"How much will a website cost me?" is the question we hear most often from dealers about to leave Mudah-only listings behind. The honest answer ranges from RM 0 to RM 50,000+ depending on which route you take — and the cheapest route is almost never the cheapest in three years' time. Here's a clean breakdown of every option Malaysian dealers actually use in 2026, with realistic costs and the trade-off each one makes.
Option 1: Free — Mudah profile, Facebook Page, Google Business Profile
Cost: RM 0 / month.
You don't have a website — you have a presence on someone else's platform. Mudah dealer profile, a Facebook business page with a vehicle album, and a Google Business Profile pin on the map.
- What you get: a URL to share, basic SEO from Google Business and Facebook, free forever.
- What you give up: no inventory tooling, no HP schedules, no domain you own, branding is generic. Customers who search your business name find a Mudah listing, not a real dealership.
- Right for: brand-new one-person operations testing if the business will work. Outgrow it within 3–6 months.
Option 2: Templated builders — Wix, Squarespace, NewPages
Cost: RM 60–250 / month (RM 720–3,000 / year).
Generic website builders give you a drag-and-drop site on a custom domain. Wix Business plan is roughly USD 25 / month (~RM 120), Squarespace Business sits in the same range, NewPages dealer tier runs RM 100–250 / month depending on features.
- What you get: a real domain, a real-looking site, templated design choices, basic forms.
- What you give up:none of them understand vehicle inventory natively — you'll list cars as "products" in a generic ecommerce table. No HP calculator. No condition reports. Photos managed manually. Double-entry between your spreadsheet and the website.
- Right for: dealers who care about a clean public face more than back-office workflow.
Option 3: WordPress DIY + car dealer plugin
Cost: RM 200–500 plugin (one-off) + RM 30–150 / month hosting + your time.
WordPress + a plugin like Motors WP, WP Carmanager, or Auto Listings is the most flexible self-hosted option. Hosting in Malaysia via Exabytes, Hostinger, or AwanThink runs RM 30–80 / month for shared and RM 80–150 / month for managed.
- What you get: full control, full customisation, your own data, infinite plugins for SEO / analytics / chat.
- What you give up: hours of setup time and ongoing maintenance — plugin updates, security patches, broken plugin combos, backups. Either you become the IT person or you pay one.
- Right for:dealers with a technical co-founder or staff. If your eyes glazed reading the paragraph above, this isn't for you.
Option 4: SaaS dealership platform
Cost: RM 99–500 / month.
Purpose-built platforms for car dealerships. DealershipDeck sits at RM 99 / month for unlimited inventory and users; some international competitors (Carpro, Frazer, AutoManager) sit at RM 300–500 / month and are usually US-focused. Carro Express has a dealer programme but pricing isn't public.
- What you get: public showroom, inventory management, HP schedules, payment tracking, inspection reports, and a customer-facing site — all in one platform. Add a car once, it shows up everywhere. WhatsApp button, hire-purchase calculator, condition reports built in.
- What you give up:some customisation flexibility compared to WordPress. You work within the platform's opinions on how a dealership runs.
- Right for: any dealer running more than 10 cars or who values workflow time over template flexibility. This is the default we recommend.
Option 5: Custom build — hire a Malaysian developer
Cost: RM 5,000–30,000+ one-off + RM 200–2,000 / month maintenance.
A freelance developer or local agency builds you a bespoke site. KL freelancers via Maukerja or LinkedIn quote RM 5,000–12,000 for a basic dealership site; agencies in Bangsar and Damansara quote RM 15,000–30,000 for the same scope with project management.
- What you get:exactly what you spec'd. Distinctive design. Your developer's phone number.
- What you give up:upfront cash, time during build (6–12 weeks), and ongoing dependency on one developer. When they go quiet for two weeks, your "edit price" ticket waits.
- Right for:established multi-branch dealerships with brand requirements that justify the spend, or where your workflow genuinely doesn't fit any platform.
3-year total cost: what you actually pay
Annual cost is misleading — what matters over the life of a dealership is the 3-year total. Rough numbers for a single-branch MY dealer:
- Free (Mudah + Facebook):RM 0 — but you're paying Carlist / Mudah ad fees to compensate for not having an owned site. Hidden cost: RM 18,000–36,000 over 3 years.
- Templated builder (Wix / NewPages): RM 4,000–9,000 over 3 years + RM 50/hr of your time on manual inventory entry.
- WordPress DIY:RM 400 plugin + RM 50/month hosting × 36 = RM 2,200 + ~50 hours of setup and maintenance (priceless if it's yours, RM 5,000+ if you pay someone).
- DealershipDeck SaaS: RM 99 × 36 = RM 3,564. Workflow included.
- Custom developer build: RM 12,000 build + RM 500/month maintenance × 36 = RM 30,000 over 3 years.
Two ends of the spectrum lose: free leaves you renting marketplace traffic forever; custom builds tie up capital that should be in inventory. The middle three are all defensible — pick on workflow fit, not sticker price.
What you should actually budget
- 1–5 cars, hobby / side hustle: free tier is fine. Migrate when you cross 10 active listings.
- 5–50 cars, active dealer: RM 99–150 / month for a purpose-built SaaS dealership platform. The workflow time saved pays the subscription many times over.
- 50+ cars, multi-staff:still SaaS — at this scale the inventory and HP tracking become non-negotiable, and a custom build will take 6 months you don't have.
- Multi-branch or franchise:consider custom only if you have specific brand or process requirements that genuinely don't fit any platform. Most dealers think they need this; almost none actually do.
Want to short-circuit the decision? Try DealershipDeck free for 14 days. If the workflow fits, you're live for RM 99 / month — cheaper than a tank of premium petrol, no contract, no upfront. If it doesn't fit, you've only spent an evening evaluating it and you know more about what you actually need.