Sell an Online Business: Pick the Route, Then Count What You Keep

The fee is only part of it. A bigger offer can pay you less on closing day. Your stock may or may not be charged a fee. And on some routes the money waits until the agreement's handover and release conditions are met. Below, we work all of that out with real published fees, so you can see what lands in your account before you sign anything.

Independent guide. No provider pays us today, and every provider link on this page goes to that provider's own public page. How this site is paid for.

The four ways to sell, and what each one leaves to you

Decide first how much of the sale you want someone else to run. Then check that the route takes your kind and size of business. A cheap listing is a bad deal if you need help it doesn't include, and a full broker is a bad deal if you'd have happily done the work yourself.

Sources: Empire Flippers seller page, Acquire.com seller pricing, FE International seller pricing, Flippa's selling FAQ, Money Nomad. Provider published terms, checked October 24, 2026. Providers listed alphabetically within each row.

If what you really want is fewer phone calls: a full broker cuts the buyer messages and the negotiating. It doesn't make you invisible. You'll still hand over logins, answer diligence questions and sit through a handover. Ask any broker, in writing, who answers which questions before you sign.

You'll also see BizBuySell, a general business-for-sale marketplace, and brokers such as Website Closers when you search. We haven't checked their terms yet, so they aren't in our tables. To see the four providers we have checked side by side, use our marketplace comparison.

Fees and screens, side by side

Among these general listing routes, Empire Flippers publishes a hard profit floor. Fees run from a flat $297 to percentages that shrink as the price grows, and what counts in that percentage differs or needs confirming. That slice — not the headline rate — decides what you keep.

Sources: Acquire.com pricing, Acquire.com buyer and seller terms §5.2.2, Acquire.com pre-revenue rules, Empire Flippers commission, Empire Flippers seller FAQ, Empire Flippers terms §17, FE International pricing, FE International marketplace, Flippa pricing, Flippa selling FAQ, Flippa brokers and terms §§10–12, Money Nomad and terms.

Empire Flippers' published screen (checked October 24, 2026, listing requirements):

• At least $2,000 a month in net profit, averaged over the last 12 months.
• At least 12 months of revenue history — the business has to have earned for a year, not just existed.
• Google Analytics or Clicky tracking for at least 3 months before you apply.
• Ad, affiliate and AdSense sites must have been on the same domain for the last 12 months.
• The listing-requirements page says service businesses need at least half their revenue from multiple clients. The seller page says more than half: Conflicting at exactly 50%; confirm if that is your position.
• Two or more signs of manipulation — penalties, deleted accounts, short-term redirects — mean rejection.
• Restricted niches include adult content (with a stated sexual-wellness exception), gambling, hacking, payday loans, illegal substances, CBD or hemp, and dubious medical claims.
• It can still turn you down if it doesn't think it has buyers for your structure.

Where the sources disagree — and what we did about it:

• Acquire.com at exactly $250,000 or $1 million. Its pricing page calls the lowest tier "below $250k"; its subscription terms say "up to $250,000." At $1 million, the top-tier label says "$1M+" while detailed wording says above $1 million. Our status: Conflicting. Confirm the listing tier and final closing rate before you rely on either boundary. Pricing, subscription terms and fee confirmation.
• FE International's size range. The marketplace page says $100,000 to $10 million. FE's September 2026 selling guide says businesses under $1 million use its platform and bigger ones use advisory. Conflicting. Ask FE which route it would put you on. Its pricing also labels the top tier "$1M+" but describes it as above $1 million: confirm the exact $1 million rate. Marketplace, selling guide and pricing.
• Flippa's fees. Its selling FAQ confirms a 10% self-service success fee and describes self-service up to $100,000 asking. Its broker FAQ says packages start at $899 plus 10%, while current pricing cards show other brokerage fees and rates, including $899 plus 9%. Conflicting. The applicable package and duration remain Unresolved until matched to your business. Selling FAQ, broker FAQ and pricing.
• Empire Flippers' exclusivity. The seller page says you're free to de-list or list elsewhere after two months. The terms say the listing period continues as long as you're listed, and you can't list anywhere else during it. Conflicting. Get it in writing before you assume you can cross-list.

