Why do dealers choose DealerSoftware over MotorDesk?
- More car for the money. DealerSoftware Website is £99 for 10 cars with the website, the feeds and the lead inbox included; MotorDesk Starter is £94.80 including VAT for 5 cars without checkout, deal builder or premium templates.
- Feeds are on the entry plan, not an upsell: AutoTrader, CarGurus (with PistonHeads), AA Cars, Carwow and Cazoo (with Motors, eBay Motors and Gumtree) from the £99 Website plan.
- A workshop module that MotorDesk does not offer as far as its site shows: jobs, parts, online bookings and a workshop website for £99, on the same login as your sales side.
- Valuations, comparables and history checks inside the stock record through DealerPricing, with the data you buy from DealerPricing rather than per-lookup charges on the plan.
- A dealer website at a professional grade for search engines and AI searches, included on every plan.
- AI that saves a real hour: vehicle descriptions in one click and a customer chat on your live stock that answers at 11pm.
- Background and plate removal on photos is part of Premium, not £0.15 an image. Prices shown include VAT at checkout, with a 14-day trial and no setup fee.
MotorDesk vs DealerSoftware: side by side
| DealerSoftware | MotorDesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Price you can read before you call (all figures including VAT) | £99, £199 or £299 a month, Workshop £99, on the pricing page | Starter £94.80 to Excel £1,618.80 a month including VAT, by vehicles for sale (advertised before VAT as £79 to £1,349); data, valuations, image clean-up and messaging charged per use (data and valuations free with AutoTrader) |
| Contract | Rolling monthly, cancel from the billing page | Monthly |
| Free trial | 14 days on every plan, card charged on day 15 unless cancelled | 30 days |
| Setup fee | None | Not stated |
| Dealer website on your own domain with SSL | Included on every plan, with templates | Yes; premium templates not on Starter |
| Marketplace feeds on the entry plan | AutoTrader, CarGurus and PistonHeads, AA Cars, Carwow, Cazoo with Motors, eBay Motors and Gumtree | Yes; which feeds come with which plan is not stated on the plan comparison |
| VAT margin scheme invoicing and VAT return figures | Built in from Professional | Yes |
| Workshop: jobs, parts, online bookings, workshop website | £99 standalone or £99 added to any plan | Not offered, as far as its site shows |
| AI descriptions, 24/7 customer chat on live stock, photo clean-up | Included on Premium | Image background removal at 18p an image including VAT; descriptions and chat not stated |
| Live valuations, comparables and history checks in the stock record | DealerPricing integration (DealerPricing membership needed) | Own vehicle data at 18p and valuations at 60p each including VAT, free with AutoTrader; no history checks stated |
| Search and AI visibility | Professional grade, built to perform across every search engine and AI search | Standard dealer website |
| Support | Email within a working day, priority on Premium, no premium-rate line | Not stated |
What does DealerSoftware cost?
Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial. Your card is taken at signup and the first charge is on day 15; cancel before then and you pay nothing. There is no sales call to get a number and no setup fee.
| Plan | Price | Stock | Users | For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website | £99 | up to 10 | 1 | A professional dealer website with stock, leads and marketplace integrations. |
| Professional | £199 | up to 20 | 3 | Everything in Website plus a full CRM and sales process. |
| Premium | £299 | up to 30 | 5 | Everything in Professional plus AI-powered tools. |
| Workshop | £99 | n/a | 2 | Standalone garage plan, or add the module to any dealer plan for £99 |
What does MotorDesk cost?
MotorDesk publishes its plans by vehicles for sale and staff accounts. Including VAT at 20%, which its site leaves off: Starter £94.80 a month (5 vehicles, 1 account, without online checkout, the deal builder or premium website templates), Growth £178.80 (25 and 3), Scale £322.80 (50 and 5), Conquer £598.80 (100 and 10), Command £1,018.80 (200 and 20) and Excel £1,618.80 (350 and 35), with add-on packs such as 5 more vehicles for £46.80 and one more account for £22.80. Vehicle data (18p a vehicle) and valuations (60p each) are free if you advertise on AutoTrader and charged otherwise; image background removal is 18p an image and SMS or WhatsApp messaging is billed separately. MotorDesk advertises all of these before VAT (£79, £149, £269 and so on).
Trial: 30 days. Contract: Monthly.
Where does DealerSoftware lead?
- Price for what you get: website, feeds and inbox at £99 against £94.80 for a smaller allowance with features held back.
- Workshop and sales on one login, which MotorDesk does not offer as far as its site shows.
- Photo clean-up, descriptions and a 24/7 customer chat inside Premium rather than priced per image or per message.
- Valuations, comparables and history checks in the stock record through DealerPricing.
How hard is it to move from MotorDesk to DealerSoftware?
An afternoon, in practice. Export your stock from MotorDesk as a spreadsheet and import it (make, model, registration, mileage, price and photos come across; a registration lookup fills the rest). Point your domain at the new site, reconnect AutoTrader and your other feeds, and run both systems for a week before you switch the old one off. We do the import with you on request, and because there is no contract, moving back costs nothing but the afternoon.
The bottom line
MotorDesk will cost you £94.80 to £1,618.80 a month including VAT by stock size, plus per-use charges for data, valuations, image clean-up and messaging unless you are on AutoTrader. DealerSoftware costs £99, £199 or £299 a month with the website, feeds and inbox in, you can see every feature working on your own stock inside 14 days, and you can leave whenever you like. For an independent dealer that is the better bet, and the trial is how you check we are right.
Other comparisons
We make DealerSoftware, so this page argues for it. Everything it says about MotorDesk comes from MotorDesk pricing page, MotorDesk plan comparison and Xero App Store listing, read on 22 October 2026, and MotorDesk is at motordesk.com. If a fact is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.