DealerOn charges $50-100 per month for window sticker generation. Dealer.com bundles it into their platform fee. DealerInspire sells it as a premium add-on. Standalone tools like Dealer Specialties charge monthly subscriptions.
For what? A formatted PDF.
We built a free window sticker generator in less than a day. It does the same thing. We gave it away because charging for it would be embarrassing.
What a Window Sticker Actually Is
A window sticker (also called a Monroney sticker, named after Senator Mike Monroney who sponsored the Automobile Information Disclosure Act of 1958) is a label placed in a vehicle's window showing its specifications and price.
For new cars, the manufacturer produces the Monroney sticker. It's required by federal law and includes the MSRP, standard equipment, options, fuel economy, and safety ratings.
For used cars, there's no federal requirement for a Monroney-style sticker (the FTC Buyers Guide is the required form). But professional dealers create them anyway because:
- Buyers walking your lot expect to see a price in the window
- A sticker with specs, mileage, and features looks professional
- It saves your sales team from answering the same questions repeatedly
- It signals that your dealership is organized and transparent
What Goes on a Used Car Window Sticker
A good used car window sticker includes:
- Dealer name, phone, and address at the top
- Year, make, model, and trim prominently displayed
- VIN and stock number for identification
- Mileage (odometer reading)
- Exterior and interior colors
- Engine, transmission, drivetrain, and fuel type
- Key features and options (backup camera, Bluetooth, sunroof, etc.)
- Asking price in a bold, visible box
- Disclaimer (as-is, tax/title/fees excluded)
That's it. Structured data printed on a page. Every piece of information either comes from a free government database (NHTSA VIN decode) or from the dealer (price, mileage, colors, features).
Why Dealer Platforms Charge for This
They charge because they can. Dealers are locked into their platform. Switching costs are high. And most dealers don't realize that the underlying data is free.
Here's what actually happens when you "generate a window sticker" on DealerOn:
- Your VIN gets sent to the same NHTSA API we use (free, public, no API key needed)
- The specs come back (year, make, model, engine, transmission, etc.)
- Your price and dealer info get added
- A PDF is generated
That's the whole process. The NHTSA API is free. PDF generation is a standard library. The dealer info is data you already entered. There is nothing proprietary, nothing complex, nothing worth $100/month.
How Our Free Tool Works
Our window sticker generator does the same thing:
- Enter the VIN
- Specs auto-fill from the NHTSA database
- Add your price, mileage, colors, features, and dealer info
- Click "Email Me the PDF"
- A professional, print-ready sticker lands in your inbox
The sticker uses a clean black-and-white layout with your dealer name at the top, vehicle specs in the middle, features listed in two columns, and the price in a bold box at the bottom. It prints on standard 8.5" x 11" paper and fits in any window sticker sleeve.
We Built This in a Day
We're being transparent about this because it matters. This tool took less than a day to build. The VIN decoder is a single API call. The PDF layout is about 200 lines of code. The email delivery uses our existing infrastructure.
If this took us a day, imagine what the dealer platforms are doing when they charge you $100/month for it. They're charging you for access, not for value. The tool itself is trivial.
We'd rather give it away and prove that we build good software than charge you for something that should be free.
Use It
The free window sticker generator is available now. No trial period, no credit card, no per-sticker fees. Generate as many as your lot needs.
If you find it useful, take a look at what else we build for dealerships. Mika is a lead conversion platform that puts a 24/7 sales assistant on your website, with live inventory search, test drive booking, and self-learning conversion technology. But the sticker tool is free whether you use Mika or not.