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    Business For Sale Marketplaces and Brokers, Compared (2026)

    Written by the Raises.com capital markets desk. Platform facts were taken from each company's own site and checked in September 2026. The financing figures come from the lenders on Raises.com client transactions and are published in full, with sources, on the 2026 acquisition financing benchmarks page.

    Questions answered on this page

    1. where do I find a business to buy?
    2. which business for sale marketplaces have the most listings?
    3. which business brokers should I contact to buy a main street business?
    4. where do independent sponsors and search funds source lower middle market deals?
    5. where do I buy an online business, a SaaS product or an ecommerce store?
    6. what are the alternatives to BizBuySell?
    7. how do I know a listed business is financeable before I make an offer?
    8. what do sellers on these marketplaces ask for that should stop a buyer?
    The fourteen, side by side
    PlatformWhat is listedWho it is built forHow a buyer gets in
    BizBuySellUS main street and lower middle market businesses, franchises, business real estateA first pass on any state or industryFree to search and to contact sellers
    BizQuestThe same category of US listings, run under the same CoStar ownershipA second sweep of largely overlapping inventoryFree to search
    Vested Business BrokersThousands of US listings, owner financing flagged on manyBuyers whose plan needs seller paperFree account, contact the listing broker
    Sunbelt Business BrokersMain street listings held by independently owned officesBuyers who want a local broker on their marketContact the local office
    Transworld Business AdvisorsIndependent businesses, franchise resales, new franchise territoriesBuyers open to a franchise as well as an independent businessContact the local office
    Murphy BusinessMain street and lower middle market, offices in 38 states and CanadaBuyers in secondary marketsContact the local office
    AxialAdvisor-posted lower middle market deals, $2.5M to $250M revenueIndependent sponsors, search funds, family offices, PE fundsApply, publish a buy box, request access per deal
    DealsuiteEuropean buy-side and sell-side mandates, mainly EUR 1M to 200MAdvisors and firms working European targetsVerified professional membership
    SearchfunderCommunity, investor and lender directories, search fund toolingSearchers running entrepreneurship through acquisitionRegister, then participate
    Acquire.comSaaS and internet startups, formerly listed as MicroAcquireBuyers of small software businessesFree browsing, paid membership to message sellers
    FlippaWebsites, apps, ecommerce stores, content sites, domainsA first small digital assetOpen marketplace, free to browse
    Quiet LightEstablished online businesses sold through advisorsBuyers who want a broker-run online dealJoin the buyer list, NDA per deal
    FE InternationalTechnology businesses sold through an advisory processBuyers at seven figures and up in SaaS, ecommerce, contentRegister as a buyer, NDA per deal
    Raises.comNo listings. The capital structure behind the purchaseBuyers who found the deal and have to fund itStrategy call

    where do I find a business to buy?

    Buyers find businesses in five places: open listing marketplaces such as BizBuySell and BizQuest, franchised broker networks such as Sunbelt, Transworld and Murphy Business, gated deal networks such as Axial and Dealsuite, online business marketplaces such as Acquire.com and Flippa, and direct outreach to owners who never list at all. The first four are searchable today. The fifth is where the least contested deals sit.

    • Open marketplaces cost a buyer nothing, so every listing has already been seen by hundreds of other buyers, and the asking price reflects that.
    • Franchised broker offices are independently owned. The brand sets the signage; the individual broker is the entire experience.
    • Gated networks screen buyers before showing anything. Entry takes a written buy box: what you buy, at what size, with what capital.
    • Online marketplaces sell a different asset class. Revenue with no location, no equipment and usually no bank willing to lend against it.
    • All fourteen stop at the introduction. Valuation, structure, diligence and capital are yours from there.

    which business for sale marketplaces have the most listings?

    BizBuySell is the largest open marketplace in the US and is a CoStar Group brand. BizQuest runs under the same ownership, so searching both returns heavily overlapping inventory. Vested Business Brokers carries thousands of its own US listings and flags owner financing across many of them. All three are free for a buyer to search and to contact the listing side.

    1. BizBuySell

    The largest open business for sale marketplace in the US, a CoStar Group brand.

    Best for: A first pass across any US market or industry, at no cost.

