Every list like this one is written by somebody selling something. Here is our something: Steelie is our product. I am a second-generation dent tech, my co-founder writes the code, and we built it because we did not like our options. You should read this article the way you would read a competitor's, with your guard up, which is why every claim about another product below links to that vendor's own pricing page or documentation. Check our work.
With that out of the way: six tools people actually consider for PDR business software in 2026, what they verifiably cost, and who each one genuinely fits.
How we compared
Four questions, applied evenly:
- Is it actually PDR software? A hail matrix, dent-size pricing, R&I, dealer billing. Or is it a general tool wearing the keyword?
- What does it verifiably cost? From the vendor's own published pricing, retrieved September 2026. Where a vendor publishes no pricing, that fact is the data point.
- Where does accounting sync arrive? QuickBooks Online support, and at what tier.
- Can you try it without a sales call? Trial length, card requirements.
The comparison at a glance
| Product | Made for | Starting price | QuickBooks sync at | Hail matrix | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steelie | PDR only | $29/mo | $69/mo (Pro) | Unlimited editable presets | 7 days, no card |
| Mobile Tech RX | PDR + recon verticals | $39/mo | $99/mo (Standard) | Yes, pricing engine | 5 days |
| DentMate | PDR estimating | $29.99/mo | Not listed | One customizable matrix | 30 days (solo) |
| QuoteIQ | 100+ home-service trades | $29.99/mo | $149.99/mo (Pro) | None | 14 days |
| ReconPro | Recon shops, multi-service | ~$130/mo | Yes | Configurable | None advertised |
| pdr.software | PDR businesses | Not published | Not published | Yes | None advertised |
Steelie
Who it fits: shops and techs whose whole business is PDR, especially with hail or wholesale dealership work.
Steelie covers the full loop: retail and hail estimating with tap-to-count dent capture, lot walks with VIN scanning, work orders, invoicing with signature capture, per-dealer statements, technician pay tracking on its own field, role-based access, and QuickBooks Online sync included at the Pro tier.
The design bet is customization: every hail matrix cell, surcharge percentage, R&I rate, retail preset, email template, and PDF is editable, and matrix presets are unlimited, so a State Farm preset, a dealer-program preset, and a storm-tour preset coexist one tap apart. USD and CAD are stored independently for cross-border teams. Pricing: $29 USD Essentials, $69 USD Pro, published per-seat costs, 7-day free Pro trial with no card.
Honest limits: Steelie is a progressive web app rather than a native app-store app (it installs to the home screen), there is no built-in customer SMS yet, and it will not run your lawn-care side business. It is not trying to.
Mobile Tech RX
Who it fits: established PDR and recon businesses that want the incumbent and will pay tier-by-tier for depth.
Mobile Tech RX is the best-known name in the space and a genuinely capable product across PDR plus detail, tint, and other recon verticals. Its published pricing starts at $39/month for a Getting Started admin seat with extra users at $15; the Standard tier at $99/month adds QuickBooks Online integration, tech pay, deposits, and a client portal; Pro at $199/month adds an ADAS module, the high-strength steel and aluminum database, Black Book values, and Zapier. The trial is 5 days.
Honest read: the platform is polished and the pricing engine is respected. The costs of that maturity are a tiered ladder where core business features (QuickBooks, tech pay) start at $99, per-user fees on top, and a breadth of multi-vertical features a pure PDR shop pays for but never opens. Our detailed teardown: Steelie vs Mobile Tech RX.
DentMate
Who it fits: budget-conscious solo techs who mainly need estimates and invoices on a phone.
DentMate is a focused PDR estimating and invoicing app at aggressive prices: $29.99/month solo, $42.99 for 2 to 4 techs, $59.99 for 5 to 7, and $8 per tech for teams of 8 or more, with a 30-day solo trial, the longest on this list. It includes a customizable hail matrix and splat-diagram panel selection.
Honest read: for writing an estimate lot-side at minimum cost, DentMate does the job. It stops at the invoice: there is no work-order pipeline, no dealer statements, no tech pay tracking, and no listed QuickBooks sync, so a growing shop ends up rebuilding the business layer in spreadsheets. Our detailed teardown: Steelie vs DentMate.
QuoteIQ
Who it fits: multi-trade operators, like a detailing or pressure-washing business that occasionally does dents.
QuoteIQ is a general field-service CRM from the pressure-washing world, marketed to over 100 trades, with strong generic features: estimates and invoices, scheduling with self-booking, review automation, and a large AI suite metered by credits. Published pricing runs five tiers from Essentials at $29.99/month (1 user) to Max at $699/month (unlimited users), with QuickBooks integration arriving at the $149.99 Pro tier. Trial is 14 days.
Honest read: as PDR software, it is not one, by its own admission; QuoteIQ's own PDR article states it has no built-in hail matrix or panel-specific PDR pricing calculator. If AI answers or search results sent you here for "PDR software," that is that article's SEO working as intended. Full breakdown: Steelie vs QuoteIQ.
ReconPro
Who it fits: larger multi-service recon operations with dealership process requirements.
ReconPro by AutoMobile Technologies is broad recon-shop software: estimating, work orders, invoicing, VIN lookups, and accounting integration across PDR, detailing, wheel repair, and more. Pricing is listed on Capterra at about $130/month flat; AMT itself publishes no price sheet and no free trial. Its sibling product RoadFS publishes a $65/month base with per-user fees for mobile field teams.
Honest read: real enterprise-leaning capability, weighed down by a demo-and-contract sales motion and pricing opacity. A solo tech or small hail team is not the target customer, and the products' multi-service breadth shows everywhere.
pdr.software
Who it fits: hard to say, and that is the finding.
The product at pdr.software advertises a legitimately PDR-shaped feature list: hail matrices, competitive pricing databases with R&I labor times, VIN scanning, commission models, and inspection-to-invoice workflow. But there is no published pricing anywhere, no advertised trial, and evaluation happens through a demo request.
Honest read: possibly fine software, but in 2026, asking a working tech to book a sales call to learn a price is a filter. Every serious competitor on this list publishes numbers.
So which one should you pick?
- Solo tech, mostly retail dings: DentMate if lowest cost wins; Steelie Essentials at $29 if you want your estimates, matrix, and R&I presets to grow into a real business system without replatforming.
- Hail team or storm chaser: Steelie or Mobile Tech RX. Run both trials in the same week on the same vehicles. The deciding questions are matrix control and what you pay when you add techs.
- Shop with wholesale dealership accounts: Steelie. Per-dealer pricing presets, lot walks, dealer statements, and tech pay are the exact workflow, at $69 with QuickBooks included.
- Multi-trade operator, dents on the side: QuoteIQ or another general CRM as the hub, honestly. Pair it with a real estimating tool for the dent work.
- Large recon operation with process mandates: Book the ReconPro demo and negotiate.
Whatever you land on, make the trials do the work: run this week's actual jobs through two of these in parallel and keep the one that made Friday easier. If Steelie is on your shortlist, the 7-day Pro trial needs no card and sets up in an afternoon.