BizBuySell
At a Glance
Set up free saved searches here on day one: it is the deepest on-market pool of SBA-size deals and costs buyers nothing. Treat listed financials as unverified marketing, expect competition on anything clean, and plan to supplement it once you target above ~$1M SDE.
Our pick for Best Listing Marketplace in 2026.
- Pricing
- Freemium, Free for buyers: registration, search, saved-search alerts, and inquiries cost nothing. Optional buyer membership "BizBuySell Edge" (buyer badge, listing popularity stats, benchmarks, up to 4 valuation reports/year) advertised "as low as $20/month"; the full rate card is only shown at signup. Seller listings (6-month term): Basic $74.95/mo, Showcase $99.95/mo, Diamond $199.95/mo; 3-month terms cost more per month, 12-month less; listings auto-renew month-to-month after the term; no commission or success fee (per vendor FAQ, July 2026, up from $65.95/$89.95 in Sept 2025). Standalone valuation report $179.95, included free with any listing. Broker multi-listing subscriptions (BrokerWorks) are monthly memberships with early-termination fees; rates not published.
- Best For
- Self-funded searchers who want the widest on-market view of $500k–$5M main-street businesses, for building saved-search deal flow, calibrating asking multiples, and meeting active brokers. Not for searchers wanting curated or verified deal flow, or those targeting businesses above roughly $1M SDE, where inventory thins out fast.
- Roadmap Stages
- 4. Source & Screen Deals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Deepest on-market inventory in the US (~65,000 listings/year per vendor fact sheet); most SBA-size main-street deals touch it at some point
- Completely free for buyers: search, saved-search email alerts, and unlimited seller/broker inquiries with no success fee
- Real deals do surface: an Acquiring Minds guest (Apr 2025) found an $800k-SDE manufacturer at ~2x by widening BizBuySell filters
- Useful free market data for screening: quarterly Insight Reports, sold-comps database, and industry valuation multiples
- Doubles as a broker directory; inquiring on listings is a practical way to get on lower-middle-market brokers' lists
Cons
- Minimal listing vetting: users repeatedly compare it to Craigslist, citing inflated SDE, stale or duplicate listings, and occasional outright fake listings (Trustpilot, Oct 2025)
- Good listings get swarmed: clean, fairly priced businesses draw dozens of inquiries within days, so slow movers mostly see picked-over inventory
- Thin above ~$1M SDE/cash flow; searchers targeting larger deals consistently report outgrowing it (Searchfunder threads)
- Broker responsiveness is erratic; buyers report ghosting, NDA walls before basic financials, and dead-end contact forms
- If you later sell through it, seller-side reviews flag auto-renewal billing surprises and unhelpful support (Trustpilot, Sept-Oct 2025)
What Searchers Say
Mixed and voluminous. Positive: Acquiring Minds podcast (Apr 21, 2025) featured a searcher who found a $10M wood-veneer manufacturer ($800k SDE at ~2x) on BizBuySell; multiple other guests sourced their acquisitions there. Negative: Trustpilot reviews (Sept–Oct 2025) show a U-shaped 1-star/5-star split, with complaints about auto-renewal billing, bot/tire-kicker leads, and listings removed without explanation. Users on r/smallbusiness (summarized in a May 21, 2026 Investors Club roundup) call it legitimate with massive traffic but "very little listing vetting", and the Craigslist comparison recurs. Searchfunder consensus (threads 2022–2024) treats it as the default on-market starting point but weak above ~$1M cash flow; fresh Searchfunder discussion within the last 12 months is thin.