Every commission below read from the broker's own site, September 2026
Website Broker: Online Business Broker Commissions, Minimums and the Best Website Broker for Your Deal Size
A website broker sells your online business for a success fee taken at closing, and the published rates run from 5% to 15% of the price. Empire Flippers charges 15% up to $700,000 with a $10,000 minimum. Brokered by Flippa charges $399 to $1,499 up front plus 10% falling to 5% by size. Quiet Light, FE International, Website Closers and Website Properties do not publish a rate at all. Buyouts is not a broker: it is a marketplace for AI SaaS that charges 3% to 5% at close plus a monthly plan while you are listed, and its Managed plan puts a dedicated deal lead on the sale.
3% to 5% success fee · no retainer · Managed plan includes a dedicated deal lead
ARR (x12):
About per year
Multiple range
Estimated range
to
Midpoint
Educational estimate only · not financial advice · no guaranteed price
On a $500,000 sale that spread is real money. The published broker rates come to $45,899 at Flippa and $75,000 at Empire Flippers. The same sale costs $19,194 on the Buyouts Managed plan over a six month listing. What you get for the difference is the question, and it is answered below broker by broker, including where a full-service broker is the better buy.
Every figure on this page was read from the broker's own site in September 2026 unless a row says otherwise. Where a firm takes a percentage but will not state it, the table says so rather than repeating a number from a roundup. This page compares costs and services; it is not legal, tax or investment advice.
A website broker sells a process: valuation, a prospectus, a private buyer list, negotiation and a managed close. A marketplace sells access to buyers and leaves more of the work to you. The right choice depends on the size of the deal and how much of the sale you want to run yourself, and the fee gap between the two is widest on exactly the deals where owners most often overpay.
Read from each broker directly, 25 September 2026 unless the row says otherwise
Website brokers and what each charges the seller
Each row came from the broker's own pricing page, FAQ or sell page, never from a best-of list. "Not published" means the firm charges a success fee but does not state the rate anywhere a seller can read it before a call. Acquire.com is not a broker; it is in the table because it is the self-serve option most sellers weigh against one.
Swipe to see every column →
| Broker | Built for | Fee to the seller at close | Upfront cost and term | What it says about itself | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buyouts | AI SaaS only; MRR, ARR, growth and churn verified before a listing goes live | 5%, 4% or 3% by plan | $79, $249 or $699 a month while listed, no retainer; the $699 Managed plan adds a dedicated deal lead, full verification, a data room build and a managed close | A marketplace with a managed option, not a brokerage | Sep 2026 |
| Empire Flippers | Curated online businesses: content, ecommerce, Amazon FBA, SaaS | $10,000 flat below $66,666.66; 15% to $700,000; 8% on the amount above $700,000 to $5M; 2.5% above $5M | No listing fee | Blended commission, "our fees cover themselves" | 25 Sep 2026 |
| Brokered by Flippa | Every online asset type; the only seller option on Flippa from $100,000 up | 10% below $500,000, 9% to $999,999, 8% from $1M, falling to 5% at $50M | One payment of $399 to $1,499 for a six month term | Flippa's own brokered service on its marketplace | 13 Sep 2026 capture |
| Quiet Light | Online businesses, mostly ecommerce, Amazon FBA and SaaS | Not published | Exclusive engagement letter; length not stated | "85% of Quiet Light listings sell in 90 days or less"; over 750 owners helped | 25 Sep 2026 |
| FE International | Middle market technology: SaaS, content, ecommerce, fintech | Not published | Not published | 1,500+ transactions, $48M average transaction value, 94.1% completed, 80,000+ buyers | 25 Sep 2026 |
| Website Closers | Online and traditional businesses, larger deals | Not published; its own article cites 5% to 10% as the market norm under $100M | "100% success-based", no upfront fee | 2,345 businesses sold, 92% close rate | Aug 2026 |
| Website Properties | Digital businesses, founded 2002 | Not published; "a percentage of the sale price" | No upfront fee; six month exclusive listing with a tail period of the same length | 600+ deals closed, 72 days average on market, 85%+ of listings taken on sell | 25 Sep 2026 |
| Acquire.com (self-serve) | Startups and SaaS, no broker | 8% below $250,000, 7% to $1M, 6% above | $25, $50 or $100 a month to list | Buyers pay from $390 for membership | 25 Sep 2026 |
Four of the seven brokers in this table will not tell you their rate before a call. That is normal in brokerage and it is not a sign of anything wrong, but it means every "website brokers charge 10% to 15%" line you read elsewhere is an estimate, not a quote. The closest thing to a public benchmark is the article Website Closers publishes itself, which cites 5% to 10% for deals under $100 million. FE International now states a $48 million average transaction value on its own services page, which tells you plainly who it is built for: a $300,000 site is not its buyer.
