Acquire.com Fees: Rates, Monthly Costs and Cash at Close

The monthly fee is easy to see. The expensive mistake is assuming that a buyer's promise to pay later means you can pay the matching commission later. Acquire's published buyer-and-seller terms say otherwise.

What changes your answer: standard marketplace or Guided; final purchase price; exact tier boundary; number of billed months; and how much of the consideration is cash at closing. These are five separate inputs. “They charge 6%” is not enough.

Acquire.com fees: standard marketplace pricing

Acquire publishes three listing and closing-fee bands. The rate is a percentage of the whole relevant purchase price, not a marginal rate on slices. Its own sources use inconsistent wording at exactly $250,000 and $1 million, so those boundary prices require confirmation.

Evidence: Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026). Seller pricing and subscription terms. These are standard marketplace figures; the separately advertised Guided program appears below.

Acquire's listing-confirmation help page says the final purchase price determines the final closing rate and amount. The estimate you accept when listing may change if the final price lands in another tier. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

A higher original asking price is therefore not a way to lock in a lower closing rate on a smaller eventual sale. Ask for the applicable final-price tier in writing.

Worked costs away from the disputed boundaries

These fictional USD examples assume asking price equals final purchase price, four billed months at the stated subscription tier, and a standard marketplace sale. No tax, debt repayment, legal/accounting bill or inventory adjustment is included.

Basis: User assumption for prices, timing and structure; calculations use standard Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026) linked above. These figures are scenarios, not business valuations or promises of acceptance or a sale.

If your expected price is in one of the clear bands, use it to build a provisional budget. Then check the actual listing confirmation and agreement. If it is on a disputed boundary, get the answer before treating your net number as settled.

Check Acquire.com's standard seller pricing

A threshold can change the rate on the whole transaction

Acquire's tier model is different from a marginal broker schedule. When an applicable whole-price rate changes, the new rate applies to the whole fee base. That can produce a sharp difference around a threshold; it is a reason to confirm the rule, not to manipulate a deal price.

Here is the uncertainty at the two boundaries using the two adjacent published rates:

This is not a statement that you can choose your rate. It shows why “close enough” is not a good answer from a fee confirmation. Get the exact rate, fee base and final dollar amount that your agreement applies.

Nor should you mistake an asking price for proceeds. An asking price is the seller's proposal. It is not evidence that a buyer will pay that amount.

The closing fee counts notes, earnouts and other consideration

Acquire's published fee base includes more than the cash down payment. Its buyer-and-seller terms, section 5.2.2 include cash, stock, deferred payments, contingent payments such as earnouts and holdbacks, seller notes, and consideration through specified post-closing arrangements. Deferred consideration is treated as paid at closing for calculating the fee, and the fee on it is due then. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

The same section requires the fee associated with noncash consideration to be paid in cash. A stock component does not make that commission payable in shares.

A $300,000 sale with a $90,000 note

Say a fictional standard marketplace agreement uses a 7% rate on $300,000 of total business consideration. The buyer pays $210,000 at closing and signs a $90,000 fixed seller note. Assume four $50 listing payments already made and $6,000 of outside professional costs.

The $200 of subscriptions may already have left your bank account before closing. It is shown so the full economic cost is not hidden; the closing wire itself would be $183,000 after the stated closing fee and assumed outside bill, if those are the only deductions at closing.

Total proceeds after all listed costs would be $272,800 if the note is fully collected. You do not have $272,800 available on closing day. You have $182,800 of cumulative net cash plus an unpaid obligation.

If the $90,000 were a contingent earnout instead, the future amount could depend on conditions you need to understand. Do not describe it as a fixed receivable. For an earnout, ask counsel how the targets, reporting rights, dispute process and buyer's operating choices affect your ability to collect.

This is where my attention would go before haggling over a few monthly subscriptions. A $21,000 fee paid now and $90,000 owed later can matter much more to your plans than the difference between four and six listing months.

Do not import another provider's inventory rule

Empire Flippers expressly separates inventory from its purchase-price fee base. That does not establish Acquire's treatment. The Acquire terms we read use a broad consideration definition; we did not find an equivalent blanket inventory exclusion there.

If inventory, transition services, shares or debt assumptions are involved, list them in the proposed fee base and have Acquire confirm the treatment. Unknown is not zero.

Guided by Acquire advertises a different offer

Guided by Acquire's dedicated page advertises a 6% closing fee and no upfront fees. The standard marketplace page advertises monthly listing fees and 6%–8% closing tiers. Do not stack both schedules into one imagined bill, or promise that every seller gets the Guided offer.

