAQ: 'Will it stay free? Not all of it'). These are the limitations each product's own materials made plain, not a verdict on quality.
Is Crew Chief or Garage 61 better?
Neither is better in the abstract, and this page does not name a winner. They differ on the verified fields above — price, free tier, platform support and stated limitations — and which of those matters is a question about your setup, not about the products.
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