Marine dealer software, built for boat dealers.

What marine dealer software actually needs to do

"Marine dealer software" means a lot of things to a lot of people. For a real boat dealership — selling and servicing boats, running a parts counter, managing a service bay — it needs to handle six things at once. Most software handles two or three.

Here's the honest list:

• Boat sales: from lead to deposit to financing to delivery. Tracking trade-ins, generating documents, syncing inventory to the dealership website.
• Parts and inventory: hundreds to thousands of SKUs, often the same physical part sourced from three different vendors at three different prices. Most software gets this wrong by forcing one SKU per item.
• Service operations: work orders with concern/cause/correction, tech assignment, multi-day jobs, status board, parts and labor tracking. The service bay is where independent boat dealers actually make money.
• Scheduling: service appointments with technician calendars, "next available" booking, no-show fees, automatic SMS reminders.
• Customer communication: SMS reminders, "your boat is ready" notifications, two-way messaging, caller ID popup. This is what most DMS software outsources to a $300/mo bolt-on like Kenect.
• Accounting integration: sales receipts, invoices, vendors, customers, items synced to QuickBooks Online. Without this, your bookkeeper hates you.

HelmDMS does all six. See the full feature list.

Why most marine dealer software doesn't fit

The big-name DMS systems — Lightspeed, DealerVu — were built for multi-line dealers running auto, RV, and powersports under one roof. Marine got bolted on. The marine-specific workflows (boat hulls, marine suppliers, dockage notes) feel grafted, not native.

The cheaper options either skip marine-specific features entirely or charge for them as add-ons. Most independents end up paying for software they don't fully use, plus add-ons (SMS, payments, e-commerce) that bring the real monthly cost to $700–1,500.

HelmDMS was built only for marine. Every feature exists because a marine dealer asked for it. The boat-specific data model is the foundation, not an afterthought.

The price difference

HelmDMS is $499/mo flat for founding dealers — first 25 sign-ups lock in this rate for life. That includes:

• Unlimited users and terminals (no per-seat fees)
• Built-in SMS, email, and natural-voice automated calls
• Live supplier search across Seawide, Donovan, Wintron, CDI, and more
• Full POS, service, parts, scheduling, and boat-sales workflows
• QuickBooks Online sync
• White-glove migration from your current system
• Direct support from the team that built the software

Compare to Lightspeed EVO at $500–1,500+/mo with module-based pricing, or Blackpurl at $400–600+/mo with tiered users and a separate ~$300/mo SMS add-on.

Made in the USA, built by humans you can call

HelmDMS is a Hughes Technology project. We're a small US software shop that builds for businesses the venture-funded world ignores. When you email support, you talk to a human — usually the engineer who built whatever you're asking about. No offshore ticket queue. No "we'll get back to you in 3-5 business days."

Ready to evaluate?

Two paths: book a demo and we'll walk you through the platform with your own data, or reserve a founding-dealer slot ($200 refundable deposit). Either way, founding pricing locks in $499/mo for life.