I’m at a station in Creative mode to try some things out before returning to my new or old save in Normal.
I’m thinking of getting this ship, but I have no freighter yet on this save. I also don’t want to give up my fighter quite yet. It is offering me two options: Purchase or Exchange.
So can I purchase this hauler and have it show up on my freighter when I get it, and still keep my current fighter? I would rather not make an exchange at this point.
TIA
You are offered 2 options and without a freighter, you will not be able to keep both ships.
Option two however, without a freighter, will leave your old ship behind and will eventually disappear when moving out too far I believe. Your old ship will basically not wait until you can actually store it safely, for all I know.
You can however switch back and forth between the two to move over items, break down technology and such, to be left with the one you truly wish, having the best of both, sort of.
It appears you can have multiple ships without a Freighter, read other replies in this topic!
Excellent reply. And very fast, too. Thank you! 
(Now I can let go of this Gek’s sleeve, uncramp my hand and let him properly flee this mad Anomaly that’s been chewing their ear off while waiting for an answer --lol)
I don’t think there is this option, but it would be nice if you have a frieghter and you find a ship on a station but you want to keep the one you have, you could order the new or current one back to your frieghter or base
Can’t you spawn in you ships individually now?
Yes you can…which is probably why they made it so that when you call your freighter your ships don’t even appear in their landing spots…this makes me wonder if people can now have multiple ships without a freighter. I see what @DevilinPixy is saying but has this been tested? Is it verified that people can’t just summon all their own ships at will regardless of whether they own a freighter?
Did you start a new save @TravelEcho?
What happens to your current ship if you call in another one on a planet?
I think @Mad-Hatter posted a pic displaying his fleet on the surface of a planet. So you can summon them all at once at least.
I guess the only way to test the owning more ships without a freighter is to check the summon ships option once purchased a new one, by rights, your old ship should no longer appear here.
It was @toddumptious but I have done it myself.
In the pop up menu for summoning ships you can choose to summon your current ship or one of your others. They tend to disappear when you go away. They no longer clog up your freighter allowing traders but I’ve found you need to be on land to call them so you can swap.
Not sure what happens after a reload but I’d imagine they are all sitting in you freighter until you use them.
Sometimes all six of my ship are in my freighter, and some times not. I think they are there for reloads and entering new systems.
Yes I did! PC Normal Mode. Also PC Creative Mode. The one pictured above is Creative Mode. But this option exists in Normal mode without a freighter, too.
Yeah, looks like you can in fact own multiple ships right from the get-go. You can’t summon them to freighters, so if a ship is not on a freighter you can’t switch to it there, you have to go planetside, which is a bit of an oversight. I’m thinking about reporting an issue about that.
I’m also thinking about a scheme for a little salvage business, since this also applies to crashed ships 
Good to know this has now changed. I based my initial reply on what I knew so far. Hope I did not mess up your choice 
Thanks and no worries. I tend to be overly cautious anyway, I let that poor Gek go on their way. I will have to boost my units again before doing much more “window shopping”. lol
I love shopping, but my wallet keeps complaining, so I am stuck to those ‘windows’ a while longer.
Maybe this has been said already, just sharing my experience with this:
I had my starter ship in a new save, and found a crashed ship. It was an A-class fighter and looked very good except for the broken tech that I had no means of repairing just yet, being in the early-game. But I noticed that I had two options (as has been said here above): Buy for zero units, or Exchange. So I thought I’d give it a try and I bought it. I couldn’t fly it, it was broken as hell, but now I had two ships.
Forward three IRL days with several hours played in each day. I now have a freighter. I’ve jumped in and out of the freighter several times of course, and I never saw that other ship I once “bought”. I was sometimes trying to remember the planet where I had found and left it, and thought that it’s gone forever.
Anyway, when playing this morning, said A-class fighter had now spawned inside my freighter!
So - I really do have two ships, and the Buy (0 units) option actually works - albeit with a time delay. It’s still quite expensive to repair and I didn’t do it yet, but just to let you know that it works.
You can also summon your broken ship on any planet surface if you wish to see it or repair it, which might come in very handy!
Thanks for sharing your experience on this, very informative and useful.
Makes me wonder if connection to online services had anything to do with your 2nd ship spawning on your freighter. I am also curious if we can send any ship to our freighter, instead of flying it there ourselves. It does however make sense to remain on the planet unless you fly it elsewhere. Seems weird to just spawn on your freighter without a pilot or command to do so. Then again, maybe it has an auto-pilot to fly there once it starts feeling lonely and abandoned 
Wow, you can summon a broken ship??? Handy, but makes no sense in all honesty.
So much to learn and re-discover. Looking forward to finding some time to play again
It seems to me that all ships spawn on your freighter after save/quit/load. There’s no way to send or summon them.
Reminds me of the remote control summoned ship in aliens.
There should be an option in your summon vehicle pop up menu. It looks like a stack of coloured ships…
