Sharetribe is the best way to build a service marketplace in 2025

Service marketplaces are tough to get right. 

To match the right customer with the right provider, you often need to juggle different service types, booking flows, pricing, and availability. Providers and customers also tend to need different user experiences. 

And because every service market and niche is different, the setup that works for one marketplace might not work for another. 

This year, we’ve added a ton of no-code functionality to Sharetribe specifically for service marketplaces. You can launch a service platform without coding, validate your idea, and scale when you're ready to grow.

In this newsletter, we'll cover how to identify a great service marketplace opportunity and how to build it with Sharetribe.

How to identify a great service marketplace opportunity?

The service sector is huge. Whether it's fitness coaching, tutoring, consulting, or something else, there are tons of categories where people need help finding the right provider.

The opportunity is in finding a niche where existing solutions aren't hitting the mark. Build something that solves a core problem for both customers and service providers. Starting small helps: instead of trying to one-up a big competitor in everything, look at an underserved niche without an existing solution or platform and build the best possible experience for it.

You can start with a problem you know intimately (like James Younger did with dental temp platform TempStars). But that's not required - Emmanuel Nataf launched a successful marketplace in an industry he knew nothing about (self-publishing). If in doubt, check out our guide on validating your marketplace idea.

Service marketplaces have complex workflows, so building from scratch gets expensive fast. That's where Sharetribe’s built-in service marketplace functionality helps. 👇

Build your service marketplace with Sharetribe

Sharetribe’s core functionality supports any type of marketplace. Built-in user and listing creation, listing search, payments, and reviews make it easy to set up the key service marketplace user flows without coding.

But service marketplaces also need specific functionality that’s unique to them.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of the  key settings to configure for a service marketplace with Sharetribe:

Prefer to read? Check out our comprehensive service marketplace tutorial, or continue below for the highlights.

Tailor provider and customer experiences

On most service marketplaces, providers and customers need different user experiences. Unlike on rental and product marketplaces, there’s usually less overlap between supply and demand.

That’s why Sharetribe lets you determine unique user flows for your customers and providers. The following features will get you there without coding:

• User types and user fields: Collect the right information from each user type and modify their signup and account experience.
• Top bar settings: Differentiate provider and customer experiences even further by hiding the link to post listings from all users except providers.
• Access control settings: Control what each user type can do (such as create listings or start transactions).
• Zapier integrations: Automate steps like granting posting rights based on user type or add subscription automation.

Build a streamlined search and matching experience

Matching the right service provider with the right customer is an important part of a marketplace’s value proposition. With Sharetribe, you can build a sophisticated matching experience using built-in features.

• Categories: Organize services into categories and subcategories for easy browsing.
• Listing fields: Collect specific information from service providers and add it as search filters for customers.
• Configure search settings: Choose keyword or location search, and add filters for price, availability, and more. 
• Add a search bar to your landing page: Build a beautiful landing page that prompts customers to start searching for a service right away.

Build the ideal booking flow with listing types

Sharetribe's listing type functionality lets you create the perfect booking experience for your service marketplace. You can configure your listing type settings to support the booking flow your service marketplace needs.

• Booking units: Choose from hourly, nightly, daily, or fixed booking slots depending on your service type.
• Price variations: Let providers add different pricing tiers or packages to their listings.
• Availability management: Let providers control their schedules and block unavailable times.
• Bookings: Handle inquiries, booking requests, confirmations, and cancellations.
• Built-in payments: Process payments securely through Stripe with automatic commissions.

All essential functionality out of the box

In addition to dedicated service marketplace features, you get all the other essential marketplace functionality out of the box: 

• Content management
• Branding and layout settings
• Two-sided reviews and messaging
• World-class management tools in Console
• And much more! 

Also, new features are always on the way (keep track of the Sharetribe changelog and roadmap for new releases).

And if you notice a feature you need isn’t available no-code, you can always add it with code. Sharetribe is infinitely extensible. There’s no limit to what you can build.

Start building your service marketplace today!