Six checks, worked through

We run every recommendation through the same five steps — the requirement, the evidence, a rule anyone can repeat, the result, and the next step. Here are six fictional sellers. One clear mismatch is enough to stop a recommendation, and missing evidence never counts as a pass.

How the check works is set out in our methodology.

If you're too small, too new, or shrinking

Being too small for one broker doesn't mean you have nothing to sell. It means that route doesn't fit yet.

• Under Empire Flippers' $2,000-a-month line: Empire Flippers itself points smaller sellers to its sister marketplace, Money Nomad — a flat $297, no commission, and you deal with buyers yourself. Flippa's do-it-yourself listings and Acquire.com publish no profit floor. FE International's marketplace says it's built for businesses valued from $100,000 up. Money Nomad reviews listings before publication but does not verify their data; you handle the transaction directly (terms, checked October 24, 2026).
• No revenue yet: Acquire.com will consider a pre-revenue business only if it's a working, usable software or AI product. A pre-revenue store, content site, agency or idea won't qualify there.
• Shrinking: You can still sell, but show the decline and the reason for it. A buyer will price a falling business off where it's heading, not its best month. If the earnings are mostly gone, you may be selling assets — a domain, content, code, an audience — rather than an income. Price it that way and say so in the listing.

Our view, from running these businesses: if you're within three or four good months of the $2,000 line, it can be worth waiting for the full-broker route. If you're nowhere near it, don't wait for a broker. Pick a self-run route and prepare your records the way a broker would.

What you keep when you sell an online business: three worked examples

The fee rate tells you less than the dollars. Below are three fictional deals worked through each provider's published terms, from the sale price to the cash you can actually use — before tax. The third shows how a "better" offer can leave you with less money on closing day.

Scenario, not a valuation. Every business, price and cost below is invented to show the arithmetic in US dollars (User assumption). None of it says what a business is worth or will sell for. These scenarios assume no transaction tax is added to the stated purchase prices; the seller's tax liability is not calculated. Published fee rules come from the provider's own pages, checked October 24, 2026; assumptions about unresolved terms are labeled separately. A fee we can't confirm stays unknown — it never counts as zero. Fee-table statuses describe the calculation, not provider acceptance.

Two fee traps that cost real money

Source: Empire Flippers commission, Provider published terms, checked October 24, 2026. You can try any price in the Empire Flippers fee calculator on our homepage.

Trap 2: the $250,000 step on Acquire.com and FE International. Both charge one rate on the whole price, set by your price tier. So a price just above $250,000 can leave you more money than a price just below it.

Both fictional deals sell for their asking price, all cash, with no inventory. Listing charges and other costs are excluded.

Sources: Acquire fee confirmation, FE pricing, and Empire Flippers commission. Provider published terms, checked October 24, 2026.

Listing subscriptions are left out of this table. Acquire.com sets the tier by your asking price and confirms it by the final price, and its pages word the exact $250,000 line differently. FE's page ties the tier to the asking price but doesn't say which price the rate multiplies. Empire Flippers' fee is blended band by band, so it has no cliff. Our take: don't price for the fee tier alone — buyers anchor on your asking price — but know exactly where the step sits before you set the number. Flippa has a service change too: its selling FAQ directs asking prices above $100,000 to brokerage. Confirm the package and rate; its broker FAQ and main pricing disagree.

What these numbers leave out

• Tax. Not calculated anywhere on this page.
• Debt, lawyer and accountant, unless the example shows them.
• Escrow. Free on Acquire.com. Paid by the buyer on Flippa, though sellers with a non-US bank may pay a wire fee of about $20. Empire Flippers holds the buyer's money until migration is complete.
• Money earned during an Empire Flippers migration. It belongs to the buyer; you're reimbursed for operating costs (migration process).
• Whether the note gets paid.
• The price itself. A route with a higher fee might get a higher price, or might not. We have not independently verified the providers' completed-sale datasets, and we have no transaction data of our own.

