Frequently Asked Questions

Gun Rack is a firearms price comparison platform that aggregates live inventory and pricing from FFL dealers across the country. We help buyers find the best deal on firearms, ammunition, optics, and accessories — and help small dealers compete with the big-box aggregators without paying per-click fees.

No. Gun Rack is a comparison and directory platform — we don't sell anything ourselves. When you find a product you want, you're routed to the dealer's own website to complete the transaction. All firearms transactions follow standard FFL transfer procedures at the point of purchase.

Yes — for buyers, everything is free. Browsing the catalog, comparing prices, using the loadout builder, setting price alerts, and joining the community forums cost nothing. Dealers pay a flat monthly subscription to list their inventory. We also offer an optional VIP membership for buyers who want early access to deals and additional features.

You can browse anonymously. An account unlocks personalized features: price drop alerts, wishlists, saved loadouts, forum participation, and dealer reviews. Registration is free and takes about 30 seconds.

Three things: flat-rate dealer pricing (no per-click charges), full transparency for both buyers and dealers (dealers see every listing they have plus unmatched UPCs), and a genuine community layer with forums, loadouts, reviews, and legislative tracking. We're built for the enthusiast, not the affiliate marketer.

We're headquartered in Illinois. Our team has direct experience in firearms retail and ATF compliance, which is why we understand what small dealers need.

Search by product name, UPC, or MPN in the search bar, or browse by category. Every product page shows a live price comparison table with all dealers currently listing that item, sorted by total delivered cost (price + shipping). Free shipping and in-stock status are clearly flagged.

Sticker price alone is misleading. A $499 rifle with $30 shipping costs more than a $509 rifle with free shipping. Our comparison table calculates the real total you'll pay, so the cheapest listing is actually the cheapest. Shipping estimates come directly from dealer feeds.

On any product page, click "Set Price Alert" and enter your target price. You'll get an email (and push notification if you're on the mobile app) the moment any dealer drops below that price. Manage all your alerts from your account settings.

Heat Scores are community-driven signals showing genuinely hot deals — based on price history, community votes, and dealer verification. The Fire badge appears on the most significant price drops. It's community wisdom, not paid placement, so you can trust these signals.

Every product page displays state shipping restrictions clearly — including magazine capacity limits, feature restrictions (like California's roster), NFA requirements, and any dealer-specific policies. You'll never get to checkout only to find out the item can't ship to you.

A Loadout is a complete firearms build, for example a home defense AR-15 with an optic, light, sling, and ammo. Our Loadout Builder lets you assemble components with live dealer pricing, see your true total build cost, swap items to compare configurations, and share your build publicly with the community.

VIP is an optional $9.99/month buyer membership that unlocks: unlimited price alerts (free users get up to 10), advanced loadout features, early access to featured deals, ad-free browsing, a VIP badge in the community, and exclusive giveaways. Cancel anytime.

After a purchase, verified buyers can rate dealers across three categories: Pricing Accuracy, Shipping Speed, and Customer Service. Dealers can publicly respond to reviews, and negative reviews can be disputed through a fully transparent process. Every step is visible to all users — accountability, not hidden feedback.

Visit our dealer signup page, pick a subscription tier, complete Stripe checkout, and you're immediately inside the dashboard. The 7-step onboarding wizard walks you through account setup, FFL verification, and connecting your product feed — no back-and-forth emails required.

No — never. Flat monthly subscription only. Zero per-click charges. Zero performance fees. Zero surprises at the end of the month. What you see on your subscription is what you pay, period.

Four tiers to fit different dealer sizes — from single-shop starter to high-volume enterprise. Each tier includes different sync frequencies, priority placement options, analytics depth, and support levels. See the dealer memberships page for the full feature comparison.

XML, JSON, and CSV — full parity across all three formats. If you don't have a feed URL, you can also upload a CSV manually (though we recommend a live feed for automatic price updates). Any format can be changed later from your dashboard.

Sync frequency scales with your subscription tier. Faster sync means more up-to-date prices, which means better placement in comparison tables and higher click-through. Exact frequencies are listed on the dealer memberships page.

Unmatched UPCs are products in your feed that don't match anything in our master catalog — usually because we haven't added that item yet, or because your feed uses a slightly different UPC format. These listings won't appear to buyers until they're matched. Your dashboard shows every unmatched UPC so you know exactly what's hidden and why — and you can request that we add missing products.

