Image by Author | CanvaIf you’ve spent months (or years!) building an app, extension, script or SaaS, and you’re ready to cash out instead of running a company, good news: There are now dozens of marketplaces where you can list a completed project and find a buyer. These range from full startup acquisition sites to community-driven classifieds and even newsletters. Many platforms specialize in “micro” acquisitions (deals in the \$10K–\$100K range) and cater to solo devs or small teams who want a one-time exit without fundraising or long-term commitment. Each marketplace works a little differently, so here’s a list of 10 places you must try. We’ll cover how they work, key features, pros/cons, and who they’re best for, so you know what to expect. So, let’s get started:
1. Acquire.com (formerly MicroAcquire)
Link: https://acquire.com/
Acquire.com (the rebranded MicroAcquire) is the biggest name right now for buying and selling online businesses. It’s a SaaS/startup marketplace where founders can list their companies and connect with vetted buyers. The site is free for founders (you can create a listing and set your info without up-front cost), while buyers pay a subscription to see seller contact details. All listings are screened by Acquire’s team before going live, and buyers only see an anonymous teaser (“NDA’d” profile) until the founder approves them. In practice, Acquire.com provides a lot of hand-holding: you get an expert acquisition advisor, legal templates, escrow integration (via Escrow.com), marketing outreach and even a valuation tool to help price your business. The closing fee (paid only when you sell) is around 6–8% of the sale price, and there may be a small monthly listing fee (\$25–\$100) depending on your deal size.
2. Microns.io
Link: https://www.microns.io/
Microns.io is a micro-SaaS marketplace that focuses on smaller deals so it’s ideal for tiny apps or scripts worth a few hundred up to a few hundred thousand dollars. Every listing on Microns is vetted by the team, which verifies revenue and traffic to help avoid scams. The platform offers an escrow service called “Transfer by Microns” for secure payments, and makes a newsletter of hot listings to a premium subscriber base. It’s best for solo devs or hobbyists with tiny apps, plugins, or side projects that bring in some income.
3. SideProjectors
Link: https://www.sideprojectors.com/
SideProjectors is a friendly community marketplace for selling side projects. It is like a free listings board built by developers for developers. You can post your project (web app, script, side SaaS, etc.) with a description, screenshots, revenue data, and links, and interested buyers can contact you directly. There are no listing fees and no commission – SideProjectors simply connects you. Unlike Acquire or Microns, there’s no vetting or escrow. That means you don’t pay anything to list, but you also do your own due diligence and payment settlement. SideProjectors doesn’t even handle payments – when someone’s interested, you negotiate and close the deal privately. It’s also good if you’re just testing the waters, since it’s 100% free to try but it has lower traffic compared to big sites and you have to do all work on your own.
4. Flippa
Link: https://flippa.com/
Flippa is the original and biggest public marketplace for buying and selling websites, apps, and online businesses. It’s been around for over a decade and has a massive audience of buyers. You can list pretty much anything: mobile apps, browser extensions, SaaS businesses, e-commerce stores, content sites, Amazon FBA shops and more. Good for mid-sized deals (\$10K–\$250K). Flippa’s model is more like eBay or Shopify’s marketplace – you list an asset, and either auction it off or set a buy-it-now price. They provide analytics widgets (e.g. Google Analytics, revenue reports) that owners can enable to prove traffic/revenue to buyers. They also offer an escrow service (Flippa Escrow) to safely handle large transactions. On the other side, it charges a success fee (around 15% of sale price) plus listing fees for premium features.
5. TransferLot
Link: https://transferslot.com/
TransferLot is a newer marketplace for selling side projects and small online businesses. It combines a free listing period with newsletter promotion. Currently, each new listing on TransferLot is free for the first two weeks, and there’s no transaction fee for sellers. If you want extended exposure, you can pay a small fee (around $20) to continue listing or get featured. The main catch is that only non-e-commerce, passive-income sites can be listed – they prohibit traditional retail or dropshipping. TransferLot also runs a weekly email to buyers highlighting the newest listings, so it’s geared toward investors looking for quick turnkey projects. There is no built-in escrow on TransferLot, so like SideProjectors you’ll have to arrange payment separately and be cautious.
