Open Core · Free Forever

OpenTrailer™ is open source
rental software you actually own

Self-hosted, with a free core and optional Pro plugins. Built for trailer, equipment, and event rental businesses. Run your entire operation for a fraction of what SaaS competitors charge.

View Live Demo See Pricing
$0 Core License
~$699+ Optional Pro (5yr)
AGPL‑3.0 Open Source
Community Edition · Free Forever

Everything You Need to Start

The core is 100% free and open source. No trial, no limits, no catch.

Online Booking

Customers pick dates, see real-time availability, and book directly from your site.

Stripe Payments

Accept credit cards with Stripe. Deposits, full payments, and automatic receipts.

Admin Dashboard

Manage reservations, view calendar, update inventory, and track everything.

Email Notifications

Automatic emails for bookings, confirmations, reminders, and receipts.

Digital Agreements

Customers sign rental agreements online with e-signature. PDF generated.

Customer Portal

Customers look up their current rentals, rental history, and invoices with their pickup code.

Maintenance Tracking

Schedule maintenance, track service history, and manage equipment condition.

Smart Pricing

Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly rates with automatic long-term discounts.

Damage Waiver

Optional damage protection add-on customers can select at checkout.

QuickBooks Integration

Push invoices and customers to QuickBooks Online. Add-on: install the QuickBooks module and connect your own Intuit developer app.

PDF Invoices

Professional invoice generation with line items, tax calculation, and branding.

Late Fee Management

Configurable late fees with grace periods, max caps, and automatic tracking.

Condition Reports

Pickup and return inspections with configurable checklists, photos, and e-signatures.

Point of Sale

Walk-in checkout for staff, pickup code verification, and in-person payment handling.

Staff Accounts & Roles

Admin, manager, and staff roles with PIN login and a per-user activity log. Give counter staff a simple checkout view without full access.

Multi-Language Storefront

Show your booking pages and customer emails in the customer's language. French and Polish available now, more being added.

Pro Plugins · Optional Add-ons

Upgrade When You're Ready

Advanced AI and communication features for growing businesses.

The free core is the priority, we're getting the everyday booking-to-return workflow rock-solid first. These Pro add-ons are extras we're building around that: some are ready, some are still in testing, and some are just planned. They don't take priority over the core, and their pricing isn't final. We'd rather under-promise and over-deliver.

AI Pack In development

Planned: AI damage detection in inspection photos + an AI customer-chat assistant, running on your own local AI (free, you host it) or a cloud key you connect. Not ready yet, we're building it after the core.

~$399-449/5yr

Notifications Pro In development

SMS notifications via Twilio + Telegram bot alerts for you and customers. Built, still being verified.

~$249-299/5yr
₿

Crypto Payments Tested

Accept Bitcoin with zero middleman fees through your own self-hosted BTCPay Server, your keys and your coins. Or use CoinPayments (2,300+ coins) or Coinbase Commerce if you'd rather. Connect your own processor.

~$249-299/5yr

Get Every Pro Plugin

One price for every Pro plugin, including new ones we ship during your term. The bundle always beats buying à la carte, and as the catalog grows the price rises for new buyers, so you lock in today's rate for your whole term.

~$1,047 ~$699+ /5 years
See All Options

Free Core, Pro for Larger Operators

The free core is built to run the whole business for most small and mid-size operators, and a lot of you will never need to pay us anything. That's the point. Pro plugins are the heavier, industry-grade tools that larger and multi-location operations reach for, and they're also how we keep the project alive: the core is free, so Pro is what covers the cost of building and maintaining everything. If you're a bigger operation already saving thousands versus the usual rental software, putting a slice of that toward a plugin or the bundle is easy math. We're in closed beta, so treat these prices as ranges, not a checkout.

The ~ means what it looks like: Pro prices are ballpark during beta, still settling, so read every number as "-ish."

Free Forever

Community

$0

Complete rental software, no catches

  • Online booking & availability
  • Stripe payments
  • Customer portal
  • Admin dashboard
  • Email notifications
  • Digital rental agreements
  • Equipment management
  • Smart pricing & discounts
  • Maintenance tracking
  • Damage waiver
  • QuickBooks integration
  • PDF invoices
  • Late fee management
  • Condition reports w/ checklists
  • Point of sale for staff
  • Staff accounts & roles
  • Multi-language storefront (FR, PL)
Join the Closed Beta

AGPL-3.0 · free to test in beta

Best Value
Pro Bundle

Every Pro Plugin

~$699-799 /5 years

Every Pro plugin, plus new ones in your term. Built for large and multi-location operators.

