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I'm looking to build a service marketplace platform and need recommendations for the best services marketplace software.
Answers
The best service marketplace software depends on your goals, budget, and technical experience. Below is a list of top-rated platforms—both no-code and customizable dev options—for launching a service-based marketplace (like Airbnb, Thumbtack, TaskRabbit, etc.).
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No-Code / Low-Code Options
Great for non-technical founders or quick MVPs:
1. Sharetribe
• Best for: Service marketplaces
• Pros: Fully hosted, supports bookings, payments, reviews, and messaging
• Cons: Limited customization unless you upgrade to Sharetribe Flex (which requires some dev work)
• Pricing: Starts free (dev mode); paid plans from $99/month
2. Arcadier
• Best for: Multi-vendor marketplaces (products & services)
• Pros: Flexible, multilingual, appointment & booking support
• Cons: UI is less modern compared to others
• Pricing: Starts at $59/month
3. Marketplacer
• Best for: Scalable service & product marketplaces
• Pros: Enterprise-ready, highly customizable
• Cons: Expensive and better suited for larger teams
• Pricing: Custom/enterprise-level pricing
4. Kreezalid
• Best for: Beautiful, simple marketplaces
• Pros: Booking calendar, payment integration, review system
• Cons: Less flexibility for deep custom logic
• Pricing: Starts at $399/month
5. Bubble + Template
• Best for: Fully customizable no-code builds
• Pros: Drag-and-drop, can support complex workflows, payment, booking, chat, etc.
• Cons: Requires learning curve and more effort than plug-and-play tools
• Pricing: Free to start; hosting from $29/month
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Code-Based / Customizable Platforms
For teams with developers or long-term scale goals:
6. Sharetribe Flex
• Best for: Full customization with dev team
• Pros: API-first, scalable, full control of UX
• Cons: Requires coding
• Tech: Node.js, React, etc.
7. Near Me
• Best for: Niche marketplaces
• Pros: White-label, modern design, support for service & rental marketplaces
• Cons: Pricey and tailored for scaling
• Pricing: Custom pricing
8. Cocorico (Open Source)
• Best for: Advanced service marketplaces (like rentals, bookings)
• Pros: Free, fully featured (time-based bookings, messaging, payments)
• Cons: Requires PHP/Symfony knowledge
• Pricing: Free (self-hosted), or enterprise support available
9. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
• Best for: Product & service marketplaces
• Pros: Mature platform, has vendor dashboards, bookings via add-ons
• Cons: More product-focused by default
• Pricing: Starts at $1,450 (one-time license)
If you need help in short listing the software based on your custom requirements, feel free to book a call.
Related Questions
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When recording income for a marketplace startup, is it typical to use the gross transaction or just the fees collected per payment?
You usually only recognize the commissions as revenues and use the term "Gross Merchandise Value" (GMV) to describe the size of the marketplace (value of all transactions going through the site)BW
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How important is it for a marketplace startup to drive enough demand (customers) for your supply (sellers) to make a full time living off of it?
It's very important. (first, read this article by Josh Breinlinger - http://acrowdedspace.com/post/47647912203/a-critical-but-ignored-metric-for-marketplaces) The way you achieve success in a marketplace is by driving liquidity for both your supply & demand. Demand-side Liquidity = When users come to your marketplace, they can achieve their goals. Supply-side Liquidity = When supply comes to your marketplace they can achieve their goals... which are almost always to make money. If you're making a large amount of your supply-side users a full-time income, then you're helping them achieve liquidity. Now it's not so black and white and it doesn't always have to be a "full-time income." It depends what their goals are. E.g., 1) At Airbnb, renters aren't looking to quit their day jobs and become landlords full-time... they're just look to earn a substantial amount of income to offset their rent, mortgage, etc. So in this case, I would probably goal on # of renters that earn >$500 / month... and (in the first 1-5 years) try to grow this number by 10-20% MoM... and maybe by just 5% once you're in the mid-high tens of millions in yearly revenue. 2) At Kickstarter, the goal of the supply-side is to get their project successfully funded. They don't care if the project creator is "full-time"... they just want to make sure they meet their funding goal. This is why they talk about their 44% project success rate all the time - http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats 3) At Udemy, our instructors want a substantial amount of their income to be driven from their Udemy course earnings... so we look at how many instructors are earning >$2k / month.DT
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Broad niche or Targeted niche which way to go?
I always suggest going "uncomfortably narrow" initially so that you can really dial in the user experience and build liquidity first. Going broad will be tougher as there's too much noise to signal. Also, it's best to fake the supply side initially of you can to improve the buyers side first, then figure out supply & quality afterwards if customers are buying and you've proven out a demand strategy that will work.DM
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Holding funds in a 2-sided marketplace?
Check out https://www.balancedpayments.com/ They are made for marketplaces. Airbnb CEO among others invested in them and they have some of the best pricing/payout fees. Also some good info on http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/10/08/online-marketplaces-are-hard/ One of Balanced Payments co-founders is writing this blog series on marketplaces.MA
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When creating a marketplace, does it make more sense to focus on stimulating demand first or supply?
Focus on the more difficult side of the marketplace. For instance, if you think it'll be easier to get suppliers, then focus first on getting buyers - always be working on your toughest problem (aka your biggest risk). You'll find some great blogging on Marketplace and Platform topics here http://platformed.info (read the ebook too!)CM
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