Most auction houses that sell online started on LiveAuctioneers, and many still run every sale there. It works. Bidders show up, the console runs the live call, and the invoice goes out. The reasons to look for a LiveAuctioneers alternative rarely come from a failure. They come from the bill, and from a slow realization about who the bidders belong to.
This guide is for an auction house that has reached that point. It covers why auction houses move, the two very different kinds of alternative, what each of the main options is for, a worked cost comparison, and a practical plan for bringing your bidders with you. We build one of the alternatives, so read the Circuit section with that in mind. We have tried to describe every option by what it is good at.
Why Auction Houses Look for a LiveAuctioneers Alternative
Four things come up in nearly every conversation we have with an auction house that is thinking about leaving, or reducing its dependence on, a marketplace.
A percentage of every hammer. Marketplaces charge the auction house a commission on lots sold through the site, on top of listing or catalog fees. The better the sale, the bigger the bill. A subscription platform charges the same in a record month as in a quiet one.
A fee on your buyers, too. LiveAuctioneers and most other marketplaces add their own buyer-side fee on top of your buyer’s premium. Your bidders see one combined number, and the auction house gets the reputation for it.
The bidders are theirs. A bidder who registers through a marketplace has a marketplace account. Their watch list, their bid history and their inbox all sit on the marketplace’s domain. When your sale ends, the marketplace emails them about someone else’s sale.
You are one of thousands. Your lots sit next to a competitor’s identical lots, sorted by the marketplace’s algorithm. Your brand is a small logo above the lot number.
None of these are secrets, and LiveAuctioneers is open about its model. Whether the trade is worth it depends on how much of your bidding comes from marketplace discovery rather than from collectors who already know you. For most established auction houses, the honest answer is that the marketplace found a minority of the bidders and takes a percentage on all of them.
Two Kinds of Alternative
Before comparing products, decide which problem you are solving.
Another marketplace solves the fee problem partially, by moving to a cheaper percentage, and the competition problem not at all. It is the right move if your bidders genuinely come from marketplace browsing and you have no bidder list of your own to speak of.
Your own platform solves the ownership problem entirely and the fee problem structurally, and asks you to do the thing marketplaces did for you: bring the bidders. It is the right move if you have a client list, a specialty and a brand collectors recognize. That describes most auction houses that have been trading for more than a few years.
Most auction houses end up in a third position: the sale runs on their own platform, and selected lots are listed on a marketplace for reach. We cover that below.
Alternatives That Run the Sale on Your Own Website
These platforms put the catalog, the bidding and the back office on your domain under your brand. Bidders register with you. The comparison below reuses the criteria from our white label auction software guide, which goes deeper on each product.
Circuit Auction AI
Circuit runs the whole auction house inside the website you already own. It installs as a WordPress auction plugin, with custom sites also supported, and covers consignment intake, AI cataloging, timed auctions with staggered closing and bid extensions, live auctions with a clerk console and real-time online bidding, absentee bids, a built-in auction house CRM, invoicing, consignor settlement, shipping, multi-currency and 40+ languages. It is priced as a subscription with no percentage of hammer.
Circuit is built for auction houses selling collectibles: fine art, antiques, coins, stamps, watches, books, sports memorabilia, cards and similar. It is not for charity events or general merchandise. If that is your business, it is the closest thing to “LiveAuctioneers without LiveAuctioneers”, because the back office and the bidding are one system.
AuctionMobility
A white label live and timed bidding platform with branded mobile apps, aimed at established auction houses that want a bidding front end under their name. Strong on the bidder-facing experience; cataloging and back office are typically handled in a separate system.
Bidsquare Cloud
Bidsquare’s own-website product, which also syndicates lots to the Bidsquare marketplace. A sensible middle path for an auction house that wants its own bidding page but still values the marketplace’s audience, with the commission structure to match on syndicated lots.
BidWrangler
Branded online bidding for auctioneers, popular with estate and general auction companies in North America. Good fit for that market; lighter on specialist cataloging features for collectibles.
AuctionWorx by RainWorx
A highly configurable auction platform, closer to a framework than a finished product. Suits auction houses with technical staff who want to build something specific, and less so those who want to install and start selling.
Alternatives That Are Also Marketplaces
If the goal is to stay on a marketplace but change the terms, these are the usual names.
Invaluable
The closest direct competitor to LiveAuctioneers, with a similar model: a commission on hammer for the auction house plus a fee charged to buyers. Strong in fine art and antiques, and many auction houses list on both to reach both audiences. Switching between the two changes the rate card, not the structure.
HiBid
Lower fees and a large audience for estate, equipment, vehicle and general merchandise auctions. Less suited to specialist collectibles, where the bidders are elsewhere.
the-saleroom
The dominant UK marketplace, run by Auction Technology Group, which also owns LiveAuctioneers, Proxibid and Lot-tissimo. A UK auction house comparing the two is comparing sister products.
Bidsquare
A curated marketplace for fine art, antiques and design with a smaller, more targeted audience than LiveAuctioneers, and the Cloud product above for auction houses that want their own page.
Drouot Digital
The French market’s marketplace, relevant for auction houses selling to European collectors, particularly in art and antiques.
