Where to Sell a SaaS Business or Side Project: 8 Platforms Compared

The best place to sell a SaaS business or side project depends on two numbers: how much revenue it makes and what you expect it to sell for. Below about $10,000, the zero-commission and low-fee marketplaces (IndieExit, Sell Micro SaaS, Vertos, TrustMRR, Microns) keep the most money in your pocket. From roughly $10,000 to a few hundred thousand, Acquire.com, Microns, TrustMRR and Flippa compete on fees and buyer reach. Once a business has 12 months of steady profit, curated brokers such as Empire Flippers and Flippa's broker plans become an option, at a higher price.

TL;DR#

• Revenue-generating micro SaaS: Microns charges 10% from $1k, 8% from $10k and 6% from $100k with no listing fee, and requires paying customers and at least 5 months of history. Acquire.com charges 6% to 8% at closing plus $25 to $100 a month and says it pays for escrow.
• Verified revenue at low cost: TrustMRR says it charges a flat 3% closing fee split 50/50 between buyer and seller, plus Escrow.com fees, and reads revenue directly from your payment provider (TrustMRR FAQ).
• Zero commission: IndieExit and Sell Micro SaaS both say listing and selling are free for sellers. IndieExit says the buyer pays all Escrow.com fees; Sell Micro SaaS says figures are self-reported and unverified.
• Pre-revenue projects: Sell Micro SaaS gives pre-revenue projects and MVPs their own section, Vertos takes "any digital project you own" for a flat 5% at close, and Acquire.com accepts functional pre-revenue SaaS.
• Larger, profitable businesses: Empire Flippers requires $24,000 a year of net profit and 12 months of history, charges no listing fee and takes a minimum $10,000 commission. Flippa's broker plans need 12 months of consistent profit.
• Handover: Stripe lets an account owner transfer ownership to an Administrator or Super Administrator, and ICANN rules can lock a domain against a registrar transfer for 60 days after a change of registrant details.

Disclosure: ZeroRaised publishes this guide and is a launch site for bootstrapped products. Facts come from the linked sources as checked on 4 Nov 2026; ZeroRaised has no commercial relationship with the companies named. Fees and terms change often, so confirm them on each platform's page before you list.

A SaaS acquisition marketplace is a website where owners list a software business for sale, buyers browse and make offers, and the platform charges a listing fee, a success fee, or both, while the buyer and seller close the deal through escrow or a payment system.

Where to sell a SaaS business: the comparison table#

Every fee, minimum and escrow rule below comes from the platform's own pages, checked on 4 Nov 2026. Where those pages contradict each other, we say so.

Acquire.com: the default for SaaS with real revenue#

Acquire.com's seller pricing page sets the closing fee by asking price: 8% below $250k "plus $25/mo to list", 7% from $250k to $1M plus $50 a month, and 6% above $1M plus $100 a month. The fee is "a percentage of the total purchase price (or transaction value) and is due in full at closing", and "You only pay the closing fee if you sell your business." Asked "Who pays for escrow?", the page answers "We do!"

Acquire.com's help centre adds that escrow runs through Escrow.com, and that if you close there, it will "deduct your closing fee from the buyer's closing payment to you automatically." Its buyer escrow article gives a default inspection period of 24 hours as the minimum.

Pre-revenue: Acquire.com accepts pre-revenue listings only for "A functional SaaS or AI product", defines pre-revenue as $0 to $500 in trailing twelve-month revenue, notes such listings are priced "often under $25,000", and says approval "is not automatic." Pre-revenue ecommerce, marketplaces, agencies, content sites and idea-stage projects "are not accepted."

Larger deals: the same pricing page describes Guided by Acquire as "For profitable SaaS startups with $100k+ revenue only", free for startups making at least $100k in trailing twelve-month revenue.

Verification and reach: the page promises "Vetted buyer identities and available funds" and "Synchronized metrics". Acquire.com's sellers page claims "500k+ buyers" and an exit "in as little as 90 days", and its home page reports "2,000+ startups sold" and "$500M+ closed deal volume". These are company-reported figures.