    Pros

    • Free to search and to contact a seller, with no account needed to browse
    • Every state and industry in one filter, plus franchises and business real estate
    • Sellers and brokers pay for placement, which is what keeps listing volume high

    Cons

    • A public listing means a crowded field on any deal worth having
    • Financials are summary level until an NDA is signed, and quality varies by broker
    • A business sitting for months is usually mispriced, and nothing on the page says so

    2. BizQuest

    A second US marketplace operated alongside BizBuySell under the same ownership.

    Best for: A second sweep when the first search comes back thin.

    Pros

    • Free to search across the same main street categories
    • Some brokers post here and not on the flagship site
    • Useful as a cross-check on a listing you have already found

    Cons

    • Inventory overlaps heavily with BizBuySell, so it is rarely a different market
    • Smaller buyer audience, which means fewer exclusive listings

    3. Vested Business Brokers

    A US brokerage carrying thousands of its own listings, with owner financing flagged on many.

    Best for: Buyers whose plan depends on seller paper rather than a bank alone.

    Pros

    • Owner financing is surfaced on the listing, and that single term decides most first acquisitions
    • Free buyer account with direct contact to the listing broker
    • Wide industry spread, from salons at six figures to pharmacies in the millions

    Cons

    • One brokerage, so the inventory is its own book and not the whole market
    • Owner financing on a listing is an opening position, never a signed term

    which business brokers should I contact to buy a main street business?

    Sunbelt Business Brokers, Transworld Business Advisors and Murphy Business run the three largest franchised brokerage networks in North America. Each office is independently owned, so the brand sets the marketing and the individual broker sets the quality. Buyers reach them through the local office rather than a central search, and the local office often knows about a sale months before it is listed anywhere.

    1. Sunbelt Business Brokers

    One of the largest franchised business brokerage networks, with offices across North America and beyond.

    Best for: Buyers who want a named local broker working one market for them.

    Pros

    • Office coverage wide enough that most metros have someone local
    • Main street focus, which is where a first acquisition actually happens
    • Local brokers hear about owners who are thinking about selling before a listing exists

    Cons

    • Offices are independently owned, so service is a local question rather than a brand one
    • The broker is hired by the seller and paid out of the sale

    2. Transworld Business Advisors

    A brokerage network selling independent businesses, franchise resales and new franchise territories.

    Best for: Buyers open to a franchise resale as well as an independent business.

    Pros

    • Franchise resale inventory that pure marketplaces rarely carry
    • Large office network across several continents
    • One office can show you an independent operator and a franchise in the same industry

    Cons

    • Franchise development is paid by franchisors, so ask which side a recommendation comes from
    • Independently owned offices, so quality moves by location

    3. Murphy Business

    A North American brokerage franchise with offices in 38 states and Canada, focused on main street and lower middle market sales.

    Best for: Buyers in secondary markets that get little national marketplace traffic.

    Pros

    • Coverage in smaller markets where the big marketplaces run thin
    • Valuation and consulting sit alongside the listings
    • Listings run from six figures into the low millions, which is the first-acquisition band

    Cons

    • Inventory is whatever the local office has signed
    • Sell-side representation, so every number still has to be verified by you

    where do independent sponsors and search funds source lower middle market deals?

    Axial, Dealsuite and Searchfunder serve the professional end. Axial is a US network where sell-side advisors post deals from roughly $2.5M to $250M in revenue and screened buyers request access. Dealsuite is the European equivalent, used advisor to advisor on deals mainly between one and two hundred million euros. Searchfunder is the community layer for entrepreneurship through acquisition.

    1. Axial

    A membership deal network for the lower middle market, $2.5M to $250M revenue, where advisors post and buyers request access.

    Best for: Independent sponsors, search funds, family offices and PE funds with a written buy box.

    Pros

    • Deals arrive through advisors, so prepared financials usually exist before you ask
    • Matching runs off your stated buy box instead of a keyword search
    • Buyers are screened, so the field on any one deal is smaller than an open marketplace

    Cons

    • You are next to funded buyers with committed capital and closed deals behind them
    • A thin buyer profile gets skipped by the advisor deciding who to call back
    • Getting access is the easy half. Being chosen is not

    2. Dealsuite

    A European M&A platform where advisors, corporate buyers and investors exchange buy-side and sell-side mandates, founded in the Netherlands in 2017.