  • All Community features
  • PROAI Pack (Damage Detection + Chat)In development
  • PROCrypto Payments (BTC, ETH, 2300+ coins)Tested
  • PROSMS & Telegram NotificationsIn development
  • Exploring later · no dates yet
  • Multi-location inventory
  • Recurring rentals & subscriptions
  • GPS asset tracking
  • Asset depreciation reports
Join the Closed Beta

Planned, free for beta testers

À La Carte

Individual Plugins

~$249-449 /5yr each

Only pay for what you need

  • Notifications Pro · in development$249-299
  • Crypto Payments · tested$249-299
  • AI Pack · in development$399-449
  • Exploring later · no dates yet
  • Multi-locationlater
  • Recurring rentalslater
  • Depreciation reportslater
Join the Closed Beta

On the roadmap

The Real Cost of Rental Software

What you'll actually pay over 5 years

Software Monthly 5-Year Cost Self-Hosted
OpenTrailer™ Community $0 $0 Yes
OpenTrailer™ Pro Bundle ~$12/mo equiv. ~$699+ Yes
BigRentals / HQRent $129 - $399 $7,740 - $23,940 No
Booqable $29 - $149 $1,740 - $8,940 No
EZO (EZRentOut) $59 - $499 $3,540 - $29,940 No
Current RMS $79 - $275 $4,740 - $16,500 No
Quipli $500+ $30,000+ No
Odoo $25/user+ Varies Yes

* OpenTrailer™ requires your own hosting (~$5/mo VPS). Your data stays on your server.

Marketplaces take a cut of every booking. BigRentals takes 20% on top of a monthly fee. Neighbors Trailer takes 20% from you and charges your customer another 10% on top. Rent $10k/mo and that's ~$2,000 gone every single month, plus a worse deal for your renters. OpenTrailer™ never takes a cut. You keep 100%, and your customers never pay a middleman.

Why Not...

BigRentals / HQRent

The closest thing to us, but hosted-only and locked down. Their marketplace takes 20% of every booking on top of the monthly fee, and you can't self-host or own your data. We go deeper on the actual operations and never touch your bookings.

Booqable

Great UI, but SaaS-only. You're locked into monthly payments forever. Stop paying, lose access to your data. Starts cheap but scales expensive.

EZRentOut

Feature-rich but pricey. Built for large operations with complex asset tracking needs. Overkill for most trailer yards.

Current RMS

Powerful event rental platform. Great for AV and party rentals, but not optimized for trailer/equipment businesses. Premium pricing.

Quipli

Enterprise-grade with enterprise pricing. Targets large rental chains. Way too much for small-to-medium operations.

Odoo

Fantastic open source ERP, and we're fans. But it's built for everything (HR, manufacturing, CRM). For just rentals, it's more complexity than you need.

Spreadsheets

We get it, Excel works. Until you double-book a trailer, lose a reservation, or spend hours on invoices. You've outgrown it.

What Self-Hosting Actually Costs

The software is free. We'll be straight with you: running it isn't literally $0, but it's close. Here's the honest breakdown, and what the payment methods cost. No per-user fees, and we never take a cut of your bookings.

What it takes to run Typical cost (small operator)
Domain name ~$10-15/year (about $1/mo)
Server (VPS) ~$2/mo on an annual deal · ~$5-10/mo monthly
Email (Resend) $0 (free tier, 3,000/mo)
SSL, DNS & CDN (Let's Encrypt / Cloudflare) $0 (free tier is plenty)
OpenTrailer™ software $0
Estimated total ~$3-11/mo

SSL is free via Let's Encrypt or Cloudflare. A premium/EV certificate is optional and billed by your certificate provider, not by us.

Payment Fees (go to the provider, not us)

Method Fee per transaction
Cash None
Zelle Usually none (some banks charge business accounts)
Crypto ~0-1% (0% with self-hosted BTCPay)
Cash App (business) ~2.75%
Cards via Stripe 2.9% + $0.30

These fees go straight to the payment processor, never to OpenTrailer™. Cash or Zelle let you take payment with zero fees.

Any reputable Linux VPS works (about $5/mo, or ~$25/year on annual deals). These are ballpark estimates, not a bill. Figures verified Aug 2026.

Why We Build This

We started as one developer and have grown into a small team, not a big software company, and OpenTrailer™ began with a simple gut-check. We looked at what rental businesses get charged for software: $50/month subscriptions, $180 per user, $500/month "enterprise" tools... just to rent out a handful of trailers. That felt broken.

The DIY route isn't much better. Spreadsheets and free tools turn into a mess, double bookings, lost invoices, more time managing the system than running the business. And every "affordable" option seems to assume you're already profitable. If you're just getting started, you're stuck between overpriced and unworkable.

We tried Odoo. Great software, and honestly where the idea for OpenTrailer™ started. But it's built for everything: HR, manufacturing, inventory, CRM. We just needed to rent out trailers. Way more complexity than necessary for this one thing.

There had to be a better way. Something focused on rentals. Something that doesn't nickel and dime you from day one. Something you can actually own and run yourself without a monthly bill hanging over your head.

So OpenTrailer™ exists. The basics are completely free: bookings, payments, customers, everything you need to actually run a rental business. Pro plugins are there for businesses that want extra features, and that money goes right back into development.

And the free core already does what a lot of places charge extra for. Online bookings, payments, digital agreements, condition reports, PDF invoices, QuickBooks, point-of-sale, all in Community, no add-on fees. Other tools nickel-and-dime you: per-user pricing, paid tiers, even charging for API access, and when you self-host OpenTrailer™, it's all yours anyway. We'd rather pack the core and keep it free.