Our arithmetic, applied to the published rates
What a website broker costs on a $150,000, $500,000 and $2 million sale
Published rates only, applied the way each firm states them. Buyouts and Acquire.com rows assume a six month listing before the sale closes. The Lehman rows are the public formulas many brokers start from, not any named firm's rate, and they are here so you have a yardstick when a broker quotes you on a call.
Swipe to see every column →
| Broker or formula | $150,000 sale | $500,000 sale | $2,000,000 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lehman 5-4-3-2-1 (reference) | $7,500 | $25,000 | $90,000 |
| Buyouts Featured, $249 a month + 4% | $7,494 | $21,494 | $81,494 |
| Buyouts Listed, $79 a month + 5% | $7,974 | $25,474 | $100,474 |
| Buyouts Managed, $699 a month + 3% | $8,694 | $19,194 | $64,194 |
| Acquire.com, self-serve | $12,150 | $35,300 | $120,600 |
| Double Lehman 10-8-6-4-2 (reference) | $15,000 | $50,000 | $180,000 |
| Brokered by Flippa | $15,399 | $45,899 | $161,299 |
| Empire Flippers | $22,500 | $75,000 | $209,000 |
| Quiet Light, FE International, Website Closers, Website Properties | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Two things stand out. First, the Empire Flippers $10,000 floor and 15% band make it the most expensive published option on anything under $700,000, and its 8% marginal rate above that only starts to pull it back on big deals. Second, which Buyouts plan is cheapest depends on the price: Featured wins below about $270,000, Managed wins above it, and the Managed plan beats Listed from about $186,000. That is our arithmetic on the published rates, assuming six months listed; a faster sale makes every monthly plan cheaper.
Side by side
Buyouts against a full-service website broker, honestly
A fair look at what each does well. Both are useful. Here is where they differ.
| Feature | Buyouts | Website brokers |
|---|---|---|
| Fee at close | 3% to 5% by plan | 15% at Empire Flippers to $700,000; 10% to 5% at Flippa; not published at Quiet Light, FE International, Website Closers or Website Properties |
| Cost before the sale closes | $79, $249 or $699 a month, stopped when the business sells | Usually nothing; Flippa charges $399 to $1,499 once for its brokered term |
| Who runs the sale | You on Listed; a dedicated deal lead on Managed | The broker, start to finish |
| Exclusivity | No exclusive engagement letter and no tail clause | Typically exclusive; Website Properties states a six month term plus a tail of the same length |
| What it sells | AI SaaS only | Every kind of online business, including content, Amazon FBA and ecommerce |
| Metrics | MRR, ARR, growth and churn verified before the listing goes live | Verified by the broker's own team as part of the prospectus |
| Buyers | Paid members only, $99 to $899 a month, no buyer success fee | The broker's private list: 80,000+ at FE International, 50,000 at Website Properties |
| Where the broker wins | We do not write a full prospectus for Listed or Featured sellers and we do not sell ecommerce or content sites | A seasoned broker earns the fee on a complex deal: several bidders, an earnout, a stock sale, a nervous first time buyer |
Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each marketplace for the latest. Trademarks belong to their owners.