What It Actually Costs: A Worked Example
Marketplace fees change and vary by plan, so treat the percentages below as an assumption to replace with the current rate cards. The structure is what matters.
Assume an auction house with annual hammer of $2,000,000, of which 60% comes from online bids, and a marketplace seller commission of 5% on online hammer plus listing fees.
| Marketplace | Own platform (subscription) | |
|---|---|---|
| Online hammer | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Seller commission at 5% | $60,000 | $0 |
| Listing and catalog fees | $5,000 to $15,000 | $0 |
| Platform subscription | $0 | $12,000 to $36,000 |
| Buyer-side marketplace fee | Charged to your buyers | None |
| Annual cost to the auction house | $65,000 to $75,000 | $12,000 to $36,000 |
The saving grows with the sale and disappears if online hammer is small. An auction house selling $200,000 a year online is paying a marketplace about $10,000, which is in the same range as a subscription, and the marketplace brings bidders for that money. That is the break-even most vendors will not tell you about: below roughly a quarter of a million in online hammer, the choice is about ownership and brand, not cost. Above it, it is about both.
There is a second column the table does not show. Buyers on a marketplace pay the marketplace’s fee on top of your premium. On your own platform, you can keep your premium where it is and your buyers pay less in total, or raise it by part of the difference and still leave them better off.
The Hybrid: Own Platform Plus Marketplace for Reach
The most common arrangement among auction houses that have moved is not a clean break. The sale runs on their own platform, where their existing bidders register and bid at no commission. Selected lots, or the whole catalog, are also listed on a marketplace, either as a live feed into the marketplace’s console or as a listing that sends bidders to the auction house’s own site.
The rule that makes this work: every bidder who comes through the marketplace is invited to register directly for the next sale. Invoice footers, thank-you emails and condition report replies all carry the link. Within a few sales, the share of bidding that goes through the marketplace, and the commission with it, falls to the bidders who genuinely would not have found you otherwise. That is the share worth paying for.
How to Move Without Losing Your Bidders
The fear that stops auction houses from leaving a marketplace is that the bidders will not follow. They will, if you give them a reason and a route. A plan that has worked for auction houses moving to Circuit:
- Set up the platform before you announce anything. Get the site, the registration flow and a test sale working. Bidders should land on something finished.
- Run one sale in both places. List the catalog on the marketplace as before, and run the same sale on your own site with a small incentive to register directly, such as a lower premium or early access to the catalog.
- Contact your buyers directly. You have the invoices from every past sale. Every buyer gets an email from the auction house, not from the platform, explaining that future sales run on your site and what that means for them.
- Move the mailing list. Category alerts, catalog announcements and condition report requests all go out from your own CRM from now on, with links to your site.
- Measure the share. After three sales, look at what share of online hammer came through the marketplace. Keep listing there if it is meaningful, drop it if it is not.
Auction houses that follow this see most of their regular bidders registered directly by the second or third sale. The marketplace’s real contribution, the bidders who found you by browsing, becomes visible in the numbers for the first time.
Making the Decision
If most of your online bidding comes from collectors who already know your auction house, a marketplace is charging you a commission to reach your own clients. Move the sale to your own platform, keep a marketplace listing for reach if the numbers justify it, and start building the bidder list you should have owned all along.
If you have no list and no specialty and the marketplace really is finding your buyers, stay, but negotiate the rate and start collecting your buyers’ details from every invoice, so the decision is different in two years.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to LiveAuctioneers?
It depends on the problem. For an auction house that wants to own its bidders and stop paying commission on hammer, an own-website platform such as Circuit, AuctionMobility or Bidsquare Cloud. For an auction house that wants to stay on a marketplace with different terms or a different audience, Invaluable, HiBid, the-saleroom or Bidsquare.
How much does LiveAuctioneers charge auction houses?
A commission on the hammer price of lots sold through the platform, plus listing or catalog fees depending on the plan, plus a separate fee charged to buyers on top of the auction house’s premium. Rates change and vary by agreement, so check the current rate card before comparing.
Can I use LiveAuctioneers and my own auction platform at the same time?
Yes, and most auction houses that move do exactly this for a period. The sale runs on your own platform and the catalog is also listed on the marketplace. Bidders who arrive through the marketplace are invited to register directly for the next sale.
Will my bidders follow me off LiveAuctioneers?
Regular bidders will, if the auction house contacts them directly, the new site is ready when they arrive and there is a small reason to register, such as a lower premium. The bidders who do not follow are usually the ones who found you by browsing the marketplace, which tells you what the marketplace was really worth.
Does an own-website platform handle the live sale as well as timed?
Circuit runs both formats: timed auctions with staggered closing and bid extensions, and live auctions with a clerk console, real-time online bidding, phone bidder cards and absentee bid execution. Bidders use one account for every format.
About Circuit Auction
Circuit Auction is an all-in-one auction management platform for professional auction houses specializing in collectibles. It runs on your own website under your own brand, with AI cataloging, live and timed bidding, a built-in CRM, automated invoicing and consignor settlement in one system, priced as a subscription with no commission on hammer.
Thinking about moving off a marketplace? Book a demo and we will walk through the migration plan above with your own sale calendar.