On the Pro side, self-hosted Bitcoin payments with no middleman fees are live today. The AI work, photo damage detection and a customer-chat assistant, is still in development; we'll ship it when it's actually good, not before. We'd rather boast about it once it's real.

We're not trying to get rich off this. We just want to cover costs and keep making it better. If you decide to go Pro, genuinely, thank you. You're helping us help others in the same situation we were in.

And if you stick with Community? That's cool too. Just by choosing OpenTrailer™, you're voting for this project to keep going. We appreciate that trust and we won't break it.

Why Open Core?

The best of both worlds

No Lock-in

The core is yours forever. Even if you never buy a plugin, you have a complete rental system.

Sustainable Development

Pro plugins fund ongoing development. We can afford to keep improving the software.

Your Data, Always

Self-hosted means you control everything. No cloud dependency, no data hostage situations. And there's no central database hoarding every operator's customers, so if a server is ever breached, it's one operator's data, not everyone's.

Pay for Value

Only buy plugins that help your business. Don't need crypto? Don't pay for it.

Built For

Trailer Yards
Tool Rentals
Heavy Equipment
Camper Rental
Boats & PWC
Ski & Sports

Built to Self-Host

Designed to run on just Node.js and a $5/mo VPS. The public repo opens after beta, and we're still smoothing out the setup, the flow below is where it's headed, not a one-click installer yet. During beta the easiest way in is the hosted demo, or ask us about a private beta instance.

# The planned setup (repo opens after beta, apply at /beta.html)
# Once you have access:
git clone <your-fork>
cd open-trailer && npm install

# Configure and start
cp .env.example .env
npm start

# Open http://localhost:3000
Try Live Demo Join the Closed Beta

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know

Heads up: we're still in beta, so some of this is a work in progress and details may still change.

Is Community really free forever?
Yes. The Community edition is open source under AGPL-3.0. Once code ships under that license it can't be taken back, so the core stays free. That's the whole point, and it's the part we're committed to maintaining.
Is the source code on GitHub yet?
Not yet, and we want to be straight about why. It's AGPL-3.0 and will be fully public; we're just still cleaning it up, fixing rough edges, and making sure no real user data or private info could leak before it's out in the open. We'd rather release something solid than drop a half-finished concept on the community and say "deal with it." It'll be on GitHub when it's genuinely ready.
Are the Pro prices final?
They're not locked in yet, we're still settling on what's fair, so they could shift a bit. We're not looking to raise them, though; if anything ever went up it'd only be because we genuinely had to (rising costs, etc.), and existing customers are protected either way, you'll always pay less than a new one. The Community core stays free regardless.
Why isn't everything free?
The core is free and always will be, that's the priority. Pro covers the heavier, industry-grade tools that mostly larger and multi-location operators reach for (SMS, AI, crypto), and it's the one monetization outlet that keeps this sustainable. We build this for free, so Pro is what pays for maintaining everything. We're not trying to nickel-and-dime anyone: if a Pro plugin turns out to be something a lot of smaller operators genuinely need day to day, we'll look at folding it into the core. Anything truly essential to running a rental business belongs in the core, not behind a paywall.
Do I need technical skills?
Basic server admin skills help. You'll need a Linux VPS (~$5/mo). We provide setup guides.
What payment methods work?
Stripe handles cards end-to-end. Crypto runs through your own BTCPay Server (self-hosted, no fees), CoinPayments, or Coinbase account. PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash are supported as manual methods, the customer pays you directly and you mark it paid. You choose what to enable.
Can I upgrade 1-year to 5-year?
Yes! Pay the difference and we'll extend your license. Contact us.
What about renewals?
Existing customers get a loyalty discount, early adopters especially. We haven't locked the exact amount yet (we'd rather set it fairly than over-promise), but you'll always pay less than a new customer.
Is there support?
Email: just reply to any email from us, or write to beta at opentrailer dot org. A real person reads it. Once the source is public, GitHub issues too. It's a small team right now, so we help where we can.
How do I migrate my data?
OpenTrailer™ uses SQLite and has CSV import for trailers, equipment, customers, and reservations. Stuck? Email us and we'll help you through it.
Why self-hosted?
Your data, your server, no vendor lock-in. There's no per-user SaaS bill, you just pay for your own cheap hosting (~$5/mo), and you own everything.
Do I have to run a server at home?
No, and most people shouldn't. The normal path is a cheap VPS (~$5/mo from the likes of Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or RackNerd): a real always-on server without the home-networking headaches (port forwarding, dynamic IP, SSL). Already pay for hosting? You can usually just add OpenTrailer™ to it. Prefer your own hardware? That works too, it's just more setup.
Can I run it on my own hardware?
That's the idea, it's deliberately light (Node.js + SQLite, no heavy dependencies), so an old laptop or a small VPS handles it easily. A Raspberry Pi should work too, but we'll be straight: we haven't tested one yet, and on ARM the SQLite module may need build tools to install. If you run it on a Pi, let us know how it goes.
Is there a mobile app?
The dashboard is fully responsive. Works great on phones. Native apps may come later.
Can I customize the look?
Yes: logo, colors, email templates. The code is open, modify anything.