Bsale vs SEEK Business — which is better for selling a business in Australia?
Neither is better in the abstract; they price differently and suit different sellers. SEEK Business offers a free six-month private-seller listing, then Standard at $949 + GST and Accelerate at $1,299 + GST, both running until sold. Bsale sells three-month, six-month and until-sold packages at $250, $350 and $550 + GST, with seller tools such as an NDA template and an information memorandum bundled in (the information memorandum from Silver up; Bsale's pages disagree on whether Bronze gets the NDA). Neither charges commission, and neither runs the deal for you after the enquiry arrives.
By the bizflip team · Published 3 September 2026 · Facts checked 3 September 2026 · Sources listed below
Bsale and SEEK Business are the two advertising boards Australian owners most often weigh up when selling privately. Both are classified-style marketplaces: you pay, or in one case do not pay, for a listing, buyers enquire, and the negotiation happens between you and the buyer over email and phone. The comparison below is drawn from each site's own seller pages as they read on 3 September 2026. Prices change, so check the linked pages before you buy.
For transparency: bizflip publishes this guide and runs a marketplace of its own. This page is a straight comparison of the two named sites, and neither of them has paid for or reviewed it.
What each one charges a private seller
SEEK Business separates private sellers from brokers and franchisors. Its private-seller page offers three options. Free lists the business for six months, puts it on the site and sends buyer enquiries to your email. Standard, at $949 + GST, lists until the business sells, shows a photo in search results, places the listing higher in search and includes it in the daily buyer recommendation emails. Accelerate, at $1,299 + GST, adds a featured position at the top of search results and priority placement in those emails. SEEK publishes estimated performance multipliers for the paid tiers, 2.2 times the ad views and 4.4 times the search appearances for Standard and 4.5 and 6.8 times for Accelerate, but these are its own estimates relative to its free tier, not audited figures.
Bsale sells three business-owner packages. Bronze, at $250 + GST, lists for three months and includes a quarter-page advertisement in Bsale's eMagazine, a 30-day prime feature and a ten-step selling checklist. Silver, at $350 + GST, lists for six months, upgrades the eMagazine advertisement to a half page and adds a listing refresh every 30 days, a ten-page information memorandum PDF, a mention in Bsale's weekly newsletter, copywriting assistance and a 30-day premium feature. Bsale's Silver card also lists a non-disclosure agreement template as a Silver addition, but the compare table on the same page ticks the NDA for Bronze too and Bsale's sell-a-business FAQ says every package includes NDA templates, so confirm with Bsale before choosing a tier on that basis. Gold, at $550 + GST, lists until sold and adds a social media post that Bsale says reaches 3,000 or more users. All three allow unlimited edits and up to 15 photos, and on every package Bsale says registered buyers whose saved criteria match are notified of the new listing the morning after it goes live.
| SEEK Business Free | SEEK Business Standard | SEEK Business Accelerate | Bsale Bronze | Bsale Silver | Bsale Gold | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (ex GST) | $0 | $949 | $1,299 | $250 | $350 | $550 |
| Listing runs for | 6 months | Until sold | Until sold | 3 months | 6 months | Until sold |
| Commission on sale | None | None | None | None | None | None |
| Photo in search results | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email promotion to buyers | No | Daily recommendation emails | Priority in recommendation emails | New-listing alert to matching registered buyers | New-listing alert + weekly newsletter | New-listing alert + weekly newsletter |
| eMagazine advertisement | No | No | No | Quarter page | Half page | Half page |
| Featured placement | No | No | Yes, top of search results | 30-day prime feature (placement not stated) | 30-day premium feature (placement not stated) | 30-day premium feature (placement not stated) |
| Seller documents included | No | No | No | 10-step checklist (+ NDA per Bsale's compare table) | NDA + information memorandum | NDA + information memorandum |
Both sites state that they do not charge commission. SEEK Business answers the question directly in its FAQ, saying it does not charge commission and there are no hidden fees. Bsale states 0% commission on every package. On either site, the listing fee is the whole cost of the platform; what you pay a broker, lawyer or accountant is separate. Our guide to business broker fees in Australia covers the broker side.