    Best for: Advisors and firms working European targets, including cross-border.

    Pros

    • Published deal range of roughly one million to two hundred million euros
    • Buy-side mandates match automatically against sell-side postings
    • Verified professional membership, so counterparties are real firms

    Cons

    • Built for advisors and firms rather than an individual first-time buyer
    • European coverage, which does nothing for a US main street search

    3. Searchfunder

    The community platform for search funds and entrepreneurship through acquisition, with investor, lender and advisor directories.

    Best for: A searcher who needs backers and peers more than a listing feed.

    Pros

    • The people who finance search funds are on it, which is worth more than any listing
    • Live discussion of real problems: LOI terms, quality of earnings findings, lender behaviour
    • Tools and research built for the search model specifically

    Cons

    • Not a listing marketplace, so it will not hand you a deal
    • The search model assumes investor backing, and that backing is its own raise

    where do I buy an online business, a SaaS product or an ecommerce store?

    Acquire.com, formerly MicroAcquire, lists SaaS and internet startups, lets buyers browse free, and charges a membership to message sellers. Flippa is the open marketplace for websites, apps, stores and domains at the small end. Quiet Light and FE International sell established online businesses through an advisory process with an NDA on each deal.

    1. Acquire.com

    The startup acquisition marketplace formerly called MicroAcquire, focused on SaaS and internet businesses.

    Best for: Buyers of small software businesses who want to speak to the founder directly.

    Pros

    • A free tier browses listings and their public details
    • Paid buyer membership opens direct messaging, so no broker sits between you and the founder
    • Diligence and closing tooling built into the platform

    Cons

    • Reaching a seller is a subscription, so the cost lands on the buyer before any deal exists
    • Metrics are self-reported until you verify them out of the payment processor yourself
    • Software cash flow rarely supports bank debt, so these close on cash or seller paper

    2. Flippa

    An open marketplace for websites, apps, ecommerce stores, content sites and domains.

    Best for: A first small digital asset, or several cheap ones to learn on.

    Pros

    • Free to browse, with the widest spread of small digital assets anywhere
    • Auction and classified formats, plus a free valuation tool
    • Entry prices low enough that a mistake is tuition rather than ruin

    Cons

    • Quality varies more than anywhere else on this page, so verification is the entire job
    • Traffic and revenue are seller-reported by default
    • A small site can lose its one traffic source in a single algorithm update

    3. Quiet Light

    A long-running online business brokerage selling established ecommerce, content and SaaS companies.

    Best for: Buyers who want a vetted online business with a broker running the process.

    Pros

    • Listings arrive with prepared financials and an advisor who has read the books
    • Advisors are former online business owners, so the diligence questions are the right ones
    • The buyer list sees deals before they go public

    Cons

    • Strong listings go under offer fast, so being on the list early is most of the advantage
    • An NDA per deal slows a wide search down
    • Sell-side representation, so the valuation is argued from the seller side

    4. FE International

    An M&A advisory firm founded in 2010 for technology businesses, working the upper end of the online market.

    Best for: Buyers at seven figures and above in SaaS, ecommerce and content.

    Pros

    • A real sell-side process with prepared materials rather than a listing page
    • Sector coverage across SaaS, ecommerce, content and fintech
    • Diligence packs are usually ready when you are

    Cons

    • A competitive process means you are bidding, not negotiating alone
    • Wrong door for a first small purchase, because the size band starts higher

    what are the alternatives to BizBuySell?

    The alternatives split by what you are buying. For US main street: BizQuest, Vested Business Brokers, and the Sunbelt, Transworld and Murphy Business office networks. For lower middle market deals with real financials: Axial in the US and Dealsuite in Europe. For online businesses: Acquire.com, Flippa, Quiet Light and FE International. For a search fund: Searchfunder.

    • BizQuest is the closest substitute and the least different, because it runs under the same ownership on largely the same inventory.
    • The genuine alternative to a public marketplace is a private one. Axial and Dealsuite screen buyers, which shrinks the field on every deal you see.
    • Brokers are the alternative nobody searches for. A local office knows a business is being sold months before a listing exists.
    • Direct outreach to owners costs time instead of money, and it returns the least contested deals, because nobody else is bidding.
    • Switching platforms does not fix a financing problem. If the last three deals died at the bank, the next marketplace will not change that.

    how do I know a listed business is financeable before I make an offer?