The proceeds check below uses Empire Flippers' standard fee schedule. The other routes stay in the worked examples until the missing terms are confirmed. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

If you're ready for a full broker: if your last 12 months average at least $2,000 a month in net profit, you have at least 12 months of revenue, you've had Google Analytics or Clicky running for three months or more, and you'd rather someone else talk to buyers and coordinate the handover, Empire Flippers is the route to check first. Read its requirements against your own numbers before you apply — the other screens still apply, and meeting them isn't acceptance.

Under $2,000 a month? Skip this one for now. Compare the routes that consider smaller businesses.

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Who does the work on each route

The cheaper the route, the more of the selling lands on you. Here's who does what, taken from each provider's own pages. "Not stated" means we couldn't find it — ask before you sign.

Sources: Acquire.com, Empire Flippers seller page and terms §6, §15, FE International, Flippa pricing, Flippa brokers, Money Nomad.

Flippa's terms §§8, 10 and 12 also require financials no more than 30 days old, replies to reasonable buyer or broker inquiries within 48 hours, and a price review after 30 unsold days, with repricing if Flippa requires it. Its exclusivity restrictions can be waived in writing. Listing-fee refunds may be requested before publication, within seven days after publication, or after 30 days without qualified buyer contact. Provider published terms, checked October 24, 2026.

That last row deserves a plain warning. Empire Flippers' terms say its commission is due if you agree to sell and then don't go through with it, or if you sell the business any other way while it's listed — calculated on the highest listing price you had. Don't accept a number you aren't ready to take.

If you'd rather run the sale yourself and keep more of the price, pick by what you're selling:

• A software or AI product, and you want vetted buyers and closing tools: Acquire.com is built for this. Remember its fee is charged on later payments at closing.

• A tech business valued between $100,000 and $10 million that you want kept private until buyers sign an NDA: FE International's marketplace.

• An eligible online business with an asking price of $100,000 or less, and you're happy to run it yourself: Flippa's do-it-yourself listings.

• Below Empire Flippers' screen and you want to avoid a sale commission: Money Nomad's flat-fee listing.

Field Notes: what a buyer will press you on

Buyers don't pay for revenue. They pay for revenue they believe will still be there after you leave. For each kind of business, here's the question a buyer will ask first, what they'll knock off the price for, what to bring, and the handover step most likely to stall.

Six of these notes are Operator experience: Graham Ashler has built and run content and affiliate sites, Amazon FBA products, publishing through PublishDrive, SaaS, iOS subscription apps and YouTube channels. That's experience owning and operating these businesses — not selling them through the marketplaces on this page. The Shopify note is Research-based. Platform rules inside each note are Provider published terms with their own source and date. For what day-to-day ownership looks like, see the Field Notes on our homepage.

How AI helps and hurts your sale

AI makes your business easier to check, easier to copy and sometimes cheaper to run. All three change what a buyer will pay. Show the effect in your records before you use it to explain your price.

1. Buyers will run your numbers through AI. Assume your profit and loss, payout reports and analytics get pasted into a tool with one question: "What doesn't match?" A small gap you'd happily explain over coffee can get flagged quickly. Reconcile every month before you list.
2. AI summaries change search traffic risk. Pew found fewer clicks on ordinary Google results when an AI summary appeared (8% versus 15%, above). Show where your traffic comes from — page by page, search engine by search engine.
3. Copying is cheaper. Code, articles, product listings and app features are faster to clone. Buyers now pay for what's hard to copy: customers, reviews, rankings, data, contracts, distribution, brand.
4. Your AI tools are something you sell — and something you must disclose. Prompts, automations, API dependencies and AI subscriptions on your personal card are part of how the business runs. If your "four hours a week" depends on workflows that leave with you, the buyer is buying more hours than you're claiming. Write up the workflows. Move or recreate accounts under the buyer's ownership where the provider allows it, replace personal API keys, and test everything before the switch.
5. Platform rules about AI are part of diligence. KDP requires disclosure of AI-generated content. YouTube excludes repetitive or mass-produced content that lacks original value from monetization. Google targets low-value pages made at scale to manipulate rankings, however they're made. None of these bans AI use outright. Each one is a question a buyer will ask about your business.

