Responsibly sunset apps and sites. Connect users with new services and protect their data. Build business by welcoming migrating users.

We connect developers with businesses that need new users. Developers get turnkey offboarding, data sanitization, and cash. Businesses get active users. Users get migration support, data privacy, and continuity of service.

FOR DEVELOPERS & FOUNDERS

I have an app to sunset.

Retire your app the way you built it: with skill and care. Reduce recurring cloud and hosting bills to $0 while giving the users you cultivated a supported migration path to a trusted service. Keep your source code private, and receive payouts for every user who migrates.

Plan a Graceful Exit Keelout vs. Marketplaces →
FOR GROWING BUSINESSES

I want to welcome migrating users.

Active users are about to lose a service they love. Be the first to welcome them to your platform. Customer acquisition done for you. Become the natural next home for active users from sunsetting apps.

Welcome New Users Buyer personas →

Built for how software actually changes hands.

Explore how Keelout structures the transition for your specific situation:

Retire your project with dignity. Protect your users and earn from your craft.

Traditional marketplaces push developers into painful, all-or-nothing acquisitions: grueling code audits, public listing boards, giving away repository keys, and months of unpaid transition support.

Keelout provides a positive third path: offboard your audience and domain without selling your codebase. You keep 100% of your source code and IP. Users get a supported, subsidized 60-day migration to a reliable platform, customer data is cryptographically protected, and you receive cash payouts with complete closure.

S-1 · The Serial Hacker

You built it. It works. You’re done with it.

“Turn a stagnant side project and a monthly AWS bill into found cash in 5 minutes—without a single diligence call, code review, or support obligation.”

You have new projects shipping and no desire to triage bug reports on an app you haven't opened an IDE for since 2024. Don't let your domain expire into a drop-catcher's hands or let users hit a sudden 500 error. Drop in our edge script, offboard your users to a vetted alternative, and delete the server.

S-2 · The Single-Project Craftsman

Retire your project with the dignity it deserves.

“Retire a beloved product with your reputation intact—giving your community a subsidized 60-day home and legally protecting your domain from spammers.”

You spent years polishing this product—it was a labor of craft, not a cynical growth hack. Leaving your community stranded or watching a PE roll-up turn your domain into an AI affiliate farm isn't an option. With Keelout, your data is cryptographically shredded and your domain is protected by a 60-day $0 ROFR.

S-3 · Estate & Burned-Out Stewards

Caring for a software legacy without the technical burden.

“Close the chapter cleanly with white-glove offboarding, stopped cloud bills, and a certified legal receipt that all customer data was safely destroyed.”

Whether you are an estate executor managing a loved one’s digital projects or a founder ready for a complete break, monthly hosting bills and customer emails shouldn't linger forever. Keelout handles the community notice, coordinates user migrations, stops cloud infrastructure costs, and wires proceeds directly to you or the estate.

Why Developers Retire or Unpublish Apps

7 real-world catalysts where a codebase sale makes zero sense—but your audience still has value.

Developers remove apps from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Chrome Web Store, Shopify, and the web for strategic, technical, and compliance reasons every day. Instead of unpublishing for $0, Keelout turns these seven moments into a paid off-ramp:

1. End-of-Life & Retirement

The app is obsolete, no longer relevant, or being replaced by a newer product in your lineup.

2. Rebranding or Merging

You are consolidating multiple standalone apps into a single unified platform or changing your brand identity.

3. Severe Performance or Bug Debt

Critical unpatched bugs, memory leaks, or crashes require a complete ground-up overhaul you don't want to fund.

4. Evolving Store Policies & Compliance

Changing platform rules—stricter privacy guidelines, data-handling mandates, or target SDK requirements—make maintaining older or minor apps too costly.

5. Maintenance & Resource Constraints

Your team lacks the bandwidth or financial resources to continuously update the app for every new OS version and store mandate.

6. Store Enforcement & Account Protection

A store flags the app for policy issues (legacy permissions or third-party ad SDKs), forcing you to pull it before it risks a full developer account ban.

7. Business, API, or Licensing Changes

Contracts expire, upstream APIs get shut down, or the original business model (subscription pricing or regional availability) is no longer viable—even though your user cohort remains highly valuable to a category peer.

