Ask what a car rental website costs and you will get answers ranging from nothing to several thousand pounds, which is useless when you are trying to budget. The spread is real, but it comes down to one question: do you need a website, or do you need a website that takes bookings? A few pages with a contact form is cheap. A site that manages your fleet, works out availability and takes deposits is a different thing, and this is what that actually costs.
Building the site itself is free
You can build and preview a full car rental site on Webkio without paying anything. Start from the car rental template, swap in your vehicles, set your locations and rates, and see the whole thing working. There is no upfront design bill and no charge to try it.
The one honest caveat: the Free plan does not include rentals. You can build the site, but you cannot list a vehicle or take a reservation on Free. The moment you want a real booking, you are on a paid plan - which is the next section, and it is cheaper than most people guess.
Rentals start at GBP 14.99 a month
The rental booking system lives on the Starter plan at GBP 14.99 a month. That gives you a fifty-vehicle fleet and two hundred reservations a month, which fits a lot of small, independent operators comfortably. On top of the monthly fee there is a 2% platform fee on each online payment you take.
Larger fleets move up to Growth Business at GBP 39.99 a month, where that platform fee drops to 1%. The maths matters once you are taking real money: on a busy month the lower fee can pay for the higher plan on its own. If you want to see where the crossover sits for your own numbers, the commission calculator does the sum.
One thing that does not cost you a fee: a refundable deposit. Because a deposit is an authorised hold rather than a captured charge, no platform fee applies to it. Only money you actually take is charged.
The two costs nobody warns you about
Here is where the "free website" pitch quietly misleads people. Two real costs sit outside the plan:
- A domain name. Your own address (yourhire.co.uk) is bought from a registrar and renewed yearly, typically a small annual fee. It is not part of the subscription and it is not optional if you want to look professional.
- Stripe's processing fee. Customer payments go into your own Stripe account through Stripe Connect - Webkio never holds the money. Stripe charges its own card-processing fee on top of the platform fee. That is Stripe's cost, not ours, and it applies wherever you take cards online.
Neither is large, but leaving them out of a budget is how "it was supposed to be free" happens. HTTPS, mobile layouts and the SEO basics, by contrast, really are included at no extra charge.
Where the thousands come from
The high end of that range is custom development: a developer or agency building a bespoke booking system from scratch. It can be the right call for an unusual operation, but for a standard small fleet you are paying several thousand pounds for software that already exists, then paying again every time it needs changing. The builder versus custom development comparison is honest about when the bespoke route genuinely pays off - it is rarer than the people selling it suggest.
What it costs, totalled up
For a typical small operator: nothing to build and trial, GBP 14.99 a month once you take bookings, a small yearly domain fee, Stripe's processing on each payment, and a 2% platform fee that halves as you grow. No setup cost, no contract, no separate charge for the booking engine. Compare that with a quote for a custom build and the sum is not close.
Start free, build it on the car rental template, and see the full breakdown on the pricing page before you commit.
FAQ
Is a car rental website actually free?
Building and previewing one is free. Taking real bookings is not - rentals start at GBP 14.99 a month, because the Free plan does not include the booking system. The build itself costs nothing.
What are the fees on each booking?
A 2% platform fee on online payments, dropping to 1% on Growth Business, plus Stripe's own processing fee since the money goes into your Stripe account. Refundable deposits are holds, so they carry no platform fee.
Do I have to pay for a domain separately?
Yes. Your own domain is bought and renewed through a registrar and sits outside the plan. It is a small yearly cost, but it is not included and it is worth having.
Read next
- Car rental website builder vs custom development - when the expensive route is worth it.
- How online payments increase bookings - what the booking fee is actually buying you.
- Car rental security deposits guide - why the deposit carries no fee.