Which Escrow Service Should I Use to Buy an Online Business?
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
- Checks in every memo8
- Automatic on day one3 of 8
- Read by handad spend and processor payouts
- Tracked ecom salesEUR 200M+ZenoX ad-management figures, not Kairos deal volume - Kairos hasn't closed a deal yet.
Escrow.com is the answer this page can actually name: a licensed independent escrow company, and the provider Kairos itself settles through. A lawyer's client account works when counsel is already retained on the deal. A marketplace's bundled option works only when you can still name and verify the provider actually holding the money.
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Why a Licensed Independent Company Is the Default
Escrow.com is the concrete answer: a licensed independent escrow company, and the provider Kairos itself settles through. It exists for one job, holding funds against conditions you write down and releasing on proof rather than promise, with no stake in whether the deal closes and no prior relationship with either party. Its own published schedule, checked 29 July 2026, runs 2.6 percent at the bottom and 1.9 percent between 50,000 and 200,000 dollars, falling to 0.95 percent past 3,000,000. What this page cannot source is which regulator sits behind the word licensed for any given provider, independent or bundled: ask directly and get the license number in writing before the money moves.
When a Lawyer's Client Account Fits
A lawyer's client account, also called a trust account, fits when counsel is already retained on the deal and holds the money as part of work already underway rather than a separate vendor relationship. The tradeoff is real: a law firm's trust account was not built to publish a release schedule or a public fee card, so there is no sourced typical fee or turnaround time to quote here, and a buyer should ask their own counsel directly rather than assume a number. What does not change is the sequence: ask for the release condition in the retainer letter or the engagement email, in writing, before the account holds a cent of the purchase price.
When Marketplace-Bundled Escrow Fits
Marketplace-bundled escrow fits in one situation: you already chose that marketplace for other reasons, and the bundled service turns out to be a real, named, licensed provider rather than an unnamed internal ledger. The genuine strength is convenience: funding and release sit inside the same flow as the listing itself, one login, one place to track status. The gap is that you did not pick the provider, the marketplace did, so the fair question is not whether bundled escrow works but whether you can still name the company actually holding the money. Kairos is one example of this: the marketplace, not the buyer, chose the venue, and the venue happens to be the same Escrow.com named above, its schedule checked 29 July 2026. Read the marketplace's own terms or security page for that name before you fund. If it will not name the provider, that is your answer.
What to Demand Before You Fund, on Any of the Three
Whichever venue you land on, one demand outranks the venue itself: get the release rule in writing before you fund. An unwritten condition cannot be checked and cannot be disputed, so a verbal assurance is not a release rule, it is a hope. Kairos publishes its own version rather than leaving it to a phone call: Funds release only after the full amount is funded in escrow, the APA is signed, every critical asset is handed over, and the buyer confirms the transfer. Our fee is auto-deducted at that moment, before the seller is paid. That is the shape to ask for from Escrow.com, from counsel, or from any marketplace: not the same words, but the same three things, a written condition, a named party who confirms it is met, and a payout that only follows.
Related questions
Checked against
- Escrow.com fee calculator - read 29 July 2026
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