Audience: what each site says about itself
Neither site publishes independently audited traffic or enquiry numbers on its seller pages, so the audience comparison has to be made from each site's own description of itself. SEEK Business describes itself as Australia's number one business marketplace with thousands of buyers browsing daily. Bsale says it has more than 15,000 active listings, more than 400 businesses added each week and thousands of enquiries a month, and puts its Facebook following at more than 36,000. These are marketing statements, and we have not been able to verify them against a third-party source. Treat them as claims rather than measurements, and if audience matters to your decision, ask each site for current enquiry data on listings in your industry and price range before you pay.
One structural difference is worth knowing. SEEK Business states that a listing appears only on its own website and is not syndicated elsewhere. Bsale's packages push the listing into its eMagazine on every tier, into its weekly newsletter at Silver and Gold, and at Gold onto social media. Whether those extra channels produce buyers for your particular business is not something either site's pages can tell you.
What neither of them does
Both are advertising boards. SEEK Business describes its process as register, promote and connect, with enquiries from potential buyers arriving directly to your email. Bsale's model is the same. Once a buyer has enquired, qualifying them, getting a confidentiality agreement signed, sharing financials, negotiating and documenting the deal is your job, or your adviser's. Bsale bundles a non-disclosure agreement template (its pages disagree on whether Bronze gets it), which is a document rather than a signing workflow; SEEK Business does not mention an NDA on its private-seller page. If you are selling without a broker, our guides to selling a business without a broker, using an NDA before showing financials and the documents needed to sell a business cover the work that starts after the enquiry.
Both sites also give the same answer on timing. SEEK Business says it takes six to nine months on average to sell, sometimes more for businesses valued at $1 million or above. Bsale's package page quotes the same six-to-nine-month range. That matters when you compare a three-month or six-month package against an until-sold one: a listing that expires before the average sale time both sites quote will usually need to be renewed.
Which suits whom
- You want to test the market at no cost: SEEK Business Free. Six months on a large board for nothing is hard to argue with, provided you accept no photo in search results and no email promotion.
- You want the cheapest until-sold listing: Bsale Gold at $550 + GST is $399 less than SEEK Business Standard at $949 + GST, and both run until the business sells. The trade is Bsale's bundled documents and social post against SEEK's daily buyer recommendation emails.
- You want the listing pushed to buyers rather than waiting to be found: SEEK Business Standard or Accelerate, which are the only options on either site that keep the listing in an ongoing daily recommendation email to registered buyers. Bsale notifies registered buyers whose saved criteria match when a listing first goes live, on every package, and its Silver and Gold newsletter is weekly. SEEK's performance multipliers are its own estimates.
- You want seller documents and copywriting help included: Bsale Silver or Gold, which bundle an information memorandum PDF and copywriting assistance. An NDA template is also included, and Bsale's pages disagree on whether Bronze gets it. Have a solicitor check any template NDA before you rely on it.
- You expect a quick sale and want a short, cheap campaign: Bsale Bronze at $250 + GST for three months. Given both sites quote six to nine months as the average, budget for a renewal.
- You are a broker or franchisor: SEEK Business's private-seller prices do not apply to you; it routes brokers and franchisors to separate hubs. Bsale publishes separate broker, real estate agent and franchise group packages.
Nothing on either seller page prevents you from listing on both, but check each site's terms before doing so, and be consistent about the price and description you publish. A buyer who finds two versions of the same listing will ask why.
Before you pay for either
business.gov.au lists business brokers, digital media, traditional media, your own networks and word of mouth among the ways to advertise a business for sale, and none of them replaces getting the fundamentals right first. Know what the business is worth before you set an asking price; our guide to how much a business is worth explains the method, and the broader survey of Australian business-for-sale websites sets these two boards alongside the rest of the market. This page is general information, not advice; the terms of each package are set by the site that sells it.
