Issue #4: What your website vendor charges, and what your buyer thinks a boat costs

Subject line: What your website vendor charges, and what your buyer thinks a boat costs By: Mason Bennett, boat dealership GM

Two price gaps this week. One is ours: what software vendors charge dealers, and how hard they make it to find out. The other is the customer's: what a shopper thinks a new boat should cost versus what it does.

1. Dealer Spike's prices aren't on its site. They're in its sell sheets.

New on the site: Dealer Spike pricing 2026.

Dealer Spike doesn't list a price on dealerspike.com. Its /pricing/ URL is a 404. But two OEM dealer website programs post Dealer Spike's own sell sheets, and those list three website packages:

• Silver $549 a month
• Gold $849 a month
• Platinum $1,149 a month
• Plus a one-time $1,000 setup fee. Extra locations, some integrations and add-ons cost more.

The 2025 Polaris sheet puts the extra-location fee at $199 to $399 a month depending on package, and prices add-ons from $89 a month (Craigslist or eBay posting) to $999 a month (top-tier automated email). An older Polaris brochure listed lower location fees, so that line has gone up.

Those sheets were made for OEM programs. Neither says it applies to marine dealers. Use them as a baseline and get your own quote.

Dealer Spike also advertises a "30% Lead Increase Guaranteed." I couldn't find the published terms: the baseline, the time period, what counts as a lead, or what you get if they miss. If you're shopping websites, ask for those terms in the contract.

2. Shoppers think boats cost 20% to 25% less than they do

Kim Kavin's piece in Soundings Trade Only this week, "Knockout Punches on New Boat Pricing," talked to dealers about sticker shock. A few things stood out:

• Some dealers estimate the gap between what shoppers expect to pay and actual new-boat prices at 20% to 25%. Others cite real examples at 100%.
• At Mount Dora Boating Center & Marina in Florida, sales manager Julia Baugh says new-unit sales are off 60% to 70% this year, with used boats making up revenue. Shoppers "hear the price of a new boat, and they shift to a used boat immediately."
• Bob Petzold of Petzold's Marine Center in Connecticut: "a fiberglass boat is now $120,000. It used to be about $80,000."
• David Starling of Starling Marine says manufacturer incentives have helped this year, "if the incentive was good enough to get people's attention."

My read: if the shopper's number is 20% low, the worst time to find out is at the desk. Put a real all-in price online so the gap shows up early, and have a used or entry-level option ready for the shopper who walks. That shopper is still a lead. Treat them like one.

3. This week's pricing check

I re-checked 11 vendors on their own sites, the group last checked Oct. 18: Podium, Kenect, Boatyard, Dealer Spike, BoatWizard, Birdeye, BoatLife.ai, Google Business Profile, and the three lenders (Octane, Sheffield Financial, Northpoint).

One changed:

• Boatyard now shows prices. Its pricing page lists Starter "Starting at $199/month" for 3 users and Grow "Starting at $399/month" for 5+ users, with Enterprise on a custom proposal. DMS integration is an add-on "starting at $295/mo." On Oct. 18 its site was quote only.

No change at the rest. Podium, Kenect, BoatWizard, Birdeye and BoatLife.ai still don't publish a price. Google Business Profile is still free.

Two new vendors in the directory, both in lead response:

• Alpha Drive AI, an AI receptionist and BDC with a marine page. It books service, storage and haul-outs through your website or DMS. No price on its site. It says DMS integration is a one-time fee.
• Boatwork Assist, a named AI agent with its own inbox for marine businesses. It lists "$99/mo per agent + usage," month to month, and no charge until the agent is live. Usage rates beyond the first $25 in free credits aren't itemized on the page, so ask.

Full list with sources: pricing tracker.

