ARI (Auto Repair Software) vs. Shop Methods Comparison Chart

Kukui's All-in-One Success Platform is a robust integrated marketing software solution that helps businesses in the automotive repair industry to grow their brand and take it to the next level. Kukui offers tools for conversion rate optimization, POS integration, email marketing and retention as well as revenue tracking.

Vehicle Acquisition Network (VAN) is vehicle acquisition software that helps franchise and independent dealers buy used cars directly from private sellers in their market, beyond trade-ins and the auction lane. The platform pulls for-sale-by-owner listings from 25+ online marketplaces into one dashboard, with VIN decoding, market valuation, automated outreach, and seller conversation tracking. VAN works with vAuto, CARFAX, Experian AutoCheck, and most dealer CRMs, and runs inside VINCUE Buy Center Pro as VAN Mode. On VAN Accelerate™, it replies automatically to KBB ICO and AccuTrade leads. For dealers who want private-party inventory without hiring and managing a buyer themselves, VAN Managed Buyer™ provides a full-time buyer, hired and managed by VAN. Every plan includes an Acquisition Coach™. Founded in 2013, VAN serves dealers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Plans start at $1,695 per month. To see VAN on your market, call 855-952-4949.

Dealerships don’t lose customers because of price. They lose them when the phone rings and nobody answers, and when the manager hears about a problem only after the survey comes back. Numa is the AI Operating System for car dealerships. Operator puts every caller in the right hands without a phone tree. Appointment Agent books service into real open slots, day or night. Smart Inbox keeps every call and text in one thread with the repair order beside it. LiveCSI™ catches the unhappy customer while they’re still in the shop. Opportunities books the declined work already sitting in your DMS, and Numa for Sales answers every sales call with full inventory context. Every product runs on one system with the customer’s full history. More than 1,500 dealerships run on Numa, and they respond to customers in 13 minutes, compared with an industry average of nearly 23 hours. Numa connects to CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, Dealertrack, and Xtime, and is approved by GM, FordDirect, and Stellantis.

Act! Advantage is a full front-office CRM solution with all-new functionality that unites sales, marketing, and customer management in one intuitive, affordable platform to help you stay organized, attract new customers, and turn relationships into results. Act! Advantage includes Interactive Quotes and Payments, Website Chat, Accounting Integration, Appointment Scheduling, Project Management, Web Forms, Online Surveys, and more, broadening Act!'s footprint across your entire front office, and reducing your need for costly, third-party tools. Additionally, you can select the perfect fit, cost-effective tier to meet your current needs with peace of mind knowing that Act! will grow with you. For 39 years, Act! has partnered with small and midsize businesses - listening, learning, and building alongside them and Act! Advantage is the culmination of nearly four decades of their feedback. Every feature is designed to reflect how today’s SMBs run their businesses.

Creatio is an AI CRM and workflow platform where people and AI agents work together — with no limits on users, agents, workflows, or scale. Built for midsize and large organizations, it combines best-in-class CRM across sales, marketing, and service with an AI-native, no-code engine that lets business teams automate workflows, deploy AI agents, and adapt processes without developer dependency. The platform includes Creatio Business Studio for building applications and AI agents using natural language and visual designers, and Creatio AI Studio — a dedicated environment for managing the full enterprise agent lifecycle, from building and deploying to governing and optimizing agents at scale. The AI CRM suite covers Marketing, Sales, and Service, each with embedded AI agents that handle routine tasks autonomously so teams can focus on higher-value work. Creatio's Unlimited Enterprise model removes per-seat, per-agent, and per-workflow pricing constraints entirely — the more your people and AI agents do together, the more value you get, without the cost scaling with it. The platform supports industry-specific deployments across 20+ verticals including financial services, manufacturing, high-tech, and public sector, backed by 700+ marketplace add-ons and a global network of 500+ partners. Recognized as a Leader and Strong Performer across multiple Gartner and Forrester reports, Creatio serves thousands of customers in 100+ countries. Creatio is headquartered in Boston, US, has 1000 employees, 7 offices globally, and $300M in revenue.

Fishbowl is the #1 selling manufacturing and warehouse management software for QuickBooks. Designed for small and medium-sized businesses, including manufacturers, distributors, and service providers, Fishbowl gives businesses the flexibility to stay within the QuickBooks platform for accounting while seamlessly integrating advanced inventory features with it. It also offers multi-location tracking, work orders, bills of materials, barcoding, shipping, auto reorder points, and integrations with EDI, shopping carts, merchant services, and other business solutions. If you are looking for an affordable inventory management solution that can help your business take advantage of the latest technology to streamline operations and save time and money, Fishbowl is a great option.

We simplify your manufacturing.™ Global Shop Solutions AI-integrated ERP software provides the applications needed to deliver a quality part on time, every time from quote to cash and everything in between, including shop management, scheduling, inventory, accounting, quality control, CRM and 25 more. Built with AI in mind, our software helps manufacturers make smarter, data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and visibility. Available in the cloud or on premise, our manufacturing customers benefit from real-time inventory accuracy, improved on-time delivery, lower administrative costs, increased sales and improved customer service. Headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas includes a state-of-the-art R&D facility and Global Shop Solutions training center. Through its offices in the U.S., Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the company supports thousands of manufacturing facilities in over 25 countries and more than 30 industries.

Paladin is an all-in-one retail management platform built for independent hardware stores, lumber and building materials dealers, feed & seed retailers, pharmacies, and specialty retailers. Paladin combines point of sale, inventory management, e-commerce, mobile selling, and managed IT services in a single system. PaladinPOS™ helps retailers manage sales, inventory, pricing, purchasing, customer accounts, and day-to-day operations from one platform. PaladinGo™ extends selling beyond the counter with real-time mobile access to inventory, pricing, and customer information. PaladinShop™ provides a built-in online storefront that keeps inventory and pricing synchronized automatically. PaladinMSP™ delivers managed IT, security, updates, and network monitoring to reduce technology burdens. Serving independent retailers since 1980, Paladin is known for reliable systems, practical retail expertise, and industry-leading U.S.-based customer support.

Epicor Connected Process Control (CPC) is a flexible no-code/low-code MES and manufacturing operations platform that helps manufacturers improve quality, consistency, and visibility across production and assembly operations. Create digital work instructions with multimedia content, guide operators through critical tasks, connect equipment and devices across the shop floor, and capture production and quality data without extensive programming. CPC provides product traceability with a complete historical record of each product's build and inspection history. Real-time insights into quality, performance, defects, rework, and production trends help teams identify issues faster, reduce waste, and support continuous improvement. Manufacturers use CPC to standardize production and assembly processes, improve operator consistency, and support assembly verification, error proofing, quality inspections, and production monitoring across the shop floor. Whether deployed in a single work cell, across multiple production lines, or enterprise-wide, CPC scales to support manufacturers of all sizes. Available on-premises or in the cloud, it adapts to your operational requirements and manufacturing processes.

DocketManager has been built from the ground-up by printers, for printers. The System is a cloud-based print management MIS solution with a fully integrated Web-to-Print. Developed as a powerful software that includes a completely integrated suite of tools for managing an entire company from one system. DocketManager is designed to handle full or hybrid shops that include digital, offset, wide format, label, in-plant/edu, and other specialty markets.