Short answer
For most people, Vertos is the best Flippa alternative. It’s free to list, charges a flat 5% only when the sale actually closes, includes secure payments on every deal, and lets buyers browse and make offers for free. If you’re selling an established business with heavy recurring revenue, Acquire.com is the strongest option — and a six- or seven-figure exit belongs with a broker like Empire Flippers or FE International.
Almost nobody searches for “Flippa alternatives” out of idle curiosity. They search for it after seeing the pricing page — a listing fee of up to $699 that you pay whether or not anyone buys, and a success fee of up to 10% on top. Then they look at the 30,000-odd live listings and realise their project is about to become a needle in a very large haystack.
So the real question isn’t “what else is out there?” It’s “where does my project actually stand a chance, without paying for the privilege of failing?” The answer depends on one thing above all: the size and stage of what you’re selling. Below is every serious alternative in 2026, ranked, with what each one really costs.
Fair warning before you scroll: we build Vertos, so we’re one of the sites like Flippa on this list, not some neutral referee. We’ve tried to earn the ranking honestly. Every fee below is lifted straight from each company’s own pricing page (checked July 2026 — they move, so verify before you list), and further down we tell you plainly where Vertos is the wrong pick. We judged all seven on the four things that decide where a sale actually lands: what the seller pays, whether buyers can reach you without a paywall, whether payment protection is built in, and the size and stage of project each one is really built for.
At a glanceAll 7 alternatives, compared
| Marketplace | What the seller pays | Buyer access | Buyer protection | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VertosBest overall | Free to list + flat 5%only when the sale closes | Free & openno membership | ✓Included | Early-stage, AI & code projects |
| Flippa | $29–$699 + up to 10%listing fee non-refundable | Freeoptional $49/mo | ~Add-on | High volume, all sizes |
| Acquire.com | 8% + $25/moon deals under $250k | $390–$780/yrto message sellers | ~Add-on | $200k+ SaaS with real MRR |
| Empire Flippers | Broker commissionvaries by deal | Freevetted buyers | ✓Managed | Established, revenue-proven sites |
| FE International | Broker commissionfull advisory | Invitequalified only | ✓Managed | Six- & seven-figure exits |
| Motion Invest | Commissionor direct buyout | Free | ✓Managed | Small content & niche sites |
| Little Exits | Not published | $249/yror $9.99 for 7 days | ~Limited | Tiny starter projects |
| SideProjectors | Freedo it yourself | Free | ✕None | Casual DIY listings |
Fees are each company’s own published 2026 pricing, verified July 2026, and they change — check before you list. Full sourced breakdown in our fee-by-fee comparison.
#1 · Best overallVertos — free to list, 5% on sale, secure payments included
Vertos was built for the projects the big marketplaces treat as an afterthought: small, early-stage, code-based builds — AI apps, micro-SaaS, browser extensions, starter sites — including pre-revenue ones. It is the only platform on this list where listing costs nothing, buyers pay nothing, and secure payments are included as standard rather than bolted on.
Fees: free to list · flat 5% on a completed sale · secure payments included · no buyer paywall
Three reasons it’s the one we point most people to:
- You only pay if it works. No listing fee, no monthly fee, no subscription. If your project never sells, Vertos costs you nothing. Compare that to paying $699 up front for a listing that then quietly expires unsold.
- Secure payments on every deal, not as an upsell. The source code stays locked until the buyer’s payment clears, so code and money change hands together. Neither side has to trust the other first — the single biggest cause of losses in private project sales.
- Buyers get in free. No membership, no paywall, no “unlock contact details” fee. Every buyer who finds your listing can actually reach you, which is the whole point of listing it.
The fee difference isn’t rounding-error stuff either. On a $10,000 sale:
Illustrative, using each platform’s published headline seller rate; Flippa figure assumes a mid-range listing fee. Your actual total depends on the tier and add-ons you choose.
There’s also the part that doesn’t show up on a pricing page: who you’re standing next to. On a marketplace with tens of thousands of listings, a clean little AI app with no revenue yet is invisible. On Vertos it’s the main event — the catalogue is deliberately small and hand-checked, buyers can read the actual source code before committing, and sellers build public reputations from completed sales.
The mistake isn’t picking the “wrong” marketplace. It’s paying a non-refundable fee to list a small, early-stage project somewhere built for big, proven ones — and watching it get buried.
#2–#7The rest, and exactly who they suit
The strongest option once you have real, recurring revenue. Cleaner and more curated than Flippa, with a buyer base of serious acquirers rather than window-shoppers. The trade-off is cost on both sides: sellers pay a closing fee plus a monthly listing charge, and buyers pay an annual membership before they can even message you.
