BizBuySell vs Acquire.com
Where should you hunt listings: main street or online business?
BizBuySell
The largest US online business-for-sale marketplace (CoStar-owned, ~65,000 listings a year, mostly main-street and lower-middle-market), where buyers search listings and contact sellers or brokers for free. It also publishes sold-business comps, paid valuation reports, and free quarterly Insight Reports on transaction volume and multiples.
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" — full rate card 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.
- 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
- Minimal listing vetting: users repeatedly compare it to Craigslist — 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)
Verified Jul 10, 2026 · Full review →
Acquire.com
Online marketplace for buying and selling profitable internet businesses — SaaS, ecommerce, agencies, newsletters, and content sites (expanded beyond SaaS-only in 2025). Buyers browse listings free and pay an annual membership to unlock financials and message sellers; the platform bundles LOI/APA document builders and free escrow through closing.
Freemium · Buyer side (from acquire.com/pricing and help.acquire.com, July 2026): Basic is free (browse public listings only — no financials, no founder contact); Premium is $390/year billed annually, limited to startups up to $250k TTM revenue; Platinum is $780/year billed annually with access to listings of all sizes. Full refund within 7 days of initial paid plan; no pro-rated refunds after. Seller side (from acquire.com/seller-pricing): monthly listing fee plus success fee tiered by asking price — under $250k: $25/mo + 8% closing fee; $250k–$1M: $50/mo + 7%; over $1M: $100/mo + 6%; closing fee due only at a successful sale. "Guided by Acquire" advisory is included free for SaaS with $100k+ TTM revenue.
- Cheap, transparent buyer-side pricing: $390–$780/yr flat with no buyer-side success fee — far below brokered or off-market sourcing costs
- Largest curated inventory of profitable online/SaaS businesses, with standardized financials, seller vetting, and claimed $500M+ in closed deal volume; closings reportedly happening daily in 2026
- Integrated transaction plumbing (LOI/APA builders, free escrow, guided workflow) — vendor data shows most deals that close do so within ~90 days
- Inventory skews small and digital: third-party tracking puts average asking near $434k, and listings thin out sharply above $1M — searchers hunting $2M–$5M SBA-sized deals will find few fits
- Young, asset-light online businesses are often awkward SBA 7(a) candidates (short operating history, owner-dependent, no hard assets), so many deals here close with cash or seller notes rather than the leverage a self-funded searcher wants
- Heavy buyer competition — 500k+ registered buyers means attractive listings draw dozens of inquiries within days; there is nothing proprietary about this deal flow
Verified Jul 10, 2026 · Full review →
Our take
Choose BizBuySell for physical and main-street businesses — it has the volume, and buying access is free.
Choose Acquire.com when your thesis is online businesses; it's purpose-built for them and priced accordingly.