    Run four numbers off the seller trailing twelve months before signing anything. Debt service coverage above 1.15. EBITDA margin in the thirty to forty percent band for a term loan. Senior debt sized near three times EBITDA, never off the asking price. Sponsor net worth or liquidity around ten to twenty percent of the purchase price.

    • Those are the bars lenders applied on Raises.com client transactions in 2026, not a rule of thumb. The sources and the rest of the capital stack sit on the 2026 acquisition financing benchmarks page.
    • Coverage of 1.0 means income exactly covers principal and interest. Lenders want the extra 0.15 so a soft quarter is not a default.
    • Asset heavy targets can stack a second facility. Advances ran seventy to eighty percent against equipment and inventory.
    • Where margin is too thin for a term loan, private credit converged near ten to twelve percent of annual revenue priced at twelve to fifteen percent interest. That goes into the model as debt, never as equity.
    • Merchant cash advances on target businesses ran at thirty percent and in some cases fifty percent effective rates. Find them in the books before the LOI, because retiring them is part of the purchase price.
    • A lender that quotes three weeks can take two months. On a 2026 Texas HVAC close it did exactly that. Build the timeline on the second number.

    what do sellers on these marketplaces ask for that should stop a buyer?

    Four terms are worth walking away over: money down before an LOI, no exclusivity while you pay for diligence, no financing contingency, and no diligence period at all. Each one moves the risk onto the buyer before anyone has opened the books, and each one is negotiable while the LOI is still unsigned.

    • A seller asking for a five or six figure deposit before an LOI is asking you to fund their search for a better buyer.
    • Without exclusivity, every dollar you spend on counsel and quality of earnings becomes evidence in somebody else negotiation.
    • A buyer on a self-sourced deal we were brought into spent five figures with a law firm on a target that died on terms a first review would have flagged. That review costs one conversation.
    • No financing contingency means a bank saying no costs you the deposit rather than the deal.
    • Get the terms read before money moves. Afterwards, the diligence spend is gone whatever the answer is.

    You found the deal. Now fund it.

    Bring the listing, the asking price and whatever the seller has sent so far. Raises.com structures the vehicle and builds the offering documents, the financial model, the data room and the investor process behind the purchase.

    Book a strategy call See pricing

    Raising the money to buy a business? Start with the 2026 guide or see how Raises.com structures and raises the capital.

    Frequently asked questions

    Yes. Searching BizBuySell and contacting a listing broker or seller costs a buyer nothing, and no account is needed to browse. Sellers and brokers pay for placement across tiered listing plans, and there is an optional paid buyer membership that adds tools. The listings themselves are the same either way.
    They sit under the same ownership. BizBuySell is a CoStar Group brand and BizQuest is operated alongside it, which is why searches on the two return much of the same inventory. Running both is still worth ten minutes, because some brokers post to one and not the other.
    Yes. MicroAcquire rebranded to Acquire.com as the platform moved past micro deals into seven figure sales. Same marketplace and the same founder-to-buyer model. Browsing is free, and messaging a seller requires a paid buyer membership.
    A marketplace publishes listings and takes no side. A broker is hired by the seller to run the sale and is paid out of it. For a buyer the practical difference is this: the marketplace gives you volume and no help, and the broker gives you one prepared deal and a counterparty whose job is the seller price.
    Usually yes. Most brokers want a signed NDA and a buyer profile, and many ask for proof of funds or a lender letter before releasing the full package. Having the bank conversation started and the equity plan written before you request the first CIM saves weeks on every deal after it.
    Rarely, and not the way it is sold. Seller notes and rollover equity genuinely reduce the cash needed at close, and both were used on Raises.com client transactions in 2026. Lenders still asked for sponsor net worth or liquidity around ten to twenty percent of the price, so the equity comes from somewhere: you, outside investors, or a co-investor on the general partner side.

    Read next

    How to buy a business, the full guide 2026 acquisition financing benchmarks SBA acquisition financing Seller notes and earnouts Rollover equity explained Alternatives and free resources