BizBuySell Scraper

Scrape business-for-sale listings from BizBuySell.com, the largest online marketplace for buying and selling small businesses. Extract asking prices, cash flow, gross revenue, locations, and descriptions — by US state, established-business filter, or the full marketplace.

What can this scraper do?

• Search results — Enter a US state URL (e.g. /california-businesses-for-sale/) or the base marketplace URL and extract every listing
• Asking price — Listed price as both formatted ($1,150,000) and numeric (1150000) for sorting/filtering
• Location data — City and state extracted into a single location field
• Business descriptions — Full listing description, not truncated to card preview
• Optional financial enrichment — Set enrichDetails: true to also pull Cash Flow (SDE), Gross Revenue, EBITDA, Real Estate, Inventory, FF&E, Rent, Established year, and Employees
• Listing image — Each listing's photo is downloaded and re-hosted in this run's Apify storage so the URL works in any browser without Akamai blocking; original BBS CDN URL is preserved as imageOriginal
• Automatic pagination — Walks pages 1, 2, 3... until maxItems is reached or results run out
• Fast & free of proxy — No browser, no proxy required. Each page is one HTTP request, ~2 seconds per page

Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchUrl	string	Yes	https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/	BizBuySell URL to scrape. Use state-level paths (e.g. /california-businesses-for-sale/) or the base /businesses-for-sale/ URL. Auto-rewritten to the mobile subdomain. Query string filters (?q=, ?pmin=, ?pmax=) are not supported.
maxItems	integer	No	50	Maximum number of listings to extract (1–1,000)
enrichDetails	boolean	No	false	If true, fetches each listing's detail page to add Cash Flow, Gross Revenue, EBITDA, Real Estate, Established, Employees, FF&E, Rent. One extra HTTP request per listing.
proxy	object	No	–	Optional. The actor uses the unprotected mobile subdomain (m.bizbuysell.com) and works without proxy from Apify datacenter IPs.

Supported URL formats

The actor uses BizBuySell's mobile subdomain (m.bizbuysell.com), which supports path-based filters but ignores query string parameters. Use state or category path URLs — query parameters like ?q=, ?pmin=, ?pmax= are not applied by the mobile subdomain.

URL Pattern	Example	Works?
All businesses for sale	https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/	✅
State filter	https://www.bizbuysell.com/california-businesses-for-sale/	✅
Established businesses	https://www.bizbuysell.com/established-businesses-for-sale/	✅
Keyword search (?q=)	https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/?q=laundromat	❌
Price range (?pmin/pmax)	https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/?pmin=100000&pmax=500000	❌
City sub-path	https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/los-angeles-ca/	❌
Restaurant category	https://www.bizbuysell.com/restaurant-businesses-for-sale/	❌
Franchise category	https://www.bizbuysell.com/franchise-businesses-for-sale/	❌

Note: The mobile subdomain honors path-based filters (state slugs like /california-businesses-for-sale/, /established-businesses-for-sale/) but ignores query string parameters (?q=, ?pmin=, ?pmax=). City sub-paths and some category paths also return no data on the mobile subdomain.

Example input

{
    "searchUrl": "https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/",
    "maxItems": 100
}

{
    "searchUrl": "https://www.bizbuysell.com/california-businesses-for-sale/",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "enrichDetails": true
}

How does it bypass Akamai?

BizBuySell's main www. site is fronted by Akamai Bot Manager, which blocks datacenter IPs. The actor side-steps this entirely by hitting m.bizbuysell.com (the unprotected mobile subdomain) with curl_cffi's real-Chrome TLS fingerprint impersonation. No browser, no proxy, no retries needed — every run completes in a few seconds.

User-supplied www.bizbuysell.com URLs are auto-rewritten to m.bizbuysell.com. Note that the mobile subdomain honors path-based filters (state slugs) but ignores query string parameters — see the supported URL formats table above.

Why are images re-hosted?

