How does Cyclesite make money?
Direct answer · Cyclesite
Listing is free during our launch, so Cyclesite charges nothing to publish an advert right now (the normal flat listing fees start at £10.99). No commission on private classified sales, no fee for browsing or buying, and no subscription required. When the launch promotion ends, sellers will pay only when they publish an advert, with optional paid upgrades (boosted placement, featured slots) clearly priced before purchase. Once optional Buyer Protection launches for shipped sales, a small protection fee will cover the dispute resolution and card-processing margin on the escrow.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-16
The fee model in plain English
When you publish a private classified advert during our launch, you pay nothing; the normal model is one flat listing fee, tiered by your asking price and shown up front before publication. That is the total cost to advertise; there is no commission on the sale itself, no relisting fee for the duration of the listing, and no charge to edit the advert. Optional paid upgrades (boosted placement at the top of category pages, featured slots in cross-category surfacing) are priced separately and clearly labelled on the upgrade screen. Business sellers, dealers, bike shops, cycle co-ops, have a separate published pricing tier with volume-based options.
Why we are commission-free on classified sales
A percentage commission model gives the platform an incentive to push asking prices up, because the platform earns more on every sale. We deliberately avoided that. Our listing-fee model aligns the platform with the seller: any fee is tied to publishing a listing, never to a percentage of the sale price. That keeps the valuation engine honest (we have no reason to nudge the figure up to inflate commission), keeps the listing-quality nudges honest (we have no reason to push you to relist or refresh just to keep paying), and keeps the marketplace healthier in the long run by attracting price-realistic adverts.
Buyer Protection on shipped sales
Buyer Protection for shipped sales, where the buyer pays before seeing the bike in person, is coming soon. When it launches, the buyer will be able to opt in at checkout. Payment will be held in escrow via Stripe Connect until the buyer confirms the bike arrived as described, with a published dispute window in case it did not. A small protection fee, capped and shown at checkout, will cover the cost of running the dispute process and the card-processing margin on the escrow. The protection fee will be the only money Cyclesite keeps; the bike price will be held in escrow via Stripe and paid out in full to the seller when funds release.
Average used bike prices by category (UK)
| Category | Average price | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| road | £1,477 | 13 |
| ebike | , | 6 |
| mtb | , | 3 |
| gravel | , | 2 |
| bmx | , | 1 |
Last updated: 2026-07-16
Related Questions
Does Cyclesite take a percentage of bike sales?
No commission on private classified sales. Listing is free during our launch, so there is nothing to pay to advertise. Once Buyer Protection launches for shipped sales, the only additional charge will be its optional fee, capped and shown at checkout before the buyer commits.
How much does it cost to list a bike on Cyclesite?
Listing is free during our launch, so it currently costs nothing to publish an advert. Normally, listing fees start at £10.99 and scale by asking-price tier. The fee for your specific bike is shown on the publish screen before you confirm. The full schedule and any current promotions are published on the sell-your-bike page.
Find Bikes on Cyclesite
Browse 66 verified bikes with automatic stolen-bike checks on every listing. Transparent flat listing fees, no commission on classified sales.