Which software should you use to manage a vehicle rental fleet?
By Jean-Michel Boni - updated 18 September 2026
Short answer
Vehicle rental software must cover at least four functions: an availability schedule per vehicle, paid online booking, dated photo inspections before and after each rental, and invoicing. There are three families: spreadsheets (free, but with no evidence and no payments), established industry software (comprehensive, priced on quote) and newer SaaS tools such as Flotly (€39 to €179 excl. VAT per month, guided setup, nothing to install). The deciding criterion is not the feature list: it is whether the tool can produce, in a damage dispute, dated evidence whose integrity can be verified.
Key facts
- Four core functions: scheduling, paid online booking, time-stamped photo inspections, invoicing.
- Damage disputes are the most frequent source of losses for small rental businesses: that is where software pays for itself, or not.
- In France, no administrative licence is required to rent out vehicles without a driver, so rental software is not subject to any approval requirement.
- Flotly: €39 excl. VAT/month (Starter) to €179 excl. VAT/month (Business), Enterprise on quote.
The four functions without which a tool is useless
Many comparison grids list forty features. In a rental operator's day-to-day work, four are enough to decide; the rest is convenience.
- An availability schedule per vehicle. Knowing, to the minute, which vehicle is free, on which date, at which branch. This is what prevents double bookings.
- Online booking that is actually paid. A booking request sent through a form is not a booking. Until money has changed hands, the slot is not secured.
- Dated photo inspections, before and after. This is the function that protects your cash flow. Without it, a dispute over a scratch comes down to who pushes harder.
- Invoicing. Sequential numbering, mandatory particulars, VAT. See the mandatory information on French invoices on service-public.fr.
The three families of solutions, and who each one suits
| Type | Price range | What it does well | Its limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets) | Free to a few euros | Starting with no commitment, customising everything | No time-stamped evidence, no payment collection, breaks down beyond 2 simultaneous users |
| Established industry software | Usually on quote: a wide range in practice, to be checked with each vendor | Very broad functional coverage, long experience of the trade | Long setup, configuration costs, often a dated interface |
| Newer SaaS tools (including Flotly) | Monthly subscription published openly, a few dozen euros | Quick setup, clear pricing, native online booking | Narrower coverage for very specific needs (ERP, SAP, complex multi-country set-ups) |
| Rental marketplaces | Commission on every booking | Immediate traffic | You own neither the customer relationship nor the data; it is not management software |
Marketplaces and software are not mutually exclusive: many rental businesses use a marketplace to fill the fleet and software to run operations and sell direct.
What Flotly does, precisely
Flotly is a French SaaS for managing vehicle rental. Its stated differentiator is single and verifiable: every inspection photo receives a proof reference calculated when it is saved, then stored with the photo. Later on, that fingerprint can be recalculated to show that the file has not been modified since.
- Bookable catalogue and online booking, card payments via Stripe.
- Photo inspections zone by zone, with a proof reference per photo and an on-demand integrity check.
- Optional QR code per vehicle for a contactless pick-up (without a QR code, the booking link and the back office are enough).
- Multi-branch, permissions per team member, consolidated schedule.
- Fleet import from an existing file.
- Rental agreements and PDF documents attached to the booking record.
The full, honest price list is on the Pricing page. Prices are shown excl. VAT; French VAT at 20% is added at payment.
When Flotly is not the right choice
- You run more than 100 vehicles and need an ERP or SAP integration. The Business plan is capped at 100 vehicles; beyond that, it is an Enterprise quote, so a project rather than an online sign-up.
- You mainly do long-term rental or leasing with financing contracts to manage. Flotly is built for operational rental, not for tracking a financed fleet.
- You want software installed on your own servers. Flotly is SaaS; there is no on-premise version.
- You do not want to take payments online. Card payments go through Stripe; if you reject that prerequisite, much of the value disappears.
- You are looking for customers first, not a tool. Software does not fill a fleet. If your problem is utilisation, start with a marketplace or with your local visibility.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need software from the very first vehicle?
No. Below three or four vehicles and with no disputes, a spreadsheet holds up. Switching makes sense when you lose time over availability, or when a first damage dispute has cost you money.
Does rental software replace a written agreement?
No. The software generates and archives the rental agreement, but its content remains your legal responsibility. Have your rental terms reviewed once by a legal professional.
How much does Flotly cost?
Starter €39 excl. VAT/month (10 vehicles), Essentiel 15 €59 excl. VAT/month (15 vehicles), Pro €99 excl. VAT/month (30 vehicles), Business €179 excl. VAT/month (100 vehicles), Enterprise on quote. Prices exclude VAT; French VAT at 20% is added at payment.
Can you migrate from Excel?
Yes, Flotly offers fleet import from a file. Still, clean your data first: a clean import takes an hour, a messy one takes five.