Freight broker website builder guide
You can build a freight broker website yourself with any mainstream builder. What decides whether a shipper or a carrier trusts it is what's on the page: your broker status, USDOT and MC numbers, your bond and a quote form that asks freight questions. Here's what shippers and carriers check, what AI builders get wrong and how to test your own site. If you'd rather not, we build it for $2,450 flat.
- What shippers and carriers check
- Every FMCSA rule linked to its source
- Free tools to check what you build
Free guide · Updated October 2026
The authority block
Footer, every page · Example layout
- FMCSA-authorized property broker
- [Legal name on your FMCSA record]
- USDOT [number] · MC-[number]
- $75,000 BMC-84 surety bond, [surety]
- Check us on FMCSA SAFER
- 49 CFR 371.7(b): broker advertising must show broker status
- Broker security is $75,000: a BMC-84 bond or BMC-85 trust fund
- MC numbers stay under FMCSA's new Motus registration system
- Free guide, with free tools to check what you build
The short answer
What is the best website builder for a freight broker?
The one you'll keep up to date. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, WordPress and the AI builders can all make a freight broker website that does its job, and the builder matters less than what's on the page. Shippers check a new broker before they tender a load, and carriers check before they haul for one. Both look for the same things: proof you're authorized, a real company behind the name, and a way to get a quote or get set up without phone tag.
Freight-specific site builders exist too, with broker pages already laid out. They're a head start; change enough of the wording that your site doesn't read like every other broker on the same template. Whichever you choose, the checklist below decides whether the site helps you.
Choose a builder that
- Puts your text in the page's HTML
- Lets you change any sentence yourself
- Sends form leads to your business email
- Connects your own domain
Builders compared
Four kinds of website builder, and what to watch for with each
Described by what they are, not ranked. Each is a reasonable choice for a broker; each has one thing to check before you publish.
| Kind of tool | Examples | Good at | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-and-drop builders | Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy | Hosting, security certificates, forms and editing are handled for you, and you can change any sentence yourself the same day. | Templates arrive with generic copy and stock photos. Replace every line, and point the form at your business email, not the builder's inbox. |
| AI website generators | Durable, Hostinger's and Wix's AI builders | A whole first draft, pages and copy included, from a few answers about your business. | They fill gaps with plausible claims: years in business, jobs done, reviews, "licensed and bonded". Read every sentence as if a customer will check it. |
| AI app builders | Lovable, Bolt, v0, Replit | Custom layouts and working tools, like a quote calculator, from a conversation. | They build web apps. Check that every page has its own title and that its text is in the HTML (the test below), and set up hosting, the domain and form delivery yourself. |
| WordPress with a theme | WordPress.org on your own hosting | The most control and the largest choice of plugins, themes and people who know it. | Updates, backups and security are your job, and heavy themes are slow on a phone. |
The checklist
What a freight broker website has to show
Three of these are federal rules. The rest are what shippers and carriers check before they work with a broker they haven't used.
Your broker status, in words
Federal rules say "any advertising shall show the broker status of the operation", and your website is advertising. Put "FMCSA-authorized property broker" in the footer of every page, with a line saying you arrange freight with authorized motor carriers. Source: 49 CFR 371.7(b).
The exact name on your registration
A broker may not offer brokerage, advertising included, "in any name other than that in which its registration is issued". Use the legal name or the DBA on your FMCSA record, spelled the same way. A new trade name goes on the record first. Source: 49 CFR 371.7(a).
USDOT and MC numbers, linked to SAFER
Show both as text, not inside an image, and link to your SAFER company snapshot using your USDOT number: SAFER's MC search can miss the newer 8-digit MC numbers. MC numbers aren't going away; FMCSA's Motus system keeps them (Federal Register, April 29, 2026). The free compliance block generator writes your broker status, name, numbers and SAFER link from your FMCSA record.
Your bond, by its details
Broker security is $75,000, as a BMC-84 surety bond or a BMC-85 trust fund (49 CFR 387.307). Say which one and with whom: "$75,000 BMC-84 surety bond, [surety]". A bare "bonded" tells a careful shipper nothing they can check.
A business email on your own domain
Carriers get warned about brokers being impersonated, and a Gmail or Yahoo address looks like exactly that. Use an address on your website's domain everywhere: the site, the quote form and the carrier packet.
A carrier setup page
How a carrier gets set up with you (an onboarding platform like RMIS, Highway or MyCarrierPackets, or your own packet), what you require, how you pay and who to call. It saves your team the same phone call every day.
A quote form that asks freight questions
Pickup and delivery, date, equipment, commodity and weight. A form that only asks for a name and a message gets you a phone call to collect the same answers.
Nothing free for shippers
"First load free" and gift-card offers are out: a broker may not give a shipper anything of value beyond inexpensive advertising items. Source: 49 CFR 371.9(b).
The pages
A freight broker website template: the pages you need
Not a theme to download: a page plan that works in any builder. New authority? Start with Home, Get a quote, Carrier setup and Contact.
| Page | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Home | Tells a shipper in one screen what you arrange and where, and sends carriers to setup. |
| Get a quote | Turns a shipper's visit into a load you can price. |
| Carrier setup | Gets carriers onboarded without phone tag. |
| Services | One section for each mode you arrange. |
| Lanes | Where you're strongest. |
| About | Shows a real company stands behind the MC number. |
| Contact | A way to reach a person. |
What goes wrong
What AI builders get wrong on freight broker sites
Writing you up as a carrier
Ask an AI for a freight website and it writes "our fleet" and "our drivers" and puts your name on a truck in the hero. For a broker that's more than inaccurate: the same rule that asks for your broker status says a broker shall not represent its operations as a carrier.
