What It Costs to Sell an Online Store
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
Selling an online store costs a success fee plus, on some venues, a listing fee and escrow. Published totals at a 50,000 sale are EUR 2,500 on Kairos self-serve, $5,000 on Flippa, and $10,000 on Empire Flippers. Empire Flippers' own published worked example at $1,000,000 is $129,000. Website Closers and Quiet Light publish no commission.
Data as of 2026-07-29. Kairos figures come from the frozen euro fee schedule that also feeds the pricing page (src/lib/constants/fees.ts and src/lib/deals/fees.ts). Third-party figures come from the published schedules those venues posted, read on 2026-07-29, stored in src/lib/content/third-party-fees.ts and the compare-spoke rows. Escrow.com totals apply its published bands to 50,000, 250,000, and 1,000,000 dollars in whole-amount mode, where the band rate applies to the entire transfer. Empire Flippers totals apply its published schedule to those same three prices, and the 1,000,000 dollar row matches their own published worked example. Flippa success-fee totals are 10 percent of each price; the listing package is stated as a range because the band edges are not tight enough to assign one package to one price. Acquire.com, Website Closers, Motion Invest between its two published ends, and Quiet Light contribute ranges or stated gaps, not invented dollar totals. No dollar figure is converted into euros.
How Were the Worked Examples Computed?
Each worked total uses one asking price and one published schedule, with no currency conversion between them. Kairos prices in euros: 5% self-serve with a EUR 500 floor, open at any price, and full-service at 12% on the first EUR 500,000 then 9% on the rest, offered from EUR 100,000 and never forced. Self-serve costs EUR 2,500 at EUR 50,000, EUR 12,500 at EUR 250,000, and EUR 50,000 at EUR 1,000,000. Full-service is not available at EUR 50,000, costs EUR 30,000 at EUR 250,000, and costs EUR 105,000 at EUR 1,000,000, which is 12% of EUR 500,000 plus 9% of the remaining EUR 500,000. On a $250,000 transfer Escrow.com's 1.5 percent comes to $3,750, under the $3,800 band floor, so the floor is the fee. Empire Flippers' own $1,000,000 worked example is $129,000, built as 15 percent of $700,000 plus 8 percent of the remaining $300,000. Flippa's success fee is 10 percent of the sale plus a listing package from $29 to $699, and this study does not pick one package dollar figure for one sale price because the published band edges are not tight enough to do that honestly.
Where Does the Fee Actually Go?
A seller can pay listing, success, and escrow as separate bills, and mixing them is how a comparison goes wrong. The listing fee is what the venue charges to put the store on the market. The success fee is the cut taken from the sale price when the deal closes. Escrow is the payment rail, charged on top of whatever the venue takes, not instead of it. Kairos lists for free and charges one success fee at close: 5% self-serve at any price, or 12% then 9% full-service from EUR 100,000 if the seller wants that lane. Flippa adds a non-refundable listing package from $29 to $699 and offers FlippaPay or Escrow.com at checkout. Empire Flippers charges no listing fee and handles escrow in-house. On Kairos, buyer and seller split the Escrow.com provider fee on either lane, and that fee never runs through Kairos. The dollar totals for Escrow.com in the second table are that rail, labeled as an add-on so they cannot be read as a substitute for the venue cut.
Which Venues Still Publish No Number?
Several large venues still do not publish a number a seller can plan around. Website Closers publishes a fee explainer that never states their own commission, so the real number arrives in a private proposal if it arrives at all. Quiet Light returned HTTP 403 on every fetch, and two conflicting fee structures circulate in secondary write-ups, so this study ships no Quiet Light figure. Acquire.com publishes a closing fee of 6 to 8 percent by price tier and a monthly listing fee of $25 to $100, but without the dollar breakpoints a 50,000, 250,000, or 1,000,000 sale cannot be turned into one honest total. Motion Invest publishes the two ends of a slide, 20 percent under $20,000 and 5 percent above $500,000, and the curve between those two points is not published, so no dollar total can be computed at $50,000, $250,000, or $1,000,000 from that schedule. SMERGERS publishes a low finder-fee structure, but that page is not in the citation registry this study's tables are allowed to cite, so this study cannot verify a figure for it and states none. A seller who cannot get the rate in writing cannot model net proceeds from that venue.