Who it suits: a SaaS with paying customers that you want in front of the largest pool of SaaS-focused buyers, where 8% is an acceptable price for free escrow and buyer vetting.

Flippa: the broadest marketplace, with self-service and broker routes#

Flippa's sell page says "Self-service sales packages with Flippa are available for businesses with an asking price up to $100K", packages "start at US$29 for a 60-day listing", and "The success fee for self-service sales is 10% of the final transaction value." It also says "Flippa's listing and broker fees are payable regardless of whether a business sells", which is the key difference from Acquire.com and Microns.

The pricing page lists self-service listing packages from $29 up to $699 per 6 months depending on the asking-price band, and broker plans with a single upfront payment of $399, $499, $899 or $1,299, success fees of 10%, 10%, 9% and 8%, and a "6-month brokerage term". The sell page says broker "packages start at $899 plus a 10% success fee", which does not match the $399 tier on the pricing page; check the quote you receive. Broker eligibility is "12 months of consistent monthly net profit", "A minimum 12 month trading history" and 12 months of financials. Flippa also says that if it cannot match you with a buyer at the right price, "we'll tell you upfront and refund any fees paid."

Escrow: Flippa's escrow page offers FlippaPay "From 1% fee" for payments above US$10,000, or Escrow.com for any amount. The pages we read do not say who pays the escrow fee, so settle that in your term sheet.

Verification: Flippa's trust page says "Our expert vetting team reviews the stated financial performance of every asset priced above USD $50,000", and lists Stripe among its integration partners. SaaS listings show monthly recurring revenue, churn and lifetime value.

Who it suits: sellers who want maximum reach across many business types, or a profitable business that would benefit from a broker. Budget for the listing fee as a cost you pay whether or not you sell.

Empire Flippers: curated, done-for-you, priced for bigger deals#

Empire Flippers' sell page sets the bar: "An online business that makes $24,000 per year or more in net profit" with "a SOLID track record of at least 12 months of revenue/earnings." It asks for "a 2 month exclusivity".

Its commission is tiered. From $0 to $66,666.66 the commission is $10,000. From there to $700,000 it is "a flat 15% on the sale price". Above $700,000 the rate falls to 8% on the amount above $700,000, and above $5M to 2.5% on the amount above $5,000,000. The sellers FAQ adds "There are no listing fees, this means if we can't sell your business you don't have to pay anything."

The sell page reports "2,684 Deals Sold" and "129 Days Average Time to Sale". Buyers "must unlock a listing" before seeing details, the URL is hidden, and Empire Flippers handles buyer communication and the transfer. The FAQ says seller payment takes "1-3 weeks on average" from sale.

Who it suits: a profitable business that easily clears $24,000 a year of profit, where you want a team to run the sale. On a small deal the $10,000 minimum makes it expensive.

Microns: low-fee marketplace for small, profitable SaaS#

Microns' pricing page says "Pay only for a successful exit": 10% for projects from $1K, 8% from $10K and 6% from $100K, with "No listing fees". The fee covers the "purchase agreement, invoice, and payment handling."

The rules are strict. "We don't accept pre-revenue projects", projects must be "at least 5 months old with paying customers", "Only profitable startups are accepted", and Microns lists asking prices "from $1K to $1M". Buyers pay for access ($299 a year or $40 a month) and are verified before they can contact sellers.

Microns' sell page says "We'll handle the purchase agreement, invoice, payment, payout, and review process" and that "you can exit your startup safely within a week." The same page shows both "100+" and "90+" for sold startups, so treat that count loosely.

Who it suits: a small, profitable micro SaaS where you want the platform to handle the paperwork and payment and you do not want to pay a monthly listing fee.

TrustMRR: verified-revenue listings with a low closing fee#

TrustMRR's fees page says it "charges a flat 3% closing fee, split equally between buyer and seller. Escrow.com adds its own fee on top." That is 1.5% for the seller. TrustMRR's own all-in table (its fee plus Escrow.com, both sides combined) runs from 5.60% for deals up to $5,000 down to 3.70% above $10M. Its why-sell page shows a "4-6%" seller success fee in a comparison table; that figure matches the all-in total on the fees page, not the seller's own share.

