6 Best Website Builders for Car Dealerships (Tested) in 2024

You know that first impressions matter when it comes to cars, and the same is true when it comes to your car dealership website. A poor-looking design, confusing navigation, or long loading times could put potential customers off before they even give your cars a chance.

Though creating a quality website yourself might seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. A good website builder can help you create stunning designs with ease and offer powerful features like search engine optimization (SEO), attractive galleries and displays for your photos, and marketing tools to help you reach a broader audience.

Though there are some dealer-specific platforms, most of them are actually more limited than regular website builders, and they can charge larger fees simply because they market themselves as “specialized.” I’ve tested some of the best website builders on the market to help you make the right decision for your business.

Thanks to its extensive customization tools and wide range of additional integrations, Wix is my top choice for car dealership websites. That said, each builder on this list offers the utmost quality and will suit different needs, so keep reading to find the ideal builder for your dealership.

What We Look For in the Best Website Builders for Car Dealerships

The best builders make it quick and easy to create a site that’s both visually appealing and simple for potential customers to navigate. It should also provide tools to help with marketing, branding, and visibility. I focused on these features:

• Ease of Use. Running a business is hard; designing your website shouldn’t be. These builders offer user-friendly editors that make it easy to create an attractive, well-functioning website.
• SEO features: Creating a great car dealership website doesn’t mean much without an SEO strategy to help potential clients find you online. The website builders on this list either have integrated SEO tools or powerful apps and integrations that you can add on.
• A variety of gallery layouts: Your clients want to see what cars you have on offer before heading to the lot. The website builders on this list have plenty of options for displaying photos and videos of the cars you’re selling.
• Marketing and promotional tools: Get the word out about new arrivals and sales with integrated marketing tools. These builders have tools for creating email campaigns and reaching buyers on social media.

1. Wix: The Best Car Dealership Templates1

Wix is my top pick when it comes to building a website that looks great and can help you reach your business goals. You can browse a selection of Wix templates for car dealerships1 with varied designs and layouts. Most come with the essential features you’ll need already built in.

After you’ve chosen your template, Wix gives you full control over the customization of your site thanks to its comprehensive drag-and-drop editor. You can add entire pre-built sections or build your website element by element, and you get complete customization options over position, colors, fonts, animations, and more.

If you can’t decide which template to begin with, Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) can create a customized design for you. Simply answer a few questions about your business’s needs, and Wix ADI will recommend three different website designs based on existing layouts. After choosing a design, all you have to do is upload your content and make any small changes you want.

Features

• Wix SEO Setup Checklist: Get a personalized SEO plan that helps potential customers find you online. All you have to do is go through your customized checklist to see whether your site’s optimized for search engines. You can also pick and analyze keywords, index your site on Google, and track your progress.
• Wix Pro Gallery: Wix offers plenty of built-in options for galleries. When you upload photos of your car inventory to your site, you can choose a layout, resize images, add links to specific images, and add a title and description. You can also showcase any videos you have of your vehicles.
• Wix App Market: Wix offers plenty of marketing tools in its App Market. You can add Google AdSense to create ads online, Wix Bookings to allow clients to reserve a time slot to come test drive a car, and Wix Chat to communicate with visitors on your site.
• Business management solutions. Ascend is a suite of helpful business tools that includes a CRM, email marketing, an invoice generator, and video maker. Tools let you automate tasks like welcome emails, thank you emails, and targeted offers, all of which can help you grow your business.

Read our in-depth Wix review for more details.

2. Squarespace: Attractive Galleries and Extensive Marketing Features1

Squarespace offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and sleek templates1, making it a great option for a professional car dealership website. There aren’t any templates specifically designed for the automotive industry. However, its customization options and emphasis on a strong visual presence make it easy to turn any template into the ideal website for showcasing your cars.

Besides Squarespace’s fantastic options for displaying images and striking website designs, it also offers one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use marketing suites out there. Squarespace offers special features for appointment booking, invoicing, and creating attractive and unique email marketing campaigns.

Squarespace is as much about substance as it is about style. Business and e-commerce tools give you everything you need to run your dealership, from inventory management to payment solutions and automatic tax collection. On a final note, before publishing your site, you’ll want to go through the SEO checklist to ensure it’s optimized for search engines.