Sources
Every load-bearing claim in this guide, and where it comes from:
- SEEK Business private-seller packages: Free (list for six months, receive emails from interested buyers), Standard $949 + GST (list until sold, photo in search results, appear higher in search, included in daily buyer recommendation emails, estimated 2.2x ad views and 4.4x search views) and Accelerate $1,299 + GST (feature at top of search results, priority placement in daily buyer recommendation emails, estimated 4.5x ad views and 6.8x search views); the packages are for private sellers only, with brokers and franchisors directed to separate hubs. — SEEK Business
- SEEK Business FAQ statements: "we do not charge commission and there are no hidden fees"; "On average, it takes 6–9 months to sell, sometimes more, especially if your business is valued at $1 million or more"; "your ad is only displayed on our website"; enquiries arrive directly to the seller's email; the site describes itself as Australia's #1 business marketplace with thousands of buyers browsing daily. — SEEK Business
- Bsale business-owner packages: Bronze $250 + GST for 3 months ("eMagazine: Quarter page ad", "Feature: 30-day prime", "Checklist: 10 Steps on How to Sell a Business"), Silver $350 + GST for 6 months ("Everything in Bronze plus": "Refresh: Every 30 days", "Legals: Non-Disclosure Agreement", "Information Memorandum: Connect with Buyers with a 10-page PDF", "eMagazine: Half-page graphically designed Ad", "Newsletter: We let buyers know your ad is live", "Copy Writing: Our team can help your ad shine", "Feature: 30-day premium") and Gold $550 + GST until sold ("Everything in Silver plus": "Social Media: Get 3,000+ users looking at your business sale post"; "Bsale has 36,000+ followers on Facebook"); the compare table lists "eMagazine: Graphically designed Ad for 2 editions" as Half Page / Half Page / Quarter Page for Gold / Silver / Bronze, "Newsletter: Appear in the newsletter sent to 27,000 subscribers", 0% commission, unlimited edits and up to 15 photos; FAQ: "On average, businesses take 6 to 9 months to sell"; under "How it Works", which sits above all three packages: "Buyers will be notified tomorrow morning of a new listing!"; the "Compare the Packages" table on the same page ticks "Legals: NDA to provide to potential buyers" and "Checklist: 10 steps to selling a Business" for all three of Gold, Silver and Bronze, while leaving "Information Memo: 10 page Canva template to create your own" and the Newsletter row blank for Bronze, even though the Bronze package card does not list the NDA; the page introduction separately says "Add on a Non-Disclosure Agreement and Information Memo Template". — Bsale
- Bsale buyer registration: "Create a free Bsale account and get notified when new businesses matching your criteria are listed"; the page also states "30,000+ Interested buyers already registered". This is the buyer-side alert that Bsale's packages page refers to when it says buyers will be notified of a new listing. — Bsale
- Every one of the 20 result cards on Bsale's businesses-for-sale search page carries a listing image element (lazy-loaded from cdn.bsale.com.au/listing/..., with a no-image placeholder shown where no photo is loaded), so Bsale listings show a photo in search results on every package; the packages page allows up to 15 photos per listing. — Bsale
- Bsale describes its newsletter as "A weekly newsletter packed full of insights, advice and opinions about all things buying and selling businesses in Australia", sent together with the Bsale eMagazine, and lists the delivery days as Tuesdays and Fridays; the site footer also calls it "Weekly updates on business sales and advice". This is the newsletter the Silver and Gold packages place a listing in. — Bsale
- Bsale states 0% commissions and describes its audience as over 15,000 active listings, over 400 businesses added weekly and thousands of enquiries a month; it also publishes separate broker, real estate agent and franchise group packages; its FAQ says "For private sellers, Bsale offers Bronze, Silver, and Gold packages, ranging from 3 months, 6 months, to unlimited listings. Each package includes professional listings, eMagazine ads, NDA templates, and marketing tools". — Bsale
- business.gov.au lists ways to advertise a business for sale, including business brokers or real estate agents, digital media, traditional media, existing networks and word of mouth, and advises deciding what is for sale and valuing the business before finding buyers. — business.gov.au (Australian Government)
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