The Best Websites for Selling Your Car in 2026

Last updated 6 August 2026 · Published 22 September 2020 · By Elaine, Motor Trade Editor

Selling a car online but not sure which website to use? Here’s the short answer, from someone who spent close to twenty years valuing cars in the trade: in 2026 the best prices for most sellers come from dealer-auction marketplaces — Motorway and Carwow — where thousands of dealers bid against each other for your car. Instant buyers such as webuyanycar are faster and more certain, but typically pay less and charge a transaction fee, while comparison sites like Jamjar let you line up several offers at once.

Selling online is the quick, low-effort alternative to a private sale. You’ll almost always get the highest price selling privately, but there’s real work involved — adverts, viewings, test drives and haggling. If a fast turnaround and convenience matter more, an online car buying service does the whole job from your sofa, usually with free home collection.

The market has changed a great deal since we first wrote this guide in 2020. Several well-known names have disappeared, the survivors have changed how they charge, and the old test valuations we ran back then are long obsolete — so we’ve retired them rather than pretend six-year-old prices mean anything today. Here’s where each of the major players stands in 2026.

The best car selling websites compared

Dealer-auction marketplaces

These sites don’t buy your car themselves — they run an online auction in which professional dealers bid for it. Because dealers compete, offers tend to sit closer to trade value than a single instant offer, and the winning dealer collects the car from your home and pays you before it leaves the driveway.

Motorway

Motorway has grown into the biggest name in this space. You enter your registration and mileage for an estimated valuation, build a car profile with photos, and the car goes into a daily auction where thousands of verified dealers bid in real time. If you accept the highest offer, the dealer arranges free home collection and payment is made before the car is driven away. If there’s finance on the car, settlement is arranged with your lender as part of the sale — though it’s worth reading up on selling a car with outstanding finance first so you know how the settlement figure works.

One important change: Motorway is no longer completely free for sellers. In 2026 it introduced a tiered service fee — from £29.99 for cheaper cars up to £99.99 for cars sold at £20,000 or more — charged only once the sale completes. Listing remains free, and honest, well-photographed listings still tend to do best here, because the winning dealer has less room to renegotiate on collection.

Carwow

Carwow is best known for new-car deals, but since acquiring the car-selling platform Wizzle in 2021 it has built a serious selling service of its own. The model is similar to Motorway’s: enter your registration, add details and photos, agree a reserve price, and your car is advertised in a daily auction to a network of thousands of trusted dealers. The winning dealer arranges free collection, and in most cases you’re paid on the day of collection.

The headline difference is cost: at the time of writing, Carwow charges sellers nothing — no admin or completion fees. With Motorway now charging a completion fee, it’s well worth running your car through both and comparing the best bids.

Instant car buyers

Instant buyers give you a price straight away and buy the car themselves. It’s the fastest, most certain route — but the online figure is provisional until the car is inspected, and final offers are commonly adjusted down for wear and damage. In my trade days we called this “the chip”, and the honest answer is that every instant buyer does it to some degree. Declare faults up front and the adjustment is usually smaller.

webuyanycar

We Buy Any Car is the UK’s best-known instant buyer, with more than 500 branches. You enter your registration and mileage for an instant valuation, book an appointment at a local branch, and a buyer inspects the car and confirms the final price on the spot. Note that you do need that appointment — you can’t simply turn up — and you drive the car to them rather than having it collected.

On costs, be aware of two things: a transaction fee is charged on most sales, tiered by the car’s value, and the free payment option takes several working days — same-day or next-day payment costs extra. Factor both into any comparison with the auction sites, where collection is free and payment arrives on the day.

We Want Any Car

We Want Any Car does what the name suggests — an instant online valuation from just your registration and mileage, followed by an inspection to confirm the price. It remains a working alternative if you want a second instant-offer quote to hold against webuyanycar’s. As with every instant buyer, expect the final figure to be confirmed at inspection, and check the current fee structure when you get your quote — reviews for this type of service consistently show that the gap between online quote and final offer is where sellers get caught out.

Car selling comparison sites

Jamjar

Jamjar has been around since 1997 and calls itself the original car selling comparison site. Rather than buying your car or auctioning it, it shows you offers from a panel of car buying companies so you can compare in one place. You enter your registration and a few details — mileage, service history, MOT due date, colour — and it returns valuations quickly, free and with no obligation to sell. It’s a sensible first stop if you want a feel for what your car is worth before committing to any single buyer.

Sites that no longer exist

The online car buying market has consolidated hard since this guide was first written, and several names readers still search for have gone:

• Wizzle was acquired by Carwow in June 2021 and absorbed into its sell-my-car service. The standalone Wizzle site is no more — if you liked its dealer-bidding model, Carwow is its direct successor.
• The Car Buying Group has ceased trading and no longer buys cars from the public, following its acquisition by auction group Aston Barclay.
• Cazoo, which bought cars from consumers as part of its online retail operation, collapsed into administration in 2024. The brand was later relaunched under new ownership as a listings marketplace — it is not the same buy-your-car service it once was.

If you have an old bookmark or a saved valuation from any of these, treat it as history. It also underlines a rule worth remembering with any online buyer: only hand over the car once payment has actually cleared.

Getting the most from any online sale

Whichever site you choose, the same trade logic applies. Get two or three valuations on the same day, because offers move with the wholesale market week to week. Photograph the car clean and in good light, declare every fault, and have the paperwork ready — V5C, service records and MOT history. A car history check on your own registration is worth running before you list, so nothing on the car’s record catches you (or a bidding dealer) by surprise. For the full routine, see our guide to selling your car for the best price.

Still considering a private sale?

If you’d rather chase the top price, our guide on how to sell your car fast covers preparing the car, writing the advert and handling buyers safely. And if you’re changing car anyway, don’t rule out part exchange — the headline offer is usually lower, but it’s the easiest route of all, and the auction sites above give you a benchmark figure to negotiate against at the dealership.