6. Empire Flippers
Link: https://empireflippers.com/
Empire Flippers is a brokerage and marketplace for profitable online businesses. It’s a hybrid between Flippa and a traditional M&A broker. They vet every listing thoroughly and only take sites that meet certain criteria (typically at least \$1,000/month in profit or more). Empire Flippers has an experienced team that verifies your financials, traffic, and other data before listing. When you sell, you get a dedicated account manager to guide you through valuation and closing. They also have an integrated escrow and can handle due diligence paperwork.
7. Opportunity Overload
Link: https://www.opportunityoverload.com/
Opportunity Overload is not a full-fledged marketplace website, but a high-volume newsletter that highlights startup for-sale listings. Each week they publish a roundup of interesting businesses (apps, SaaS, sites, etc.) for sale. As a seller, you can pay a one-time fee (currently \$10) to have your project featured in an issue. The entry is a very short blurb (a few lines) in an email sent to ~10,000+ subscribers who are looking to buy or invest. This service was started by a maker who successfully sold a project through it, and he claims one \$10 listing can generate many inquiries. There’s no escrow or built-in platform essentially, you’re paying for visibility.
8. BuyMicroStartups
Link: https://www.buymicrostartups.com/
BuyMicroStartups is a newer platform that calls itself a marketplace for high-potential micro-startups. It was started by a couple of indie makers who saw a gap for smaller deals. The idea is to aggregate interesting small businesses that could grow with some investment. Listings are reviewed before approval, and there’s a focus on quality. Notably, they promise zero commissions for both buyers and sellers – the entire sale price goes to the parties. They also offer a premium membership for buyers, which gives early alerts on new listings and direct connections to sellers. So if you have a promising project, listing it on BuyMicroStartups will expose it to investors looking to take small “bets”. It’s still a growing platform, so traffic is modest.
9. SellMyApp
Link: https://www.sellmyapp.com/
SellMyApp is a specialized marketplace for mobile app source code (mostly clones of popular apps or templates) and, by extension, fully developed mobile apps. Founded in 2013, it has become one of the largest platforms for buying and selling Android and iOS app code. It started as a simple classifieds site (you paid a small fee to list your app for 30 days), but has since evolved into a full marketplace with thousands of listings. Sellers can upload their source code, set a price, and then buyers (typically developers looking to launch their own app) can purchase the code with a full license. This is not selling your entire business or product – it’s selling copies of your app’s code. You only earn each time someone buys the code, rather than a lump-sum exit. It’s also useful for quick-cash if you have a completed app you no longer want to maintain – you can list it and potentially earn thousands through multiple sales.
10. FE International
Link: https://www.feinternational.com/
FE International is one of the oldest and most respectedM&A advisors for SaaS, e-commerce, and content businesses. They function like a broker: working directly with mid-to-large companies to prepare them for sale and find buyers. Since 2010 they’ve sold over 1,200 businesses. FE International deals mostly in the six- to seven-figure range (and even higher). If you use FE, you’ll get an expert advisor assigned to your case who will help with valuation, due diligence, marketing your listing to the right investors, and navigating the closing process. It’s only for big games – if your business is too small (under ~\$100K/year profit) or pre-revenue, FEI won’t work with you.
Wrapping Up
This brings us to the end of this article. If you’ve been sitting on a side project, script, or small app that’s bringing in even a little revenue, there’s likely a buyer out there for it. You don’t need VC funding or a co-founder. Just a working product, some honest metrics, and the willingness to list.
Kanwal Mehreen Kanwal is a machine learning engineer and a technical writer with a profound passion for data science and the intersection of AI with medicine. She co-authored the ebook “Maximizing Productivity with ChatGPT”. As a Google Generation Scholar 2022 for APAC, she champions diversity and academic excellence. She’s also recognized as a Teradata Diversity in Tech Scholar, Mitacs Globalink Research Scholar, and Harvard WeCode Scholar. Kanwal is an ardent advocate for change, having founded FEMCodes to empower women in STEM fields.