Inventing the proof
"10,000+ loads delivered", "trusted by Fortune 500 shippers", five-star reviews from people who don't exist. A shipper who checks one of them stops believing the rest.
"Licensed, bonded and insured"
Boilerplate that every template ships with. Replace it with the authority block: your numbers, your bond by its details and the SAFER link.
Pages that only exist in the browser
Some builders, AI app builders especially, send a nearly empty page and build the text with scripts. It looks right to you and arrives blank to a crawler that doesn't run scripts. The test beside this list takes two minutes.
A form that goes nowhere
Builders send form entries to their own dashboard by default. Send yourself a test quote request, and check that it lands in the inbox your team actually reads.
The view-source test, about two minutes
- On your live site, right-click the page and choose View Page Source, or press Ctrl+U (Option+Cmd+U on a Mac).
- Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F) and search for a sentence you can see on the page, like the first sentence under your headline.
- Found: crawlers get your words. Not found, and the source is mostly script tags: the page builds itself in the browser. Ask your builder to turn on server rendering or prerendering, then test again.
- Search the source for <title>. Each page needs its own, saying what that page is. The same title on every page tells search engines every page is the same.
Why it matters: Google runs a page's scripts, though it can take longer to get to them. When Vercel measured AI crawlers in December 2024, the crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity didn't run scripts at all, so they only read what's in that source (Vercel, "The rise of the AI crawler").
Do it yourself, or not
Build it yourself or have it built: an honest comparison
Three ways to get a freight broker website live. They trade your time and your risk against your money differently.
| Compare | Website builder, yourself | AI tool, yourself | Done for you, by us |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | A builder plan and a domain, plus your time. | The tool's subscription, plus hosting and a domain if not included, plus your time. | $2,450 flat for up to 20 pages. Care, $395 a month for hosting, forms and small changes, is optional. |
| Your time | A weekend or two, with this guide. | An afternoon for the draft, then the fact-check and the view-source test. | Answering our questions and checking the preview. Live in two weeks. |
| Who writes the words | You, replacing the template's copy. | The AI drafts; you check every sentence. | We write from your FMCSA record, bond and answers; you review it on the preview. |
| What can go wrong | Template copy that reads like every other broker, "licensed, bonded and insured" boilerplate, and a quote form that lands in the builder's dashboard. | "Our fleet" and "our drivers" on a broker's site, invented load counts or reviews, and pages search engines can't read (the view-source test). | Our job to catch before launch: every fact against your SAFER record and bond, the quote form tested end to end, the view-source test passed. |
A builder is enough when the site's job is to pass a check: you have new authority and a few shipper relationships, and the site has to show you're real, authorized and easy to reach. A weekend with this guide gets you there.
Hand it off when the site has to bring business in: lane and equipment pages that rank, separate paths for shippers and carriers, a quote form tested end to end, and someone who fixes it when it breaks. That's our build, $2,450 flat for up to 20 pages, live in two weeks.
Questions? Talk to Nicolas
Nicolas Perez, Co-founder & CEO
He and his co-founder, Noah Alvarez, build the sites themselves. Ask him about your site, whether we build it or you do.
Rather call? (661) 666-2416
Questions
Freight broker website questions
What website do freight brokers use?
There's no standard. Broker sites run on Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and WordPress, on freight-specific builders and on custom builds. The good ones share the same things: broker status in words, USDOT and MC numbers linked to SAFER, the bond by its details, a carrier setup page and a quote form that asks freight questions.
Can I build a freight broker website with AI?
Yes, and it gets you a full draft in an afternoon. Two things need your attention before you publish: AI writers describe brokers as carriers ("our fleet", "our drivers") and invent numbers and reviews, so fact-check every sentence; and some AI builders produce pages that search engines and AI assistants can't read, so run the view-source test on this page.
Is there a free freight broker website template?
Yes. The page list on this page is free and works in any builder: seven pages, from Home and Get a quote to Carrier setup and Lanes.
Does a freight broker have to show its MC number on its website?
No federal rule names the website and the MC number specifically. The rule that does apply is 49 CFR 371.7: advertising must show your broker status, under the name your registration is issued in. Show your USDOT and MC numbers anyway, as text with a link to your SAFER record. They are the first thing a shipper or carrier checks.
How much is a freight broker bond?
Broker security is $75,000, as a surety bond on Form BMC-84 or a trust fund on Form BMC-85 (49 CFR 387.307). What you pay the surety each year is a premium on that amount, and it depends on your credit and history. On your website, state the bond by its form and surety rather than the word "bonded".
How much does a freight broker website cost?
Doing it yourself costs a builder plan and a domain, plus your time. Our build is $2,450 flat for up to 20 pages, with the authority block, carrier setup page and quote form included. The free website cost calculator puts numbers on both ways, doing it yourself on a builder or having us build it, with every figure sourced.
Build it yourself, or have it built?
The free cost calculator puts both side by side for year one, in cash and in your hours, with every price sourced. Built it already? The free check reads it the way a buyer and a search engine do.