Both of these platforms feel very similar in terms of fees, commissions and the marketplace positioning, so I wanted to dive in a bit and share my thoughts on how they actually stack up.

Flippa

• Founded: 2009

• Number of Buyers and Sellers: 450,000 (Founders & Investors)

• Number of Users: 3 million

• Number of deals done: 100,000

• Deal volume: n/a (I couldn't find any reliable data here)

Acquire

• Founded: 2020

• Number of Buyers and Sellers: 500,000 (Founders & Investors)

• Number of Users: 500K

• Number of deals done: 2000+

• Deal volume: $500 million

Volume and seriousness of buyers

Flippa: Flippa doesn’t disclose the deal volume, so although founders have done 100K deals on the platform since 2009, it’s not clear what the average exit value is.

Acquire: Claims 500K users. And claims $500M in deal volumes, spread over 2000 deals, so back-of-the-napkin math = the average deal on Acquire is worth $250K.

Unlike Flippa, this makes Acquire more transparent and indicates the sort of success rates founders are getting on their platform.

That being said, Flippa still does a higher volume of sales, which may be appealing if your biggest concern is getting your business in front of a large audience of potential buyers.

Track record and reputation

Flippa: Flippa has been in the business of helping founders and buyers meet and transact since 2009. It’s got an established reputation across dozens of sectors, making it a trusted go-to name in the M&A world.

Acquire: Acquire hasn’t been around as long (5 years now), but has carved out a trusted name for itself amongst startup founders and serious buyers of startups.

Listing visibility

Flippa: Is more pay-to-play. The more your business is worth, the more you pay, but the better visibility.

Acquire: Builds ad campaigns and profile optimizations into every listing. In that sense, visibility comes as standard.

Seller support

Flippa: Very much pay-to-play. If you’re aiming for $1M+ then you get full M&A broker support, and you pay the premium for that service. Given they bill every 6 months, it seems to benefit them that you list for longer.

Acquire: Acquire goes the other way: they want you to have made a successful exit quickly. So, they streamline the whole process from start to finish, and provide helpful support for SaaS founders looking to sell.

Listing fees and sales commission

This is were it get's interesting...

Flippa: Flippa also uses an asking-price model, plus a monthly listing fee.

There’s literally a sliding scale, and the more help you want selling and bigger boost (visibility), the more they charge.

So for example: :

• < $250K: 10% Fee + $99/mo > $799 to list, boost reach, or have an M&A broker support the process. The listing etc., fees are billed every 6 months.

• $250K ⏤ $1M: 8% Fee + $99/mo > $899 to list, etc. *

• $1M+: 7% Fee + $1,299/mo (billed every 6 months) for an M&A broker to support the process.

* Let’s say it takes 6 months to sell for $1M at the top-tier service package, it’s going to cost: $85,394 via Flippa.

Acquire: Acquire also uses an asking-price model, plus a monthly listing fee:

• < $250K: 8% Fee + $20/mo to list

• $250K ⏤ $1M: 7% Fee + $50/mo to list *

• $1M+: 6% Fee + $100/mo to list

* Let’s say it takes 6 months to sell for $1M, it’s going to cost $70,300 via Acquire= A $15,094 difference!

On the numbers alone, Acquire will save some on fees, but I think it really comes down to WHAT you are selling.

Both have a purpose...

For SaaS founders and startups, I think the choice is simple: Acquire is the clear winner.

For founders selling almost anything under $100k, Flippa feels like the better option with more visibility for sellers, even if Acquire now sells across similar categories.

I will say that for larger deals over $250k, it pays to have a legit brokerage. There are a variety of upmarket (or midmarket) specialists here like Quiet Light for ecom, SaaS or Empire Flippers for content.

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Hope this has all been helpful, I'll update as I can. Welcome any feedback + other ideas in the comments.

I'm on my last couple semester of university and I'm planning on owning a business in the near future after that. I figured that it might be easier to acquire an existing business than starting one from scratch, so I'm starting to look around. I've been looking at marketplaces like Flippa or Acquire and from what I've seen, most projects for sale under $100K seem to be total scams where someone just made a crappy site and faked traffic/sales data. Considering that I'll only have 10-15k to invest, the profitable projects that go for over 1M are out of my league.

I was wondering if anyone purchased a business from one of those marketplaces. I would love to hear any success/horror stories. I'm interested in how much did you spend and if it turned out to be a good investment.