Yes — to list firearms and NFA items you must be a verified FFL. FFL verification is part of the onboarding wizard

We'll email you after 3 consecutive failed sync attempts so you can fix credentials or endpoint issues before your listings go stale. Your listings stay live for a 3 day grace period, but if the feed is offline for an extended time, we mark listings as unavailable to protect buyer trust in accurate pricing.

Yes, anytime — from your dashboard. Upgrades are prorated and take effect immediately (your next feed import runs at the new tier's frequency). Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing cycle.

Yes. Your dashboard shows impressions, click-throughs to your site, price comparison position, and how you rank against competing dealers on shared products. Higher tiers unlock more detailed analytics including trend data over time and competitor pricing benchmarks.

All major credit and debit cards — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover — processed securely through Stripe. We do not store card details on our servers; Stripe handles everything under PCI-DSS Level 1 compliance.

No annual contracts. All subscriptions are month-to-month and can be canceled at any time from your account settings. You won't be charged after cancellation, and your account remains active through the end of the current billing period.

Log in, go to Account Settings → Subscriptions, and click Cancel next to the subscription you want to end. Your listings stay live through the end of your current billing period, then are automatically taken offline. You can reactivate anytime with a new subscription.

Subscription fees are non-refundable once the billing period begins, but we don't lock you in — cancel anytime and you won't be charged again. For accidental double-charges, incorrect billing, or exceptional circumstances, contact support@gunrack.deals and we'll make it right.

Your card is charged immediately on signup and then on the same date each following month. You can view your next billing date, download invoices, and update payment methods from your account settings anytime.

We'll retry the charge automatically over the next few days and email you at each attempt. Your listings stay live during the 3 day grace period. If payment can't be recovered after multiple attempts, your subscription is paused and listings go offline — reactivate at any time by updating your card.

Currently all subscriptions are monthly. We're evaluating annual plans with a discount — let us know if this is something you'd want, and we'll factor demand into the roadmap.

An Invision PWA (Progressive Web App) is a mobile-optimized version of an Invision Community forum or website. It acts just like a regular mobile app, but it runs directly inside your device's web browser.

A Chrome extension is in development. It will scan the product page you're currently on for a UPC, then show you Gun Rack pricing from all dealers so you can compare in real time. Sign up for our newsletter to hear when it launches.

No, We currently dont offer a public API.

We take security seriously. Passwords are hashed and salted, payment data never touches our servers (handled by payment processor), all traffic is HTTPS-encrypted, and backups are encrypted at rest. Built on Invision Community, an enterprise-grade platform with a 20+ year security track record.

Check our status page (link in the footer) for any active incidents. If everything's green there, try clearing your browser cache and hard-refreshing (Ctrl+F5 on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac). If problems persist, contact us with the URL, your browser, and a screenshot.

The fastest path is our community forums. There's a dedicated Feedback & Bugs subforum where our team monitors daily. For account-specific issues, contact support directly. We take user feedback seriously and ship improvements weekly.

Most tickets are answered within one business day. Dealer support (from Pro and Enterprise tiers) has faster support, see your subscription tier for details. Community forum questions typically get answered same-day by staff or other members.

Yes. All firearms purchases require an ATF Form 4473 and NICS background check completed at your local FFL at the time of transfer (some exemptions do apply this however). Gun Rack is a comparison platform; the actual transaction and transfer happens through the dealer and the FFL you choose. This is federal law and applies to every legal firearms purchase in the United States.

Enter your ZIP code and we'll show verified FFLs near you sorted by distance. You choose your preferred FFL at the point of checkout on the dealer's site.

Firearms law varies dramatically by state. Magazine capacity limits, feature bans, roster requirements, waiting periods, and more. Every product page shows compliance flags relevant to your state (based on your shipping address) so you know before you click "Buy" whether a product can legally ship to you.

No. We dont sell anything, we just point you to sellers that do. However NFA-marked products display clearly with the appropriate red NFA badge, tax stamp requirements, and estimated ATF processing timelines. The transfer still requires all standard NFA paperwork (Form 4 for individuals, Form 5320.23 for trusts) at your chosen FFL/dealer.

A live updated tracker of pending state and federal legislation affecting firearms owners. See what's being proposed, its status through committee, and which representatives are voting how. Set alerts for your state so you know when a bill affecting your rights is up for a vote.

Every product page has a "Report a pricing error" link below the comparison table. Reports go into a moderation queue and are reviewed within 24 hours. Dealers with confirmed pricing errors are notified, and repeated inaccuracies affect their dealer rating.