What fees do you pay when selling an online business?

Four things: a success commission (the biggest cost), sometimes an upfront or monthly listing fee, escrow and payment-processing fees, and any migration or transfer costs. There's also an indirect cost — marketplaces that charge buyers to participate shrink your buyer pool, which can quietly lower your final sale price.

What's the cheapest way to sell a website?

A marketplace that's free to list, charges a low flat commission only on a completed sale, includes escrow, and lets buyers participate for free. Avoid non-refundable listing fees, monthly subscriptions, and buyer paywalls, all of which either add cost or shrink the pool of buyers competing for your project. Vertos, for example, is free to list and takes a flat 5% with escrow included.

How Much Does It Cost to Sell a Website or App?

Q: How much does it cost to sell a website or app?

The main cost is the marketplace or broker's commission, which ranges widely: a flat 5% at the low end, 8% plus a monthly fee at Acquire.com, a non-refundable listing fee of $29–$699 plus up to 10% at Flippa, and roughly 10–15% at full-service brokers. On top of that you may pay upfront or monthly listing fees and escrow/payment-processing fees. On a $10,000 sale that can mean keeping anywhere from about $8,500 to $9,500 depending on where you sell.

The price you agree on is not the money you get. Somewhere between "we have a deal" and the funds landing in your account, a chain of fees takes its cut — and depending on where you sell, that cut ranges from a light tap to a genuine bite. Before you list anywhere, it's worth knowing exactly what selling costs, because most of it is a choice.

Here's the good news up front: the biggest cost of selling is almost entirely within your control, decided by where you list, not by the sale itself. Let's walk through every line item, then put real numbers on a $10,000 sale.

The line itemsWhat actually comes out of a sale

The commission (success fee) — the big oneThis is the platform's cut of the final price, and it's where the money goes. It swings enormously: a flat 5% at the low end, 8% plus a monthly fee at Acquire.com, a listing fee plus up to 10% at Flippa, and roughly 10–15% at a full-service broker. On a five-figure deal, the gap between 5% and 15% is real money — pick this number carefully, because it dwarfs everything else on the list.

Listing & subscription fees — money before you've sold anythingSome platforms charge you to be there at all. Flippa's listing fee runs $29–$699 and is non-refundable whether or not you sell; Acquire.com charges around $25/month while you're listed. These feel small next to the commission, but they're a pure loss if the sale doesn't happen — you're paying for the chance to sell. Free-to-list marketplaces skip this entirely.

Escrow & payment processingMoving the money safely has a cost. On many platforms, escrow and card/processing fees are billed on top of the commission as extra percentages. On others, escrow is built into the flat fee, so there's no surprise line at the end. Worth checking before you list — a "low" headline rate with escrow bolted on can quietly beat a higher all-in rate.

Migration & transfer — usually your timeHanding over code, domains, and accounts takes work. Brokers may do it for you (folded into their higher fee); on a self-serve marketplace it's your afternoon, or a small payment to someone who does transfers. Rarely huge, but real — and smoother if you've documented the handoff in advance.

The hidden cost: a smaller buyer poolThis one never shows up as a line item. Marketplaces that charge buyers a subscription to participate shrink the room of people bidding on your project — and fewer buyers competing usually means a lower final price. A gate on the buyer's side is a cost on the seller's side; it just arrives disguised as "the best offer we got."

The commission is the cost you can see. The buyer paywall is the cost you can't. Both come out of your number.

The real mathWhat selling costs you on a $10,000 sale

Line items are abstract, so here it is as a picture — the total cost to sell the same $10,000 project in different places. Shorter bar is better; it's money that stays with you.

The cost of selling a $10,000 project

Commission plus typical listing/escrow extras. Directional — exact figures depend on the deal and time listed.

Vertos — 5% flat, escrow included−$500

Acquire.com — 8% + monthly listing≈ −$900

Flippa — listing fee + up to 10%≈ −$1,200

Full-service broker — ~15%≈ −$1,500

Same project, same buyer, same $10,000 — and a $1,000 swing in what you pocket depending only on where you listed. Brokers earn their higher cut on large, hands-off deals; on a small self-serve sale, that premium is just cost. And none of these bars include the buyer-paywall effect, which can shave the sale price itself.

Keeping moreHow to pay the least to sell

You can't avoid every cost, but you can avoid most of the expensive ones. Four rules keep more of the sale in your pocket:

✓

Favor a low, flat commissionIt's the dominant cost by far. A flat 5% versus a broker's 15% is a 10-point swing on the whole sale price — worth more than every other optimization combined.

✓

Avoid upfront and monthly feesNon-refundable listing fees and subscriptions are money spent whether or not you sell. Free-to-list means your only cost is a cut of a sale that actually happened.

✓

Use a platform where escrow is includedSo "5%" really means 5% — not 5% plus escrow plus processing tacked on at closing.

✓

Sell where buyers get in freeAn open buyer pool means more people competing for your project, which protects the price. Don't pay — in a lower sale — for someone else's paywall.

The bottom lineMost of the cost is a choice

Selling a project isn't free, but it's a lot cheaper than most first-time sellers assume — if you don't overpay for the privilege. The commission is the whole game, listing fees are avoidable, escrow should be included, and buyer paywalls quietly cost you on the price. Choose well and you keep the overwhelming majority of what you sell for.

That's the math we built Vertos around: free to list, a flat 5% only when it sells, and Stripe-powered escrow included — so on a $10,000 sale you keep $9,500, with buyers who get in free and compete for your project. The cheapest cost of selling is the one you never had to pay.

Keep 95% of your sale.

No listing fee, a flat 5% only when it closes, escrow included, and an open pool of buyers. That's the whole cost.

List your project free →

Read the fee page before you list, not after you sell. It's the highest-paying five minutes of the whole process.
— The Vertos team

Sources & notes

Fees verified July 2026 from each company's own pricing, and change over time — check before you list. Flippa (listing fee + success fee), Acquire.com (closing + monthly listing fees), Empire Flippers and FE International (broker commissions). The $10,000 figures are illustrative, using each platform's headline seller rate plus typical extras. Educational guidance, not financial advice.