Last Updated on August 21, 2025 by Ewen Finser
Website Closers and Quiet Light are two of the best-known names in the medium-to-large business brokerage space. They both serve a range of industries and offer a thorough, high-touch service.
However, there are big differences between the pair in terms of their commission structure, preferred deal sizes, and approach to scouting for buyers.
I’ve put them both under the microscope in this article.
Quiet Light vs Website Closers: Quick Comparison
Factor | Quiet Light | Website Closers |
Founded / Experience | Founded in 2007. Over 600 deals closed (>$300M total) since inception. | Founded in 2013. Around 2,500 deals closed (>$2.2B total sales). |
Typical Deal Sizes | Focus on mid-market deals, typically 6–7 figure sales ($100k–$5mn). | Handles mid-market to large deals, often 7–8 figures; regularly brokers $10mn+ sales (up to $50mn+). |
Business Specialties | E-commerce (Amazon FBA), content sites, SaaS, other online businesses. | E-commerce brands, Amazon FBA, SaaS, content sites, tech companies. |
Commission Structure | Success fee ~10%, with sliding scale that decreases for higher-value sales (as low as ~3% for $7M+ deals). No upfront fees. | Commission negotiated case-by-case; roughly 8–15%. No upfront fees disclosed. |
Service & Approach | Boutique, hands-on service. Focus on valuation, preparing financials, vetting buyers, and finding the right match. Great for first-time sellers. | High-volume, full-service brokerage. Strong marketing reach. Helps buyers secure financing. May feel less personal for smaller clients. |
Buyer Network & Reach | Large, vetted buyer network for mid-market deals. Actively markets to targeted buyers. | Massive reach. Strong reputation for attracting institutional and international buyers. All buyers vetted and subject to NDAs. |
Best For | 6–7 figure business owners who want personal guidance, transparent fees, and a partner-minded broker. | 7–8 figure owners seeking maximum exposure, access to institutional buyers, and financing support. |
Types of Businesses and Deal Size Focus
Both Quiet Light and Website Closers specialize in profitable online businesses, but they tend to focus on different market segments.
Quiet Light
Quiet Light is predominantly a mid-market broker, typically working with established online businesses valued from $100,000 to ~$5 million.
Quiet Light sells all types of online businesses: e-commerce stores (including many Amazon FBA brands), content and affiliate websites, SaaS companies, digital services, etc. It has built a particularly strong reputation in the FBA space.
Website Closers
Website Closers operates at a broader scale and regularly handles larger transactions. While it does list businesses as low as ~$100K in value, its sweet spot is the 7-figure+ territory. A significant portion of its deals are in the 8-figure range. This makes it one of the go-to brokers for bigger e-commerce companies and portfolio sales.
Like Quiet Light, Website Closers also lists all kinds of online businesses; it has sold Amazon FBA brands, high-volume Shopify stores, software companies, service agencies, and more.
The Verdict
Quiet Light has much more experience in the 6-figure range, but less in the high 8-figure range. Both offer similar breadth in terms of industry experience.
Commission Fees and Costs
Fees are obviously among the most important considerations when you’re choosing a broker, especially if yours is a high-value sale. Fractions of a percentage point count for a lot in a multimillion-dollar deal.
Both Quiet Light and Website Closers charge a percentage of the final sale price only when your business sells – there’s no fee if they don’t close a deal. However, their approaches to commissions differ.
Quiet Light
Quiet Light charges a maximum of 10% of the sale price as commission on successful sales. For deals worth $1 million or more, Quiet Light uses a sliding scale that takes ~1% off the commission for each additional $1 million in sale value (it will reportedly go as low as 3% for $7mn+ deals).
This means if you’re selling, say, a $2mn business, your fee might be around $180,000. This is definitely on the lower end of the scale of brokers in this value range.
Quiet Light does not charge any upfront listing fees or retainers; all compensation is success-based. This is common in the industry, but not standard. I’d personally recommend staying well away from any broker that will charge you before selling your company.
Website Closers
This is the first major sticking point I’m going to raise in this article; Website Closers does not publicly disclose a fixed commission rate on its website. While I appreciate that large business sales are boutique arrangements that can require flexibility, I don’t like that clients of the platform have to negotiate their commission fees. It adds a lot of friction to what is already a stressful process.
