World Businesses for Sale Review (2026)3%, 2% or 1%
By Daan Haket · Researched and written with an AI assistant · who does what
On the broker plans you pay twice: a listing fee up front AND commission when it sells — 3% on Basic, 2% on Standard, 1% on Premium — on contracts of 6, 9 and 12 months.
owners selling established, often brick-and-mortar businesses — restaurants, shops, services, small manufacturers — who want international buyer exposure with hands-on guidance.
you're selling a small online asset (an auction-style online-business marketplace fits better), or you want a free listing — even the cheapest no-commission plan here costs £49 a month.
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Pricing (2026)
✓ Pricing re-verified 15 Oct 2026
(2026, re-verified 2026-10-15 on their own store and selling pages) Browsing is free for buyers. Sellers pick one of two tracks. Broker plans: Basic £395 (3% commission, 6-month contract), Standard £749 (2% commission, 9 months), Premium £1,500 (1% commission, 12-month contract, stays live until sold with free renewals) — every tier states commission is due only if they introduce the buyer. Or no-commission pay-as-you-go listings (inc. VAT), now sold only as subscriptions: a Monthly Plan at Basic £49, Standard £75 or Premium £99 a month, or a 6-Month Plan at 50% off — £147, £225 or £297 per six months (the store's 'from £24.50/month'), renewing automatically every six months; you can cancel future renewals, and the listing stays active to the end of the paid period.
You keep 100% of the sale price. Historical: on 13 October 2026 we read these as one-off 30-day listings with 10% off monthly (£44.10 / £67.50 / £89.10) and 20% off for six months (£235.20 / £360.00 / £475.20). Free 24/7 chat guidance before you commit. Sources: plan prices from the store's own product data on 15 October 2026; commissions and contract lengths from the selling page on 13 October 2026. Plans change — always verify the live price on their site.
The honest knock
Only Premium stays live until sold with free renewals, so on the lower tiers a business that has not sold needs a paid renewal, and for a slow sale £1,500 once can beat £749 twice. Every tier says commission is payable only when they introduce the buyer, which is exactly the clause to read in the contract before you sign. If you want no commission at all, the pay-as-you-go plans start at £49 a month, or £147 for six months — far cheaper up front, but those are listings, not broker introductions. As with any marketplace, the fee buys exposure, not a guaranteed sale.
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What World Businesses for Sale does
International marketplace for buying and selling established businesses — restaurants, shops, services and manufacturers — free for buyers, with broker plans (listing fee plus 1-3% commission) or no-commission pay-as-you-go listings, and 24/7 guidance for sellers.
What buyers report about World Businesses for Sale
Hands-on: not tested by usReported by buyers: marketplace comparisons and directory reviews, read August 2026
Themes from the buyer-review sites listed at the foot of this page, read in August 2026. We have not run World Businesses for Sale ourselves, so this is other buyers' experience rather than ours. We summarise it here because the complaints are usually the part a vendor page leaves out.
- • 1-2% commission or a flat pay-as-you-go fee, against the 10-15%+ that is standard for business brokerage. On a sale of any size that difference is substantial.
- • Buyers browse free, and the reach spans the UK, US, Canada, Australia, India and Ireland with 10,000+ buyers across 100 countries.
- • There is no escrow and no vetting of listings. Due diligence is entirely yours on both sides — which for a business sale is the part that matters most.
- • Transaction support is limited: it is a listing platform with marketing help, not a broker.
- • We found no substantive independent review base. At this stage judge it on the fee arithmetic, not on reputation.
Which broker tier wins depends on your sale price
Browsing is free for buyers; sellers choose between two quite different tracks (2026, re-verified 2026-10-15). The broker plans carry a listing fee and a commission: Basic £395 with 3% on a six-month contract, Standard £749 with 2% over nine months, and Premium £1,500 with 1% over twelve months, where Premium stays live until sold with free renewals. Every tier states that commission is payable only if they introduce the buyer.
Because the fee falls as the commission falls, which tier is cheapest depends entirely on what your business sells for, and the crossovers are worth having in front of you. Below about £35,400, Basic is cheapest. Between £35,400 and £75,100, Standard wins. Above £75,100, Premium is cheapest — and the gap widens fast: on a £500,000 sale, Basic costs £15,395 all in, Standard £10,749 and Premium £6,500. If you are selling anything of size, the most expensive listing fee is the cheapest deal.
The contract lengths reinforce that. Only Premium stays live until sold with free renewals, so on the lower tiers an unsold business needs a paid renewal — and £749 twice is £1,498, which is a pound under Premium's £1,500 for half the commission rate. For anything but a quick sale, Premium is doing better than it looks. Now the clause that decides thousands of pounds, and the reason to read the actual contract rather than the pricing page.
The selling page says commission is payable only when they introduce the buyer, while the refund policy says the agreed commission still applies if the business sells while the listing is active. On a £500,000 sale that single word is worth between £5,000 and £15,000, and everything depends on how 'introduce' is defined. Does a buyer who found your listing on their site count as their introduction? Almost certainly, but get it defined in writing before you sign anything, because the page will not define it for you.
The other track avoids all of this. Pay-as-you-go listings carry no commission at all, and since our 15 October 2026 reading they are sold as subscriptions: Basic £49, Standard £75 or Premium £99 a month including VAT, or a six-month plan at half price — £147, £225 or £297, shown on the store as 'from £24.50/month' — which renews automatically every six months unless you cancel the renewal. You keep 100% of the sale price.