Submit your application for a confidential exit review →

Why traditional marketplaces fail below $500k ARR.

Every listing board and broker in the market sells the exact same thing: a Whole-Entity / Codebase Asset Sale (APA). For an app making $5k–$250k ARR, that model breaks down in four ways:

1. Zero Code Audits. Zero Code Handover.

Growing businesses want to welcome your users into their existing platforms—they don't need your repository. You keep your intellectual property private, avoid tedious code inspections, and step away without months of unpaid training obligations.

2. The Zombie Cloud Bill Dilemma

Developers often leave servers running—and pay AWS or Heroku bills every month—simply because they care too much about the users they cultivated to pull the plug without a plan. Traditional broker listings take months and rarely solve this cleanly.

3. Valuation Gridlock & 9-Month Listing Graveyards

Traditional brokers anchor on unrealistic revenue multiples while you spend months fielding tire-kickers and NDAs. Nearly 80% of micro-SaaS listings expire unsold while the app quietly churns to zero.

4. Reputational Blight

Pulling the plug overnight burns your community, while selling your repo blindly on an auction site risks watching a spammer hike prices 5× on loyal users or turn your domain into an AI affiliate farm.

Traditional M&A Marketplaces vs. Keelout (For the Owner)

Why software owners choose audience & domain offboarding over a whole-entity codebase sale:

Dimension Traditional Marketplaces (Acquire, Microns, Flippa, Brokers) Keelout (Audience & Domain Offboarding)
What You Sell Your entire codebase, GitHub repo, cloud accounts, and IP. Only the transition pathway (verified user migrations + optional domain stewardship).
Codebase & Tech Debt Buyers audit your repo, complain about old dependencies, and demand refactors. Zero code audits. Nobody ever sees your Git repo. You keep 100% of your source code and IP.
Integration Effort Weeks of due diligence calls, data rooms, and APA legal redlines. 5 minutes. Drop one <script> tag (cdn.keelout.com/v1/bridge.js) or mobile in-app modal, and export a basic schema.
Post-Close Obligation 3–6 months of transition consulting and on-call support for the new owner. Zero. Once the 60-day migration window ends, shut down the server and walk away forever.
User & Reputation Care Buyers can exploit your users, break the app, or turn your domain into SEO slop. Dignified 60-day runway to a vetted alternative + binding Anti-Slop Domain Covenant + 60-day $0 ROFR.
Liability Closure Lingering reps & warranties on code quality, security, and historical liabilities. NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1 Certificate of Destruction proving all PII and backups were wiped—ending GDPR/CCPA & cloud liability.
Time to Payout 3–9 months (if it ever sells; ~80% of micro-SaaS listings expire unsold). 70% rolling payout every 15 days as users migrate + 30% holdback released the day you shut down the server.

A clear, win-win agreement for everyone involved.

Transparent terms, aligned incentives, and human care for developers, businesses, and migrating users.

Dimension For Developers (Retiring an App) For Growing Businesses (Welcoming Users)
Primary Outcome Relief, $0 recurring cloud bills, reputation care, and cash for the audience you cultivated. High-intent, active users welcoming a stable new home.
Financial Structure Two Flexible Options:
• Performance Bounty: Net payout per verified migrant.
• Guaranteed Fixed Package: Lump-sum transition payout.
Both paid via 70% rolling milestone payouts + 30% completion holdback. 		Predictable Unit Economics:
• Fixed Price Transition: Complete audience offboarding package funded into a segregated deal reserve.
• Performance CAC: Locked cost per verified migrant (fraction of paid ad CAC).
• Domain Add-on: Optional category redirect rights.
Work Required Keep code private. Embed a 1-line transition notice script (or lightweight mobile in-app modal). Welcome arriving users with pre-mapped data imports and credits.
Data Protection Certified NIST SP 800-88 cryptographic sanitization receipt. Full GDPR Article 13 & CCPA compliant consent workflows.
User Experience Community receives advance notice, export tools, and partner perks. Users enjoy frictionless onboarding and uninterrupted continuity.
Domain Fate Keep it, or transfer to the partner for full negotiated value (minus standard 20% broker fee). Bound by anti-slop covenant & 60-day $0 ROFR. Optional add-on negotiated at signing: 6-month transition microsite, then permanent 301 redirect to your domain.