BizBuySell's image CDN (images.bizbuysell.com) is also Akamai-fronted and intermittently 403s direct browser opens from flagged IPs. The actor downloads each image during the run using its Chrome TLS fingerprint, stores it in this run's Apify key-value store, and emits a signed public URL as image (format: https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/{id}/records/{key}?signature=...). The signature makes the URL accessible to anyone without authentication. The original BBS CDN URL is kept under imageOriginal for traceability.

What does enrichDetails add?

By default each listing record contains: title, description, url, productId, image, location, askingPrice (numeric + formatted). Set enrichDetails: true to also fetch each listing's detail page and pull labeled financial fields:

• cashFlow — Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE)
• grossRevenue — annual gross revenue
• ebitda — earnings before interest/taxes/depreciation/amortization
• realEstate — included real estate value (or "Owned" / "Leased")
• inventory, ffe, rentMonthly — inventory value, FF&E, monthly rent
• established — year the business was founded
• employees — headcount

Output

Empty fields are omitted (no nulls / blank strings reach the dataset).

Always-present fields

Field	Type	Description
url	string	Direct link to the listing on www.bizbuysell.com
productId	string	BizBuySell's numeric listing ID
title	string	Business listing title
description	string	Listing summary (full text, not truncated)
searchUrl	string	The search URL this listing was found on (mobile-rewritten)
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp

Usually-present fields

Field	Type	Description
location	string	City, State (e.g. Bonita Springs, FL)
image	string	Apify-hosted URL of the listing's primary photo (mirrored for browser-friendly access)
imageOriginal	string	Original BizBuySell CDN URL (Akamai-fronted; may 403 from flagged IPs in browsers)
askingPrice	string	Formatted price (e.g. $1,150,000) or "Not Disclosed"
askingPriceNumeric	integer	Numeric price for filtering/sorting (omitted when "Not Disclosed")

enrichDetails: true — additional fields per listing

Field	Type	Description
askingPriceDetail	string	Asking price as shown on the detail page (may include qualifiers)
cashFlow	string	Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE)
grossRevenue	string	Annual gross revenue
ebitda	string	EBITDA
realEstate	string	Real estate value or status (Owned, Leased, $X*)
inventory	string	Inventory value (often "Included" or $X)
ffe	string	Furniture, fixtures & equipment
rentMonthly	string	Monthly rent
established	string	Year founded (or "Not Disclosed")
employees	string	Number of employees
category	string	BizBuySell business category (when populated by source)

Sample output (without enrichDetails)

{
    "url": "https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/outpatient-physical-therapy-practice-for-sale/2501583/",
    "productId": "2501583",
    "title": "Outpatient Physical Therapy Practice For Sale",
    "description": "A 32-year operating history, approximately $1.56M in FY 2025 revenue, and an embedded referral network that has reached 700+ physicians — this owner-operated outpatient physical therapy practice in Southwest Florida is a thriving, fully operational business...",
    "image": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/e3sxDlkCKsIIMTxzg/records/image-2501583.webp?signature=AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOp",
    "imageOriginal": "https://images.bizbuysell.com/shared/listings/250/2501583/895434dc-989d-4045-86b2-5f0e3396481e-W336.webp",
    "location": "Bonita Springs, FL",
    "askingPrice": "$1,150,000",
    "askingPriceNumeric": 1150000,
    "searchUrl": "https://m.bizbuysell.com/established-businesses-for-sale/",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-02T08:25:18.567890+00:00"
}

Sample output (with enrichDetails: true)

Adds the financial fields by fetching each listing's detail page (one extra HTTP request per listing):