Our take, in one line: don't ask a buyer to pay for savings you haven't made. If AI cut your weekly hours, prove it with dated before-and-after time logs. Buyers pay for hours you can prove, not hours you claim.

Should you sell before AI gets to your business?

If you can see a decline coming, you can sell ahead of it — honestly. Show the trend, give the reason, price it in, and let the buyer decide. What you can't do is hide it. The buyer will run the same tools on your numbers that you're worried about, and the promises you sign in a purchase agreement about the business — called representations and warranties — can make you answer for what you knew and didn't say. Selling early is a strategy. Selling quietly is how a sale comes apart in diligence, or comes back after closing.

Get your records ready

Every route asks for the same proof: where the money comes from, what it costs, and who or what the business depends on. Gather it before you contact anyone and every route gets faster. A polished listing can't fix a profit figure you can't explain.

Empire Flippers, for example, asks sellers for screenshots of monthly revenue and net profit, "verified complete monthly expenses," and Google Analytics or Clicky access (seller FAQ, checked October 24, 2026).

Our take: if you can't back up the profit you claim, no route fixes that. Fix the books first. The buyers will still be there.

What is it worth?

Start with the earnings a buyer can check, then ask how any proposed price was reached. Two terms you'll meet straight away:

• SDE (seller's discretionary earnings): adjusted earnings for one working owner, after adding back costs that won't continue under a new owner — the owner's own pay, one-off expenses, personal costs run through the business.
• Add-backs: those adjustments. Each one should have a receipt and a reason. An expense the buyer has to keep paying isn't an add-back, however much you'd like it to be — and neither is a saving you only hope AI will deliver one day.

A multiple is the number a broker or buyer multiplies your monthly or yearly earnings by to get a price; the earnings period and the multiple must match. Brokers publish asking-price methods and completed-sale reports, but we have not independently verified a comparable completed-deal sample for these examples. So we don't print a "typical multiple." An asking price is a hope; a sale price is what a buyer actually paid.

Here's the adjustment buyers make that sellers forget. Fictional example (User assumption): say your site makes $4,000 a month and you do all the work yourself. A buyer who has to hire that work out might budget $1,000 a month for it. To them, the business earns $3,000 a month, not $4,000. That's their running cost, not something you have to deduct — and if your contractor costs are already in the books, don't count them twice.

Keep four pairs apart: revenue versus profit, recurring revenue versus one-time lifetime deals, profit with your free labor versus profit after paying someone else, and savings you've already made versus savings you hope for.

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Your seller record

Write the decision down in one place before you fill in another valuation form. Leave the unknowns visible, so your next conversation answers a real question. Here are the fields, and a completed fictional example.

Provider rules: Empire Flippers requirements, commission and release terms; FE pricing and marketplace scope. Checked October 24, 2026.

Run the same record for a second route. FE International's marketplace would leave $55,500 after the same $1,500 — but it doesn't include the help this seller wants, and $60,000 sits below the range FE says the marketplace is built for. Does not fit on the service need. That's the point of the record: one decisive mismatch beats a nicer number.

How a sale runs, from records to released money

A sale moves through six stages. Each one should settle a specific question before you hand over more access or control. Your provider and your contract decide the exact order and when money is released.

Questions to ask before you pay or sign anything:

• What exactly is included in the fee, and what costs extra?
• Who answers buyers, and who negotiates?
• What do I pay if it doesn't sell, or if I change my mind?
• How long is exclusivity, how does it end, and can I list anywhere else?
• Which parts of the price does the fee apply to — later payments, holdbacks, inventory?
• When is the fee taken, and when is my money released?
• What work do I owe after closing, for how long, and what happens if the buyer asks for more?

Flippa's help center warns against vague promises after a sale like "lifetime support" or a guaranteed profit (milestone payments). Write down hours, duration, channel and an hourly rate for anything extra.