Features

• Image galleries: Squarespace gives you two ways to display your car images: in Gallery Sections or Gallery Blocks. You can add a Gallery Section to an existing page (like your homepage) or create an entire page dedicated to photos of your cars. When you add a Gallery Block, you can share images or videos, but only on certain pages, like product detail pages.
• Scheduling. When you add Squarespace Scheduling, your clients can check availability and book appointments for test drives online, leaving you free to focus on your business. You can sync appointments to your Google, iCloud, or Office 365 calendar.
• Integrated email marketing: You can add a simple form to your site so visitors can sign up to your mailing list. Squarespace offers a variety of mobile-responsive email templates you can use to create a newsletter or promotional campaign. You’ll even get analytics to see how your campaign is performing.
• Map Block: You can easily embed a map on your website using a Map Block. Select a pinned location in Google Maps and have it displayed on your site so that visitors can easily locate your dealership when they’re ready to pay you a visit.

Read our full Squarespace review for tips and tricks.

3. SITE123: Beginner-Friendly & Ample Features for Car Dealers1

SITE123’s easy-to-use editor allows you to build a site quickly, upload your content, and make simple edits. It could be a great choice if you’re just starting out – just keep in mind that the customization options are a bit limited compared to other builders.

The template selection might seem less varied compared to Wix’s. However, the templates aren’t overly complicated and come with all the basic elements you’ll probably want, like built-in contact forms, location maps, and image blocks. You’ll also appreciate SITE123’s handy tools, including a simple CRM and an AI content writer, which can help you craft and update your site’s headers and other content.

SITE123 offers a free forever plan1 you can use to test whether it’s a good fit for your dealership. But you’ll probably want to upgrade to a paid plan to collect payments, allow clients to schedule service appointments, or enable automatic multilanguage site translation.

Features

• Media galleries: Slideshow, carousel, and rounded image galleries showcase your cars and enhance your site’s content. SITE123 even lets you add both images and videos to the same gallery for a more dynamic presentation.
• SEO tools: SITE123 allows you to set up meta tags and keywords, as well as attach meta information to images on your site. This gives you the optimal chance to achieve a high ranking in search engine results. Moreover, the builder generates a sitemap – an invaluable SEO tool that streamlines search engines’ indexing of all the individual pages on your site.
• Marketing tools from the App Market: In addition to Google Analytics and AdSense, you can add social media apps like Pinterest for Business, Twitter Conversion Tracking, and Facebook Pixel, so you can reach a broader audience.
• Great customer service: SITE123’s Support Center provides detailed guides on how to build your site. If you get stuck, live chat support is available 24/7.

Read our detailed SITE123 review to find out more.

4. Webador: The Beginner-Friendly Builder for Simple Sites1

Though all the builders in this list are easy to use, Webador is by far the best builder for beginners looking to create a site quickly. I was impressed by how quickly you can design and publish a website, even if you have no previous experience.

Its customization options are a little limited, which makes it better suited for simple one-page websites that look good and display the most important information about your website without getting too flashy. Webador also offers an interesting toolbox that can help you display important information about your dealership, including options for ratings, custom smart maps, and PDF sharing for more in-depth information about each car.

Webador offers a free forever plan and several affordable paid plans, including one for e-commerce websites. You’ll need an online store if you want to allow customers to browse and pay for replacement parts, like windshield wipers, tires, batteries, and more.

Features

• Unlimited storage. Every Webador plan, including the free plan, offers unlimited storage, so you never have to worry about uploading too many photos to show off your cars. Webador also lets you add video to your site, which can make it more engaging and help boost auto sales.
• No sales commission. Webador doesn’t charge a commission fee on sales in addition to what your payment processor charges. This can result in significant savings for car dealers, especially on high-value transactions, maximizing profit margins.
• Client ratings. You can add a 5-star rating widget to any page to display client testimonials. For car dealers, this feature is invaluable as it showcases customer satisfaction, builds trust with potential buyers, and enhances your credibility and reputation.
• Embed third-party tools. With Webador’s embed code element, you can add extra functionality to your website, including live chat, animated banners, calendar/reservations systems, and marketing tools.

Our in-depth Webador review has more details.

5. IONOS: A Cost-Effective Builder for Car Dealerships1

If you’re in a hurry to set up your website, you can opt for IONOS’ MyWebsite Now Starter plan, which provides you with pre-designed templates. But if you need more creative control over your website design, you can upgrade to MyWebsite Now Plus. Alternatively, if you prefer to leave the design work to professionals, IONOS also offers its Website Design Service for your car dealership website.

With IONOS, you add widgets to enhance features and functionality. You can connect your social media accounts (like Facebook and Instagram) to increase your dealership’s visibility, boost traffic and promote your services. You can also use widgets to integrate videos from YouTube or Vimeo to give potential customers a virtual tour of your cars.

All in all, IONOS offers ample business features at an affordable price – including a business email aligned with your domain, which communicates professionalism and can help build credibility. IONOS doesn’t offer a free plan, but it has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try out the service risk-free.