The Guided page describes the service for SaaS startups with at least $100,000 in trailing-twelve-month revenue; the seller pricing page specifies profitable SaaS. Trailing-twelve-month revenue means revenue across the latest 12 months. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

For a fictional $300,000 fee base, 6% is $18,000. That is a useful comparison against the $21,000 standard 7% example. It is not your quote, and it is not evidence that your business will qualify.

If you run a qualifying SaaS business, ask which program the proposed engagement actually uses. Getting a written answer to that question is more useful than assuming all Acquire buttons lead to the same economics.

Escrow included does not mean every professional cost is included

Acquire's standard seller pricing page says it pays for its included escrow service. It also describes legal-document builders and customer support. Those are provider statements about the offer, not proof that all legal advice, tax work, diligence or unusual payment structures are free. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

Ask what the included escrow route covers for your country and deal structure. Separately budget any attorney, accountant, code review, financing cost or specialist you choose to hire. Do not put a zero into an “all-in cost” worksheet merely because no quote has arrived.

The general buyer-and-seller terms refer to a five-business-day payment obligation as well as requiring closing-fee inclusion in transaction funds flow. The pricing and listing-confirmation pages say due in full at closing. Budget for the full fee at closing; do not build your cash plan around an assumed grace period.

The monthly listing bill can continue without a sale

The listing subscription and closing fee pay for different things. Under Acquire's subscription terms, the monthly listing fee stops automatically when the business is sold, or you can stop it by permanently unlisting. Ordinary listing-fee refunds are not provided under the described policy. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

A fictional six-month listing at $50/month costs $300 even if no sale happens. A $0 closing fee in that outcome does not make the attempt cost $0.

Keep an exit record for the listing itself: first billed date, subscription tier, renewal date, what action cancels it, and confirmation that the business has been permanently unlisted if you withdraw. A forgotten recurring bill is small compared with a deal; it is still an avoidable cost.

Buyer memberships are a separate budget—and one access rule conflicts

Buyer subscriptions are not seller listing fees. Acquire's subscription terms describe Basic as free, Premium as $390/year and Platinum as $780/year. Paid plans recur until canceled, and the policy does not provide prorated refunds or ordinary refunds after seven days. Provider published terms (checked October 24, 2026).

There is a real access-threshold conflict. The current pricing FAQ describes Premium in terms of startups priced up to $250,000. The subscription help page describes startups with up to $250,000 in trailing-twelve-month revenue. Asking price and revenue are different figures.

If you are buying access for a particular listing, ask which plan unlocks that listing before paying. We have not resolved that contradiction by guessing which page you will see during checkout. A free Basic account can help you inspect the public marketplace first; it does not supply the private access and founder chat described for paid plans.

Field Notes: reducing owner work is not the same as reducing the fee

Operator experience: the publisher has operated SaaS, iOS subscription apps, content and affiliate sites, Amazon FBA, KDP and YouTube. He has not brokered a sale or sold through the marketplaces covered here.

A tidy subscription revenue chart can conceal a great deal of maintenance. Payment failures, support queues, security patches and one customer's custom workflow still belong to someone. If that someone is the founder, a buyer needs to know the replacement cost.

AI can help you draft instructions or sort a first pass of support tickets. My judgment is that this can improve documentation, but it does not justify adding back all support labor or calling the product self-running. Price the work that actually remains. Do not let a polished data room make an unresolved operating dependency look solved.

Your Deal Decision Check

The right next step depends on which fact is still missing. Use the evidence to finish a specific decision rather than giving the platform an overall score.

If the unresolved items are about service level rather than arithmetic, the marketplace comparison puts the available routes beside one another.

How this page was researched

Deal Field Guide helps you buy or sell an online business with clear eyes — comparing the real routes, showing the money after fees, and telling you what owning each kind of business is actually like, with the source behind every number.

Research note: we read Acquire's seller pricing, subscription terms, fee-confirmation help, buyer-and-seller terms, Guided page and buyer pricing on October 24, 2026. We recomputed the scenarios. We did not obtain a transaction quote, test private access or complete an acquisition. Official sources disagree on the noted boundaries and buyer access criterion; those remain visible. Software, including AI, may help organize research and drafting; the publisher remains responsible. See our methodology and affiliate disclosure. No provider referral link was active at this check.

This is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.

Sources

• Standard seller pricing — standard monthly and closing tiers, escrow and service description.
• Subscription terms — listing cancellation, buyer prices and access wording.
• Closing-fee confirmation — final-price tier and timing.
• Buyer-and-seller terms — fee base and deferred/noncash consideration.
• Guided by Acquire — separately advertised 6% offer and SaaS scope.
• Buyer pricing — current buyer access wording.

All sources checked October 24, 2026.