The FAQ says adding a startup to the revenue database is free, and for-sale plans cost $29 (Starter), $199 (Growth) or $499 (Scale). To list for sale "You need verified revenue (payment provider connection), an asking price, and profit margin for the last 30 days." Supported providers include Stripe, LemonSqueezy, Polar, Paddle, RevenueCat, App Store and Shopify. TrustMRR warns that "discrepancies of up to 30% can occur" against your provider dashboard. Escrow runs through Escrow.com after the asset purchase agreement is signed, and the platform "only supports a single lump-sum payment through escrow", so there are no earn-outs.

The why-sell page reports "211 acquisitions in the last 365 days", a "1.4x average acquired multiple", "$2.2M total acquisition volume" and "23 days average time to acquisition". It says the site is "run by a solo founder, Marc Lou, with no VC money."

Who it suits: a small SaaS or app whose revenue sits in a supported payment provider, where verified numbers and a fast, low-fee sale matter more than earn-out flexibility.

IndieExit: free listing and free selling#

IndieExit's sell page says "Listing & selling your project is completely FREE on IndieExit!" and "keep 100% of your sale". It accepts "asking prices ranging from $200 up to $800k" and says "we typically accept projects with some existing user base and revenue generation." Escrow runs through Escrow.com, and "Buyer pays all Escrow.com fees." Reviews come back "within 12-48 hours".

The home page shows "Metrics Checked" and "Manually Checked" badges and lists each project's asking multiple. Those are what sellers are asking, not a market average.

Who it suits: small projects with some users and revenue where every dollar of fees matters.

Sell Micro SaaS: free, includes pre-revenue, but unverified#

Sell Micro SaaS's pricing page says it is "free for buyers and sellers, with 0% commission. No listing fee, no success fee, no buyer subscription." Its listing page says "Revenue isn't required. Pre-revenue projects and MVPs get their own clearly labelled section", and "A person reads every listing, usually within 7 days."

The trade-off is verification. Asked "Do you verify my numbers?", the site answers "No. Figures are shown as reported by the seller." Its home page says only listings pulled from TrustMRR are verified by the payment provider, discloses that "links to TrustMRR are affiliate links", says "We don't hold funds or act as a broker", and counted 70 listings, 17 of them side projects and pre-revenue.

Who it suits: an MVP, an unlaunched product or a side project with users but no revenue, where free exposure is more useful than a vetted buyer pool.

Vertos: flat 5%, Stripe-based checkout, auctions#

Vertos' sell page says "Free to list" and a "Flat 5% fee" that lets you keep 95%, charged only "when a sale actually closes". It accepts "Any digital project you own", including micro SaaS, browser extensions, mobile apps and developer tools. There is no third-party escrow: "your files stay locked until the buyer's payment clears through Stripe" and "Vertos never holds funds." You can set a Buy Now price or run an auction, and it generates a mutual NDA and an asset purchase agreement, which it describes as "Templates only, not legal advice." The page does not describe any metric verification.

Who it suits: small digital projects, including pre-revenue ones, where a fixed-price or auction sale with simple checkout fits better than a negotiated deal.

Which platforms did we leave out, and why?#

• SideProjectors. Its home page says "Basic project submissions and browsing are free" and mentions premium features, but points to a pricing page it does not link. We could not verify commission or escrow terms, so it is not in the table. Its listings include pre-launch projects, so it may still suit a very early side project.
• FE International. Its services page describes the firm as "dedicated to serving the middle-market tech sector" and reports a "$48M Average Transaction Value". The pages we read publish no fees or minimums, and the deal sizes are far above this guide's range.
• MicroExits. microexits.com is a Substack newsletter, not a marketplace with published seller terms.
• Tiny Acquisitions. Its site would not load when we checked, so we could not verify anything.

How do the fees compare on a real deal?#

Illustrative example: a micro SaaS sells for $40,000. These figures apply each platform's published rates to that price and are not quotes.

