Flippa vs Empire Flippers: fees, vetting and which to sell on (2026)

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The quick verdict

Pick Flippa if your site is small, young or not very profitable, or if you are happy to sell it yourself to save on fees. You pay a listing package of $29 to $699 and a 10% success fee, and you do the work.

Pick Empire Flippers if your business makes at least $24,000 a year in net profit and you want a broker to vet it, price it, find the buyer, hold the money and move it. You pay no listing fee, but the commission is a flat $10,000 up to $66,666.66 and 15% above that, so it costs more on every sale in this comparison.

Side by side

Sources: Flippa’s sell page, pricing page and Terms; Empire Flippers’ sell page and seller FAQ. Flippa’s pricing page shows two prices for some packages (Standard $49 or $129, Ultimate $599 or $699), so we give the full range.

Fees on the same sale

Here is what each charges the seller at four prices. Flippa’s self-service packages cover asking prices “up to $100K”; the $250,000 row uses its broker packages ($399 to $1,299 upfront plus 10%).

The math: Flippa is 10% of the price plus the package; Empire Flippers is $10,000 on sales up to $66,666.66, then a flat 15% of the sale price up to $700,000. The $25,000 row is for scale only: a business that meets Empire Flippers’ $24,000 profit minimum lists from about $40,800 at its lowest typical multiple of 1.7x yearly profit.

One more line for Flippa: escrow. Escrow.com’s fee calculator shows a standard fee of $600 on $25,000 (2.4%), $1,200 on $50,000 (2.4%), $1,900 on $100,000 (1.9%) and $3,800 on $250,000 (1.5%, which hits the $3,800 minimum). Buyer and seller agree who pays. FlippaPay is listed “from 1%”. At Empire Flippers, holding the funds is part of the commission.

Even if the Flippa seller pays all the escrow, Flippa leaves more money on every row. What Empire Flippers sells is the work: vetting, pricing, buyers and migration.

If the site doesn’t sell

At Empire Flippers you pay nothing: “if we can’t sell your business you don’t have to pay anything.” On Flippa you are out the listing package, unless you qualify for a refund. Flippa’s Terms give a full refund if no qualified buyer contacts you within 30 days of going live, or if you take the listing down within 7 days of it going live “for any reason”. After that, the package is non-refundable. On a $29 package that hardly matters; on a $1,299 broker package it does.

The 3-year view for the buyer

Whichever venue you buy on, the running costs are yours from day one. For a small WordPress site, our site-wide baseline is $432.60 over three years: Bluehost Starter at $3.99 a month on a 36-month term ($143.64, renewing at $9.99 a month), $36.96 in domain renewals and $252 for one Google Workspace inbox. A Squarespace Core or Wix Core site on the same baseline is $1,332.96.

Two example sites

A 9-month-old blog earning $300 a month. It doesn’t meet Empire Flippers’ minimum on either count: $3,600 a year is below $24,000, and it has less than 12 months of history. Flippa takes it with no minimum, and a sale under $25,000 carries no exclusivity clause. Motion Invest is the other option if the blog earns from affiliate links or ads.

A 3-year-old affiliate site earning $3,000 a month in net profit. That is $36,000 a year, so both venues work. At Empire Flippers’ reported typical listing multiple of 27.8x monthly profit, it would list near $83,400.

• Empire Flippers: 15% x $83,400 = $12,510. You keep $70,890.
• Flippa: 10% x $83,400 = $8,340, plus a $29 to $699 package = $8,369 to $9,039. You keep $74,361 to $75,031 before any escrow share.

The gap is $3,471 to $4,141. That is what Empire Flippers charges to vet the site, show it to buyers with proof of funds and move it. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you value your time and how confident you are running a handover. Flippa’s sale would also lock you in for 90 days after delisting, since the price is over $25,000.

There is no guarantee either price is reached. A multiple is a starting point, and the buyer’s own checks set the final number. Our website valuation guide explains what moves it.

Selling: effort and time

On Flippa, you are the salesperson. You write the listing, answer questions, negotiate and then move the site, hosting and accounts yourself. Flippa’s buyer guide tells buyers to ask the seller for hand-off training. Flippa sells add-ons if you want help: an NDA add-on ($199 on lower packages), a Due Diligence service and SEMRush reports.

At Empire Flippers, you hand over the numbers and answer the vetting team. It sets the price (12 months of net profit times a multiple “ranging from 1.7X to 5X+”), handles buyers and runs the migration. You wait longer: an average of 130 days to sale on its sell page, then 3 to 8 weeks of migration.

Flippa’s only published speed figure is for large businesses: a median close of 84 days for businesses valued at $1M+. FE International, a competing broker, cites Flippa medians of about 15 days under $50K; that is a competitor’s figure, not Flippa’s.

Buying: deposits, checks and escrow

Flippa buyers browse free and pay through Escrow.com or FlippaPay. Flippa verifies identities (KYC/AML checks, phone and IP verification) but doesn’t audit the income. “Flippa is not an escrow service and does not hold property on behalf of any person.”

Empire Flippers buyers verify ID and proof of funds before opening a listing, then put down “at least 10% or $9,900 (whichever is greater)” to hold it. Other buyers get 24 hours to counter with an offer at least 10% higher. The buying-process page calls the Buy Now deposit non-refundable. Full payment usually follows within 7 business days, and Empire Flippers “holds the funds like an escrow account” during migration.

Neither one guarantees the business. Empire Flippers says “All sales are final”, and Flippa’s paid Buyer Protect insurance is named in its Terms without published prices. Use our buying checklist on either.

Vetting

This is the biggest difference. Empire Flippers checks the business itself: sites with fake SEO or fake social followers are denied, and two or more signs of manipulation, such as penalizations, deleted accounts or 301 redirects, mean immediate rejection. Flippa checks people, not listings, though it may restrict assets “such as cloned apps and fake-follower social media accounts”. Neither publishes a rejection rate.

Leaving later

Both venues tie you in for a while, in different ways.

• Flippa: since its Terms were updated on October 22, 2026, an asset priced at $25,000 or more can’t be offered anywhere else, brokers included, while listed and for 90 days after you remove it (up to $100,000) or 180 days (above $100,000). Below $25,000 there is no exclusivity clause, but the success fee is still owed if you sell to a buyer you met on Flippa.
• Empire Flippers: 2 months of exclusivity, then you can de-list or stay listed.

So a $50,000 site that doesn’t sell on Flippa in 6 months is off the market elsewhere for 9 months in total. At Empire Flippers it is free to list elsewhere after month 2.

The site’s platform matters too. Self-hosted WordPress scores 10/10 on our exit scores and moves to any host; Shopify and Squarespace score 5/10 and change owners inside their own dashboards. See moving your website.

Pick Flippa if…

• Your site earns less than $24,000 a year, or has under 12 months of history.
• You want to keep more of the price and can do the selling and the move yourself.
• You are buying and want to browse an open marketplace of small sites.

Pick Empire Flippers if…

• Your business clears the $24,000 profit minimum and you would rather pay 15% than run the sale.
• You want buyers who have already shown proof of funds.
• You are buying and want a screened listing with a broker-run migration.

Neither? Look at…

• Motion Invest: content sites, free listing, 20% under $20,000 falling to 5% over $500,000, plus Direct Buy offers.
• Acquire.com: SaaS and apps, 6% to 8% at closing with free escrow.
• The full lineup, including Investors Club, FE International and Quiet Light: buy and sell websites.