Same AI model. Same scoring criteria. Three marketplaces. Here's what 3,000+ analyzed listings actually reveal about where to find the best deals.
The question every serious online business buyer asks at some point: which marketplace actually has the best deals?
We hear it constantly from Deal Alert AI subscribers. "Should I focus on Empire Flippers?" "Is Flippa worth the noise?" "Is Acquire.com only for SaaS?" The debates on Twitter and Reddit go in circles because they're based on anecdote, not data.
So we ran 1,000 listings from each platform through the same Deal Alert AI scoring model — the same 40+ signal framework we use for our daily digests. No cherry-picking. Every listing that came through our feed from July 2025 to July 2026, scored identically regardless of source.
Here's what the data actually says.
Empire Flippers leads with a 7.2 average, but the more interesting finding is the gap between EF and Acquire.com is only 0.4 points. Flippa trails meaningfully at 5.1 — but that gap is partially a function of volume, not quality. When you filter Flippa to verified listings above $50K, the average score rises to 6.3.
| Metric | Empire Flippers | Flippa | Acquire.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg Deal Alert score | 7.2 / 10 BEST | 5.1 / 10 | 6.8 / 10 |
| % scoring 8+ | 23% BEST | 4% | 18% |
| Avg listing price | $381K | $87K LOWEST | $294K |
| Avg monthly multiple | 38x | 28x LOWEST | 3.6x ARR |
| Avg days to close | 47 days FASTEST | 98 days | 68 days |
| New listings/month | 60–80 | 500+ MOST | 150–200 |
| Revenue verification | Full manual verify | Buyer-verified | Data room access |
| Avg discount from ask | 6.1% | 11.4% MOST ROOM | 8.2% |
| Seller fee | 2.5–15% | 5–10% | 3–5% LOWEST |
| Best business type | Content, FBA, SaaS | Everything sub-$100K | SaaS, tech startups |
Empire Flippers' 7.2 average score isn't an accident. It's the direct result of their listing process: every business goes through manual revenue verification before it appears on the marketplace. Stripe exports, Google Analytics access, Amazon Seller Central data — EF verifies all of it against the listing claims before a buyer ever sees the deal.
What this means in practice: when you open an Empire Flippers listing, you can assume the revenue is real. You don't have to start from skepticism. That shifts your due diligence from "is this real?" to "is this right for me?" — which is a much better use of your time.
The 31% declining revenue figure is worth noting. Even on Empire Flippers, nearly a third of listings show a downward trend in the three months before listing. This is partly natural — owners list when business conditions make selling logical — but it means declining revenue isn't a disqualifier on EF, it's just a negotiating chip.
Flippa's 5.1 average score is the lowest of the three — but that number is doing a lot of work. It includes thousands of sub-$5K listings for Chrome extensions, aged domains, half-built apps, and projects with one month of "revenue." Strip those out and the picture changes significantly.
When we filtered Flippa to listings above $50K with 12+ months of operating history and verified revenue data, the average score jumped to 6.3 — within striking distance of Acquire.com. The problem isn't that Flippa lacks quality deals. The problem is finding them.
That last number matters: the highest-scoring deal in our entire dataset came from Flippa. A B2B SaaS tool in a compliance niche, 4-year operating history, low churn, multiple traffic channels, priced at 2.8x ARR. It was priced below market because the seller didn't have EF-level broker support to set a higher ask. It sold in 11 days.
Acquire.com occupies a specific lane: founder-direct SaaS and tech businesses, mostly in the $50K–$3M range. Their model is fundamentally different from the other two — there's no broker in the middle. You talk directly to the founder who built the product.
This has real implications for both score and experience. SaaS deals on Acquire score an average of 7.4 — higher than even Empire Flippers' overall average — because recurring revenue is the single most important scoring variable and Acquire.com specializes in it.
The 38% seller financing figure stands out. Because you're dealing directly with founders who are often more interested in a good transition than squeezing every dollar, creative deal structures are far more common on Acquire.com. Earnouts, seller notes, equity retention, extended transitions — all more negotiable than on EF where a broker is managing both sides.
The "best" marketplace depends entirely on your buyer profile. Here's the framework we use internally to route Deal Alert AI subscribers toward the right source:
Start with Empire Flippers for the quality guarantee, even if inventory is limited at your budget. If EF inventory is thin, use Flippa with aggressive filters: verified revenue, 12+ months operating history, listed price above $50K. Avoid Acquire.com until you have SaaS operating experience.
Watch all three simultaneously. EF for content and FBA, Acquire.com for SaaS and tech, Flippa for opportunistic sub-market deals. This is the exact multi-marketplace coverage Deal Alert AI is built for — monitoring four feeds daily is where most buyers miss deals.
Acquire.com first, Empire Flippers second. Acquire.com's SaaS inventory is the deepest and most founder-accessible in the market. EF has strong SaaS listings but fewer of them. Skip Flippa for SaaS unless you're hunting micro-SaaS under $30K.
Flippa, filtered hard. Set minimum price at $50K, require verified revenue, minimum 18 months operating history. The best deals on Flippa are underpriced because sellers lack EF-level broker support. A 9+ scoring deal at a 28x multiple beats an 8-scoring deal at a 40x multiple every time.
After scoring 3,000+ listings, the honest answer to "which marketplace is best" is: it depends on your criteria, not the platform's reputation.
Empire Flippers wins on quality floor and close speed. Acquire.com wins on SaaS specifically and deal structure flexibility. Flippa wins on volume, pricing, and the opportunity to find undervalued deals that more sophisticated buyers overlooked.
The buyers who outperform don't pick one marketplace. They monitor all three with a consistent scoring framework, move fast on Empire Flippers, negotiate hard on Flippa, and go deep on founders on Acquire.com.
All 3,000+ listings were scored using Deal Alert AI's scoring model, evaluated on 40+ signals including revenue quality, trend, multiple vs. category benchmark, traffic source diversification, operational risk, and owner dependency. Listings were drawn from the Deal Alert AI feed between July 2025 and July 2026. Time-to-close data was sourced from public sold/archived listing records. Seller financing availability was based on listing disclosures. All scores are model-generated; no individual listings received manual adjustments.
Deal Alert AI scores every new listing from Empire Flippers, Flippa, and Acquire.com and sends your top matches at 7am — filtered to your exact budget and criteria.
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