Master or slave tool: which does a file service need?

Almost every argument about tuning tools comes back to this one split. Most of the big tool makers sell the same hardware in two versions, and which one you buy decides what your business can do, who you depend on and what your customers can send you.

What is the difference between a master and a slave tool?

A master tool can read a car, open the file and hand it to an editor. Your tuner changes the maps and writes it back. A slave tool can read and write a car too, but what it reads is locked. It can only be opened by the one master that slave is tied to.

Which one does a file service need?

If you are selling tuned files to other people, you need a master, or you need someone on the team who holds one. There is no way round this: the file has to be opened to be tuned.

Many file services hold more than one master, because their customers own different tools. A shop with an Alientech master and an AutoTuner master can take slaves on both, and still accept plain reads from anything else.

Which one does a workshop need?

Usually a slave, at least at first. A workshop that fits files and looks after local customers does not need to learn calibration to make a living. It reads the car, sends the file to its master, gets the tuned file back and writes it. The tool costs less, and the skill stays with someone who does it all day.

The catch is the tie. A slave belongs to its master. Moving to another master usually needs the current master's agreement and a transfer fee, and the rules differ by maker, so check before you buy.

Your slave's files can only ever go to you. That is the value of a master, and also the responsibility.

What does being a master mean in practice?

Your slaves depend on you. When they are standing beside a car, they are waiting for you. So the things that matter stop being about the tool: how fast you answer, whether the file is right the first time, how corrections work, and whether anyone chases money.

That is the part a portal is built for. Your slaves order on one page, the job sorts itself into a queue, and each dealer can have a portal in their own name with every file coming to you.

Where do locked files fit in a portal?

Files from any tool are accepted. If you are a master on Alientech or AutoTuner, you connect your own account and their locked files open on the job. A locked file from any other maker is kept as it came, and your tuner opens it in that tool. There is more on that in what a slave file is and on the tools page.