CDK CRM vs Dealer-Mate

CDK CRM is automotive CRM software for dealership teams managing leads, appointments, customer engagement, and follow-up across Sales and Service. Its Unified Customer Inbox brings email, text, chat, and other conversations into one place. The AI Virtual Assistant engages leads through conversations, routing, and follow-up; additional AI tools provide automated summaries and writing assistance for dealership workflows. Marketing features use data and alerts to identify customers likely to buy and support one-to-one re-engagement. Flexible dashboards and reports help track dealership performance, activity, and trends. CDK CRM includes lead routing, lead-source capture, SMS messaging, workflow automation, a mobile app, and DMS integration. Its APIs are built for the Fortellis Automotive Commerce Exchange and support data retrieval, historical access, record creation or editing, and real-time updates. Listed platforms are Android, iOS, web, and API, though the product page does not specify mobile operating systems for its mobile tools. CDK states it maintains SOC 1 and SOC 2 attestations and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, and uses the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

Dealer-Mate is dealer management software for car, motorcycle, RV, heavy truck, boat, and equipment dealerships. It supports financing and insurance, plus creating and recapping in-house, bank, lease, or cash deals. Inventory can be sorted, filtered, and published to dealer websites and third-party sites; listed connections include Kelley Blue Book, Black Book, Craigslist, Cars.com, Autotrader.com, eBay Motors, and Facebook. Its web-based CRM includes lead, showroom, business-development, auto-trade, database, and reporting modules, with no per-user fees according to the maker. Parts and Service supports work orders, mechanic scheduling, estimates, invoices, barcodes, and service histories. Dealer-Mate also integrates with Dealertrack and says users can submit deals to more than 1,000 lenders. It is offered through cloud/web and local desktop options across web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Cloud Monthly costs $119 a month; Cloud Quarterly costs $99 a month, billed quarterly at 297.00 USD; Cloud Annual costs $79 a month, billed annually at 894.00 USD. Local desktop monthly costs $65 a month, and Local Area Network costs 350.00 USD once for up to three workstations. A 30-day trial is listed, but there is no free plan.