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BizBuySell Alternatives (2026): 9 Marketplaces and Networks for Finding a Business to Buy

by Raises.com

The strongest BizBuySell alternatives in 2026 are BizQuest, LoopNet, DealStream, BusinessesForSale.com, Axial, the Sunbelt and Transworld broker networks, Flippa, Acquire.com and Empire Flippers, and they do four different jobs. BizQuest, DealStream and BusinessesForSale.com carry the same kind of open listings and are free to browse. LoopNet is the commercial real estate marketplace of BizBuySell's owner, CoStar Group. Axial is a private network for companies with $2.5M to $250M of revenue, and Sunbelt and Transworld are franchised broker networks. Flippa, Acquire.com and Empire Flippers sell online businesses and charge the seller a fee when the business sells. BizBuySell is still the category leader. It reports over 4 million visits a month, and its Q2 2026 data covered 39,864 active listings. None of the nine sets up the vehicle or writes the offering documents that the purchase money moves through.

Each entry below is built from what the company publishes about itself, read on September 22, 2026. Prices change. Confirm on the company's own page before you pay. For fourteen places to find a business, grouped by type, see the business for sale marketplace comparison. For BizBuySell against Raises.com, see BizBuySell vs Raises.com. If the target is above main street size, the sibling list is Axial alternatives.

BizBuySell alternatives compared

MarketplaceWhat it isWho it servesPricing model, as publishedBest for
BizBuySell (the baseline)Open business-for-sale marketplace, part of CoStar Group since 2012Main street and small business buyers, owners, brokersFree to browse; Edge buyer membership $24.95 a month or $239.95 a year; seller listings $74.95 to $199.95 a month on a six-month termThe widest open US inventory
BizQuestThe original business-for-sale site, founded 1994, same owner as BizBuySellOwners, brokers and buyers of US small businessesFree to browse; seller listings from $49.95 a month on a 12-month term, up to $149.95 for DiamondA second sweep of similar inventory
LoopNetCommercial real estate marketplace, same ownerProperty investors, owners, tenants, brokersFree account for searchers; advertising sold through a sales form, no published priceReal estate, and a business sold with its building
DealStreamCommunity marketplace for businesses, real estate and investments, running since 1995Owners, investors, brokers, advisors, executivesFree, with unlimited listings; Pro $40 a month or $400 a yearWide searches and specialist assets
BusinessesForSale.comInternational marketplace run by Dynamis LtdBuyers and sellers in more than 130 countriesBuyers free, Premium $14.95 a month; US seller packages $199 to $399Targets outside the US
AxialPrivate deal network where advisors send matched, confidential dealsIndependent sponsors, search funds, family offices, PE funds$0 access fee; buyer success fee at close, 5% falling to 1%Companies with $250K to $25M of EBITDA
Sunbelt and TransworldFranchised business broker networksOwners selling through a broker, and the buyers they screenNo buyer fee publishedA broker-run process with prepared financials
FlippaMarketplace for online businessesBuyers and sellers of websites, apps, ecommerce and SaaSBuyers free, Premium $49 a month; sellers from $29 plus a 10% success feeOnline businesses, from a self-listed site upward
Acquire.comStartup acquisition marketplace, formerly MicroAcquireBuyers and founders of SaaS and online businessesBasic free; buyer membership from $390; sellers pay 6 to 8% at close plus $25 to $100 a monthSaaS and startups with real revenue
Empire FlippersCurated marketplace for online businessesBuyers and sellers of established online businessesNo listing fee; seller fee on the sale of $10,000 up to $66,667, 15% to $700,000, 8% to $5M, 2.5% aboveReviewed online businesses

The BizBuySell baseline

BizBuySell calls itself the internet's largest business-for-sale marketplace. It was founded in 1996 and became a division of CoStar Group in 2012. It reports more than 4 million visits a month and says it has facilitated over 200,000 business sales. Owners and brokers pay to advertise a business. Buyers search by industry and location, save searches and send inquiries, all free.

