Where to Buy or Sell Websites and Domains: Marketplaces Compared

If you want to buy or sell websites and domains, the marketplace you choose decides how many buyers see your listing, how much you pay in fees and how well you’re protected. Flippa is the biggest open marketplace, Empire Flippers is a curated broker for established businesses, Acquire.com focuses on startups and SaaS, and domain-only marketplaces such as Afternic and Namecheap Market handle names alone. This guide compares their fees, rules and protection, using each marketplace’s own pages.

Disclosure: one of the marketplaces below, DigiFlippers, is mine; I founded it. It’s listed with the others and described with the same facts, so you can compare it fairly.

Marketplaces to buy or sell websites compared

From each marketplace’s own pricing or selling page, checked 11 October 2026.

Open marketplace or broker?

Website marketplaces work in two ways. On an open marketplace such as Flippa or DigiFlippers, sellers create their own listings and talk to buyers directly; fees are lower and anything can be listed, but buyers carry more of the checking. A broker such as Empire Flippers vets each business, writes the listing, handles negotiations and the transfer, and charges a higher commission for it. Acquire.com sits in between, curating listings while letting buyers and founders talk directly.

As a rule, small sites and first deals suit open marketplaces, and larger, proven businesses benefit from a broker’s vetting and buyer network.

Flippa: the biggest open marketplace

Flippa lists everything from small starter sites to multi-million-dollar businesses, plus apps, SaaS and domains. Its selling FAQ says it charges for access to the platform plus a success fee: the Entry Level package starts at $29 (a flat fee for a 60-day listing) and success fees start from 5%; for an asking price under $10,000 its pricing page shows a 10% success fee. Higher packages add reach and support.

Buyers can browse free or pay $49 a month (16% less yearly) for first access to new listings 21 days before everyone else. Deals can close through FlippaPay (from 1%) or Escrow.com (from 1.2%). Because anyone can list, quality varies a lot, so buyers need to check every claim themselves, and sellers compete with many other listings for attention.

Empire Flippers: curated, for established businesses

Empire Flippers vets every business before listing it, and says it has sold more than a thousand online businesses. To list, a business must make at least $24,000 a year in net profit, have at least 12 months of revenue history, and (for AdSense, Amazon Associates, affiliate and ad sites) have been on the same domain for the previous 12 months. Listings hide the URL, so the business isn’t exposed to copycats.

Its commission is blended: $10,000 for sales up to $66,666.66; 15% between that and $700,000; 8% on the part between $700,000 and $5 million; and 2.5% above $5 million. It’s expensive for small sites, but the vetting attracts serious buyers.

Acquire.com: startups and SaaS

Acquire.com connects founders selling startups, especially SaaS, with buyers, and says sellers can publish to more than 500,000 buyers. Listings are curated and vetted. Buyers can browse basic company information free; paid Premium membership opens startups priced up to $250,000, and Platinum opens startups of all sizes, with company names, financials and direct messaging with sellers.

DigiFlippers: low fees for smaller deals

DigiFlippers, which I founded, is a marketplace for websites, domains, SaaS, apps, YouTube channels and social media and game accounts. Sellers pay a small listing fee by asset type (for example $9 for a domain, from $14 for a website, blog or online store, $19 for a SaaS business or mobile app, and from $6 for a YouTube or social media account), and the first listing is free. There’s no success fee on sales up to $10,000, then 5%, capped at $5,000. Sales close in a private deal room with escrow or middleman protection, and listings show verified sellers and revenue.

Afternic and Namecheap Market: domains only

Afternic, part of GoDaddy, lists domains for sale so they appear in domain searches at leading registrars; it says those searches total about 125 million a month. Its Fast Transfer option lets a buyer get the domain quickly after paying. Namecheap Market sells domains that other people already own, which helps when the name you want is taken; remember that Namecheap doesn’t refund premium domains. See the Namecheap review for its domain terms.

Other marketplaces

Sedo calls itself the largest domain marketplace. Listing a domain has no initial fee; you can sell at a fixed Buy Now price, invite offers, or start an auction once an offer arrives, and Sedo’s selling fees start at 10%. Motion Invest and Investors Club focus on content and affiliate sites; their pages didn’t show fees when we checked, so look at their current terms before you list. Whichever you use, compare the fees, the buyer reach and the protection for the size of your deal.

What fees look like on a real sale

Here’s what two of the marketplaces with fixed rules would charge on a $50,000 sale, using their published fees:

• Empire Flippers: $10,000 commission, because sales up to $66,666.66 pay a flat $10,000.
• DigiFlippers: its pricing page shows a $2,500 success fee on a $50,000 sale, plus the listing fee.

Flippa’s success fee depends on the package and asking price, starting from 5%, so check its calculator for your listing. The cheapest marketplace isn’t always best: a marketplace that brings more serious buyers can more than make up for a higher fee.

How to choose where to buy or sell

• A small site, domain or social account (under $10,000): DigiFlippers or Flippa’s entry package; Empire Flippers won’t list it.
• A proven content or affiliate business with $24,000+ yearly profit: Empire Flippers for vetted buyers, or Flippa for reach.
• A SaaS or startup: Acquire.com, or the SaaS categories on Flippa and DigiFlippers.
• A domain name only: Afternic or a registrar’s marketplace such as Namecheap Market.

Buying a website safely

1. Verify revenue at the source. Ask for read-only access to analytics and the earnings accounts, or a screen-share, not just screenshots.
2. Check traffic quality. Where does it come from? A site that depends on one Google ranking or one social account is riskier.
3. Look at the history. Check old versions of the site in the Wayback Machine, its backlinks and whether its traffic dropped after Google updates.
4. Use escrow or the marketplace’s protected payment, never a direct bank transfer to a stranger.
5. Agree a transfer checklist: domain, hosting, content, email lists, social accounts and affiliate accounts.

The guide on how to flip websites for profit covers the full buying and improving process, and blog flipping explains valuations and profit.

Red flags in a listing

• Revenue that jumped in the last few months, which can mean short-term tricks to inflate the price.
• “Passive income” with no explanation of where traffic and sales come from.
• A seller who won’t give read-only access to analytics or earnings, or wants to be paid outside the marketplace.
• Traffic mostly from one source that could disappear, such as a single ranking, a viral post or paid traffic that stops when the ads do.
• Very cheap prices for sites that claim strong profits. If it looks too good to be true, ask why the owner is selling.

Transferring a domain after a sale

When a domain or website sells, the usual order is: the buyer pays into escrow, the seller unlocks the domain and moves it to the buyer (by a push to the buyer’s account at the same registrar, or a transfer with an authorisation code), the buyer confirms they control it, and then escrow releases the money. Website sales add the hosting, files and accounts to the same checklist. Don’t release payment, or the domain, until each step is confirmed.

Selling a website: get a better price

• Clean up the numbers. Buyers pay a multiple of monthly profit, so clear, consistent records of at least 12 months raise the price.
• Document how it runs: content process, suppliers, tools and time spent each week.
• Reduce dependence on you. A site built on your personal name or your own skills is harder to sell; see own name vs brand before you build the next one.
• Pick the marketplace that fits the size, and keep running the site normally until the sale closes.
• Be ready for questions. Serious buyers will ask about traffic drops, costs and why you’re selling; quick, honest answers with evidence build trust and help the deal close.