Dante

Dante is training management software for training providers, made by Dante Systems Limited of Thornbury, near Bristol. It runs the administrative side of a training business in one system: course scheduling and resources, online booking on the provider's own website, delegate records and certificates, a tutor portal and app, invoicing and a training CRM. The homepage says it is "Built on 30+ years of insight" and sells it on two points it repeats throughout the site: fixed monthly pricing starting at £70 with "zero hidden fees", and UK-based phone and email support from "Real experts and no robots".

The site says Dante suits providers of every size, "from solo trainers and one-person operations right through to organisations with 100+ staff training tens of thousands of delegates every month." Its list of typical users covers commercial providers of health and safety, compliance, technical and professional development courses, specialist trainers in sectors such as construction (it names CSCS and IPAF), logistics and hospitality, multi-venue training businesses, and L&D teams in councils, NHS trusts and large organizations running internal training.

Scheduling courses and resources

Course management is built around a visual calendar. Administrators create courses, assign trainers and resources, and track availability in real time, with bulk course creation, course templates and a multi-course scheduler for planning a year of dates ahead. The course management page describes resource availability tracking for trainers, assessors and venues to prevent double bookings, and a trainer matrix that makes sure each trainer is qualified for the course they are assigned. Automatic trainer notifications and a dashboard of past, present and future actions keep everyone on track; workflows are set up as Actions at course level, defining tasks to complete before and after each course.

Dante handles one-day workshops through to multi-week programs, public open courses, private corporate bookings and one-to-one sessions, at a single site, several locations or a client's premises. Virtual courses are treated like classroom ones with a different venue: custom fields hold Zoom or Teams meeting links that go out automatically in joining instructions, and Zapier can generate the meeting links when a course is scheduled.

Online booking on your own website

The booking system embeds into the provider's website so customers book without leaving it. There is a WordPress plugin for quick setup and an API route for other sites, which the FAQ notes needs some technical ability. Courses, categories and live schedules sync from Dante, with customizable columns, course search, filters by category and site, and a cart. Card payments run through Stripe, with Klarna, Apple Pay and Google Pay supported, and selected customers can pay on account against a credit limit the provider sets. Voucher codes can be tied to specific courses, set to expire, and given as a fixed amount or a percentage.

Booking features added over the years include prerequisite checks that ask the booker to confirm delegates have the required knowledge, custom fields on booking forms, file uploads when registering delegates, multiple-course bookings, linked products such as course materials or equipment shown in the cart, and conversion tracking with Google Analytics and Tag Manager. A self-service customer portal lets client companies see bookings and invoices, pay outstanding balances, view attendance and course files, update delegate details on group bookings, swap delegates where allowed, and pull training history reports.

Online booking is only on the Professional license.

Delegates, certificates and the tutor portal

Delegate management covers certificate generation and management, automated emails, and complete training history. Emails and text messages can be automated for joining instructions, start reminders, certificates and expiry notices; the FAQ notes that SMS messages are charged at 5p per message. Each delegate profile has a section for special requirements or dietary needs, and an icon flags them to tutors on the schedule. Duplicate delegate records can be merged with their history, and document templates produce delegate ID cards that can be printed for on-site visitors.

Dante is not an e-learning platform. It records results, certificates and renewals, but one Capterra review shown on the homepage lists "The lack of capability to host eLearning courses" as its downside, so a provider delivering online modules will run an LMS alongside it.

Trainers get a dedicated tutor portal and mobile app. They see the courses assigned to them with dates, times, locations, delegate lists and supporting documents, and, depending on configuration, record attendance, complete registers and upload files. The homepage lists digital delegate sign-in with photo capture. Tutor appointments feed the scheduling conflict checker, so a tutor is not booked when unavailable.

Finance and the training CRM

Invoices go out from templates, credits are raised for cancellations, nominal and tax codes can be set per course, payments are tracked with automatic reminders, and customer credit facilities are managed in the system. Invoices export to accounts by CSV or integrate directly with Xero, and the course management page says a note is recorded on the booking when an invoice is sent to Xero. Reports include a bookings report filtered by date, a schedule bookings report and course profitability reporting.

The built-in training CRM, included on both licenses, records customers, suppliers and prospects. Emails are logged automatically against delegates and coordinators, with open tracking, and staff can CC or BCC the system to file messages. A customizable deals pipeline links bookings to won deals, and automated reminders ahead of training expiry include links back to the booking portal to drive rebooking. Zapier connects Dante to an existing CRM, and the homepage says Zapier opens up 8,000+ further business tools. Files can be stored against companies, delegates, courses, schedules and bookings with per-area permissions.

Plans, pricing and onboarding

Dante publishes two licenses on rolling monthly contracts with no minimum term:

• Essentials: £70 a month, implementation £500 to £1100. The pricing page describes it as "Built for growing businesses to replace spreadsheets and paper-based systems with one training management platform."
• Professional: £200 a month, implementation £1250 to £2500, adding online course booking. The booking FAQ gives the Professional license as £200 a month for one user plus £50 a month for each extra user, with tailored pricing available.

The FAQ says anyone who needs a login counts as a user, that user numbers can go up or down month to month, and that the tutor role does not count against the license on Professional. It also says Dante never charges fees per course, delegate or booking. Implementation is required on both licenses and covers user training, data import and configuration; on Professional it also covers the website booking setup and third-party integrations. The pricing FAQ aims for internal use after 2 to 4 weeks and a full launch after 6 to 8 weeks. The process starts with a demo, followed by a 30-day free trial system that converts into the live one. Data is stored in the UK on Microsoft Azure, and the FAQ says customers own their data and can export all of it.

Who it suits

Dante fits training providers that run scheduled, trainer-led courses and need the operation joined up: health and safety and compliance trainers, construction and technical training centers, multi-venue businesses, and internal training teams in public bodies. Fixed licenses with no per-delegate fees make costs easy to plan, and Capterra reviewers on the homepage keep returning to the support team. The trade-offs are the implementation fee before going live, online booking reserved for Professional, and no e-learning hosting, so it pairs best with a provider whose training happens in a room or on a video call.