Looking for a Flippa alternative where you can buy or sell a website? Perhaps surprisingly, there aren’t too many good alternatives to Flippa. But if you look carefully, you can find some. In this article, we review 4 Flippa alternatives that you may not have cosidered.
Table of Contents
- What is Flippa?
- Flippa alternative: #1 Craigslist
- Flippa alternative: #2 BizBuySell
- Flippa alternatives: #3 Investors’ Club
- Flippa alternatives: #3 Micro Acquire
- How do you buy a profitable website?
- Key points
What is Flippa?
Flippa is an online marketplace where you can buy or sell websites, e-commerce businesses, and domains. It’s by far the largest site of its kind, but it has some drawbacks.
First, Flippa contains some scams and useless listings. You will find people on Flippa who resell the same business over and over, and a lot of junk listings, with no evidence of earnings. It can be difficult to sort through all of these in order to get to the good listings.
Second, Flippa does not have the best filters or search tools, so if you’re looking for something specific, you may have trouble finding it among all of the junk. This is compounded by the fact that the highest quality sites tend not to list on Flippa (although this is starting to change). Because of this, you will want to look around before making any purchase.
Finally, for sellers, Flippa can attract the wrong type of buyer. As a seller you want to get as high a price as possible, and that doesn’t normally happen on Flippa. Flippa has a lot of unverified buyers, who may make the sale process much more grueling.
Flippa alternative: #1 Craigslist
Yes. Believe it or not, you can find websites for sale on Craigslist. There aren’t a million of them, but once in a while a good one will show up.
As a buyer, this presents a great opportunity since few people are looking for websites on Craigslist. Sellers are willing to negotiate, and may not know how valuable their website is.
Of course, when you go on Craigslist, you have to be careful. There are plenty of scams, but if you’re an experienced buyer looking for a great deal, it’s worth keeping an eye on Craigslist listings.
However, if you’re not an experienced buyer, I would steer clear of Craigslist.
Flippa alternative: #2 BizBuySell
BizBuySell is a large business, generally known for selling brick and mortar businesses or franchises.
But if you’re a website buyer, you can sometimes find gems on here. You will have to wade through restaurant listings and laundry businesses, but if you filter by online businesses, you can find some interesting listings.
Because BizBuySell doesn’t specialize in web businesses, the amount of information available on a listing isn’t great. And they don’t do much due diligence on web businesses either.
That being said, if you’re experienced at buying websites you may find something not listed elsewhere. Local brokers who aren’t that familiar with online businesses sometimes advise their client to list on here.
As a seller, you can find traditional business buyers on BizBuySell, which may be useful if your site is applicable to a local audience.
Flippa alternatives: #3 Investors’ Club
Investor’s Club is sort of what Flippa should be. All of the listings on Investors’ Club are verified by their due diligence experts.
For buyers, this means that you’re less likely to get scammed by purchasing a site on Investors’ Club than on Flippa.
Investors’ Club provides a complete due diligence report to buyers, including an in-depth discussion of risks to the business. This can be very helpful not only for novices, but also as a gut check for experienced buyers. Additionally, the due diligence report from Investors’ Club includes a review of the traffic, top SEO scores, and warnings if the site has been used as a PBN or has received any penalties.
For sellers, Investors’ Club is helpful because its buyers tend to be experienced. You’re less likely to get an offer from someone who has never bought a site before. This is important because new buyers can slow down the sale process considerably. They often ask a lot of questions, request unreasonable concessions from the seller, and insist on overly complicated purchase agreements.
The downside of Investor’s Club is that you have to prove that you have the funds to get in — or you have to pay $250/year.
Flippa alternatives: #3 Micro Acquire
Micro Acquire is similar to Investors’ Club in that you buy in for access. However, the types of businesses it lists are different.
Micro Acquire lists a lot of failed startup businesses, so you’re likely to see more technical businesses than content businesses. Unlike Investors’ Club, a site you buy from Micro Acquire is likely to require you to have a programming or IT background.
Micro Acquire businesses range from SaaS to e-commerce to apps and infrastructure software. The large number of listings and wide array of different types of businesses means that if you have the skillset, you’re bound to find something of interest.
How do you buy a profitable website?
Buying a website can be daunting. You need to know how to value the website so that you don’t over pay. You also need to perform a due diligence analysis, understand risks, and find the right broker or marketplace.
If you’re interested in buying a website, you can check out my “How to Buy a Website” article. But before doing that, I suggest downloading my FREE Website Investing Beginner’s Kit, which includes a valuation worksheet, a due diligence worksheet, an income planner, and much more.
Key points
Flippa may be the biggest website marketplace around, but if you’re a bit savvy you have other options as well:
- Craigslist
- Investors’ Club
- Micro Acquire
- BizBuySell
If you want something safer, you can also try a broker.