What a dealer website actually costs in 2026.
Almost nobody in this industry publishes a price. So here is the whole market, in public: four real price bands, what each one buys, the twelve-month total once setup and modules land, and the fees that never appear on a pricing page. Every figure links to the source it came from.
Last verified 8 September 2026 · Written by Shopframe, who sells one of the products below — see the disclosure before the tables.
The short answer
An independent dealership website in 2026 costs $29 to $1,199 a month, and the band you land in is decided mostly by how the vendor bills, not by how good the website is. Budget site-only products run $29–$99/mo. All-in platforms that include the leads, ads and merchandising tools run $149–$299/mo. The traditional module-stacked vendors advertise $70–$125 but bill $250–$500/mo once the CRM, SEO, texting and posting modules a working lot actually needs are added. Franchise-grade providers publish $599–$1,199/mo.
Setup is $0 at most independent-focused vendors. The real money hides in per-vehicle ad-posting fees, module add-ons, auto-renewing terms with 30-day cancellation windows, and price increases the contract allows without notice.
Disclosure, up front: Shopframe is a dealer website platform. We are one of the products in these tables and we are priced in them alongside everyone else, with the same columns applied. We wrote this page because publishing prices is our competitive position — if the comparison ever stops favouring us we would rather you saw that here than found it out later. Every competitor figure is either live on their own page today, in their own terms of service, or in a dated archive capture, and all of it is linked.
1 · The four price bands
What each band actually buys a used-car lot, and what the catch is.
| Band | Monthly | What you get | Who sells here | The catch |
|---|
| Budget / site-only |
$29–$99 |
A working inventory website on a template. Photos, vehicle detail pages, a contact form. Usually an inventory cap. |
AutoCorner $29/$49/$79, Carsforsale $99, DealerWebsites from $49 |
Template design, hard unit caps, and no operating tools — no leads pipeline, no ad builder, no ledger. Fine until you need one. |
| All-in platform |
$149–$299 |
Website plus the tools around it — leads inbox with alerts, DMS CSV import, ad and marketplace builder, window stickers, sales ledger — on one bill. |
Shopframe $149–$299; a small number of newer entrants |
Thin field. Several vendors that advertise into this band are really band 1 with an upsell menu attached. |
| Module-stacked incumbent |
$250–$500 |
The same feature list as band 2, sold as five or six separately-priced modules on top of a cheap base site. |
DealerCenter, AutoManager, Dealer Car Search (quote-only) |
The advertised number is never the bill. Auto-renewing terms, non-refundable fees, and price changes permitted on short or no notice. |
| Franchise-grade |
$599–$1,199 |
OEM-compliant sites, managed SEO, dedicated account management, enterprise reporting. |
DealerOn Core $599 / Premier $899 / Elite $1,199, Dealer.com (quote-only) |
Built for franchise stores and dealer groups. On a 40-car independent lot, most of what you are paying for never gets used. |
DealerOn's three tiers and AutoCorner's three tiers were read live from their own pricing pages on 8 September 2026. Carsforsale, DealerCenter, AutoManager and Dealer Car Search figures were verified in August 2026 and are sourced line by line on our
provider comparison page.
2 · What actually moves the price
Six variables explain nearly all of the spread between $29 and $1,199.
Inventory capBudget vendors price by unit count — AutoCorner is $29 up to 15 cars, $49 up to 35, $79 up to 200. Crossing a cap is a price increase you did not plan.
All-in vs. modularThe single biggest factor. A $99 base site plus CRM, pre-qualification, ad posting and texting modules is a $348 bill at DealerCenter's own published module prices. Same features, triple the number.
Who does the editsSelf-serve is cheap because nobody's time is in it. "Done for you" edits are the one feature with a real recurring human cost, and they are most of what separates a $29 plan from a $299 one.
Per-unit and per-post feesAd-posting tools bill per vehicle — Dealer Car Search publishes $6 per vehicle for Craigslist. Forty cars reposted twice a month is $480/mo on top of the subscription.
Setup and migration$0 is now standard for independent-focused vendors. Where a setup or "onboarding" fee still exists it is usually $500–$1,500, it is attached to a data migration, and it is negotiable.
Contract structureAn auto-renewing annual term with a 30-day cancellation window is not a price, but it decides what your real cost is on the day the product stops working for you.
3 · The costs that never appear on a pricing page
These come out of the terms of service, not the marketing site. Quoted directly, linked to source.
Before you sign anything, ask a vendor these five questions in writing: Is this price the whole bill for the features I just described? Does the term auto-renew, and what is the cancellation window? Can the price change mid-term, and on what notice? Who owns the domain and the inventory data if I leave, and how do I get the data out? Is there a per-vehicle or per-post fee on any tool I will use daily?
