Traderway gets a lot right for dealers starting out, which is exactly why this comparison is worth doing carefully. The £39 entry price is genuinely cheap, but the full dealer management system sits a couple of tiers up, and some of the tools you will eventually want are not in the package at all. If you are trying to work out what you actually get for your money, that is what this post is for.
I am the founder of Vehiso, so I am not a neutral observer. I will give Traderway full credit where it is due, including on price, and then be specific about where Vehiso includes more from the start.
Disclosure: Vehiso is our product. I have done my best to keep this comparison fair and accurate, and you should always do your own due diligence before choosing any provider.
What is Traderway?
Traderway is a UK platform for independent used-car dealers that pairs a website with stock and vehicle detail pages, enquiry capture, an AI description writer, dealer insights, custom domains, vehicle valuations, invoicing and DMS tools. It also offers marketplace integration with AutoTrader and eBay Motors, plus a CarGurus-ready feed.
Traderway has genuine strengths, and it is only fair to lead with them. Its entry price is very affordable, with a website-only plan that comes in below a lot of the market. Its AI vehicle descriptions and valuation tools are useful for getting stock listed quickly and priced sensibly. Its marketplace integrations with AutoTrader and eBay Motors, plus a CarGurus-ready feed, help you get cars in front of buyers in the places they already shop. And at the time of writing it has a genuinely generous offer of six months free with full access to its top tier, which is hard to argue with on cost alone.
Why dealers look for a Traderway alternative
In my conversations with dealers, a few reasons come up again and again when they start shopping around.
- The full DMS sits on the top tier. Traderway gates its complete dealer management system to its Business plan. If you want the website, marketplace sync and AI on the cheaper plans, the deeper running of the business comes later.
- No advertised accounting or MTD path. Traderway does not advertise accounting integrations or a Making Tax Digital route, which matters as MTD obligations widen for sole traders and landlords.
- Limited tooling beyond listings. There is no customer-facing workshop module, no AI image editing and no branded social posting baked in, so some of the day-to-day admin still lives outside the system.
- Payments and breadth. Direct online payment options and the breadth of AI tooling are narrower than some dealers want once they are running real volume.
None of this makes Traderway a bad product. It just means it suits a particular kind of dealer, and a lot of independents want the full toolkit included from the start rather than spread across tiers.
Traderway vs Vehiso: at a glance
| Feature | Vehiso | Traderway |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, £0/month for up to 5 vehicles | Not advertised |
| DMS included | Yes, on every plan, even the free one | Gated to the £79 Business tier |
| Published pricing | Yes, free plan then paid from £49/month | Yes, from £39/month |
| Website + stock pages | Yes, every plan | Yes |
| Marketplace sync | AutoTrader, CarGurus, PistonHeads, ChooseMyCar, Car Cliq, ChooseMyFinance, CarFinance247 | AutoTrader, eBay Motors, CarGurus-ready |
| Workshop module | Job cards, health checks, online service bookings | Not advertised |
| AI vehicle descriptions | Native, included | Native |
| AI background replacement | Native, included | Not advertised |
| In-app AI assistant | Yes, with daily recommendations | Not advertised |
| Branded social posting | Logo, colours and finance-from prices | Not advertised |
| Online payments | Stripe, SumUp, PayPal, Square, no platform fees | Not advertised |
| Accounting | Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, MTD-ready | Not advertised |
Capabilities can vary by plan and setup. Confirm directly with each provider before committing.
The dealer management system, included on every plan
The single biggest difference is how the dealer management system is packaged. With Vehiso, the dealer management system is included on every plan, even the free one, so stock, customers, enquiries, test drives and invoicing are there from the start. The paid plans from £49 per month add marketplace sync, the workshop module, payments and the AI tools, each with a generous monthly allowance. With Traderway, the complete DMS is reserved for its £79 Business tier, so the cheaper plans give you the website and listing tools but not the deeper running of the business.