Features

• Personalized content: Customize messages, invitations, and prompts to match the device a visitor is using. You can even tailor special offers that visitors see based on how many times they’ve viewed your site or whether they’ve previously purchased a car from you.
• Image editing: You can edit photos on your website with the built-in image editor. You can adjust saturation, crop, resize, and add text and background videos to make your product pages shine.
• Logo generator: IONOS makes it simple to create a memorable logo for your brand. You can browse a selection of logo designs recommended for your industry or choose an icon that appeals to you. Then use your custom logo on your website, newsletter, and marketing materials.
• List local. Add this tool to promote your business and optimize it for local SEO. Your dealership will be listed in key online directories, which can make it easier for customers to find your company’s location, contact details, and web address.

For more details, read our full IONOS review.

6. Shopify: Powerful E-Commerce and Marketing Tools1

With more and more customers shopping for cars online it pays to consider Shopify when designing a website for your car dealership. Its robust sales and marketing tools and customer-friendly features help you create a pleasurable shopping experience that makes visitors more likely to book an appointment or make an online purchase.

Customer segmentation allows you to create a more personalized shopping experience with dynamic emails, advertisements, and website content. You can send individual customers recommendations for new vehicles based on their prior purchases and email buy-back offers. You can also automate service appointment reminders, order confirmations, and other important information.

Although there’s no free plan, a free trial lets you test Shopify’s impressive features. This is particularly useful for dealerships that want to evaluate the platform’s suitability for their specific needs. While Shopify is pricier than other builders on my list, its retail features make it a versatile option for auto dealers of different sizes and scopes​​​​​.

Features

• Multimedia product descriptions. Not only can you provide comprehensive details about each vehicle, including features, variants, and history, but you can also use 3D modeling and augmented reality to give customers a virtual tour.
• Simplify inventory management. Shopify gives you tools to efficiently track and manage vehicle and parts inventory, so the inventory displayed on the website is current and accurate.
• Sell everywhere customers shop. Utilize multiple channels, including social media (Facebook, Instagram), your online store, and Shopify’s fully integrated POS (point-of-sale) system. This allows you to reach customers however they prefer to shop.
• Discounts and promotions. Use Shopify’s reporting to analyze customer behavior and set up automated systems to apply discounts and promotions. This can enhance your sales strategies and help you build relationships with valued repeat shoppers.

Read our full Shopify review for more details.

So, Which Option Is the “Ferrari” of Best Website Builders for Car Dealerships?

Ultimately, the builder you choose should be easy to use, but it should also allow you to build a sleek, professional-looking site to encourage clients to visit your dealership.

These are my top three recommendations.

If you want to get your dealership website started quickly and easily, try Wix1. With the Wix SEO Setup Checklist, you can also rest assured that your website is ranking in search engine results and reaching the right clientele.

If you’re looking to amaze clients with attractive visuals and a strong marketing presence, Squarespace is the best choice1. It also includes many features that could come in handy for handling and managing visits to your physical store.

Finally, if you’re building your first website and you’re looking for an easy-to-use solution, SITE123 is great for beginners1. Its new AI tools can even help you with design and content.

Take a look at the chart below for a quick summary.

FAQ

How much does a car dealer website cost?

The cost of your website really depends on your preferences. You can easily create a car dealership website using a free plan from Wix, Site123, or Webador. Above, we recommend Wix as the number one choice for car dealerships.

However, your professional site will need a custom domain and additional marketing features, which are often available only on paid plans. If you want to take care of your finances whilst getting a high-quality site, I recommend you check out our list of the best affordable website builders in 2024.

Is Wix good for a car dealership website?

Yes, Wix is the best builder for car dealership websites. It offers plenty of templates built specifically for car dealerships, so it will be simple to get started. It also offers great features like beautiful media galleries for images and videos of your vehicles, and the Wix SEO Setup Checklist is very helpful in making sure that your potential clients can find your website in the first place.

How can you promote your car dealership?

To successfully promote your dealership, you first need to optimize your website for SEO. Other effective marketing solutions include targeted email campaigns, social media integration, limited-time promotional offers, and lead gathering. Adding a blog can also be a powerful way to build your brand, especially if you post helpful tips and advice.

What makes a good car dealership website?

A good website for a dealership should include an up-to-date selection of new or used cars you have on your lot, with multiple images, details, and even a video of each one. You’ll also want to include a map with your location, information about your company and staff, contact forms for your clients to reach out to you, and a list of any other services you offer.

Whichever builder you choose, our step-by-step guide to creating a website can help.