Where to buy a micro-SaaS or side project

There’s a version of “starting a business” that skips the hardest part entirely: instead of spending a year getting from zero to one, you buy something that’s already there — the code, the users, sometimes the revenue — and start from a running position. The catch most first-time buyers hit isn’t money. It’s not knowing where the small, affordable deals actually live.

Because the marketplaces you’ve heard of are mostly built for six- and seven-figure businesses. If you want to buy a $2,000 side project or a small micro-SaaS doing a few hundred dollars a month, you need to know which doors to knock on — and how to tell a real opportunity from a lemon before you pay. Here’s the map.

What you can buyThe small end is more accessible than you think

You don’t need a war chest. At the accessible end of the market, real assets change hands for the price of a used laptop or a modest car. Roughly what things go for:

For how those numbers actually get set, our valuation guide breaks the multiples down by type — useful whether you’re checking a price or making an offer.

Where to buyThe marketplaces, by what they're for

There’s no single best place — there’s a best place for the size and type you want:

• Established, profitable businesses — the big brokers: Empire Flippers and FE International (vetted, higher-value) and Acquire.com (profitable SaaS).
• Broad variety, all sizes — Flippa: the biggest pool, but you vet everything yourself.
• Small, early-stage, or code-based projects — Vertos: free to browse, listings show the real source code and a readiness check, and every deal is escrow-protected. Built for exactly the small end the big brokers skip.

We put the platforms side by side — fees, vetting, and who each suits — in the best Flippa alternatives. The short version for a buyer: bigger and proven, go to a broker; small and early-stage, you’ll find more (and pay less to look) on a marketplace built for it.

The best deals at the small end aren’t hidden — they’re just listed in the wrong-sized rooms for most first-time buyers to find them.

Buy safelyWhat to check before you pay

Wherever you buy, the same five checks separate a smart acquisition from an expensive mistake. Before money moves:

• Verify the money at the source — screenshots lie; ask to see the Stripe or analytics dashboard live, not a PDF.
• Trace the traffic — real, diversified visitors, not one channel or a bot spike that’ll vanish.
• Read the code — is it clean, documented, and free of committed secrets, or a weekend of AI output nobody reviewed?
• Confirm what transfers — domain, accounts, integrations, and IP. A business that’s secretly just the founder doesn’t transfer.
• Use escrow — never pay first and hope. Escrow holds the money until the assets are actually in your hands.

The full walk-through is in how to buy without getting burned and the due-diligence checklist — worth ten minutes before you spend real money.

How to startFrom browsing to owning

Start by browsing with a filter, not a wish. Pick a category and a price range, sort by what matters to you — revenue, traction, or a clean codebase — and open the ones that fit. On Vertos, each listing carries an automated read of the source and a readiness checklist, so you can vet before you ever message the seller. When you find one, make an offer at a fair number (or bid if it’s an auction), and let escrow handle the handoff so the code and the money change hands together. That’s the whole loop — the hard part was just knowing where to look.

Buy the head start. Skip the blank page.
— The Vertos team