Vehiso's free plan at £0 per month already includes the dealer management system, so a very small dealer can manage stock, customers, enquiries, test drives and order paperwork for up to 5 vehicles, with a website and custom domain. What the paid plans from £49 add is marketplace feeds, payments, finance, the AI tools, the workshop and social posting, so the free plan is a genuine starting point rather than the full toolkit.
I want to be clear and fair here. Vehiso's entry point is now genuinely free, which undercuts Traderway's £39 website-only plan on headline price. But the two are not like for like, because Traderway's £39 plan includes AI descriptions and marketplace sync that Vehiso's free plan does not. If you want those from the off, the fair comparison is Traderway's £39 against Vehiso's £49 Starter, and at £49 you already have the entire DMS, the workshop, the AI breadth and direct payments, with nothing held back for a higher tier. You can see how we think about the wider market in our guide to the top dealer management systems in the UK.
A customer-facing workshop module
If a service bay is any part of your business, this is a gap worth understanding. Vehiso includes a workshop module with job cards, vehicle health checks and online service bookings your customers can make themselves, all inside the same system you use to manage stock and sales. Traderway does not advertise a customer-facing workshop module, so that side of the operation tends to live in a separate tool or a spreadsheet.
For a dealer who services and prepares cars in-house, having the workshop joined up to the rest of the platform removes a lot of double entry and gives you one place to see where every vehicle is in the process.
A wider AI toolkit than descriptions alone
Both platforms offer AI vehicle descriptions, and credit where it is due, that is a genuinely useful feature on Traderway. Where Vehiso goes further is the breadth of the AI toolkit, which is included as standard rather than as a single feature:
- AI vehicle descriptions write a full, readable listing from the vehicle's details in seconds, so you are not staring at a blank box for every car.
- AI background replacement cleans up your vehicle photos automatically, giving you a consistent, professional forecourt look without a photo studio. Traderway does not advertise this.
- An in-app AI assistant works across the DMS as a plain-English chat assistant and surfaces daily recommendations, flagging things like aged stock, inactive leads and workshop bottlenecks, so the system actively helps you spot what needs attention.
You can see the full toolkit on our AI tools for car dealers page. For a small team, AI tooling is not a gimmick, it is the difference between listing ten cars in an afternoon and listing three, and between reacting to problems and being warned about them.
Payments and accounting on your terms
Vehiso lets you take online deposits and payments through Stripe, SumUp, PayPal or Square, with no platform fees added on top. You can read more about taking online payments as a car dealer. On accounting, you can connect Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, all MTD-ready, so you keep the tools you already use and stay on the right side of Making Tax Digital. To be precise, Vehiso supports MTD through those integrations rather than being HMRC-recognised software itself.
Traderway does not advertise direct online payment options or accounting and MTD integrations. If taking deposits online and keeping your books connected matter to you, an alternative that supports them out of the box removes a lot of friction.
Branded posts for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
Vehiso lets you post stock to social in one click, with your logo, colours and finance-from pricing applied automatically. For a lot of independents, social is where buyers actually find cars now, and having that built into the same system you manage stock in saves a genuine chunk of admin. This is not part of Traderway's advertised feature set.
Built to scale with you
One more thing worth flagging if you have ambitions beyond a single forecourt. Vehiso is built to scale to multi-location dealer groups and new-car sales, not just a single independent. The car dealer website and DMS grow with you rather than capping out, so you are not forced to migrate to something else once you add a second site or a new-car franchise.