4 · Twelve-month totals
Monthly price is how it is sold. This is what it costs across a year, at each vendor's own published numbers, for a lot that needs a website plus the tools to actually work leads and post ads.
| Provider & configuration | Monthly | Setup | 12-month total | Basis |
|---|
| AutoCorner (≤35 units, site only) | $49 | $0 | $588 | Published; $499 if paid annually |
| Carsforsale (flat, site + marketplace) | $99 | $0 | $1,188 | Published flat rate |
| Shopframe Starter (≤50 units, all-in) | $149 | $0 | $1,788 | Published; month-to-month, no contract |
| Dealer Car Search (dealer-reported base) | ~$250 | Not published | ~$3,000 + | DealerRefresh dealer report; SEO, texting and AI modules are extra, plus $6/vehicle Craigslist posting |
| Shopframe Growth (unlimited units, all-in, edits done for you) | $299 | $0 | $3,588 | Published; month-to-month, no contract |
| DealerCenter (site $99 + Deal Driver $50 + Prequal Pro $50 + Ad Post $50 + CRM Plus $99) | $348 | None listed | $4,176 | All five modules on their own pricing page |
| DealerOn Core | $599 | Not published | $7,188 | Published, independent-dealer page |
Totals are monthly price × 12 at each vendor's own published or dealer-reported figure, excluding per-vehicle posting fees and any module not named in the configuration. Quote-only vendors cannot be totalled honestly, so they are shown at their reported base with the extras named rather than guessed at.
5 · What you should actually pay
Under 15 cars
$29–$49. You need a real inventory site and a way to be contacted; you do not need a CRM. Any of the budget vendors is a defensible choice, and so is Shopframe Lite at $29 — the same site as our $299 plan, capped at 15 units, self-serve only.
15–50 cars
$99–$149. This is where the modular vendors quietly start costing $250+. If you are paying more than $149 and do not have a leads inbox, CSV import from your DMS, an ad builder and a sales ledger included, you are paying for the billing model rather than the product.
50+ cars, or you want the edits done for you
$299. Above this the extra money buys account management and OEM compliance, which an independent lot does not need. Being quoted $500+ as an independent is a signal you are being sold a franchise product.
Franchise store or dealer group
$599–$1,199 is the real market, and DealerOn publishes it. OEM co-op compliance genuinely costs money to maintain. This page is not aimed at you.
6 · Frequently asked
- How much does a car dealership website cost per month?
- Between $29 and $1,199 per month in 2026. Independent dealers typically pay $29–$99 for a site-only product, $149–$299 for an all-in platform that includes leads, ads and merchandising tools, and $250–$500 with the traditional vendors once the necessary modules are added to a cheap base price. Franchise-grade providers publish $599–$1,199.
- Is there a setup fee for a dealer website?
- Usually not. $0 setup is now standard among vendors that sell to independent dealers, including AutoCorner, Carsforsale and Shopframe. Where a setup or onboarding fee still appears it is typically $500–$1,500, it is normally attached to a data migration, and it is negotiable.
- Why do quotes range from $29 to $1,199 for the same thing?
- Because they are not the same thing, and because of how vendors bill. The $29 tier is a template site with an inventory cap and no operating tools. The $599+ tier is built for franchise stores with OEM compliance requirements. In between, the biggest single factor is whether the price is all-in or modular: a $99 base site plus CRM, pre-qualification, ad posting and texting modules reaches $348 a month at DealerCenter's own published prices, for the feature set an all-in platform sells at $149–$299.
- What are the hidden costs of a dealer website?
- Four recur across the industry: per-vehicle fees on ad-posting tools (Dealer Car Search publishes $6 per vehicle for Craigslist posting); modules that are not in the advertised price; auto-renewing terms that require cancellation 30 days before renewal; and contractual permission to raise the price on short or no notice — AutoManager's service agreement reserves the right to change prices "without prior notice." A fifth is data: DealerCenter's terms make your data retrievable for 30 days after the term ends, and only if the account is paid in full.
- Do I have to sign a contract for a dealership website?
- Not with every vendor, but with several of the largest ones, yes. Dealer Car Search and DealerCenter both use auto-renewing terms; Carsforsale and Shopframe publish month-to-month. The question to ask is not whether there is a contract but what the cancellation window is and whether fees are refundable — Dealer Car Search's terms state "in no event will we issue any refund of fees."
- Do I keep my domain name and my inventory data if I leave?
- It depends entirely on the vendor, and it is worth getting in writing before you sign. Register the domain yourself, in the dealership's name, so the asset is unambiguously yours regardless of who builds the site. Ask specifically how inventory and lead data is exported, and how long you have to do it after cancelling.
- Does a cheaper dealer website rank worse on Google?
- Price is not the variable. Site speed, correct structured data on vehicle detail pages, unique per-vehicle content and a crawlable inventory are, and those are engineering choices that some $49 products get right and some $599 products get wrong. Ask any vendor for a live customer site and run it through Google's own PageSpeed Insights before you believe a claim about SEO.
- What does Shopframe cost?
- $29/mo for Lite (up to 15 units, self-serve), $149/mo for Starter (up to 50 units), $299/mo for Growth (unlimited units, trade-in and pre-qualification forms, edits done for you) and $499/mo for Pro. $0 setup, month-to-month, no contract, and the price is the whole bill. Optional white-glove migration is $999, and is included free on annual plans.
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