What are the advantages of having a mechanics workshop (as described in Special Modifications) over a business 'mechanics' shop (as build from Far Horizons)? It would seem that a business blueprint offers more NPCs and regular income, while a workshop may -- if I read it correctly -- allow for such a smaller workshop on board the party's existing ship resource.

In other words, a smaller mechanics' workshop can be on a ship, while a mechanics' business is stationary but larger.

Is this the main difference?

That's a difference, but not the "main" one.

The mechanics shop as part of the business/homestead, is essentially just that. It's a garage and some tools and that's really all the bonuses it confer outside of the "business" part. It's a place where any mechanic and droid techs can do their job. It has space, a tool kit, and an oil bath, so essentiall "the right tools for the job" and a bacta tank for droids.

The Workshop in SM is more like an individual's special workspace for a specific function. It's got more specified use (it can be a slicer shop loaded with computer gear or a field medics mobile surgical suite just as much as an actual mechanic's workshop) and then the workshop owner can add on specific upgrades that have defined functions and bonuses that allow the user to do his job better (like a system that allows him to downgrade the difficulty of checks, or a space parts bin that reduces crafting costs).

Also the workshop can be set up from several different options. The shipboard one is probably the most popular for obvious reasons, but you can also add a workshop to a homestead, or have the workshop be an industrial compound all it's own.

The two are also technically different things. So you can have both on a single homestead if that's what blows your kilt up.

I don't actually have Special Modifications on my shelf just yet, but I would probably let the mechanics workshop count as the base workshop from special modifications, and allow it to get upgraded further. If there is a huge disparity in cost, I might waive the homestead cost and just use the special modifications cost instead for the upgrade.

It doesn't have a cost, it's more framed as a longer term reward a GM could give, worth 10's thousands of credits.

Near as I can tell the only restriction it has is an encumberance rating. The way I was thinking is that it can be filled with different kits, tools, and stations up to that encumberance. Taking each into account encumberance wise I was going to have my character build the various items needed from what has been outlined in the SM supplement. For instance the workbench would be an equivalent of a specialist tool at 400cr for materials at a 4 in rarety with an average mechanics check to assemble. In this way you build your workshop piece by piece and the character doesn't necessarily gain such a great advantage and become OP overnight.

What do you guys think