Its own FAQ is plain about its role. BizBuySell charges advertising fees only and says it is not a brokerage firm. Its terms of use go further: it has no obligation to verify the accuracy of what others post, and it is not a lender, loan broker, financial advisor or agent.

The listings skew main street. In Q2 2026 BizBuySell analyzed 39,864 active listings. The median asked $406,500 on $737,000 of revenue and $172,487 of cash flow. Businesses that actually sold that quarter went for a median $349,250, at 93% of asking on average, after a median 174 days on the market.

That is the bar. An alternative earns a place here by reaching inventory BizBuySell does not, charging a different way, or serving a buyer BizBuySell was not built for.

BizQuest

BizQuest calls itself the original business-for-sale website. It was founded in 1994 and, like BizBuySell, is part of CoStar Group. BizQuest says it now belongs to the BrokerWorks network, which puts a broker's listings in front of buyers on BizBuySell, BizQuest and partner sites. BizBuySell's own sell page says a seller's listing also appears on BizQuest.

So expect overlap. The case for a second search is the business whose seller advertised on BizQuest alone. BizQuest's seller pricing is lower. On a 12-month term, listings start at $49.95 a month. Showcase costs $69.95 and Diamond $149.95. The initial term is billed in advance, and nothing is charged on the sale.

BizQuest reports over 2.5 million network visits a month. For a buyer, the practical move is a saved search on both sites with the same criteria. It costs nothing.

LoopNet

LoopNet bills itself as the world's number one commercial real estate marketplace, and it is also part of CoStar Group. It reports more than 300,000 active listings, more than 13 million monthly visitors and over 30 years in the market. A free account tracks properties and sends alerts. Advertising is sold through a sales form, with no price on the page.

Two kinds of buyer should search it. A real estate syndicator buying apartments, industrial or retail property belongs here, not on a business marketplace. And a business buyer whose target owns its building should look at both sides of the deal.

LoopNet carries a Businesses for Sale section, which showed 1,500+ results on the day this page was checked. BizBuySell says seller listings also appear on LoopNet. A business with real estate is two purchases. On an SBA deal the property and the business can sit in two loans, and SBA's own SOP then splits the buyer's equity between them pro rata. It pays to see how the property is marketed on its own.

DealStream

DealStream calls itself the community marketplace where owners buy, sell and finance businesses. It has run since 1995 and claims 200,000+ members and 15,000+ deals closed through the community. Members list businesses, real estate, franchises and investment opportunities, plus specialist markets such as oil and gas, mining, and financial and corporate assets.

Its pricing is the most generous on this list. DealStream Free costs $0 a month, needs no card, and allows unlimited listings. Pro costs $40 a month or $400 a year. It opens 18,000+ premium listings and adds five times the daily invitations and messages, plus preferred placement.

The trade is screening. Anyone can list for free, so the filtering a broker or an advisor would do falls on you. For a buyer with a narrow buy box and time to read, that is a fair trade.

BusinessesForSale.com

BusinessesForSale.com describes itself as the world's largest marketplace of businesses for sale. On the day this page was checked it listed 51,860 businesses in over 130 countries. It started in the mid-1990s as an online bulletin board and is run by Dynamis Ltd, with a team of 32 in London, Sydney, North Carolina and Mexico City.

Buyers register free. Premium buyers pay $14.95 a month or $89.95 a year for prioritized inquiries and, unless the seller asked for anonymity, the seller's contact details. On the US site, sellers buy one-off packages: $199 for one month, $299 for three and $399 for six, with nothing charged on the sale. A free Test the Market option runs a listing for 20 days and releases buyer contact details only after the seller pays.

It also runs country sites, including one for Canada. That makes it the natural second search for a buyer open to targets outside the US, or a buyer outside the US who wants local inventory in one place.

Axial

Axial is a different kind of tool. It calls itself a private deal network for the North American lower middle market: companies with $2.5M to $250M of revenue and $250K to $25M of EBITDA. Sell-side advisors choose which matched buyers receive each deal, and there is no public listing or deal search. It counted 12,856 deals coming to market on its network in 2025, a record by its own figures.

