Flippa vs Empire Flippers: A Brutally Honest Comparison
What Is Flippa and How Does It Work?
Flippa is an open marketplace for selling and buying online businesses.
Anyone can list a website, app, or domain on Flippa. As a buyer, you can browse thousands of listings at once.
Sellers can also easily publish fast with few checks at the start.
Flippa reports over 100,000 buyers and sellers on its platform, according to company data cited by Statista in 2023. (Source).
Their listings usually range from $1,000 starter sites to deals above $1 million.
The process for selling/buying on Flippa is pretty simple:
A seller creates a listing. A buyer places a bid or makes an offer.
Note that Flippa provides you with tools for escrow and basic data checks.
Nonetheless, as a buyer, you MUST still verify traffic, revenue, and risks (i.e., always conduct your own in-depth due diligence before closing).
Fees on Flippa stay lower than most broker platforms.
Flippa charges listing fees and a success fee that usually sits around 10 percent, based on public pricing shared by Flippa in 2024.
This makes Flippa an appealing choice for small deals.
We Help You Buy / Build, Manage and Scale E-commerce Brands for an EXIT
E-commerce Simplified for Busy Individuals – We handle the buying, building, and scaling, so you can focus on what matters.
Growth-Focused Strategies – From sourcing to marketing, we drive growth and prepare you for a profitable exit.
Expertly Managed Exits – We build a high-value brand designed for a Lucrative exit.
What Is Empire Flippers And How Does It Work?
Empire Flippers is a Flippa alternative that works as an online business broker and a curated marketplace, NOT an open market.
Their team vets every business before it goes live. They review traffic sources, income records, and ownership proof.
Due to this strict process, you can easily guess that they usually end up rejecting many listings.
Empire Flippers publishes monthly reports that show sales volume and buyer demand.
In its 2024/2025 public report, the company stated it closed over $300 million in lifetime deals. The average deal size is far higher than Flippa.
The process here feels slower but safer:
Sellers apply to get listed first. Empire Flippers then takes time to review their businesses.
Once approved, the listings go live to the verified buyers only. The broker helps manage calls, offers, and the transfer.
Fees at Empire Flippers are a bit higher. Empire Flippers charges a success fee that starts with around 15% for smaller deals, based on its published pricing page in 2024.
Sellers accept this cost in exchange for support and trust on the platform.
Buyer Experience: Freedom Vs Filtering
One of the things that stands out about Flippa is that it gives buyers freedom.
You can scan hundreds of deals in one day. You can message sellers directly. You can move fast and negotiate hard.
That’s FREEDOM!
However, this freedom comes at a cost—i.e., it adds risk.
Many Flippa listings rely on seller claims, so buyers MUST independently verify crucial info like Google Analytics access, Stripe records, backlink quality, and so on.
This is important, keeping in mind that poor due diligence causes many failed online business deals in open markets.
Empire Flippers saves you from much of this work. As a buyer, you see fewer listings, but each one includes verified data.
Traffic screenshots match live access. Revenue connects to real accounts. This reduces scams and inflated numbers.
If you enjoy research and can easily spot red flags, then Flippa fits you well.
However, if you want fewer surprises, Empire Flippers may be a better fit.
Seller Experience: Speed Vs Support
Flippa excels in terms of speed, as sellers can list in just days.
This makes it a great choice for founders who want quick exits or side project sales.
Many sellers accept lower prices to close faster.
Empire Flippers, on the other hand, favors support. The broker helps price the business using the current industry and market data.
The team handles buyer screening and deal flow. This often leads to higher sale prices.
The tradeoff is time; sellers often wait weeks for approval and months for a closing.
If cash timing matters, this delay can hurt.
Risk, Trust, and Deal Quality
Trust sets the two platforms apart. Flippa has improved checks in recent years, including traffic verification and escrow tools.
Still, buyer risk stays higher due to volume and open access.
Empire Flippers builds trust through control. Only vetted buyers and sellers participate.
This seems to prove the simple fact that brokered deals tend to experience lower dispute rates than open market deals.
This matters more as deal size grows. A $10,000 deal can survive a mistake, but a $500,000 deal cannot.
We Help You Buy / Build, Manage and Scale E-commerce Brands for an EXIT
E-commerce Simplified for Busy Individuals – We handle the buying, building, and scaling, so you can focus on what matters.
Growth-Focused Strategies – From sourcing to marketing, we drive growth and prepare you for a profitable exit.
Expertly Managed Exits – We build a high-value brand designed for a Lucrative exit.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
Now that we have discussed the two marketplaces for online businesses, Flippa vs Empire Flippers in detail, you might be wondering which one wins.
Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, which you need to keep in mind to help you make a more informed decision.
Ideally, you should choose Flippa if:
You buy or sell under $100,000
You move fast and accept risk
You can verify data on your own
You should choose Empire Flippers if:
You trade six-figure or larger sites
You want verified numbers
You value guidance over speed
Overall, your skill level matters more in your choice than your budget. Skilled buyers can win on Flippa. New buyers gain safety with Empire Flippers.
Related: Flippa vs MicroAcquire Compared: Which Marketplace Wins?
Trend Hijacking: The Best Option for Buying E-commerce Business
If you’re specifically looking to buy or sell e-commerce businesses, then we have good news for you…
At Trend Hijacking, we specialize in helping you acquire or sell an e-commerce business.
This is unlike the two marketplaces above (and many other marketplaces) that mix blogs, SaaS, apps, and small sites in one place.
At Trend Hijacking, we filter all of that out and deal only with buying or selling established e-commerce brands.
What’s more, we vet all the stores featured on our website.
We review store traffic, ad accounts, supplier setup, and order history before a deal moves forward.
As a buyer, you can see how the store makes money, not just top-line revenue.
For the sellers, you benefit from your business getting presented to serious buyers, which increases your chances of closing fast.
For buyers and sellers who want e-commerce only and expert guidance from acquisition experts, Trend Hijacking offers you a focused and practical alternative to general marketplaces.
Final thoughts
Both Flippa and Empire Flippers solve the same problem of helping you buy or sell an online business, but in different ways. Flippa gives you access, speed, and lower fees. But Empire Flippers gives you trust, structure, and support.
There is no perfect choice between the two. We suggest picking the platform that matches your deal size, risk tolerance, and experience. If you do that, both platforms can work well for you.
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