On that £500,000 example, six months of PAYG Premium is £297 against Premium broker's £6,500. The difference is what you are buying: those are listings, not broker introductions, buyer enquiries are screened by their team before your details go out, and the fee buys exposure rather than a sale. Free 24/7 chat guidance is available before you commit either way.
Questions we checked
Facts about World Businesses for Sale that would change a buying decision, and where we stand on each. An unanswered question does not mean the feature is missing; it means we have not confirmed it yet.
- On a broker plan, is commission due if I sell to a buyer I found myself while the listing is live? Sources disagree
Applies to: broker plans Basic, Standard and Premium (3%, 2% and 1% commission).
Why it matters: on a mid-sized sale the answer is worth thousands of pounds, and it decides whether a broker plan or the no-commission pay-as-you-go track is cheaper for a seller who already knows likely buyers.
Answer: The selling page (read 13 October 2026) says on every broker plan 'Pay commission only if we introduce the buyer', and its FAQ ties the commission to a buyer they introduce. The refund policy (read the same day), in its section on cancelling a listing, says 'If your business sells while the listing is active, the agreed commission still applies', without mentioning who introduced the buyer. Neither page defines an introduction, so get that definition in the written contract before signing.
Checked: World Businesses for Sale: sell your business (broker plans) (2026-10-13); World Businesses for Sale: refund policy (2026-10-13)
Have a public source that answers one of these? How we review explains how we check and correct.
How to actually use World Businesses for Sale
Estimate your sale price first, because it decides the tier. Below about £35,400, broker Basic is cheapest; between £35,400 and £75,100, Standard; above £75,100, Premium — and on a £500,000 sale Premium costs £6,500 all in against Basic's £15,395. The highest listing fee is the cheapest outcome for anything of size. Get one clause defined in writing before you sign a broker plan: what counts as them introducing the buyer.
The selling page ties commission to their introduction, but the refund policy says it still applies if the business sells while the listing is active — and on a mid-sized sale that definition is worth five figures. Decide honestly whether you want a broker at all. The pay-as-you-go track carries no commission — £49 to £99 a month, or £147 to £297 for six months at half price, renewing automatically — and you keep the whole sale price.
What you give up is the introduction, not the exposure. If you already know your likely buyers, that trade is an easy one. Use the free chat guidance before committing either way, and note that only broker Premium stays live until sold, so on the lower tiers budget for a paid renewal if the sale is slow.
Where this section comes from: our research notes (156 words)
The vendor's own selling pages, read 10 September 2026: worldbusinessesforsale.com/pages/sell-business for the broker plans — Basic £395 GBP with 3% commission on a 6-month contract, Standard £749 with 2% on 9 months, and the Premium plan at £1,500 marked 'Stay Live Until Sold • Free Renewals' — and worldbusinessesforsale.com/pages/sell-no-commission for the pay-as-you-go listings, where the Basic PAYG plan is £49 GBP. The site is a Shopify store and each plan is a product page; there is no /pricing URL (it returns 404).
Re-read 13 October 2026: both selling pages (all plan prices, commissions and contract lengths unchanged) and the refund policy at worldbusinessesforsale.com/policies/refund-policy for what happens to fees when a listing is cancelled or does not sell. Re-read 15 October 2026: worldbusinessesforsale.com/pages/sell-no-commission and the store's own product data for the pay-as-you-go plans, which are now sold only as monthly or six-month subscriptions (six-month at 50% off, renewing automatically), plus the broker plan fees (£395, £749, £1,500).
World Businesses for Sale vs Flippa, side by side
Each column shows the vendor’s own published entry price, read on the date shown. Entry prices can cover different services or units, so check what each one buys. We do not average them into a score.
Both names above are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. Neither changes what this table says.
The natural comparison is Flippa — Flippa is the online-business marketplace (sites, apps, e-commerce) with auction dynamics; World Businesses for Sale leans brick-and-mortar and international with flat listing plans — pick by what you're actually selling.
Visit World Businesses for Sale →
Frequently asked questions
If my business doesn't sell, or I cancel the listing, do I get the fee back?
No. The refund policy (worldbusinessesforsale.com/policies/refund-policy, read 13 October 2026) says the upfront payment on a commission plan is non-refundable, that you may cancel a listing at any time but the upfront payment still is not refunded, and that commissions are non-refundable once charged. Pay-as-you-go payments, one-off or monthly, are non-refundable too, and a cancelled subscription runs to the end of its billing period with no refund for unused time.
Is a pay-as-you-go listing a one-off 30-day fee?
Not any more. On 15 October 2026 the store sold each no-commission plan only as a subscription: a Monthly Plan at £49, £75 or £99, or a 6-Month Plan at half price, £147, £225 or £297. The selling page (worldbusinessesforsale.com/pages/sell-no-commission) says the six-month plan renews automatically every six months, that you can cancel future renewals at any time, and that the listing stays active until the end of the paid period.
Do buyer enquiries come straight to me?
No. The no-commission selling page (read 15 October 2026) says interested buyers contact World Businesses for Sale through your listing, their team screens the enquiry, and they forward the buyer's details to you only if they judge the buyer serious and genuinely interested. The page does not say how quickly that happens.
Is this a hands-on review of World Businesses for Sale?
This is a researched assessment, not a hands-on test — where we've used a tool ourselves, we say so explicitly. We name what each tool is good and bad at, and we earn a commission only if you sign up, at no cost to you.
- Buyer reviews on marketplace comparisons and directory reviews, read August 2026.
- 2026, re-verified 2026-10-15 on their own store and selling pages.
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