Compared
Businessappraisal vs Equidam for Valuing a Business
Equidam is built for startups raising capital. Businessappraisal is built for established, cash-flowing businesses being sold, bought, or valued for a partner buyout. Here is an honest side-by-side, including where Equidam wins.
Last updated July 2026
Estimated business value
Method breakdown
What moves this number
Estimate, not a certified appraisal. Your figures are not stored.
The short answer
Businessappraisal and Equidam are both online valuation tools, but they target different companies. Equidam is built around startup valuation for founders raising capital, it is self-serve, it publishes its prices, and it runs five methods weighted toward forecasts. Businessappraisal is aimed at established, cash-flowing businesses: it triangulates a revenue multiple, an EBITDA or SDE multiple, and a discounted cash flow view, shows the comparable sales behind the multiple, and explains the drivers. Both produce educational estimates, not certified appraisals.
| Dimension | Businessappraisal | Equidam |
|---|---|---|
| Built for established, cash-flowing businesses | Yes | Partial |
| Three methods triangulated in one result | Yes | Yes |
| Comparable-sale benchmarks shown | Yes | Partial |
| Fully self-serve, no sales call | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent public pricing | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier available | No | Yes, without report export |
| Month-to-month billing | Yes | No, 12-month valuation cycle |
| Educational estimate, not a certified appraisal | Yes | Yes |
Equidam is a startup valuation platform, and it is upfront about that
Equidam exists to answer a founder question: what is this company worth to an investor writing a check in the next funding round. It runs five methods, several of which are built for companies that have a plan rather than a track record, including scorecard style approaches and forward-looking DCF variants driven by a multi-year forecast. The output is aimed at a term sheet negotiation.
Businessappraisal answers a different question: what would a buyer or an SBA lender pay for this cash-flowing business today. That means market evidence carries more weight than projections. We anchor on a revenue multiple, an EBITDA multiple or SDE multiple depending on size, and a discounted cash flow view, then reconcile the three against comparable transactions.
The distinction is not academic. A pre-revenue software company and a 22-year-old plumbing contractor are valued on almost opposite logic. The startup is priced on the size of the outcome if the plan works. The contractor is priced on how reliably $600,000 of owner earnings will repay an acquisition loan. Feed a contractor into a startup-shaped model and the forecast does most of the work, which is precisely the thing a lender will discount.
Where Equidam clearly wins: if you are raising a seed or Series A round, its methods, language, and framing were designed for that conversation and ours were not.
Equidam pricing in July 2026, and what the free tier leaves out
Equidam publishes its prices, which is more than most of this category does. Verified on the Equidam pricing page in July 2026:
| Tier | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Free, no expiry | The full five-method engine on screen, but no report export and no benchmarks |
| Advanced | EUR 291.35 excluding VAT | Report export and benchmarks, on a 12-month valuation cycle |
| Expert | EUR 742.35 excluding VAT | Adds analyst review, written findings, and a 1:1 call |
| Businessappraisal | $29 per month, month to month | Three reconciled methods, comparable-sale benchmarks, plain-English drivers, no free tier |
Two details change how those numbers feel. First, the paid tiers are structured as a 12-month valuation cycle with roughly two months of active access, during which you can run unlimited valuations, rather than an always-on subscription. Second, the free tier is genuinely free with no expiry, but it withholds the two things you probably wanted: the exportable document and the benchmark data.
So the fair comparison is not free versus $29. It is a few hundred euros paid in a block for a startup-oriented report, against $29 a month you can stop after the deal, for a market-anchored estimate on an operating business. Human engagements sit far above both at $1,500 to $15,000, which we cover in our valuation software comparison.
A $9M revenue manufacturer with $1.1M EBITDA, run both ways
Consider a contract metal fabricator in Pennsylvania. Revenue is $9.0M, adjusted EBITDA is $1.1M, and the business is 19 years old. Three customers make up 46 percent of sales. There is a real management team, so the owner is not the operation. Capital equipment was refreshed two years ago and there is $1.4M of debt against it.