For reference, Escrow.com's fee calculator lists a standard fee of 2.4% (with a $130 minimum) for transactions from $5,000.01 to $50,000, so $960 on a $40,000 deal, split however buyer and seller agree. The calculator says the fee is added to the purchase price if the buyer pays it and deducted from the payout if the seller does.

The fee is only part of the decision. A platform that charges more but brings three serious offers can net you more than a free one that brings none.

How should you choose by size?#

Pre-revenue projects and MVPs#

Your options are Sell Micro SaaS, Vertos and, for a working SaaS or AI product, Acquire.com. Microns rules out pre-revenue projects, Empire Flippers needs 12 months of profit, and TrustMRR needs a payment-provider connection.

Our advice: price a pre-revenue project as a bundle of assets (code, design, domain, any audience or waitlist) that saves a buyer build time. Be clear about what is included, and list it on two or three free venues at once. If the product has users but no revenue, it may be worth adding a paid plan before you sell, because platforms such as Microns and TrustMRR open up once you have paying customers. Our guide on how to sell software online covers the payment setup.

Under $10,000#

At this size fixed costs bite. An Empire Flippers sale would cost more than the business, and an Escrow.com fee has a $50 minimum in its lowest band. Good fits are IndieExit (free, from $200), TrustMRR (1.5% plus escrow share), Microns (10% from $1K, no listing fee), Vertos (5%) and Flippa's self-service packages.

$10,000 to $100,000#

This is where most micro SaaS sales land and where the platforms compete hardest. Acquire.com at 8% with free escrow, Microns at 8% from $10K, and TrustMRR with verified revenue are the main options. Empire Flippers becomes possible if you clear $24,000 a year of net profit, but its $10,000 minimum commission works out at 25% of a $40,000 sale.

$100,000 and above#

Fees fall as a percentage: Acquire.com drops to 7% from $250k, and Microns to 6% from $100K. Acquire.com offers its free Guided service to profitable SaaS with $100k+ trailing twelve-month revenue. Flippa's broker plans and Empire Flippers suit sellers who want a team to vet, market and negotiate. At this size, budget for a lawyer to review the asset purchase agreement.

How is a small SaaS valued?#

There is no single multiple, and the basis matters as much as the number. These are the multiples that platforms state on their own pages:

Empire Flippers' FAQ says the multiple depends on "Site age, traffic, stability of earnings, monetization type, traffic diversity, etc." A profit multiple and a revenue multiple are not comparable: a business with high margins can sell for a higher revenue multiple than one with low margins at the same profit multiple.

Illustrative example: a micro SaaS earns $2,000 a month in revenue and $1,500 a month in profit. Annual revenue is $24,000 and annual profit is $18,000. On TrustMRR's 1.4x average revenue multiple, that is about $33,600. On Empire Flippers' 1.7x to 5x profit range, it would be $30,600 to $90,000, but this business falls below Empire Flippers' $24,000 profit minimum, so that range is shown only to illustrate the maths.

What usually moves the price, in our view:

• Trend. Growing revenue sells at a higher multiple than flat or falling revenue. Fix churn before you list; our guide to reducing SaaS churn covers the main levers.
• Owner time. A business that needs two hours a week is worth more than one that needs twenty.
• Concentration. One customer paying half the revenue is a risk a buyer will price in.
• Transferability. Revenue that depends on your personal brand, audience or relationships may not survive the sale.
• Pricing headroom. A product priced well below its market is attractive, because a buyer can raise prices. See how to price a SaaS product.

How do you prepare a SaaS for sale?#

1. Metrics#

Buyers want monthly recurring revenue, churn, customer count, average revenue per customer and growth, ideally for the last 12 months. Platforms increasingly pull these directly: TrustMRR reads from your payment provider, Acquire.com syncs metrics, and Flippa integrates with Stripe. Connect them early so the numbers are already visible when buyers arrive.

2. A clean profit and loss statement#

List every monthly cost: hosting, email, APIs, AI usage, payment fees, contractors and paid tools. Empire Flippers asks for "Verified complete monthly expenses" alongside revenue screenshots (FAQ). Separate business costs from personal ones. If you take any owner salary, show it separately so the buyer can see profit before and after it.