{
    "url": "https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/outpatient-physical-therapy-practice-for-sale/2501583/",
    "productId": "2501583",
    "title": "Outpatient Physical Therapy Practice For Sale",
    "location": "Bonita Springs, FL",
    "askingPrice": "$1,150,000",
    "askingPriceNumeric": 1150000,
    "askingPriceDetail": "$1,150,000",
    "cashFlow": "$319,844",
    "grossRevenue": "$1,562,370",
    "ebitda": "$233,264",
    "realEstate": "$2,095,000*",
    "established": "Not Disclosed",
    "image": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/e3sxDlkCKsIIMTxzg/records/image-2501583.webp?signature=AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOp",
    "imageOriginal": "https://images.bizbuysell.com/shared/listings/250/2501583/895434dc-989d-4045-86b2-5f0e3396481e-W336.webp",
    "description": "A 32-year operating history...",
    "searchUrl": "https://m.bizbuysell.com/established-businesses-for-sale/",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-02T08:25:18.567890+00:00"
}

Tips for best results

• Start with a small maxItems (5–10) to verify your URL works before running large jobs
• Each search page yields ~55–58 listings, so maxItems: 100 typically completes in 2 page fetches
• Use state-level paths (/california-businesses-for-sale/, /texas-businesses-for-sale/) to target a specific state — these are the most reliable filters
• Set enrichDetails: true if you need financial figures (Cash Flow, Revenue, EBITDA) — adds one HTTP request per listing
• Some listings show "Not Disclosed" for asking price — this is BizBuySell's actual display value, not a scraper limitation
• Empty fields are omitted from output records; downstream consumers always see a stable schema

Limitations

• Only US-based businesses are listed on BizBuySell — the scraper does not cover international marketplaces
• Query string filters not supported — the mobile subdomain ignores ?q= (keyword), ?pmin=/?pmax= (price range), and similar parameters; use state-based path URLs instead
• City sub-paths (/businesses-for-sale/los-angeles-ca/) do not return data on the mobile subdomain
• Category paths (restaurants, franchises) return 404 on the mobile subdomain
• "Not Disclosed" prices yield no askingPriceNumeric; sort/filter logic should treat those records separately
• Some sponsored / featured listings may not have a productId and are filtered out
• Detail-page financial fields are only present when the seller has filled them in
• BizBuySell may rate-limit aggressive scraping; the actor inserts a 0.5s pause between requests to stay polite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a BizBuySell account to use this scraper? No. All listing data is publicly accessible.

How many listings can I scrape? Up to 1,000 per run via maxItems. BizBuySell pages have ~55–58 listings each, so a 1,000-item run walks ~18–19 pages.

Why is the asking price "Not Disclosed" for some listings? Some sellers choose to hide their asking price. The scraper preserves whatever BizBuySell displays.

Can I filter by business type, location, or price range? Filtering by US state is supported — use state-level path URLs like https://www.bizbuysell.com/california-businesses-for-sale/ or https://www.bizbuysell.com/texas-businesses-for-sale/. Keyword search (?q=), price range (?pmin=/?pmax=), and city sub-paths are not honored by the mobile subdomain the actor uses and will return unfiltered results.

Do I need a proxy? No. The actor uses BizBuySell's mobile subdomain (m.bizbuysell.com), which is not Akamai-protected. Runs work from any Apify datacenter IP without proxy.

Why is the scraper so fast? HTTP-only — no browser launch, no anti-bot challenge wait. Each page is one request that returns a structured SearchResultsPage JSON-LD payload with all listing data ready to extract. Typical run: 2–10 seconds.

What if I need cash flow / revenue but enrichDetails is too slow? At ~0.5s per listing, enrichment for 50 listings takes ~30s — well within reasonable run times. If you need bulk enrichment for thousands of listings, run multiple smaller jobs in parallel with different searchUrl filters.

What happens if no listings are found? The actor emits a single diagnostic record (with _status: no_data) and sets a clear status message explaining the likely cause. This usually means the URL path is not supported on the mobile subdomain. Use a state-based URL like https://www.bizbuysell.com/california-businesses-for-sale/ or the base https://www.bizbuysell.com/businesses-for-sale/.

Why do keyword search and price filter URLs not work? The actor routes all requests through BizBuySell's mobile subdomain (m.bizbuysell.com), which processes path-based filters (state slugs) but ignores query string parameters like ?q=, ?pmin=, and ?pmax=. Use state or category path URLs for targeted scraping.