Short answer: If your side project makes money, buyers usually price it as a multiple of annual profit. Typical ranges reported by marketplaces and brokers run from about 2x to 4.5x profit for small online businesses, and higher for strong SaaS. If it doesn't make money yet, it's priced on its assets (code quality, users, traffic, domain and the cost to rebuild it), and those deals are much smaller.
The two ways small apps get valued
Buyers ask one question first: does it earn money?
- Profitable projects are valued on earnings. The usual starting point is net profit, or seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), over the last 12 months, multiplied by a number that reflects risk.
- Pre-revenue projects are valued on what a buyer gets: working code, a domain, users or a waitlist, content, and the time they skip by not building it themselves.
Typical ranges reported by marketplaces and brokers
These are published figures from closed deals and broker guidance. They describe the market, not what your project will sell for.
| Type of project | Basis | Typical range reported | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online businesses, general starting point | Annual net profit | 2x–2.5x | Flippa help center |
| Typical businesses sold (excludes distressed) | TTM net profit | 2.2x average | Empire Flippers scoreboard |
| Premium businesses sold | TTM net profit | 2.4x average; 3.2x for $1M+ deals | Empire Flippers scoreboard |
| Smaller owner-operated SaaS | Annual profit/SDE | about 2.5x–4.5x | Flippa 2026 benchmarks |
| Top-performing SaaS cohort | Annual profit | up to 6.13x | Flippa 2026 benchmarks |
| SaaS under $2M in revenue (broker deals) | Annual SDE | 5.0x–7.0x | FE International |
| Content and publishing sites | Annual profit | about 2.32x | Flippa 2026 benchmarks |
| Digital marketplaces | Annual profit | about 2.02x | Flippa 2026 benchmarks |
| Pre-revenue listings on Flippa | Asking price | capped at $9,999 | Flippa help center |
A few notes on reading this table:
- Sources measure different things. Flippa warns that its figures show how buyers price different risk profiles and aren't a like-for-like comparison. Empire Flippers reports the average of what sold. FE International works on larger, broker-managed deals.
- SaaS tends to sit higher than content sites because recurring revenue is more predictable. Flippa notes content sites often get lower multiples because ad revenue goes up and down.
- Multiples apply to profit, not revenue, for most small deals. A project with $12,000 in annual revenue and $9,000 in annual costs has $3,000 in profit to multiply.
Valuing a project with no revenue
Most vibe-coded side projects haven't made money yet. Buyers look at:
- Cost to rebuild. Flippa describes cost-to-duplicate as a floor value, not a growth estimate. To estimate it, count the hours a competent developer would need, multiplied by a rate. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $135,980 for software developers (May 2025), which works out to roughly $65 an hour. Be honest here: if you built it in a weekend with Lovable or Cursor, a buyer knows they could too, and that lowers this number.
- Code quality. Readable structure, tests, a working build and no hard-coded secrets make the code worth more than a prototype that only runs on your laptop.
- Users and traffic. Real sign-ups, active users, an email list or steady organic traffic are the strongest signals before revenue.
- The domain and brand. A short, relevant domain and any social accounts have value of their own.
- Time saved. A buyer who needs this exact tool now may pay for the months they skip.
What raises or lowers value
FE International's guidance on SaaS lists several factors that move multiples. They apply to small apps too.
Raises value:
- Documented operations and source code, plus clear ownership of the IP
- Low owner involvement, so the app runs without you
- Steady growth and low churn
- More than one way to get customers
- A product that doesn't need major work right after the sale
Lowers value:
- Owner dependence, especially for technical work
- Erratic or declining revenue
- High churn
- Reliance on one channel, such as paid search
- Heavy discounting just before the sale
For AI-built apps, add a few items buyers now check for:
- No exposed secrets. API keys in the repo or front end are a red flag. See the Supabase RLS mistake for the most common database version of this.
- A recent, dated security check. Run the free security header check. On GreenGo, Green Light shows a pass for 90 days with the check date. It covers DNS ownership, security headers, exposed secrets, known vulnerable dependencies and delivery-file hygiene. It is not a security audit.
- A clean handover. A README, environment variable list, deployment notes and admin access steps make a buyer's first week easier.
Sell the whole app, or sell copies?
You have two different products here, and they're priced differently.
| Sell the whole app | Sell copies | |
|---|---|---|
| What the buyer gets | Code, domain, users, accounts | A license to use the code |
| How many buyers | One | Many |
| How it's priced | Profit multiple or asset value | Per-license price |
| You keep the project? | No | Yes |
| On GreenGo | Flip Desk, 5% fee | Regular listing via Sell, from 8% per sale on Starter |
Sell the whole app when you're done with it, it has users or revenue, and a buyer would want the brand. Sell copies when the code itself is the value, such as a template, boilerplate or starter kit. For setting a per-copy price, see From prototype to paid.
A simple way to estimate your range
- Write down your last 12 months of revenue and costs.
- If profit is positive, apply the ranges above for your type of project and note where you think you fall.
- If there's no profit, estimate cost to rebuild, then adjust for users, traffic and the domain.
- Compare with sold listings, not asking prices. Empire Flippers reports that its sold listings went for 86% of list price on average.
- Fix the easy things that lower value, like missing docs or exposed keys, before you list.
Sources
- Decoding Digital Multiples: 2026 Valuation Benchmarks — Flippa
- How to value an asset or business — Flippa Help Center
- How to value a startup company with no revenue — Flippa
- Scoreboard — Empire Flippers
- SaaS metrics that drive the value of a SaaS business — FE International
- Software Developers: Occupational Outlook Handbook — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Updated October 20, 2026.