Buyers pay a $0 access fee and a success fee at closing, on a Lehman scale from 5% of the first $1M down to 1% above $4M. Axial's own example puts the fee at $200,000 on a $10M deal.

The two rarely compete for the same buyer. The median BizBuySell listing asked $406,500 in Q2 2026. Axial starts at $2.5M of revenue. The Axial vs Raises.com page and the Axial alternatives list cover that end of the market.

Sunbelt and Transworld

Sunbelt and Transworld are franchised broker networks, and each calls itself the largest. Sunbelt says it is the largest business brokerage network in the world, and that its site holds the world's largest proprietary database of businesses for sale, from $50,000 to $50 million. Transworld calls itself the world's largest business brokerage and reports 45+ years, 15,000+ businesses sold, 1,000+ active brokers and 250+ offices.

Both sell to owners first. Sunbelt's homepage walks a seller through a nine-step process that runs from analyzing and preparing the business to screening buyers and closing. Neither site publishes a fee for buyers.

The overlap with BizBuySell is real. Transworld's CEO is quoted on BizBuySell's broker page saying the platform has connected his firm with thousands of qualified buyers. The difference is the person on the other side. A broker-run deal comes with someone who prepared the business for market. Expect to be screened before the full financials arrive, since screening buyers is one of Sunbelt's own nine steps.

Flippa

Flippa sells online businesses: websites, apps, ecommerce stores, SaaS and YouTube channels. Its pricing page says it reaches over 1.9 million buyers.

Buyers can browse free. Flippa Premium costs $49 a month. It gives early access to new listings valued above $10,000 for their first 21 days, plus performance data. Sellers pay by asking price. A self-listed site under $10,000 starts at $29 for 60 days, with a 10% success fee on the sale. For asking prices from $100,000 to $4.9M, Flippa sells brokered packages: $399 to $1,299 upfront for a six-month term. The success fee falls from 10% to 8% for asking prices of $1M to $4.9M.

A laundromat does not belong on Flippa. An online store does, and the next two marketplaces are built for the same category.

Acquire.com

Acquire.com rebranded from MicroAcquire and calls itself the most founder-friendly startup acquisition marketplace. Its categories run from SaaS and mobile apps to ecommerce, agencies and newsletters, and its About page counts 500,000+ founders and buyers.

Basic access is free and shows public listing details. A paid buyer membership starts at $390. It adds company names, financials, direct messages to founders, and builders for letters of intent and asset purchase agreements. Premium covers startups priced up to $250,000; Platinum covers all sizes.

Sellers pay a closing fee on the purchase price, due in full at closing: 8% below $250,000, 7% from $250,000 to $1M and 6% above $1M. On top of that, they pay $25, $50 or $100 a month to list.

Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers calls itself the number one curated online business marketplace. It reviews each business before listing it and publishes new listings every Monday. On the day this page was checked it showed 182. Its seller page reports 2,674 deals sold and an average of 127 days to sale.

Sellers pay no listing fee. When a business sells, the fee is blended: $10,000 on a sale up to $66,667, 15% of the price up to $700,000, 8% on the part between $700,000 and $5M, and 2.5% above $5M. Sellers also give at least two months of exclusivity.

A $400,000 online business on that schedule pays $60,000. The same sale on BizBuySell costs the seller only the listing plan. The difference buys curation: a buyer sees businesses someone reviewed first.

Picking by buy box

Your situationStart withWhy
Main street business anywhere in the USBizBuySell, then BizQuest and DealStreamThe widest open inventory, free to search; BizBuySell's Q2 2026 median asking price was $406,500
Real estate, or a business sold with its propertyLoopNetCoStar's commercial real estate marketplace, 300,000+ active listings
$2.5M or more of revenue, advisor-run saleAxialIts published range starts at $2.5M of revenue and $250K of EBITDA
You want a broker's process and prepared financialsSunbelt, TransworldBroker networks that prepare the business and screen buyers
Target outside the USBusinessesForSale.com51,860 listings in more than 130 countries
Online businessFlippa, Acquire.com, Empire FlippersBuilt for digital assets, with the fee charged on the sale

Competition matters more than the listing fee. BizBuySell's own Q2 2026 report says demand continues to outpace the supply of quality businesses, and 48% of brokers saw more acquisition entrepreneurs and search funds in the market. The same report says buyers who arrive with proof of funds, SBA prequalification and industry experience are often at a real advantage. On an open marketplace, the buyer who can show the money moves to the front.

