Exit planning has two halves: knowing your number and raising it. EvalyMe covers both for self-serve founders (valuation, then 30/60/90-day playbooks). ExitAdviser leans toward the sale itself with sellability assessment and DIY marketing tools. Capitaliz and BizEquity are advisor-grade platforms — better delivered by a professional than used alone. And for many owners, the honest best tool is a spreadsheet, a quarterly calendar, and a CPA.
- Self-serve founder loop
- EvalyMe — estimate, operating score, 30/60/90-day playbooks with tasks, $14.99/mo.
- Sellability assessment
- ExitAdviser — makes you answer the questions buyers will ask.
- Advisor-grade platform
- Capitaliz or BizEquity — real horsepower, best through a professional.
- The underrated default
- Spreadsheet + CPA + calendar — free, boring, effective.
The picks at a glance
| Tool | Exit stage it serves | Price | The honest catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| EvalyMe | Valuation through the 90-day improvement sprints | $0 calculator · Pro $14.99/mo | Stops at planning — no sale execution, no buyers |
| ExitAdviser | Sellability assessment and DIY sale marketing | Quote-based | Smaller operation; review coverage is thin |
| Capitaliz | Advisor-led exit planning engagements | Professional pricing | Built for advisors to run, not for owners to self-serve |
| BizEquity | Advisor-delivered valuation baseline | Advisor-dependent; reseller packages ~$1,497 listed | Valuation more than planning |
| Spreadsheet + CPA | The whole journey, at cost | Near $0 | No structure unless you bring it |
What exit planning actually consists of
Strip away the category language and an exit plan is four things: a defensible idea of what the business is worth today; a list of what's capping it (usually owner dependence, customer concentration, messy records, or revenue quality); a sequence of work that moves those; and eventually the transaction itself — brokers, buyers, diligence, paperwork.
Almost no software covers all four. Most cover one well. So the real choice is which gap you're buying for — and being suspicious of anything that claims the whole journey, including anything we sell.
1.EvalyMe ours
- Best for
- The estimate-then-improve loop, run by the owner
- Price
- Calculator free · Pro $14.99/mo
- Distinctive bit
- 30/60/90-day playbooks with task tracking, in a phone app
Valuation first (a range and a six-factor operating score), then the plan: Pro generates tailored 30/60/90-day playbooks from the assessment, tracks tasks, and lets you re-run the number to see if the work landed. The AI Advisor answers the "wait, why is churn weighted like that" questions along the way.
The catch: the moment you want to actually execute a sale — find buyers, run diligence — you need a marketplace or a broker. We don't do that, by design.
2.ExitAdviser
- Best for
- Sellability assessment and DIY sale support
- Price
- Quote-based
- Distinctive bit
- The sellability advisor — diligence questions before diligence
The sellability advisor is genuinely useful: it walks owners through buyer-readiness — owner dependence, documentation, customer spread — which is where sales die quietly. Beyond that, ExitAdviser supports a DIY sale process as a broker alternative. Reviews sit around four stars on Trustpilot.
The catch: a smaller footprint than the category implies, quote-based pricing, and valuation strength that trails its sale-support strength.
3.Capitaliz (or an advisor running it)
- Best for
- Owners with an advisor and a 2–5 year horizon
- Price
- Professional/practice pricing
- Distinctive bit
- Value-gap planning: today's value vs. the value you need
Advisor-focused exit-planning platforms like Capitaliz exist to run structured engagements: baseline valuation, value-gap analysis, prioritized workstreams, tracking. Used with a competent advisor, this is the most complete version of the category.
The catch: it's software for your advisor, not for you — self-serving it is like buying surgical tools for your own appendix.
4.BizEquity
- Best for
- The baseline valuation inside an advisory relationship
- Price
- Advisor-dependent; reseller packages ~$1,497 listed
- Distinctive bit
- Institutional scale — hundreds of thousands of valuations
For exit planning done with professionals, BizEquity is often the valuation layer advisors reach for. It's a serious baseline, not a plan — but baselines anchor plans.
The catch: advisor-shaped access, and it answers "what is it worth," not "what do I do."
5.A spreadsheet, a calendar, and a CPA
- Best for
- More owners than care to admit it
- Price
- Near $0
- Distinctive bit
- No dependency on any vendor's roadmap
The honest fifth pick: a quarterly re-valuation habit (any calculator), a one-page list of the three things capping value, a calendar block to work them, and a CPA who has seen exits before. Software adds structure and reminders; it doesn't add the discipline, and discipline is most of the result.
The catch: nothing tracks itself. The failure mode is a spreadsheet last touched the week it was made — which is precisely the failure paid tools exist to prevent.
My pick, by situation
- Founder, 1–3 years out, self-directed: EvalyMe Pro — the loop is the product.
- Owner-operator, selling without a broker: ExitAdviser, with fee math done up front.
- You have (or want) an exit-planning advisor: ask for Capitaliz or BizEquity-based work.
- Budget is zero: free calculator + one-page plan + calendar. Genuinely competitive.
What I'd do today
- Get today's number — free calculator, ten minutes.
- Take ExitAdviser's sellability assessment honestly; write down every wince.
- Pick the three items a buyer would punish hardest; make them a 90-day plan (ours writes one; a doc works too).
- Block a quarterly calendar slot to re-run the number. Keep it for two years. That's an exit plan.
Questions
When should exit planning start? +
Advisors most often say two to five years before a intended sale, because the value-driving fixes — reducing owner dependence, cleaning records, diversifying customers — take quarters, not weeks. The honest corollary: most owners start too late, and software can't compress that timeline, only organize it.
What's the difference between exit planning and valuation? +
Valuation measures; exit planning improves and then executes. A valuation tool tells you where you stand. Exit planning covers the gap between that number and the number you need — operations, records, team, deal readiness — and eventually the sale itself.
Do I need an exit planning professional? +
For meaningful businesses, eventually yes — the value gap conversation is worth having with someone whose incentives align with yours. Software is for the months or years before that, when the work is discipline rather than strategy.
What does the 80% intangible assets claim mean? +
A widely repeated industry stat says most business value sits in intangibles — systems, customer relationships, team, brand. Whether the exact number is right for you or not, the practical point holds: intangibles are what diligence tests and what software checklists can strengthen.
Competitor details from public sources, checked October 2026. EvalyMe outputs are estimates, not appraisals, legal, tax, or investment advice.