3. Transferable assets#

Make an inventory of everything the buyer will receive: the code repository, domain, hosting and cloud accounts, the payment account, the email list, social accounts, app store listings, third-party API keys, documentation and any content or design files. Note which accounts are in your personal name and which can be moved as a whole.

4. Your Stripe account#

Stripe's owner transfer article says "The current owner of a Stripe account can transfer ownership to another user" who has the Administrator or Super Administrator role. For a business sale, Stripe's sale or acquisition article says to "first" contact Stripe Support to confirm which details need updating, and then change the payout bank account, statement descriptor, receipt details, owner email, legal business name and tax ID. It also says not to send the new owner's details to Stripe by email.

If the buyer's company is in a different country, Stripe's cross-border article says the new owner must create a new Stripe account in the new country and ask Support for a data transfer, because "It is not possible to change the country designated for an existing Stripe account."

If the buyer uses a different processor, Stripe's payment data export only goes to a "PCI DSS Level 1-compliant payment processor", and "Stripe doesn't export your account's payment history, subscriptions, or other objects." Subscriptions would need rebuilding on the new processor. If you sell through a merchant of record such as Paddle or Lemon Squeezy rather than Stripe directly, the transfer works differently; our merchant of record comparison explains the difference.

5. Code and infrastructure#

Document how to deploy the app, where secrets live, and which third-party services it depends on. Remove hard-coded personal credentials. Make sure you own the code and have the rights to any assets in it. A buyer will ask.

6. Domain#

ICANN's registrant FAQ says a change of registrant starts with your current registrar, which confirms it by a secure method such as email. It also says "You cannot transfer a domain name to a different registrar within 60 days of making changes to the registrant name, organization or email address", unless your registrar offers an opt-out, which it "does not have to offer." The registrar must provide the auth code "within five (5) calendar days of your request." The practical point: if the buyer wants the domain at their own registrar, ICANN suggests you "consider completing the transfer process before changing your contact information."

What happens in due diligence?#

Due diligence is the buyer checking that what you listed is true. Expect requests for:

• Read-only access to your payment dashboard, or screen-shared walkthroughs.
• Analytics access. Empire Flippers asks for Google Analytics access (FAQ).
• Bank statements matching the revenue.
• A tour of the code, the admin panel and the support inbox.
• A list of customers and their contract terms, often anonymised until the deal is close.

Our advice: give read-only access rather than passwords, sign an NDA before sharing sensitive data (Vertos generates a mutual NDA template, and Flippa's pricing page lists an NDA add-on), and log everything you share. Answer questions quickly.

How do escrow and handover work?#

Escrow protects both sides: the buyer's money is held by a third party until the assets are delivered. Escrow.com's website sale page describes the sequence: buyer and seller agree terms, the buyer pays Escrow.com, the seller is told to transfer the website once payment is verified, the inspection period begins "When the buyer indicates they have possession", and Escrow.com releases the funds when it can verify the transfer or the inspection period has ended.

Who arranges escrow varies by platform:

• Acquire.com uses Escrow.com and pays the fee (seller pricing).
• TrustMRR uses Escrow.com after the asset purchase agreement is signed (FAQ).
• IndieExit uses Escrow.com with the buyer paying (sell page).
• Flippa offers FlippaPay or Escrow.com (escrow page).
• Microns handles the agreement, invoice and payment itself (pricing).
• Vertos routes payment through Stripe and locks files until it clears (sell page).
• Sell Micro SaaS does not hold funds, so you arrange escrow with the buyer (home page).

A sensible handover order, in our view: sign the asset purchase agreement, buyer funds escrow, you transfer the code repository and hosting, then the domain, then the payment account and email list, the buyer confirms each item, escrow releases. Agree a written list of assets and a support period (for example, two to four weeks of help by email) in the agreement, so neither side argues later about what "handover" meant.

What about taxes?#

This is not tax advice. The tax on a business sale depends on your country, whether you sell the company's shares or just its assets, how long you have owned the business, and how the price is split between items such as code, the domain and customer contracts.

