MicroAcquire vs Tiny Acquisitions vs Failedups, where to buy a small SaaS
An honest comparison of the four marketplaces I keep getting asked about. Where each one wins, where each one loses, and how to pick the right one for your budget.
I get the same email about once a week. “I have ten grand and want to buy a SaaS. Should I use MicroAcquire, Tiny Acquisitions, Flippa, or list on Failedups?” The honest answer is: it depends on what you actually want to buy. These marketplaces look similar from the outside but solve very different problems.
Here is how I think about each one, having watched buyers and sellers move between them.
MicroAcquire (now Acquire.com)
The big one. Rebranded from MicroAcquire to Acquire.com in 2023, but most people still call it the old name. The pitch is straightforward: revenue positive SaaS with real MRR, vetted before they go on the platform.
What you actually find there: companies doing $5k MRR up to mid seven figure ARR. The screening is real, sellers fill out a structured listing, and there is a verification step. That is the appeal for buyers, and also why deals there cost what they cost.
Fees are a thing. Acquire takes a percentage on the buyer side for closed deals, and there is a closing service. For deals over a certain size you basically need their assistance, which is fine if your deal is $300k but feels heavy for $5k.
If you want to buy a working business with paying customers and you have at least $50k to spend, this is probably your first stop.
Tiny Acquisitions
The faster, smaller cousin. Tiny Acquisitions specialises in deals under $50k, often well under. The screening is lighter than Acquire, the listings are shorter, and deals close in days rather than weeks.
The vibe is closer to a classified board than a brokered marketplace. You see the founder’s email, you reach out, you negotiate, you wire money or use their escrow option. Lots of the listings are starter projects, content sites, and SaaS apps with a few hundred dollars of MRR.
The trade off is what you would expect. Less rigour means more variance in listing quality. You will see honest founders selling real projects, and you will see a few “AI app I built last weekend” listings that are not worth the asking price. Buyer beware applies more here than on Acquire.
If you want something with a tiny bit of revenue and you trust yourself to do diligence, Tiny Acquisitions is a great hunting ground.
Flippa
The grandparent of the space. Flippa has been around since 2009 and lists everything: domains, content sites, ecom stores, mobile apps, and yes, SaaS. The volume is enormous, which is both the upside and the downside.
Upside: you can find genuinely undervalued things if you are patient. Sellers there often do not know what their thing is worth, and the auction format means deals can land below market.
Downside: the noise floor is high. Lots of listings have inflated traffic claims, sketchy revenue screenshots, or are flat out scams. You need to know how to read between the lines, verify Stripe and analytics access, and walk away from anything that smells off. First time buyers get burnt here regularly.
Worth using if you have done a few deals before and enjoy the hunt.
Failedups
This is what I built, so take it with whatever salt you need. We are deliberately not trying to compete with Acquire on revenue positive deals. The thesis is different.
Failedups lists half built SaaS apps, abandoned side projects, and stalled MVPs. Most listings are between $500 and $10k. A lot have zero revenue. Some have a few beta users. The pitch is not “buy a working business” but “buy 200 hours of someone else’s work for less than what you would pay a freelancer.” There is also a cofounder option: if you do not want to buy outright, you can pitch the original founder on reviving the project together.
What we are not: the right place to buy a $1M ARR company. We have no listings like that and probably never will. If you want a real business, go to Acquire.
The matrix
| Marketplace | Typical price | Deal size | Screening | Time to close | What you get | Best buyer fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acquire.com | $50k to $5M | Real businesses with MRR | Heavy, structured | 4 to 12 weeks | Revenue positive SaaS | Operator or holdco buyer with capital |
| Tiny Acquisitions | $1k to $50k | Small but live | Light | Days to 2 weeks | Starter SaaS, small MRR, content sites | DIY buyer who can do their own diligence |
| Flippa | $500 to $1M+ | Highly variable | Mixed, lots of noise | Auction or direct, days to weeks | Anything: domains, ecom, SaaS, content | Patient hunter willing to filter aggressively |
| Failedups | $500 to $10k | Half built or stalled | Lightweight, focused on honesty | Days | Half built SaaS, abandoned MVPs, cofounder revivals | Builder who wants a head start, not a turnkey business |
How I would actually choose
If you have $100k and want passive income, Acquire is the only honest answer. The deals there have real numbers, and the closing process protects both sides.
If you have $5k to $20k and want to operate a small thing yourself, Tiny Acquisitions is probably your best bet for live projects with some traction. Failedups is the right call if you would rather get a much earlier stage codebase for less and add the distribution yourself.
For $1k to $3k, when you want a learning project to take over and ship for the first time, Failedups is probably the best fit. Most of our $500 listings are more interesting code than people expect, and the founder notes are usually candid about why it stalled.
Flippa rewards patience if you are buying for fun, and rewards skepticism if you are buying for a business outcome.
These marketplaces are not really competing for the same dollar. We each serve a different point on the curve, and the worst outcome is a buyer using the wrong one for their situation.
If half built and sub $10k matches what you are looking for, browse active listings. If it does not, one of the others above probably does.