Why founders and buyers pick Buyouts
One deal room built specifically for AI SaaS
What a website broker actually does for the fee
A website broker values the business, writes the prospectus, markets it to a private buyer list under NDA, screens the people who reply, runs the calls, negotiates the letter of intent and the purchase agreement, and manages escrow and the migration of domains, code and accounts. Quiet Light says its clients verify their financial statements with third-party documents: bank statements, merchant account statements and tax returns. Website Properties says its listings average 72 days on the market and a full close takes three to four months. That is a real job, and on a sale above a few hundred thousand dollars it is often worth paying for. The owners who overpay are the ones who hand a simple deal to a broker at 15% when the buyer could have been found on a marketplace, or who sign a six month exclusive and then bring their own buyer, only to find the fee still applies.
The minimum is the number to ask about first
Brokers publish floors more readily than rates, because the floor is what screens out deals they cannot make money on. Empire Flippers charges $10,000 on anything below $66,666.66, which is 20% of a $50,000 sale and a third of a $30,000 one. FE International's stated $48 million average transaction value tells you where its attention goes. Flippa's brokered service only begins at $100,000. If your business is worth under about $150,000, a full-service website broker is usually the most expensive way to sell it. A self-serve marketplace, where you run the conversations and the fee is a percentage with no floor, will leave more of the price in your pocket.
How to read an engagement letter before you sign
Ask for four things in writing. The rate, and whether it steps down as the price rises or applies to the whole amount. The minimum fee. The length of the exclusive term. The tail: how long after the term ends the broker still earns a fee if a buyer it introduced closes. Website Properties states its tail is the same length as its six month term; most brokers use something similar. Then ask what counts as the price. Some agreements charge the commission on the total consideration, including a seller note and any earnout, even the part you may never collect. That single definition can move the real fee by several points on a structured deal.
Where Buyouts fits, and where it does not
Buyouts lists AI SaaS only. If you are selling a content site, an Amazon FBA brand or a Shopify store, a website broker or a general marketplace is the right place and we are not. If you are selling an AI or SaaS business, the Managed plan gives you most of what a broker does, a dedicated deal lead, full metric verification, a data room build and a managed close, for 3% at closing plus $699 a month while listed, with no exclusive letter and no tail. Buyers on Buyouts pay a membership to participate, $99 to $899 a month, and owe no success fee, so the offer you receive is not quietly discounted to cover a fee the buyer owes somebody else.
Keep reading on the parts of a deal this page touches: what a main street business broker charges, with the Lehman formula worked out, the Empire Flippers commission, tier by tier, every Flippa band, including Brokered by Flippa, Quiet Light compared with a marketplace, FE International compared with a marketplace, what Website Closers charges, and what it will not say, ten places to list a business and what each one costs, when a broker is worth it and when a marketplace is enough, how selling an AI startup runs on Buyouts.
Good questions
Website broker questions, answered
More comparisons
See how Buyouts compares
Acquire.com alternative
An AI-SaaS-native marketplace with verified metrics, published multiples and vetted buyers, not a generalist startup listing wall.
vs FlippaFlippa alternative
A curated, metrics-verified, vetted-buyer marketplace for AI SaaS, not a high-volume auction wall.
vs MicroAcquireMicroAcquire alternative
An AI-SaaS-focused marketplace with verified metrics and real deal-flow tooling, not a generalist micro-startup feed.
vs Empire FlippersEmpire Flippers alternative
A self-serve, AI-SaaS-native marketplace with published multiples and escrow, not a content and eComm brokerage.
vs FE InternationalFE International alternative
A self-serve, AI-SaaS-native marketplace with verified metrics and published multiples, not a high-minimum sell-side advisory.
vs Quiet LightQuiet Light Brokerage alternative
A self-serve, AI-SaaS-native marketplace with verified metrics and published multiples, not a mid-market advisory engagement.
The deal room for AI SaaS, not a yard sale
Buy with verified metrics, published multiples and escrow-backed closes, or list your AI SaaS to a pool of vetted, capital-qualified buyers.
Listings, metrics and buyers shown are illustrative product UI · valuation content is educational, not a guaranteed sale price or return · trademarks belong to their owners