Stop renting buyers. Own the way they find you.

A marketplace sells you access to its buyers: on its domain, next to your competitors, for rent you pay every year. Plact builds the presence you own: found on Google and AI search, with proof a serious buyer can verify. Plact wrote this page, so check our claims the way you would check anyone's.

What a marketplace actually sells you.

  • Shared enquiries. One buyer requirement goes to many suppliers at once. You quote against competitors in the same inbox, and the fastest or the cheapest wins.
  • A rented shelf. Your catalogue lives on their domain, under their brand, beside every rival. Stop paying the annual fee and the presence disappears.
  • Price-first comparison. Marketplaces are built to compare listings side by side. Your specifications, certificates and thirty years of plant experience do not fit in a comparison row.
  • Trust sold back to you. Verification badges and top placement are paid tiers. The badge protects the platform's brand; you fund it, and it vanishes when you stop.

What the big platforms charge, and what you get.

IndiaMART

You pay
Free listing, then paid plans from roughly ₹40,000 a year; exporter programs run into lakhs.
You get
Access to buyers on India's largest B2B marketplace, priced in buyleads per week.
The catch
The same buyer requirement is offered to many suppliers. You compete on response speed and price, inside their inbox, on their domain.

Alibaba.com

You pay
Gold Supplier membership, roughly $2,000–$3,000 a year, plus paid visibility.
You get
A storefront in front of global buyers, RFQ access, Trade Assurance.
The catch
Your storefront sits beside every competitor's. Buyers blast one RFQ to dozens of suppliers, and the trust belongs to the platform, not to you.

TradeIndia

You pay
Free listing, then packages from roughly ₹49,000 to over ₹15,00,000 a year. Even the Verified Seller badge is a paid item.
You get
A directory listing and routed trade leads, priced as visibility tiers.
The catch
Trust and position are sold back to you as line items. Sellers in public reviews report paying lakhs for leads that never convert, so read current seller reviews before buying.

Vertical marketplaces (Knowde, SpecialChem, Molbase, ChemDirect, 1688)

You pay
From free storefronts to programs of €15,000 and far more a year, or your margin when the platform sits inside the transaction.
You get
Category buyers: chemicals, ingredients, materials, wholesale.
The catch
The platform owns the enquiry, the data, and often the transaction itself. Some have listed supplier products taken from public catalogues, then charged the supplier to benefit from the listing.

Prices and structures were read from each platform's own public materials in August 2026 and change without notice.

Even the marketplaces are moving this way.

A large chemicals marketplace, Knowde, now sells suppliers software to build the buying experience on their own websites (check their current offering). The largest platforms in this category are hedging toward owned presence, because they see the same buyer behavior we do: serious buyers verify suppliers outside the platform before they commit.

Rent the shelf if it works. Own the store either way. Ownership comes first.

What Plact does instead.

Plact is the AI partner for B2B suppliers. It learns your approved product knowledge, researches what your buyers search on Google and ask AI tools, publishes the proof they check (specifications, certificates, capacity) and captures enquiries with the detail your team needs to quote.

  • Owned, not rented. Pages, proof and search presence stay yours, whether or not you renew.
  • Alone, not shared. A buyer who finds you directly talks only to you. No shared inbox.
  • Proof, not placement. Buyers verify your certificates and capability instead of comparing listing rows.
  • Requirements, not lead counts. Enquiries arrive with product, quantity, destination and timeline.

Your situation, your call.

You sell standardized goods buyers choose on price and availability
A marketplace fits. Work the RFQs fast and keep margins honest.
Buyers already source your category inside one platform
Keep the listing, and build the owned presence alongside it, so buyers who check you out find proof you control.
Your products need specifications, certificates or drawings evaluated before an enquiry
Plact. Proof decides your sale, and proof needs a home you own.
You are tired of quoting against five competitors in a shared enquiry
Plact. A buyer who finds you directly talks only to you.
You want buyers in new markets you have no presence in
Plact. Buyer research and proof pages in the markets you choose, not the markets a platform happens to reach.

Common questions.

Does Plact replace IndiaMART or Alibaba?

No, and we will tell you when to keep them. A marketplace rents you access to buyers already inside it. Plact builds the presence you own: your website, your proof, your placement in Google and AI search. Buyers can then find you directly. Many suppliers run both; the mistake is depending only on the rented one.

Is a marketplace listing cheaper than Plact?

A free listing costs nothing and delivers accordingly. Paid marketplace plans run from tens of thousands of rupees to several lakhs a year, every year, for a presence that disappears when you stop paying. Plact's work stays yours: pages, proof and search presence remain whether or not you renew.

What does Plact cost?

Published on the pricing page: in India, ₹3,00,000 a year for the full visibility and enquiry service, with a website build as a one-time add-on only if you need one. Comparable to a mid-tier marketplace membership, except you own the presence.

Will Plact get me more enquiries than a marketplace?

We do not promise volumes, and neither should anyone else. What changes is the kind of enquiry: a buyer who has read your proof and sends product, quantity, destination and timeline, instead of a shared requirement blasted to a dozen suppliers.

Can buyers find me outside marketplaces at all?

They already look. Procurement teams search Google and increasingly ask AI tools like ChatGPT for suppliers before they shortlist. If your products and proof are not published where they look, the shortlist forms without you.

Comparing AI search vendors instead? See the honest vendor comparison → Comparing option types like agencies, marketplaces or website projects? See the plain comparison →

See what a buyer finds when they look for you directly.

Check what buyers seeBook a walkthrough