How long a sale takes

Plan for months, not weeks — and the clock doesn't stop when a buyer says yes. Finding a buyer, closing and getting paid are separate stretches of time. Finding a buyer has no fixed deadline. The estimates below describe different stages, so don't add them together or treat them as our measurements.

Add your own preparation time: none if your records are ready, otherwise as long as it takes to reconstruct your existing records (and meet Empire Flippers' revenue-history and three-month analytics screens if you choose that route). If you need the money by a fixed date, don't treat an uncertain sale as money you already have.

After you say yes: handover, payout and what can still go wrong

The sale isn't finished when the buyer pays. With Empire Flippers, the money is released after its defined Completed Migration and other release requirements, revenue earned during migration belongs to the buyer, and you'll show photo ID before anything is paid out. Plan the handover like it's part of the price, because it is.

• Empire Flippers' published process: release within a reasonable time after its defined Completed Migration; that means sufficient control for the buyer to operate, not necessarily every asset fully transferred. Complete the required verification within five days of Completed Migration; buyer and seller reconcile leftover revenue, inventory and costs within 60 days of that event; later payments go through Empire Flippers to you (terms §7, §13, §16, §17, checked October 24, 2026).
• What can still go wrong: an account that won't transfer (Amazon, App Store, affiliate programs, payment processors); a stockout during handover; a search update in the middle of migration; a sponsor who won't follow the channel.
• Seller notes and earnouts. A seller note is a loan to the person who just bought your business. An earnout is part of the price paid later only if the business hits targets the buyer now controls. You're betting your last payments on how well a stranger runs what you built. Get it in writing, get it secured if you can, and count it as "maybe" until it's in your account.
• Your help after the sale. Expect a set period of answering questions. Agree the hours and the length in writing. If there's a non-compete, know exactly what you plan to do next before you sign it.
• The tail. Empire Flippers' terms let it collect a commission for a year after your listing ends if you sell to someone it introduced (terms §15). Acquire.com's terms say you can't take a buyer it introduced "off platform" to avoid its fee (terms §17.8).

Selling to someone you already know

If a competitor, partner, contractor or customer has already asked, you can skip the platform fee if no earlier agreement or introduction still triggers one. You don't skip the work. You set the price, write the documents, arrange escrow and move every account yourself — and you give up the one thing marketplaces sell, which is other buyers to test your price against.

1. Check what you've already signed. If your business is listed with Empire Flippers, its terms say a commission is due if you sell it any other way during the listing period (terms §15). A buyer who came from a marketplace may also carry that marketplace's fee.
2. Sign an NDA before you share real numbers.
3. Share the records pack in stages — totals first, customer names and logins last.
4. Get the offer in writing as a letter of intent.
5. Have a lawyer who has done business sales draft or review the asset purchase agreement.
6. Use escrow. Don't move a single account until the money is held by someone neutral.
7. Work through your accounts map, then release the funds.

Our take: one buyer is not a market. Before you accept, get one outside reference point — a second conversation, a broker's view, or a free valuation tool. Your lawyer and escrow costs are yours: unknown, not zero. Get quotes before you agree a price.

Taxes and legal: two calls to make before you sign

Nothing on this page is legal, tax or investment advice. Two calls are worth making before you sign a letter of intent, not after.

• An accountant, about how the sale is set up — selling the business's assets or the company that owns them — how the price is split across those assets, and when a seller note or earnout is taxed.
• A lawyer who has done business sales, about the purchase agreement, the promises you're making about the business, the non-compete, and exactly what you owe after closing.

Choose your next step

Pick the one line that describes you today. Each has one next step.

How we checked this

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.

Graham Ashler is the editorial pen name of Deal Field Guide's founder and editor. The site is published by Kozi Publishing LLC in Orem, Utah. He has built and run content and affiliate sites, Amazon FBA products, publishing through PublishDrive, SaaS, iOS subscription apps and YouTube channels; a few did well and several didn't. He isn't a business broker and hasn't sold a business through the marketplaces on this page, so everything about how those providers work comes from their own published pages.

Evidence labels on this page: Provider published terms (with the date we checked) · Inspected by us (we say what and when) · Operator experience · Third-party report · User assumption · Not verified. "Research-based" marks the one Field Note that doesn't come from running that kind of business. Our methodology explains the Deal Decision Check and how fees are calculated.

