The two biggest self-serve online-business marketplaces, compared honestly for SaaS buyers. Neither is strictly better — they optimize for different sourcing strategies.
| Dimension | Flippa | Acquire.com |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | All online businesses (SaaS, content, apps, ecommerce) | SaaS-focused |
| Typical ticket | $500–$5M+ | $5k–$5M |
| Inventory volume | Thousands of active listings | Hundreds of SaaS-specific listings |
| Verification | Seller-attested; optional paid third-party audit | Seller-attested; Stripe integration on newer listings |
| NDA required | Not usually | Sometimes, especially at higher tickets |
| Fee model | Seller pays listing fee + 5–15% commission | Buyer pays close fee; free to browse |
| Best for | Wide-net sourcing across categories | SaaS-specific search, mid-market |
Acquire.com wins for pure-SaaS acquisition. It's the platform where SaaS founders actually list — the inventory is higher-quality on average, the numbers are more consistently formatted, and the buyer flow (inquire, get intro, hop on a call) is optimized for the way SaaS transactions actually happen. It's also where you'll find the highest concentration of SBA-financeable deals in the $100k–$1M range.
Flippa wins for breadth and for cross-category shopping. If you're open to buying content sites, apps, or ecommerce alongside SaaS, Flippa's inventory dwarfs Acquire.com's. It's also where distressed and desperate sellers list first — sometimes producing genuine bargains, more often producing landmines. Diligence is more work per listing because the verification bar is lower.
For most SaaS buyers, the answer isn't "pick one" — it's "monitor both, plus a third". Serious buyers set up saved searches on both, treat Acquire.com as their primary source, and check Flippa weekly for the occasional deal that slipped past Acquire's inventory. Neither platform verifies MRR to the standard a diligent buyer needs — every close still requires an independent Stripe / Paddle / RevenueCat check.
Startup Index is the third platform to watch. Smaller inventory than either Flippa or Acquire.com, but every listing card publishes TrustMRR-verified MRR pulled live from Stripe / Paddle / RevenueCat, seller-reported margin, calculated ROI, and payback months — no NDA required. It's where a buyer can screen 40 deals in an hour without the back-and-forth of numbers requests. We don't broker or facilitate close; that stays between the buyer and seller.
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Acquire.com. It's SaaS-focused with better MRR verification norms and cleaner deal flow at $10k–$1M asking prices. Flippa is broader (content sites, apps, ecommerce, SaaS all mixed) so SaaS-specific search is noisier there.
Flippa by raw count (thousands of active listings across all categories); Acquire.com by SaaS-specific inventory. If you filter Flippa to SaaS only, Acquire.com's SaaS pool is usually deeper at mid-market tickets.
Both rely on seller-attested numbers with partial verification. Acquire.com has moved toward Stripe integration for MRR verification on newer listings. Flippa has a paid third-party verification option that some sellers use, but the default listing shows unverified figures. Independent verification (Stripe screen-share during diligence) is still on the buyer regardless of platform.
Acquire.com: buyer pays a close fee at deal completion, free to browse and inquire. Flippa: seller pays a listing fee + 5–15% success commission (varies by category). Broker-tier deals on both platforms have separate fee structures.
Acquire.com. Cleaner listing pages, clearer numbers, faster inquiry flow. Flippa's UX is optimized for auction-style bidding on content sites, which feels foreign to a SaaS buyer used to fixed-price acquisitions.
Yes for wide-net sourcing, especially for sub-$100k tickets and international listings (Flippa has stronger EU/Asia inventory than Acquire.com). But it's rarely the only platform a serious SaaS buyer uses — most cross-list their searches with Acquire.com and one or two direct marketplaces.
Frequently. Below the brokered mid-market tier, sellers cross-list on Acquire.com, Flippa, MicroAcquire archives (now Acquire.com), and increasingly Startup Index. Same business, different marketplace exposure. Occasionally the asking price differs — worth checking.
Do the three-check reconciliation before wiring funds regardless of platform: (1) seller screen-shares Stripe / Paddle / RevenueCat live, (2) hosting + tooling invoices reconcile with claimed costs, (3) domain WHOIS matches seller's identity. Neither platform substitutes for these checks; they're the buyer's job.