Side-by-side comparison
Cost comparison
What a repair-only workshop pays
| Feature | Autera | Dragon2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Free planDragon2000 offers a genuine 30-day no-card trial of DragonDMS. Autera Solo simply never expires. | Free forever (Solo) | 30-day free trial |
| Public, transparent pricing onlineWINDragon2000 pricing is quote-led; Autera plans and prices are public. | ||
| Starting priceWIN | £29 / month | Quote-only |
| Built for | The workshop, first and only | Dealerships, with workshop inside a DMS |
| Native mobile appsBoth ship mobile apps. Honest tie — Dragon2000 lists dedicated apps including recent ones. | ||
| Setup time to first jobWIN | Under 30 minutes, self-serve | Demo-led |
| Live UK reg lookup | DVLA, built in | |
| Quote → invoice → payment in one toolClose to parity, and not a win for us. DragonDMS generates payment links for sales, service and parts invoices and sends them to the customer by email or SMS, with integrated terminal payments alongside, and Clover as its new card provider covering terminals, links and rates. Autera sends its Stripe pay-by-link on the invoice email and on the overdue chasers; it has no card terminal of its own. | Stripe pay-by-link built in | Pay-by-link and terminals (Clover) |
| Vehicle health checks | Workshop+ | |
| MOT reminder workflow | Workshop+ | |
| ADAS calibration certificates (PAS 1880)WIN | Workshop+ | Not advertised |
| Xero / QuickBooks syncWINDragon2000 offers a full integration with one accounting package, Sage50C, and says of the others: “for now, we do not offer full integrations with these products.” Its Xero support is purpose-built export files that import as reviewable drafts, which it describes as not a full integration; for QuickBooks there is nothing. Autera syncs Xero and QuickBooks from Starter. On Sage the credit goes the other way: Dragon2000 has a true Sage50C integration where Autera offers a Sage 50 CSV export. | Starter+ | Sage50C only |
| Vehicle SALES stock managementIf you buy and sell vehicles, Dragon2000 earns this column outright: inventory, AutoTrader stock feeds, CAP and HPI. Autera does not do vehicle sales. | ||
| Dealer websites & ecommerce | ||
| Best fit | Independent repair and MOT workshops of every size | Dealerships and garages whose business includes selling vehicles |
Comparison reviewed October 2026. Pricing and feature sets change frequently, check dragon2000.co.uk for the latest from Dragon2000.
Why UK garages choose Autera
A workshop tool, not a DMS with one inside
Dragon2000 is a dealer management system whose workshop module lives alongside sales stock, forecourt websites and AutoTrader feeds. If you never sell a car, all of that is surface area you navigate around. Autera is the workshop, whole.
A price you can see today
Dragon2000 does not publish its price. There is no pricing page on their site; the number comes from a quote request. Autera publishes it: Solo free, Starter £29, Workshop £79 for 6 technicians, Multi-Bay £149. You can budget before you ever speak to anyone.
Phone-first where it counts
Both products ship apps — Dragon2000 deserves that credit. Autera’s were designed as the PRIMARY surface: our busiest paying customer runs his whole day from the app and invoices from the sofa at ten at night.
Free forever beats 30 days
Dragon2000’s 30-day trial is genuinely no-card, and fair play. Autera Solo just never ends: run real jobs free for as long as you like, and upgrade the month the limits pinch.
ADAS certificates built in
PAS 1880-compliant ADAS calibration certificates are included on the £79 Workshop plan, with technician IMI numbers captured per cert. Dragon2000 does not advertise ADAS certification.
Leave whenever, with everything
Full export of customers, vehicles, jobs and invoices at any time, no exit process. Trying Autera next to Dragon2000 for a month costs nothing and risks nothing.
Common questions
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