Reports and reviews do suggest that sellers can expect the fee to fall somewhere in the typical range for online business brokers (roughly 8-15% in most cases).
What’s the Verdict?
The lack of transparency around Website Closers’ approach to pricing makes it difficult to say for certain who offers better deals. However, you can be pretty confident that Quiet Light is likely going to charge a smaller success fee, and you won’t have to negotiate in order to get it.
Broker Services and Process
Both Quiet Light and Website Closers are full-service brokers, meaning they guide you through valuation, preparing the business for sale, marketing the listing, fielding inquiries, negotiating, due diligence, and closing.
However, their style of service does differ in important ways.
Quiet Light
Quiet Light prides itself on being a seller-centric brokerage service. When you work with Quiet Light, you’re assigned a dedicated broker who essentially becomes your partner throughout the sale.
Your broker will help you to clean up your financials, recast earnings, and identify the key selling points of your business to maximize its appeal. They’ll work with you on a realistic asking price and strategy.
Significantly, brokers are also very hands-on when it comes to screening and vetting buyers, and diligent when it comes to maintaining confidentiality.
Sellers often mention that Quiet Light advisors give frank advice – if they think you shouldn’t accept an offer or should wait for a better one, they’ll tell you, even if it means a longer process. Quiet Light also coordinates the due diligence process and closing logistics for you. This step-by-step guidance is extremely helpful for first-time sellers in particular.
The trade-off here is that Quiet Light may take a bit longer to find the perfect buyer and negotiate the best deal (your broker won’t be in a rush to flip your business at the first offer). Their goal is a successful sale, not just a quick sale – so expect a thorough process.
Website Closers
Website Closers also offers end-to-end brokerage services, but given its trading volume and scale, its process can feel a lot more “corporate.”
While the platform will assign a dedicated broker to your case, the experience is a bit less high-touch than with Quiet Light. There may be a team of analysts, junior brokers, etc., involved in preparing your materials and handling buyer inquiries, rather than a single point of contact for everything. If you prefer more frequent one-on-one communication, you’ll need to establish that expectation.
Aside from this, though, there is a lot to like about how Website Closers manages its accounts.
The company is known for creating slick, eye-catching marketing packages for listings. Coupled with its massive buyer list, this can be a very effective tactic for generating interest.
Another standout aspect of Website Closers’ service is its focus on facilitating financing for buyers. The brokerage has in-house expertise with SBA loans and other financing options, which means if a buyer likes your business but needs a loan to afford it, Website Closers can assist them in securing that funding.
What’s the Verdict?
While Website Closers has nifty marketing strategies and useful financing expertise, Quiet Light wins when it comes to pure client service.
Buyer Network and Buyer Quality
A robust buyer network is among the biggest selling points of any broker. All else being equal, you want your listing to reach as many sets of eyes as possible.
Quiet Light
Despite being smaller than some of its competitors, Quiet Light has built a broad and deep network of qualified buyers over the years.
The company takes a proactive approach to matchmaking; your listing won’t just sit on the Quiet Light website waiting for someone to stumble across it. This often results in multiple offers and competitive bidding, which is the ideal scenario for you as a seller.
The platform is also serious about its vetting standards. If someone inquires who is not already known to them, that person will usually be required to prove they’re qualified (e.g., show they have funds or are an established business buyer) before proceeding far. This protects you from tire-kickers and maintains confidentiality.
Website Closers
As noted above, Website Closers is known for its huge list of around 1.3 million buyer contacts. This includes all sorts of buyers: individual entrepreneurs, search fund people, private equity firms, family offices, international buyers, etc.
The obvious advantage here is reach: when you list with Website Closers, your business gets massive exposure to one of the largest audiences in the industry.
The sheer size of the network is especially useful if your business might appeal to a specific or niche buyer – among a million contacts, there may be a handful of perfect matches that you’d never reach on your own.
What’s the Verdict?
Quiet Light will provide access to a curated pool of buyers who regularly acquire businesses across industries and value ranges. However, because of the sheer breadth and depth of its network, Website Closers wins this round.
Final Thoughts
Both Quiet Light and Website Closers are highly capable brokerage services, but I think Quiet Light represents the better choice for most sellers, especially in the mid-market range. If your company is likely to fetch a price in the high 8-figure range, there’s a case to be made for Website Closers based on its experience in this part of the market. For everyone else, I’d recommend Quiet Light.