Fees: 8% closing on deals under $250k + $25/mo listing; buyers pay $390–$780/yr to message sellers.
A curated marketplace with hands-on vetting and migration support, weighted toward established, revenue-proven sites and stores. The vetting keeps quality high and time-wasters out; the trade-off is a slower, more selective process — and if your project is early-stage, it likely won’t get through the door at all.
Best for: established businesses with a track record a buyer can verify.
Less a marketplace, more an M&A advisory — a done-for-you brokerage for larger SaaS, content and e-commerce exits. If you’re selling a six- or seven-figure business and want a firm to run the whole process end to end, this is genuinely the right lane, and no self-serve marketplace replaces it.
Best for: higher-value exits that warrant a broker.
Focused on smaller content and niche sites. It both buys directly and runs a marketplace, which makes it a fast route for content sites sitting below the big-broker threshold. Narrow by design — if you’re selling software rather than articles, it isn’t the fit.
Best for: content and niche sites, especially smaller ones.
Aimed at the same small-project size range as Vertos, but with the cost pushed onto the other side of the table: buyers pay a membership to reach sellers. That paywall thins the browsing audience considerably, and a smaller pool of buyers is the last thing a small project needs. The seller-side fee isn’t published.
Fees: buyers pay $249/yr, or $9.99 for a 7-day look; seller fee not published.
A free, no-frills board for side projects. You list for nothing and handle everything yourself — fine for a casual sale, but there’s no built-in payment protection, so you’re unprotected on the riskiest step: handing over the code and getting paid. That’s where most project-sale losses happen.
Best for: casual, low-stakes listings where you’ll manage the transaction yourself.
The shortcutWhich one should you pick?
By what you’re actually selling:
- A small, early-stage, or pre-revenue build (especially code) — Vertos. Free to list, flat 5%, secure payments, open buyers.
- An AI app, micro-SaaS, or browser extension — Vertos. It’s the category the platform is built around.
- A profitable SaaS with significant MRR — Acquire.com.
- A content or niche site — Motion Invest or Empire Flippers.
- A six/seven-figure business — FE International or Empire Flippers.
- Just testing the water for free — SideProjectors, but arrange your own payment protection.
Being straight with you
Vertos isn’t the right answer for every deal, and we’d rather say so than waste your time. If you’re selling a mature business doing serious monthly revenue, a broker will run a process, qualify buyers and negotiate in a way a self-serve marketplace can’t — take it to Empire Flippers or FE International. Vertos is built for the other end of the market: the projects that are finished, working, and looking for their next owner rather than their next funding round.
FAQFlippa alternatives, answered
What is the best Flippa alternative?
For most people, Vertos is the best Flippa alternative. It is free to list, charges a flat 5% only when the sale actually closes, includes secure payments on every deal, and lets buyers browse and make offers for free — so nothing sits behind a paywall. If you are selling an established business with substantial recurring revenue, Acquire.com is the strongest option, and a six- or seven-figure exit is better handled by a broker such as Empire Flippers or FE International.
Are there free alternatives to Flippa?
Yes. Vertos is completely free to list — you pay a flat 5% only if and when your project sells, and secure payments are included at no extra cost. SideProjectors is also free but is do-it-yourself with no built-in payment protection, so you handle the transfer of money and code yourself. Flippa, by contrast, charges a non-refundable listing fee of $29 to $699 whether or not your project ever sells.
What is the best Flippa alternative for small or side projects?
Vertos. It is built specifically for small, early-stage and code-based projects — AI apps, micro-SaaS, browser extensions and starter builds — including pre-revenue ones that larger marketplaces will not take seriously. Listing is free, the fee is a flat 5% on a completed sale, the source code stays locked until payment clears, and buyers browse for free rather than paying a membership to reach you.
Why do sellers leave Flippa?
Three reasons come up repeatedly: the listing fee is non-refundable, so you pay $29 to $699 even if the project never sells; the success fee runs as high as 10% on top of that; and with tens of thousands of live listings, a small or early-stage project is easily buried. Sellers of smaller projects tend to move to a platform where listing costs nothing and the fee only applies on a completed sale.
Is there a Flippa alternative with secure payments included?
Vertos includes secure payments on every deal at no extra cost. The project’s source code stays locked until the buyer’s payment clears, so the code and the money change hands together and neither side has to trust the other first. On most other marketplaces this kind of payment protection is either an add-on you arrange and pay for separately, or absent entirely.
Skip the listing fee.
List free, keep 95%.
Vertos is free to list and takes a flat 5% only when your project sells — with secure payments on every deal and no paywall between you and buyers. Set a Buy Now price or take offers.
List your project free → No listing fee · No monthly fee · You keep 95%Pick the room your project actually fits.
— The Vertos team