4. Worth knowing

• Free AI webinar Wednesday. MRAA and Lightspeed host "AI & The New Fundamentals" on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at noon Eastern, with Lightspeed's chief product officer and the MRAA education team. Free. (Disclosure: my dealership uses Lightspeed. No payment or sponsorship.)
• Pontoons carried Polaris marine. Polaris reported Q3 marine segment sales of $133.4 million, up 29%, driven by "favorable product mix and higher pontoon shipments." That's shipments to dealers, not retail sales.
• NauticStar is back. Outdoor Network, which owns Boats.net, Partzilla and Boater's World Marine Centers, bought NauticStar and plans to build in Chocowinity, N.C. It says the dealer network is a key part of the plan.
• Heyday has a new owner. Whisper Marine bought Heyday from Brunswick on Oct. 30. Boats will be built at Crownline's plant in West Frankfort, Ill., and Whisper says it will work with existing Heyday dealers.
• November Pulse survey is open. It asks about weather, the local economy, service activity, credit, AI use and plans for FTC advertised-price compliance.

One question for you

When a shopper hears your new-boat price and pivots to used, what do you do next? Hit reply and tell me. I'll share the anonymous answers in a future issue.

Mason

Sources

• Dealer Spike marine page (checked Nov. 3, 2026): https://www.dealerspike.com/marine/
• Dealer Spike sell sheet, Harley-Davidson dealer program (Sept. 2026): https://www.harley-davidsondigital.com/docs/dealerspike_web.pdf
• Dealer Spike sell sheet, Polaris dealer program (June 2025): https://www.polarisdealerdigital.com/docs/DealerWeb/DealerSpike.pdf
• Dealer Spike, older Polaris program brochure: https://eadn-wc02-13528121.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DS-Polaris-Partnership-Brochure_v3.pdf
• Dealer Spike homepage (checked Nov. 3, 2026): https://www.dealerspike.com/
• Dealer Spike, "The New Dealer Spike" press release (July 22, 2026): https://eadn-wc02-13528121.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/The-New-Dealer-Spike-Press-Release.pdf
• Soundings Trade Only, "Knockout Punches on New Boat Pricing" by Kim Kavin (Nov. 2, 2026): https://tradeonlytoday.com/post-type-feature/knockout-punches-on-new-boat-pricing/
• Boatyard pricing (checked Nov. 3, 2026): https://boatyard.com/pricing
• Vendor sites (checked Nov. 3, 2026): https://www.podium.com/pricing , https://www.kenect.com/solution/marine , https://www.boatsgroup.com/boatwizard/ , https://birdeye.com/pricing/ , https://getboatlifeai.com/best-marine-crm-software-2026 , https://www.google.com/business/ , https://octane.co/o/marine-market-entrance/ , https://www.sheffieldfinancial.com/equipment-manufacturers/marine , https://northpointcf.com/industries/marine/
• Alpha Drive AI, marine dealers: https://alphadriveai.com/rv-powersports-marine/marine-dealers/
• Boatwork Assist: https://boatwork.co/marine-business-ai-agents/
• MRAA, "MRAA and Lightspeed to Host Webinar on Practical Applications of AI for Marine Dealerships" (Oct. 28, 2026): https://mraa.com/webinar-on-practical-applications-of-ai-for-marine-dealerships/
• Polaris Q3 2026 earnings release (Oct. 27, 2026): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/931015/000162828026067358/pii-q32026earningsrelease.htm
• Boating Industry, "Outdoor Network Acquires NauticStar Boats" (Oct. 30, 2026): https://boatingindustry.com/news/2026/10/30/outdoor-network-acquires-nauticstar-boats/
• Crownline, "Whisper Marine Acquires Heyday Boats from Brunswick Corporation" (Oct. 30, 2026): https://crownline.com/press-releases/whisper-marine-acquires-heyday-boats-from-brunswick-corporation/
• Trade Only Today, "Take This Month's Pulse Report Survey" (Oct. 30, 2026): https://tradeonlytoday.com/industry-news/take-this-months-pulse-report-survey-36/

No sponsor this issue. No vendor paid to be mentioned. Vendor prices are as published on the dates checked.