Where Traderway might still be the better fit
To keep this fair, Traderway has clear advantages worth naming. Vehiso now has a free plan, but it does not include marketplace feeds or AI, whereas Traderway's £39 per month website-only plan includes AI descriptions and marketplace sync from the start. So if you want listing feeds and AI at a low monthly price without stepping up to Vehiso's £49 Starter, Traderway's £39 plan gives you more of those tools for less. And its current offer of six months free on the Business tier is more generous than Vehiso's 7-day free trial, so on pure upfront cost over the first half-year, Traderway is hard to beat right now. Worth keeping in view, though, is what happens after those six months: that offer covers the Business tier, which then reverts to its standard £79 per month, whereas Vehiso's free plan keeps the dealer management system at £0 with no end date. Over anything longer than half a year, the picture flips. If a low monthly price and that introductory offer are your priority, it deserves a serious look. The right answer always depends on your dealership, not on which product has the longer feature list.
Other Traderway alternatives worth a look
Vehiso is my pick, but you deserve the full picture, so here are a few other platforms worth comparing if Traderway is not quite right:
- Car Dealer 5. Tiered packages with AI vehicle descriptions on every plan, though the dealer management system sits on the higher tiers.
- MotorDesk. A clean, modern platform with AI vehicle descriptions and social automation, from £79 per month plus VAT.
- Click Dealer. A long-established UK suite pairing a website and ClickDMS with separately-priced marketing services. Broad, though pricing is quote-based.
If you have already narrowed it down to Vehiso and Traderway, our detailed Vehiso vs Traderway comparison goes through it feature by feature.
How to switch from Traderway to Vehiso
Switching is more straightforward than most dealers expect. You can start on the free plan for nothing, or take a free 7-day trial of a paid plan with no credit card to see how the full listings and DMS feel, and run either alongside your current setup before you commit. Because Vehiso is self-serve, you are not waiting on an onboarding team to schedule you in. When you are ready, you point your domain across and go live.
Want a wider view of the market first? Our guide to the top car dealer website providers in the UK lays out the landscape without the spin.
Frequently asked questions
Is Vehiso cheaper than Traderway?
At entry, yes. Vehiso now has a free plan at £0 per month for up to 5 vehicles, below Traderway's £39 website-only plan, and it already includes the dealer management system. The two are not quite like for like though, because Traderway's £39 plan adds AI descriptions and marketplace sync, which Vehiso's free plan does not. The more useful comparison is on the paid tiers: from £49, Vehiso bundles marketplace feeds, the workshop, AI breadth and payments on top of the DMS with nothing gated, whereas Traderway keeps its full DMS for the £79 Business tier. Traderway also currently offers six months free on that top tier.
What is the best Traderway alternative for UK car dealers?
It depends on your needs, but Vehiso is a strong option for independents who want the dealer management system on every plan, even a free one, with a workshop module, broader AI tools, branded social and direct payments on the paid tiers. Traderway remains a solid, affordable choice if a low monthly price is your priority.
Does Vehiso include a dealer management system on cheaper plans?
Yes, on every plan, including the free one. Even the free plan includes the dealer management system for stock, customers, enquiries, test drives and invoicing. The paid plans from £49 add marketplace sync, the workshop module, payments and the AI tools, and you never unlock the DMS itself on a higher tier. Either way, the DMS is not reserved for a top tier the way Traderway reserves its complete DMS for the £79 Business plan.
Does Vehiso support Making Tax Digital?
Yes. Vehiso connects to Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, all MTD-ready, so your books stay aligned with Making Tax Digital obligations. To be clear, Vehiso supports MTD through those integrations rather than being HMRC-recognised software in its own right. Traderway does not advertise accounting or MTD integrations.
Can Vehiso handle a workshop and online payments like a full system?
Yes. Vehiso includes a customer-facing workshop module with job cards, health checks and online service bookings, plus direct online payments through Stripe, SumUp, PayPal and Square with no platform fees. Traderway does not advertise either of these.
Choosing the system that runs your dealership is a big decision, and you should weigh it carefully. If a dealer management system on every plan, even a free one, a joined-up workshop, broad AI tooling and direct payments matter to you, Vehiso is worth a proper look. Start on the free plan or a free 7-day trial and see how it feels with your own stock.
