Online Business Brokers and Marketplaces
Finding a local small business often means building your own list and knocking on doors. Finding an online business works differently. Most sellers of profitable websites, SaaS products, e-commerce stores, and content sites list through one of a small number of marketplaces or brokers, because that's where the buyers already are. For a searcher, that's good news: the deal flow is concentrated in a handful of places instead of scattered across a fragmented local market.
Marketplace vs. broker
Before comparing platforms, it helps to know which kind you're looking at.
- Marketplaces let sellers list a business directly, with the platform providing the listing tools, escrow, and some level of vetting. Listing requirements aren't very strict, so business quality varies a lot from one listing to the next. You're doing more of the evaluation legwork yourself, but the deal flow is high in volume and covers every size range, including very small sites.
- Brokerages pre-vet sellers, package the listing (financials, traffic, and growth story), and typically run a managed process closer to how a traditional business broker sells an SMB. Deal sizes tend to run higher, and the businesses have usually had their numbers checked before they ever reach a buyer. That curated vetting comes at a cost, usually a broker fee or commission baked into the price, so expect to pay more than you would on a self-serve marketplace.
Neither is strictly better. A first-time searcher with a smaller budget often starts on a self-serve marketplace, while someone targeting a six- or seven-figure acquisition is more likely to spend most of their time with a curated brokerage.
How the popular platforms compare
| Platform | Type | To see full listing details | What it's known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flippa | Marketplace | Free account to browse; an NDA or verification step is required for the full financials on larger listings. | Highest listing volume and widest range of business types, from small content sites to established SaaS. More buyer diligence required since vetting varies by listing. |
| Empire Flippers | Brokerage | Free account to browse teasers; becoming a vetted buyer (identity and funds check) unlocks full financials and seller contact. | Pre-vets seller financials before listing. Popular for content sites, e-commerce, and SaaS with a clean earnings history. |
| Acquire.com | Marketplace | Free account to browse; an NDA is required before full financials and founder contact are unlocked. | Focused heavily on SaaS and startups, including some pre-revenue businesses. Skews toward a founder-to-founder feel. |
What actually matters when choosing a platform
Vetting level. Empire Flippers runs the strictest process of the three: a multi-week review that independently verifies revenue and traffic against Stripe, PayPal, and Google Analytics rather than trusting seller-reported numbers, and rejects 91% of applicants[1]. Flippa offers an optional "Vetted by Flippa" badge for listings that go through a human review of financials and traffic, but most listings, especially under $50K, carry no such check. Acquire.com doesn't vet sellers or their numbers at all; it focuses its verification on buyers instead (see below). None of this replaces your own due diligence once you're seriously looking at a listing.
Fee structure. This varies more by platform than it might seem, and it's worth checking before you assume the seller is footing the whole bill. On Flippa, browsing and buying are free; the seller pays the commission (10% under $50K, 7.5% between $50K and $99,999, 5% at $100K and up) plus a listing fee[2]. Empire Flippers charges buyers no membership fee or unlock deposit at all, just ID and proof-of-funds verification, while the seller pays a blended success fee that runs 15% up to $700,000 of the price and drops to as low as 2.5% on the portion above $5 million[3]. Acquire.com flips the model: sellers pay little beyond a small monthly listing fee, and buyers pay for access instead, via an annual membership ($390 Premium for listings up to $250K, $780 Platinum for everything)[4].
Business category fit. Flippa is the broadest of the three, with e-commerce making up roughly half its listings and content sites over a quarter[5], alongside SaaS, apps, and domains. Empire Flippers leans toward already-profitable content and affiliate sites, Amazon FBA brands, e-commerce stores, and established SaaS with steady MRR. Acquire.com started as SaaS-only and still skews that way, though it now also lists e-commerce, agencies, content, newsletters, and mobile apps. Matching the platform to the type of business you actually want saves time versus browsing broadly.
Buyer verification requirements. Empire Flippers requires both ID verification and proof of liquid funds before a listing's full details unlock at all, done either by connecting a bank account or uploading financial documents. Acquire.com makes fund verification optional rather than mandatory, but sellers can filter to only engage buyers who carry the "Verified funds" badge, so skipping it limits which deals respond to you. Flippa mostly leaves buyers unverified by default; funds verification (via Plaid) only kicks in when a seller of a $250K+ listing chooses to require it.
Financials format. Some brokerages, Empire Flippers among them, package every listing's financials into the same standardized format. That makes it much faster to review and compare listings side by side, versus marketplaces where each seller's numbers show up in whatever format they happen to keep their own books in.
Support during transfer. How much help you get moving the business into your hands varies a lot. Empire Flippers assigns a dedicated migration advisor who builds a transfer checklist and stays on for 30 days of post-sale technical support, all included in the seller's commission. Flippa leaves the actual handover to the buyer and seller, offering asset-transfer guides and general advice but no dedicated migration team. Acquire.com treats transition support as a deal term you negotiate yourself, whether that's a holdback, an earnout, or the seller staying on for a stretch, with your customer success manager available if you get stuck.
Working more than one channel
Most searchers who actually close a deal aren't watching a single platform. They set up saved searches or alerts across two or three marketplaces that fit their target category and budget, and they check in on a regular cadence rather than a one-time browse. Because sellers often relist or adjust price after sitting on the market for a while, a listing that looked overpriced on day one can look very different a few months later.
It's also worth remembering that broker and marketplace listings aren't the only channel. A meaningful number of online businesses change hands through direct, off-market conversations with the owner, the same way local small businesses do. That's a slower, higher-effort channel, but it comes with less competition and more room to negotiate.
Next: go browse a couple of these platforms to get a feel for what's out there, then come back and put together a plan for what you're actually searching for, so you're not evaluating every listing that shows up.
Sources
- [1]Empire Flippers: why 91% of businesses don't pass our vetting process ↩
- [2]Flippa Help Center: listing fees, success fees, charges and pricing ↩
- [3]Empire Flippers: commission calculator ↩
- [4]Acquire.com: buyer pricing plans ↩
- [5]Investors Club: essential Flippa statistics ↩