Carlytics vs carVertical vs autoDNA: a Founder Comparison

Comparison published by Carlytics, one of the providers.

TL;DR: I run Carlytics. carVertical and autoDNA are two established European VIN-check services. This post sets out the prices each one publishes, and what a Carlytics report does and does not include, so you can pick by use case.

I'm writing this because the buyer who reaches this page is going to compare us anyway. They might as well read what we can actually state, from someone who has spent two years staring at the gaps in our own data.

What we're comparing

Each provider produces its own reports, and similar report categories do not mean identical records. Compare each provider's sample report and the records available for your VIN.

Where carVertical and autoDNA are strong

carVertical has operated since 2017 and is a well-known name in Europe. If a familiar brand on the printout matters to you or to the person you are reselling to, that is a real consideration.

autoDNA grew out of the Polish used-car market. If you are a Polish buyer looking at a German listing, it is a natural service to compare.

Where Carlytics wins

Price. EUR 8.90 + VAT for one report, EUR 19.90 for three. The use case is "I'm looking at one car, maybe two": at our price, buyers check all their candidates instead of skipping the second opinion.

The free decode is genuinely free. It gives you the make, model, year, engine, transmission, body, drive type, country of manufacture and any open safety recalls we have on file, before you pay anything. That is enough to walk away from a listing whose car does not match its VIN.

Transparency about our own gaps. We publish what our decode pipeline can and can't do. We tell you when we couldn't determine the year. We render a section as "data not available" instead of fabricating a plausible-looking value. Our feedback policy on null data is that we'd rather show you a gap than a guess.

A human answers. When our decoder is wrong, the email reply comes from a human (sometimes me) within a day, we re-run the VIN through the pipeline by hand, and we refund when our decode was wrong. That is possible because we're small.

What a Carlytics report does not include

• No accident or damage records. If damage history matters for the car you are buying, get a pre-purchase inspection, and compare what other providers' sample reports show.
• A young brand. We have operated since 2024 and most buyers haven't heard of us yet.

When to use more than one service

Use more than one when the car is over EUR 25,000 and you'd be heartbroken to lose it. Run our free check first. If anything looks suspicious, a second paid report from another provider is a small cost against the asset. Two perspectives on the same VIN catch what one perspective misses.

Our recommendation

If you came to this page because you're about to buy a car: run our free check first. It costs nothing. If the spec matches and there are no recall flags, the full report at EUR 8.90 + VAT covers mileage history, theft checks and recalls for the records available for that VIN.

If you came to this page because you're researching the market: the three services are not interchangeable. Pick on use case, after comparing the sample reports and the final price for your country.

Related reading: Free VIN check vs paid vehicle history report · When a VIN check does not help · What a VIN actually tells you