Whichever marketplace finds the business, the money still has to be raised

Every marketplace above ends in the same place: a business you want and a letter of intent to sign. What happens next has nothing to do with the listing.

BizBuySell's own survey shows the tension. In Q2 2026, 78% of buyers said they expect to use SBA financing, and 90% expect seller financing to be part of the deal. Only 29% of owners plan to offer it. Almost half say they will not, and 23% are undecided. The seller note many buyers count on is the piece most likely to shrink.

SBA tightens the rest from October 1, 2026. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, an initial acquisition needs a 10% equity injection that cannot be reduced. Seller debt on full standby, other standby debt and passive minority investors can together cover no more than half of it. The lender must also see a debt service coverage ratio of 1.25.

Above SBA size, the stack gets built from layers. On lower middle market acquisitions in 2026, lenders asked buyers to show 10 to 20% of the purchase price in net worth or liquidity. Senior term loans were sized at about 3x EBITDA. Coverage had to be 1.0 at a minimum, and lenders looked for 1.15. On a July 2026 Texas HVAC transaction, a seller note plus rollover equity closed the gap. Its lender quoted three weeks and needed two months.

Equity from investors has to land in something. That something is a fund or an SPV, papered with a private placement memorandum, a subscription agreement and an operating agreement. Behind the papers sit a financial model and a data room.

Raises.com works on that half of the deal. It does not list or broker businesses. It sets up the structure and the documents, builds a CFA-reviewed model and the data room, and then makes debt and equity introductions. See how Raises.com funds business acquisitions and how the money gets raised on a business found on BizBuySell. Or book a strategy call and bring the listing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to BizBuySell?

For the same kind of listings, BizQuest, DealStream and BusinessesForSale.com. For commercial real estate, LoopNet. For companies with $2.5M or more of revenue, Axial. For a broker-run sale, Sunbelt or Transworld. For online businesses, Flippa, Acquire.com and Empire Flippers. For open US main street inventory, BizBuySell is still the category leader in 2026.

Is BizQuest the same as BizBuySell?

They share an owner. Both are part of CoStar Group, and BizBuySell says a seller's listing also appears on BizQuest. BizQuest's own seller plans are cheaper, from $49.95 a month on a 12-month term. Search both with the same criteria.

Which BizBuySell alternatives are free?

BizQuest is free to browse. BusinessesForSale.com, Flippa and Acquire.com are free to browse, with paid tiers for buyers who want more. DealStream Free costs $0 a month and includes unlimited listings. Axial charges buyers nothing upfront and a success fee at close. BizBuySell itself is free to search.

Which alternatives charge a fee when the business sells?

Flippa charges sellers a success fee of 10% falling to 8%. Acquire.com charges sellers 6 to 8% at closing. Empire Flippers charges a blended fee starting at $10,000. Axial charges the buyer a success fee at close. BizBuySell, BizQuest and BusinessesForSale.com say they charge nothing on the sale, and DealStream's published plans carry no fee on the sale. The full BizBuySell fee schedule is on BizBuySell pricing and listing fees.

Do any of these help pay for the business?

None of the nine sets up a buyer's fund or SPV, and none writes offering documents. BizBuySell's Finance Center lists three SBA 7(a) lenders, and its terms say it is not a lender or loan broker. DealStream describes itself as a place to finance businesses as well as buy them. Raising the equity, and building the vehicle it goes into, is left to the buyer. More in the BizBuySell review, and the lender numbers are on acquisition financing benchmarks 2026.

Sources

All read on September 22, 2026.