'How much does a dealer website cost?' gets vague answers, because the honest answer has three parts: a setup fee, a monthly fee, and the things nobody puts on the quote. This guide breaks down each part, says what the money is actually buying, and uses Frontlot's published prices as the worked example, since we put ours on the homepage where you can check them.
The short answer
For an independent dealer, expect a one-time setup fee in the hundreds to low thousands of dollars, and a monthly fee per location that can run from under a hundred dollars for a bare template to several thousand for a site with ads and a BDC bundled in. The range is wide because the products are different: a monthly number only means something next to the list of what it includes.
Setup: what the one-time fee pays for
- Building your site on your domain, with your logo, colors and stores.
- Loading your inventory and connecting the feed that keeps it current.
- Redirecting your old web addresses page by page, so search history and links carry over.
- Setting up lead delivery into your CRM, and the forms, chat and checkout flows.
- Local pages for your stores and the cities you serve.
Setup is real work, and a provider who charges nothing for it is usually folding the cost into a longer contract instead. Ask what happens to your site and your addresses if you leave; that answer tells you whether setup bought you an asset or a rental.
Good setup also ends with proof, not a launch email: a test lead sent from your own site and confirmed inside your CRM, your old addresses spot-checked one by one, and your Business Profile pointing at the new store pages. If a provider cannot show you those three things, setup is not finished, whatever the invoice says.
The monthly fee: what it should include
- Hosting and the basics: security, backups and updates to the platform itself.
- Your inventory feed, refreshed through the day, with sold cars coming down.
- Lead delivery to your CRM, and basic reporting you can actually read.
- Ongoing search work: pages, posts and fixes as your inventory and your city change.
- Support from someone who knows your store, not a ticket queue.
Speed belongs on this list too: a site that stays fast on phones as you add cars and photos. Our guide to dealer website speed and Core Web Vitals explains the measures Google uses, and the speed checklist shows how to test any provider's sites yourself, including ours.
The costs that are not on the quote
Also ask about the contract itself: the term, what happens to the monthly price when the term renews, and what it costs to leave early. A low first-year price that resets much higher is a setup cost wearing a disguise.
Budget for the things around the site. Inventory photos are your team's time or a photographer's fee. Ad spend, if you run ads, is paid to Google and Meta on top of any management fee, and anyone quoting one combined number is making it hard to see what the media actually cost. Your CRM, your inventory feed provider and your listing-site subscriptions are separate bills. None of this is hidden on purpose by most vendors; it is just not their invoice.
Per location, per month: read the quote carefully
Dealer websites are usually priced per store, so a two-store dealer pays twice, and a quote that looks cheap for one rooftop can double quietly. Ask, in writing: the price per location, what counts as a location, the setup per store, and the price after any introductory period ends. Then compare totals for your actual store count, for a full year, not the teaser month.
What Frontlot charges, in the open
Our prices are published on this site's homepage, per location per month. The Website plan is $299 to $499 a month, plus a one-time setup of $1,000 to $2,500: the dealer website and hosting, domain setup, AI website chat, and monthly SEO and blog posts. Website + AI BDC is $899 to $1,499 a month: everything in Website, plus an AI front desk answering calls, texts and email, appointment booking and follow-ups on new and old leads, with a set number of minutes included. Full Growth is $1,999 to $3,500 a month: everything above, plus Google Ads management, Meta ads management and weekly social posts, with your ad spend paid by you directly to Google and Meta. The range inside each plan depends on your stores and your inventory; you get the exact figure on the demo call, before you sign anything.
Questions to ask any provider, including us
- What is the total for my store count for 12 months, including setup?
- What exactly does the monthly fee include, and what does it not?
- Where do leads go, and can I see them next to my other leads in my CRM?
- If I leave, what happens to my domain, my content and my old addresses?
- Can I test one of your live sites with Google's own tools today?
- Who do I call when something breaks on a Saturday?
Where Frontlot fits
If the way we price sounds right, the cheapest way to judge the product is to see it with your own cars on it. Every free preview builds a private copy of your store on our template, usually within one business day, and our buying guide for dealer websites lists what to look for while you compare us with anyone else. Book a demo, or ask for the preview on the same form.