Bring a Trailer Auctions vs CarPair
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bring a Trailer Auctions
Discover, discuss, and buy classic and collector vehicles through transparent auctions. Engage with a knowledgeable community and receive real-time updates on your favorite listings. Bid with confidence thanks to community vetting and sniping protection.
- Browse and bid on vehicles
- Transparent auction listings
- Community vetting and discussion
- Custom alerts and notifications
- Sniping protection
- Watchlist functionality
- Explore results with charts
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Bring a Trailer Auctions are the best way to discover, discuss, and buy classic, collector, and enthusiast vehicles. We curate vehicles submitted by our users and craft transparent auction listings that present the vehicles as they are—without superlatives or dubious used-car-lot language. BaT’s knowledgeable community of more than 900,000 users and over 400,000 registered bidders help vet each listing so potential buyers can bid with confidence. The BaT app now makes it easy to browse and bid on vehicles anywhere, anytime–with streamlined vehicle submission functionality coming soon for sellers. DISCOVER AND BROWSE Find out what’s trending, see what’s ending soon, and watch the latest bids roll in on the Discover page. Know what you’re looking for? Search and filter in the Auctions tab to narrow down hundreds of listings. VARIETY OF VEHICLES BaT’s curation mirrors our eclectic taste: off-roaders are mixed with track cars, domestic makes with foreign brands, motorcycles with vintage RVs, parts with projects. We even auction re-creations, kit cars, boats, and automobilia! COMMENT THREADS We’re known for our knowledgeable and active community of enthusiasts. Easily tag other users in the app to keep the conversation going. TRANSPARENT BIDDING Place bids quickly and easily, with no surprise fees. The BaT buyer fee is 5% of the final bid price on top of the winning bid, with a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $7,500. Any additional dealer fees required by the seller will be clearly stated in the listing when applicable. SNIPING PROTECTION Each time a bid is placed at the end of an auction, the clock is extended by two minutes–giving everyone a fair chance to place their maximum bid. CUSTOM ALERTS AND NOTIFICATIONS Push notifications and the Activity Feed keep you up to date on your favorite topics, so you can stay on top of the action in real time. We can let you know when a seller adds more photos to a listing, when your favorite models go live, and when you’ve been outbid, among other things. Update settings for these events, as well as emails and sounds for bids and comments, in the More tab. NEW ENDING SOON EXPERIENCE Now you can keep an eye on multiple auctions simultaneously as they count down in the final minutes. In the new Ending Soon section, watch the comments and bids roll in for all auctions ending in the next 24 hours. EXPLORE RESULTS WITH INTERACTIVE CHARTS See the big picture or focus on what matters to you. Easily find results by adjusting the bid amount, timeframe, or vehicle year, or by making a selection right on a results chart. WATCHLIST The watchlist is home base for all of your favorite auctions, makes, models, categories, eras, and origins–just hit the bell or star to save items. We’ll even let you know when you’ve been outbid on a watched auction so you can quickly place another bid! SELLER TOOLS Quickly upload photos, reply to bidders, adjust your reserve, and see stats for your live listings. Submissions and more seller features are coming to the app soon!
CarPair
Sell your car easily from home with a guided inspection process. List your vehicle for auction or receive offers from a network of dealers. Securely communicate with potential buyers.
- Sell car from home
- Guided inspection process
- List for auction
- Receive dealer offers
- Secure buyer communication
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Sell your car from the convenience of your own home. Enjoy the SELF.IE experience - an easy guided inspection process to list or auction your vehicle. Inspect and put your own vehicle up for auction from the comfort of your own driveway. Let CarPair send you offers from its network of dealers or let CarPair list and sell your vehicle in a competitive auction. Safely communicate with buyers by choosing when and how you share your contact information.
Screenshots
Verdict
Bring a Trailer Auctions and CarPair both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 89% of CarPair's written reviews are positive against 36% of Bring a Trailer Auctions's. CarPair also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Bring a Trailer Auctions's advantage is ratings volume (7.8K vs 37) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Bring a Trailer Auctions against 4.9 for CarPair. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bring a Trailer Auctions has 7.8K ratings behind it against 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 36% of Bring a Trailer Auctions's written reviews are positive against 89% of CarPair's.
Bring a Trailer Auctions ships an update fortnightly, CarPair every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bring a Trailer Auctions | CarPair |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (7.8K ratings) | 4.9 (37 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.1% of reviews | 88.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7.8K — better | 37 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 125 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bring A Trailer | CarPair, LLC |
Customer experience
Bring a Trailer Auctions
CarPair
Bugs and requests
Bring a Trailer Auctions
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login issues
- Slow loading and freezing
- Notifications overload
Requested features
3 requests- Add filter by location/distance
- Improve bidding interface
- Optimize for iPad
CarPair
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bring a Trailer Auctions
No in-app purchases
CarPair
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bring a Trailer Auctions free?
Is CarPair free?
Which has better reviews, Bring a Trailer Auctions or CarPair?
Do Bring a Trailer Auctions or CarPair have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bring a Trailer Auctions or CarPair?
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