I was looking at some of the businesses on acquire and Flippa. I figured if I can vet the business to my satisfaction it may not be a bad idea to buy say a ~5k business and work on it as a side hustle. I work from home and have some software dev experience, so that aspect would make it easier but im not necessarily looking to grab a sofware dev heavy business. My goal would be to turn a ~300/month net revenue business into $2k a month net over a couple of years.

Happy to learn more about how/where to find online/SAAS business to acquire.

Has anyone used Flippa or MicroAquire to buy a SaaS or eComm site and if so would you mind sharing how it went and/or how the biz you bought is doing - smooth transition and transaction or ? Thx!!

Can someone not very familiar with coding , digital marketing , ect…. Own a SaaS online business ? Could be a company who already has employees tech savvy enough , as owner i can also put my hrs in and work day to day …..

Edit : Thanks to everyone who has been responding , i do want to say , i am open to learning the skill as well ! If ya can point me in the direction of what i need to study to eventually work for a SaaS company and then go for buying one or creating one !

I have had a Shopify site since 2020. Sales of $200k, then $700k, then $460k the last 3 years, but I'm ready to move on to other projects.

Has anyone sold on Flippa here? Is it legit? Or should I look at hiring a broker or something?

I see many potential buyers here but I am wondering if anyone actually sold his business/app/website for real money (100k+) on reddit/acquire/flippa. Or is it just all talk and no action? I am thinking about selling my app which runs on autopilot for 6+ years now and makes 7k MRR with a big upside. But I am not willing to give it away for a low price.

Has anybody successfully bought an e-commerce business on Flippa?

I feel like the numbers on there could very well be made up and I don’t see any verification on the data.

Has anyone bought a biz on Flippa and found its actually a good biz?

I know it depends on how you run it as well but keen to hear people's experiences.

I’m curious about stories of where someone bought a business that was underperforming or low in profitability and managed to turn it around. If you’ve done this, I’d be very interested to hear about your journey, including the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. How did the due diligence process work and what would you have done differently or wishes you had known beforehand? Whether it was a success or not, I’d love to hear your story.

I developed a website with an amazing domain name, built out the platform and got busy launching another website that’s taking off like crazy and no longer have time for this one. I want to sell it, the domain name, web hosting and business model to someone who will take it over and run it.

I really do not want to list the business on flippa, I don’t feel like the buyers there will offer enough for it. Are there any alternatives that would generate higher bids?

The site is FICO Sherpa

I have been seeing Flippa for almost a decade. And lately been contemplating to acquire a SaaS from Flippa. Has anyone sold or purchased any website or project on Flippa? How was your experience?

Have had a Shopify site since 2020. Sales of $200k, then $700k, then $460k the last 3 years, but I'm ready to move on to other projects.

Has anyone sold on Flippa here? Is it legit? Or should I look at hiring a broker or something?

I'm looking to start an online business with the goal of generating a full-time income from this. Since I can dedicate a part of my savings to it, I thought it might be a good idea to buy an online business that is already making money. So I started exploring Flippa.

I came across a WooCommerce dropshipping store that's on sale for a 'Buy It Now' price of $2.7K. Went live in April 2022 and is currently making $1.3K/month in profit with a margin of 50%.

Revenue figures are categorized as 'Verified' since the seller connected the WooCommerce data integration directly with the sales page, so data from his WooCommerce store is directly sent to the sales page. That seems legit to me.

However, what is giving me some doubts about the authenticity of this is the fact that this store receives no organic traffic (checked on SEMRush). Seller claims this is because he gets all his traffic and sales by sending emails to a "targeted" list of 34K+ emails (this is also included in the sale). I asked him if these are cold or warm emails, but he has yet to answer this question.

What also seems to be a bit suspicious is that there was a sudden increase of 488% in revenue from April 2022 to May 2022. The seller's explanation was that this is because he started sending those emails starting from April. I highly doubt these would be warm emails, since there's no way you could obtain 34K+ emails through opt-in in one month.

I also told him that it would be more manageable for me if the 'Buy It Now' price would be paid in two monthly instalments. He agreed to this and we agreed to $1.7K for first month and remaining $1K for the second. Payment will be done through escrow.

However, he says that he will transfer the domain and store to me after I put $1.7K in escrow, then after I release the money, he will transfer the email list and all the other remaining assets to me, which also includes 'courses' and 'tutorials' to grow the store further.

I haven't sent any money yet, mainly because I'm still having doubts. That's why I'm eager to hear you guys' opinion on this. Can this be a scam despite the fact that the revenue figures are verified through WooCommerce?

Btw, the seller has the green check-mark in his profile, so Flippa lists him as a verified user.