Frequently asked questions

Acquirly is an online marketplace for buying and selling startups and established online businesses, including SaaS, e-commerce stores, content sites, apps and agencies. Sellers list for free. Buyers browse the listings, sign NDAs to request confidential documents, and make offers that open a private conversation with the seller.

Anyone aged 18 or over who can form a binding contract. When you create an account you choose buyer or seller, and each email address has one account type. You verify your email before you can log in, and sellers complete their profile before creating a listing.

No. Acquirly is a place to list and discover businesses for sale. It is not a broker, escrow agent or adviser, and it is not a party to any deal. Buyers and sellers negotiate directly and sign their own purchase agreement, usually with their own lawyers and accountants.

Nothing, currently. Listing a startup or business is free and there is no success fee when it sells. If Acquirly introduces fees, sellers get at least 30 days' notice, and no new fee applies to a sale from an offer accepted before it took effect. See Understanding Acquirly fees.

No. Creating an account, browsing listings, signing NDAs, making offers and messaging sellers are all free for buyers.

Create a buyer account, then browse the listings and filter by industry, business type, asking price and revenue. Sign a listing's NDA to request its confidential documents. When you are ready, make an offer: it opens a private conversation with the seller, who can accept, reject or counter, and the whole negotiation stays in that one thread.

Asking price, revenue and profit are public on every listing, so you can judge a business before contacting the seller. Confidential documents such as detailed financials and contracts are released only after you sign the listing's NDA and the seller approves your request. See how NDAs work on Acquirly.

On a listing, click Sign NDA & Request Access and sign digitally. The seller approves or declines; once approved you can open the listing's NDA-protected documents. The NDA lasts three years from signing, and access ends when it does. A declined buyer can sign again; a seller can revoke access at any time. Read the full NDA guide.

No. You can make an offer on any active listing at any time. The NDA only unlocks the listing's confidential documents, so many buyers sign it first to review the detailed financials before deciding on a price.

By making an offer. Your first offer on a listing opens a private conversation with the seller, and every counter-offer, reply and message for that deal stays in the same thread. See messaging sellers on Acquirly.

You can have one live offer per listing at a time, and offers on as many listings as you like. To change a pending offer, withdraw it from My Offers and submit a new one. If the seller rejects your offer, you can make another.

No. Offers, counter-offers and acceptances on Acquirly are expressions of interest, even when a listing shows as under contract. A sale becomes binding only when the buyer and seller sign a written purchase agreement outside the platform.

Create a seller account, complete your profile, and click Create New Listing in your dashboard. The listing form covers the basics, business details, financials, photos, documents and settings. You can save a draft or publish, and a published listing appears on the marketplace straight away. See listing your startup for sale.

Your listing's title, description, industry, asking price, revenue and profit are public. For each document you upload, you choose whether it requires an NDA; financial and legal documents are protected by default. A protected document opens only for buyers whose NDA you have approved.

Most small online businesses sell for a multiple of annual profit, and SaaS businesses often for a multiple of annual recurring revenue. Growth, churn, customer concentration and how much of your time the business needs all move the multiple. See setting your asking price.

Your listing moves to Under Contract and stops taking new offers, and other buyers' pending offers are put on hold. You and the buyer then run due diligence and sign a purchase agreement. If the deal falls through, either party can cancel it with a reason: the listing goes back to active and the held offers become pending again.

A blue check means the person verified their identity with a government-issued ID. It confirms who you are dealing with; it is not an endorsement of their listing or their numbers.

No. Acquirly never holds deal money and is not a broker or escrow agent. Buyers and sellers should pay the purchase price through a licensed, independent escrow service, and never wire funds on instructions received only by message or email.

Pay only through a licensed escrow service, and confirm its payment instructions by calling the provider on contact details you found yourself. Acquirly will never ask you to send deal money to it or to any account, and changed bank details sent by email or message are a common sign of fraud.