Guide
Free dealer management software for independent dealers
freeDMS is a complete dealer management system — inventory, leads and CRM, desking, F&I, a real general ledger, service, and parts — that costs $0 per rooftop per month, for unlimited users. It is open source under the MIT license and built specifically for independent and upstart dealers. It is free because of how the business makes money (anonymized aggregate benchmarks and optional AI), not because departments are missing.
What is included, free
- Inventory — stocking, VIN decode, recon costs, aging, CSV import with preview, listing-feed exports.
- Leads & CRM — ADF/XML intake, pipeline, follow-ups, consent tracking, equity mining, unified customer timeline.
- Desking — cash, finance, and lease pencils with cents-exact math, trades, and a buyer-readable grid.
- F&I — product menus with accept/decline records, credit applications, deal jackets, signatures with an audit trail.
- Accounting — a real general ledger: deals, service, and parts post automatically; AP/AR, bank reconciliation, commissions, departmental statements.
- Service — appointment board, repair orders, technician dispatch with skills, labor grids, photo inspections.
- Parts — catalog and bins, purchase and special orders, vendor returns, matrix pricing, counter sales.
- Reporting & compliance — KPIs, inventory turn, F&I and technician metrics, custom reports, Red Flags / OFAC records, privacy-request handling.
- AI quick entry — describe a car or photograph a window sticker and get a filled draft; nothing saves until you confirm it. AI is pay-as-you-go and off by default; the DMS never requires it.
Free, trial, and freemium are different things
A trial is the full product with a clock on it. Freemium usually means the useful parts are paywalled. freeDMS is neither: the whole system is free, permanently, because the revenue comes from elsewhere — anonymized, aggregated data benchmarks on the free tier, and metered AI. The honest limits are stated up front: hosted access is invite-only during the pilot, franchise OEM programs are a later phase, and live connections to lender and bureau networks roll out partner by partner.
Who it is built for
Independent and upstart dealers who run every department themselves and cannot justify franchise-system rent. If you stock it, sell it, finance it, and fix it under one roof, freeDMS is shaped like your store. How the pricing compares to what dealers pay today is laid out in What dealer management software costs. Buy here pay here dealers: what freeDMS does, and what it does not.
Read the guides: Tracking reconditioning in freeDMS, Deal paperwork and the title file in freeDMS, and Which states does freeDMS support?.
Getting started
The hosted pilot is invite-only: invited dealers receive access privately, set up their workspace, and explore with fictional demo data. Everyone else can read or run the code today — it is MIT-licensed and developed in the open on GitHub. How pilot access works.
Last updated October 27, 2026.
Questions
Straight answers
Is freeDMS really free for my whole dealership?
Yes. Every department — inventory, CRM, desking, F&I, accounting, service, parts, compliance, reporting — for unlimited users, at $0 per rooftop per month. There is no trial clock and no seat cap.
What's the catch?
The business model, stated plainly: free-tier data contributes to anonymized, aggregated benchmarks (never identifiable, and a paid tier restricts sharing), and AI features are pay-as-you-go because they cost real money to run. If neither ever earns a cent from you, you still keep the whole system.
Does freeDMS include service and parts?
Yes — appointment board, repair orders, technician dispatch, labor grids, photo inspections, parts catalog and bins, purchase and special orders, vendor returns, and counter sales. Service and parts post to the same general ledger as deals.
Can I self-host freeDMS?
Yes. freeDMS is MIT-licensed open source, developed in public on GitHub. Read the code, fork it, or run your own copy. The hosted service at freeDMS.co runs the same code; hosted access is invite-only during the pilot.
I'm a franchise dealer. Is freeDMS for me?
Not yet. freeDMS is built for independent and upstart dealers first. OEM-certified integrations and franchise programs are a later phase, after the independent core is proven with real dealers.
Inventory. Deals. Growth. Yours.
Your next DMS costs $0.
The hosted pilot is invite-only. The code is public today.