How a Keelout transition works.

Every offboarding follows a clear, four-stage sequence: 1. Plan & Agreement → 2. Build the Bridge → 3. Invite Users → 4. Decommission & Final Payment.

  1. STAGE 01 Days 1–5

    1. Plan & Agreement

    We match your app with a welcoming category partner, verify aggregate user activity using synthetic schemas (zero customer PII exposed), and lock the buyer’s payout reserve in a segregated Mercury deposit account.

    Dev: Zero code audit Biz: Reserve funded
  2. STAGE 02 Days 6–10

    2. Build the Bridge

    We configure a 1-click workspace export mapper with the partner platform. You drop a single script tag into your web header or trigger our lightweight in-app modal in mobile apps (iOS & Android)—zero backend rewrites required.

    Dev: Web & Mobile SDK Users: Export ready
  3. STAGE 03 60-Day Window

    3. Invite Users

    Users receive respectful advance notice with full data portability and onboarding credits at their new home. As users transition, 70% rolling payouts disburse to you every 15 days.

    Users: Full continuity Dev: 70% rolling cash
  4. STAGE 04 T-Zero Close

    4. Decommission & Final Payment

    Cloud servers shut down—dropping your hosting bills to $0. Databases undergo certified NIST SP 800-88 sanitization, and your final 30% completion holdback is wired immediately.

    Dev: $0 cloud bill + 30% Data: NIST sanitized
STAGE 2 INTEGRATION Web script or mobile in-app modal (iOS & Android):
<script src="https://cdn.keelout.com/v1/bridge.js"></script>

The Keelout Trust Covenants.

We built Keelout because founders care what happens to their users and their name after they move on. Every agreement is bound by three non-negotiable rules:

NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1 Sanitization

We issue cryptographically signed teardown certificates verifying database purging and snapshot deletion.

Anti-Slop Domain Covenant

Transferred domains are legally restricted to branded transition microsites and permanent 301 redirects. They are never auctioned to AI blog farms, adult networks, or affiliate spam.

60-Day Right of First Refusal (ROFR)

If an acquirer ever chooses not to renew the domain, the original founder has 60 days to reclaim it for $0 before it expires.

Want to read the full technical protocol? Read the Developer Diligence & Offboarding Specification →

Start a conversation.

Choose your form below. Every submission goes straight to our Seattle desk at ops@keelout.com—no automated sales sequences.

Sends to ops@keelout.com and unlocks our diligence overview PDF.

Frequently asked questions.

Do I have to hand over my GitHub repository or source code?

No. You keep 100% ownership of your codebase and proprietary IP. Buyers on Keelout are paying for verified user migrations and optional domain stewardship—never your code.

How do pricing, payouts, and domain transfers work?

Transitions can be structured either as a Performance CAC (the buyer pays an agreed cost per verified migrant, and you receive an agreed net bounty per user) or a Guaranteed Fixed Price Package funded into a segregated deal reserve upfront. If the buyer also acquires domain redirect rights, the developer receives the full negotiated domain price minus Keelout's standard 20% broker fee.

How does the 70% rolling / 30% holdback schedule work?

Whether you choose a Performance Bounty or a Guaranteed Fixed Package, 70% of your payout is disbursed on a rolling basis every 15 days during the 60-day transition window. The remaining 30% completion holdback is wired immediately at T-Zero once production servers shut down and the NIST SP 800-88 sanitization certificate is signed.

How is user privacy handled under GDPR?

During diligence, buyers only see synthetic schema fixtures—zero raw PII is shared. During the transition window, users receive a clear GDPR Article 13 notice and choose whether to migrate their workspace to the partner platform or export a full archive and leave.

What if the buyer stops renewing my domain years from now?

Every domain transfer includes our Anti-Slop Covenant and a 60-day Right of First Refusal (ROFR). If an acquirer ever decides not to renew the domain, you have 60 days to reclaim it for $0 before it expires.