The data
| Venue | Listing fee | Success fee | Escrow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquire.com | $25 to $100 per month by asking-price tier | 6 to 8 percent closing fee by price tier; breakpoints not published | Escrow.com after the purchase agreement |
| Empire Flippers | None | $10,000 flat up to $66,666.66; then 15 percent of the whole price to $700,000; then 8 percent on the amount above $700,000 to $5,000,000; then 2.5 percent above | Handled in-house |
| Flippa | $29 to $699 listing package, non-refundable | 10 percent of the sale on every tier | FlippaPay or Escrow.com at checkout |
| Kairos | Free | 5% self-serve (min EUR 500), any price; 12% then 9% full-service from EUR 100,000 (min EUR 10,000), optional | Escrow.com; buyer and seller split the provider fee, either lane |
| Motion Invest | Free | Slides from 20 percent under $20,000 to 5 percent above $500,000; exact curve between those points not published | Escrow used; provider fee not published on their sell page |
| Quiet Light | Blocked, unverifiable, no number | Blocked, unverifiable, no number | Blocked, unverifiable, no number |
| Website Closers | None published; success-based | Not published; set per deal | Not published on their fee page |
| Venue | Fee at a 50,000 sale | Fee at a 250,000 sale | Fee at a 1,000,000 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kairos self-serve | EUR 2,500 | EUR 12,500 | EUR 50,000 |
| Kairos full-service | Not available (full-service starts at EUR 100,000) | EUR 30,000 | EUR 105,000 |
| Escrow.com (paid on top of the venue's own fee, not instead of it) | $1,200 | $3,800 (band floor; 1.5 percent of $250,000 is $3,750) | $12,000 |
| Empire Flippers | $10,000 | $37,500 | $129,000 |
| Flippa (success fee only; plus a $29 to $699 listing package) | $5,000 | $25,000 | $100,000 |
| Acquire.com | 6 to 8 percent closing fee; dollar total not published | 6 to 8 percent closing fee; dollar total not published | 6 to 8 percent closing fee; dollar total not published |
| Website Closers | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Quiet Light | Blocked, unverifiable, no number | Blocked, unverifiable, no number | Blocked, unverifiable, no number |
What This Does Not Show
- Kairos has closed no deals, so nothing here is a record of what a Kairos seller actually paid. Every Kairos figure is the published rate schedule, not a completed transaction.
- This study does not convert between US dollars and euros. Kairos figures are euros. Every third-party figure is US dollars, the currency those venues publish in.
- SMERGERS publishes a low finder-fee structure, but that page has no SourceKey in the citation registry, so this study cannot verify a figure for it and states none.
- Quiet Light returned HTTP 403 on every fetch. Two conflicting fee structures circulate in secondary sources, and neither is used here.
- Acquire.com's closing-fee breakpoints and Motion Invest's rate between $20,000 and $500,000 are not published in the sources read, so those cells are ranges or gaps, not computed totals.
- Holdback delay, prep time, and buyer-side friction are out of scope. Those sit in the narrative cost guide, not in these tables.
Questions About This Study
Is the Success Fee the Whole Cost of Selling?
No. Escrow is a separate bill on top of the venue's success fee. Open marketplaces also charge listing packages and, on Flippa, optional paid upgrades. The structural table above splits those line items so a headline rate cannot hide the rest.
Does Kairos Charge More as the Sale Price Rises?
Self-serve stays 5% at every price. Full-service steps from 12% on the first EUR 500,000 to 9% on the rest, with a EUR 10,000 minimum, and only from EUR 100,000. A seller at EUR 250,000 or EUR 1,000,000 can still pick self-serve instead.
Why Does This Study Show No Commission for Website Closers or Quiet Light?
Website Closers never states its own commission on the fee page read for this study. Quiet Light returned HTTP 403 on every fetch, so no published figure could be checked. This study does not guess either number.
Why Are Kairos Fees in Euros and the Others in Dollars?
Kairos publishes in euros. Flippa, Empire Flippers, Escrow.com, Acquire.com, and Motion Invest publish in US dollars. The study leaves both figures as published. A converted total would be a number none of the sources printed.
Terms Used
Answered. Now Get Your Numbers Proven
Sellers on the list go through verification first when we open. Reading up is step one. Having your revenue proven from your own orders is step two.