Research note

• What we checked, on October 24, 2026: seller pricing, fee schedules, listing requirements, terms of use and help-center pages for Acquire.com, Empire Flippers, FE International, Flippa and Money Nomad; Shopify, Apple, Google, KDP and YouTube rules on transfers and AI content; one independent study by Pew Research Center.
• Source types: providers' own pages, terms and help centers; one research report.
• What providers state versus what we verified: provider fees, screens and process descriptions are attributed to their published pages. We recomputed the examples; inventory and fee-allocation assumptions are labeled separately. Our preparation advice and views on AI are editorial judgments. We inspected the public pages; we did not open a seller account, inspect anyone's books or complete a transaction.
• What we couldn't resolve: whether Acquire.com, FE International and Flippa charge on separately priced inventory; which price FE International's rate multiplies; which Flippa package applies at a given price; how Empire Flippers splits its fee between closing and later payments beyond the $10,000 flat portion; FE International's advisory fees; Acquire.com's exact $250,000 and $1 million lines; FE's exact $1 million line; conflicting Flippa brokerage prices; Empire Flippers' exclusivity after two months; and how its different timing estimates apply to an individual sale.
• What we didn't verify: any provider's deal counts, average sale times, closing rates or buyer numbers; a live seller checkout or brokerage quote; or any particular business's account-transfer approval. Amazon's seller-policy body was not readable through our retrieval route; the FBA note does not promise account transfer.
• How the page was made: we use software, including AI tools, to help organize research and draft. Graham Ashler reviews every page, and every number is checked against its source. Kozi Publishing LLC is responsible for what's published here.
• Dates: Sources checked October 24, 2026. Fees and screens are rechecked every month. Corrections are logged in our editorial policy; report an error through our contact page.
• Money: No provider pays us today. If that changes, the affiliate disclosure changes first, and referral fees never set the order or the fit.

Questions sellers still ask

Is a business worth three times its profit?

There's no single number. Price depends on how steady the profit is, how much of it depends on you, and what actually transfers. Brokers publish asking-price methods and completed-sale reports, but we have not independently verified a comparable completed-deal sample here, so we don't print a "normal" multiple. Start with your 12-month profit and your real hours.

How much is a business with $100,000 in sales worth?

Sales alone don't set the price. In a fictional annual example (User assumption), a store doing $100,000 in sales with $8,000 of profit and a content site doing $100,000 with $60,000 of profit are completely different businesses at completely different prices. Work out your 12-month profit before you look at any valuation.

Can I list on two marketplaces at once?

Not under Empire Flippers' published terms: they bar listing elsewhere while you're listed with it, although its seller page conflicts about what happens after the first two months. Flippa also requires exclusivity from $25,000 asking/reserve, with restrictions lasting 90 days after removal up to $100,000 and 180 days above, unless it gives written permission. Check each agreement and get any "free to cross-list" promise in writing. Empire Flippers terms §6 and Flippa terms §10, checked October 24, 2026.

Sources

All checked October 24, 2026.

Acquire.com: Seller pricing · Buyer and seller terms · Pre-revenue businesses allowed · Subscription terms · Confirming your closing fee

Empire Flippers: Sell your online business · Listing requirements · Commission calculator · Seller FAQ · Terms of use · Migration process · Valuation and inventory explanation · Industry report

FE International: Seller pricing · Marketplace · Advisory: sell your business · How to sell an online business in 2026

Flippa: Pricing · Selling FAQ and fees · Business brokers · Terms of service · Pricing, escrow and FlippaPay fees · Handling milestone payments

Money Nomad: Sell your online business · Terms of service

Platforms: Amazon Associates operating agreement · PublishDrive terms · AdSense for YouTube setup and ownership · Shopify: change or transfer store ownership · Apple: overview of app transfer · Google: Brand Account owners · KDP terms and conditions · KDP content guidelines · YouTube channel monetization policies · Google Search spam policies

Research: Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears (July 22, 2025)