A startup-oriented model wants a five-year forecast, a growth rate, and a terminal assumption. Enter 12 percent annual growth and the projection alone can add a million dollars of implied value, because the method is designed to price ambition. That is appropriate for a company raising capital on a plan. It is the wrong lens for a fabricator being sold to a strategic buyer or a search fund with a lender behind them.
Here is how the market-anchored path reads:
| Method | Applied to the fabricator | Indicated value |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue multiple | 0.55x on $9.0M | $4,950,000 |
| EBITDA multiple | 4.6x on $1.1M | $5,060,000 |
| Discounted cash flow | Flat to modest growth, capital spending held back in | $4,600,000 |
| Reconciled enterprise range | Before the $1.4M of equipment debt | $4.6M to $5.2M |
The customer concentration is the number that moves the multiple. Forty-six percent of sales in three accounts is why this business earns 4.6x instead of the 6x a diversified peer might see, and every acquirer will raise it in diligence. Seeing that stated in plain English, alongside the comparable transactions behind the multiple, is more useful than a single headline figure. If you want the underlying logic of which earnings measure applies at this size, we walk through it in SDE versus EBITDA.
Illustrative figures only, not a quote or an appraisal.
Pick by what you are about to do with the number
Match the tool to the transaction, not to the feature list.
- Raising a priced round or a SAFE. Equidam. Its methods and vocabulary match what investors expect, and the Expert tier gives you an analyst review and a call before you sit across from a fund.
- Selling an established business to a buyer with an SBA loan. Businessappraisal, then a credentialed appraiser. Lenders care about historical cash flow and comparable sales, not a five-year plan.
- Buying a company and testing whether the asking price is defensible. Businessappraisal, because you want the multiple sourced and the risk factors named before you spend money on diligence.
- Setting a 409A or a formal share price for tax or legal purposes. Neither. That requires a credentialed valuation professional, as we explain in certified appraisal versus estimate.
- Just curious what a multiple looks like in your industry. Start with what multiple does my business sell for, then run the numbers.
Both products give you an educational estimate, and neither is a certified appraisal. The real difference is which set of assumptions you want the software to make on your behalf. Longer notes on that sit on our Equidam alternatives page.
Questions
Equidam questions people actually ask
Is Equidam free?
Equidam has a genuinely free Essential tier with no expiry that shows the full five-method engine on screen. It does not include report export or benchmarks, so you can see a valuation but cannot download a document to share. Report export and benchmark data start at the paid Advanced tier.
How much does Equidam cost?
As of July 2026, Equidam lists Advanced at EUR 291.35 excluding VAT and Expert at EUR 742.35 excluding VAT, with a free Essential tier. Paid plans run as a 12-month valuation cycle with about two months of active access and unlimited valuations during that window.
Is Equidam accurate for a small business?
Equidam is accurate for what it was designed to value, which is startups raising capital on a forecast. For an established small business, methods that weight projections heavily can overstate value versus what a buyer with an SBA loan will actually pay, because lenders underwrite historical cash flow.
What is the difference between a startup valuation and a small business valuation?
A startup valuation prices the size of the outcome if the plan works, so forecasts, market size, and team dominate. A small business valuation prices reliable owner earnings against comparable sales, because the buyer is repaying acquisition debt. The same financials can produce very different numbers under each.
Do I need a valuation report to raise money?
Investors rarely require a formal report, but a defensible valuation document helps you anchor the negotiation and shows your reasoning. For tax-sensitive share pricing such as a 409A, you do need a qualified independent valuation, which no self-serve software output can substitute for.
Verdict
The bottom line
Pick Equidam if you are an early-stage startup raising capital and want methods tuned to that stage. Pick Businessappraisal if you run or are buying an established, cash-flowing business and want a market-anchored, three-method estimate with the comparable sales shown and month-to-month billing you can stop when the deal closes.