Dealership software development

Dealership software, built inside your systems.

Creative Code is a dealership software development company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We build custom software for car dealer groups and automotive software vendors: DMS and CRM integrations, inventory data products, group reporting, selling tools and AI agents. Every build starts on platforms we already run in production, and it works inside the systems your stores already use.

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Definition

What is dealership software development?

Dealership software development is building software for the business of selling and servicing vehicles: the tools a dealer group uses for inventory, leads, sales, service, reporting and marketing, and the integrations that connect them to the DMS, CRM and inventory systems the stores already run.

It is retail and operations software. It is not in-vehicle, embedded or software-defined-vehicle software, which is a different discipline.

What we build

What we build for dealers and automotive vendors

Integrations and data hubs

One data model across DMS, CRM, inventory, call tracking and ad data. Our platform has 59 dealer-system integrations registered, and one analytics build normalizes about 60 source systems across 387 dealer domains.
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Group operations and reporting

KPI dashboards, alerts and morning briefs for multi-rooftop groups. One group operations build runs eleven services on a message bus against a 24-KPI metric spec.
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Inventory and pricing data

Live VIN-level inventory for 2.98M vehicles from 6,704 dealer websites, with OEM offers, price history and finance, lease and trade math over API.
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Competitive intelligence

Daily monitoring of competitor specials, with the terms read out of banner images. It runs for 67 dealer groups.
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Selling tools

Personal sites, a light CRM and marketplace posting for salespeople, running across 210 salesperson accounts at 45 active rooftops.
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AI agents and MCP servers

Agents that answer shoppers, triage support and draft outreach, plus MCP servers that let Claude and ChatGPT read live dealer data.
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Who it is for

Who we build for

Dealer groups

Groups that want their own reporting, tools and agents on top of the systems they already run, with the data in one place they control.

Automotive software vendors

Companies that need dealer-system integrations, inventory data or an MCP layer without building each one from scratch.

Founders and capital partners

New automotive companies that want to launch on data and integrations that already run in production.

How an engagement works

Discover, deploy, measure

Discover

01

Weeks 1 to 4

A Forward Deployed Engineer maps the real process in your systems, measures the baseline, proves the hard parts with prototypes, and delivers an architecture and a scope you can take to anyone, including us.

Deploy

02

Weeks 5 to 8

The engineering pod and the Farm, our AI agent fleet, build to production inside your systems of record. Every change ships with tests and evidence, and an engineer merges.

Measure

03

Months 3 and 6

Results against the baseline, in the same units we measured on day one. Then we keep improving what is live.

You own the software built specifically for you. Shared platforms are licensed underneath, and the contract says which is which. More on Forward Deployed Engineering.

Dealership software development FAQ

What does a dealership software development company do?+

It builds the software a dealership or dealer group runs its business on, and connects it to the DMS, CRM, inventory and marketing systems the stores already use. Creative Code builds integrations, data products, group reporting, selling tools and AI agents for dealer groups and automotive software vendors.

Do we have to replace our DMS or CRM?+

No. We build inside the systems you already run. We have built connectors for VinSolutions, eLead, DriveCentric, DealerSocket, Tekion and PBS, plus the major inventory, call tracking, marketplace and ad platforms. The full list is on our integrations page.

Do you integrate with CDK and Reynolds and Reynolds?+

Yes, when a project needs them. We set up the right connection with you during Discover, before build.

How long does a project take?+

Engagements start with Discover, four weeks of process mapping, baseline measurement and proofs of concept. Deploy follows in weeks five to eight, and we measure results against the baseline at three and six months. The scope agreed at the end of Discover sets the rest.

How much does custom dealership software cost?+

We price each engagement after a scoping call, based on the scope that comes out of Discover. Starting on platforms we already run usually removes the most expensive part of a dealership build: getting the data and building the integrations.

Who owns the code?+

You own everything we build specifically for you. Where one of our platforms runs underneath, you get a license to it, and the contract says which is which before work starts.

Where is the team?+

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with engineers across several time zones and Forward Deployed Engineers who travel to the customer when the work needs it. 45 engineers, QA, designers and PMs in total.

Are you SOC 2 certified?+

No. Creative Code is not SOC 2 attested and does not hold a SOC 2 report of its own. We build to SOC 2 controls, apply them to every AI agent run, and take clients through SOC 2 Type I and Type II readiness.

Do you build in-vehicle or embedded automotive software?+

No. We build dealership and automotive retail software: the systems for selling, servicing and marketing vehicles. We do not build in-vehicle, embedded or software-defined-vehicle software.

Scope a dealership build

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