Before you accept an offer, ask an accountant in your country about the structure, the price allocation and any reliefs. Keep the signed agreement, the escrow statement and the platform invoice, because the platform fee is a cost of the sale.

What red flags and scams should you watch for?#

• Requests to move off-platform. A buyer who wants to skip the platform's escrow or messaging to "save fees" removes your protection. Keep the deal where the platform's rules apply.
• Asset transfer before funds are secured. Never hand over code, the domain or account ownership until escrow confirms the money has arrived. Escrow.com's own sequence starts with the buyer paying.
• Fake escrow sites. Check the escrow URL yourself rather than following a link the buyer sends.
• Overpayment and refund requests. A buyer who "accidentally" sends too much and asks for the difference back is a classic fraud pattern.
• Endless diligence with no offer. Some "buyers" want to study your code, customers or marketing. Use an NDA and share sensitive detail in stages.
• Unverified numbers when you are the buyer. Sell Micro SaaS says plainly that its figures are not verified, and TrustMRR says its synced numbers can differ by up to 30% from the provider dashboard. Treat any listing's figures as a claim until you see the source.
• Promises of a guaranteed sale. No platform we checked guarantees a sale. Empire Flippers says it may reject a business if it does not believe it has the buyer pool (sell page).

Pre-sale checklist#

1. Write down your minimum acceptable price and your reason for selling.
2. Pull 12 months of monthly revenue, churn and customer count from your payment provider.
3. Build a monthly profit and loss statement with every cost, and separate personal costs.
4. Inventory every asset and account, and note which are in your personal name.
5. Check the Stripe owner transfer steps, or your merchant of record's equivalent, and whether the buyer is in another country.
6. Check your domain registrar's change of registrant process and any 60-day lock.
7. Document deployment, secrets and third-party dependencies.
8. Pick a platform by deal size using the table above, and read its current fee page again on the day you list.
9. Connect metric integrations where offered (TrustMRR, Acquire.com, Flippa).
10. Prepare an NDA and decide what you will share at each stage.
11. Agree escrow, who pays its fee, the inspection period and the support period in writing.
12. Ask an accountant about the deal structure before you sign.

If you are earlier than this and still building, our guides on how to launch a micro SaaS and where to launch a SaaS cover getting the first paying customers who make a product saleable.

Where ZeroRaised fits#

ZeroRaised is not a marketplace and does not broker sales. It is a launch site for products built without institutional VC or accelerator equity. If you are building your next product after an exit, or you want a bootstrapped product listed publicly before you sell it, you can submit your product for free. To hear about new bootstrapped launches and guides like this one, join the ZeroRaised newsletter. A listing does not promise traffic, buyers or any particular result.

Sources#

• Acquire.com seller pricing, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Acquire.com: how much does it cost to sell, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Acquire.com: how does escrow work, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Acquire.com: what pre-revenue businesses are allowed, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Acquire.com sellers page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Acquire.com home page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Flippa pricing, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Flippa sell page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Flippa escrow, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Flippa trust and verifications, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Empire Flippers sell page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Empire Flippers sellers FAQ, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Microns pricing, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Microns sell your startup, checked 4 Nov 2026
• TrustMRR fees, checked 4 Nov 2026
• TrustMRR FAQ, checked 4 Nov 2026
• TrustMRR why sell, checked 4 Nov 2026
• IndieExit sell page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• IndieExit home page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Sell Micro SaaS pricing, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Sell Micro SaaS listing page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Sell Micro SaaS home page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Vertos sell page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• SideProjectors home page, checked 4 Nov 2026
• FE International private sales and acquisitions, checked 4 Nov 2026
• MicroExits, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Escrow.com fee calculator, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Escrow.com: how to buy and sell a website, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Stripe: change the owner of a Stripe account, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Stripe: transfer an account after a business sale or acquisition, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Stripe: business acquired by an entity in a different country, checked 4 Nov 2026
• Stripe: request a payment data export, checked 4 Nov 2026
• ICANN: FAQs for registrants on transferring a domain name, checked 4 Nov 2026