Sandpoint

What Sandpoint does

Sandpoint.com is a privately-held community portal website established in 1998 and operated from Sandpoint, Idaho. It functions as the de facto local information hub for the North Idaho panhandle, providing community news articles, event calendars, recreation and lodging guides, area history and photos, and an integrated real estate listings section powered through a partnership with Century 21 RiverStone. The company extends its reach through a network of affiliated sister portals — BonnersFerry.com, ClarkForkIdaho.com, HopeIdaho.com, and Ponderay.com — covering adjacent communities in the region.

The underlying technology is a conventional web-based portal with a business directory, event calendar, real estate listings integration, and content management system. There is no disclosed mobile app, API, or SDK, and no AI/ML capabilities are referenced. The product surface is organized around integrated modules of a single website rather than a standalone platform.

The business model is a mix of recurring subscription revenue and advertising. The business directory offers Free, Standard ($49.99/year), and Featured ($99.99/year) tiers with DoFollow SEO links, images, and video. Display advertising is sold via single-site ($50/month annual or $75/month month-to-month) and multi-site ($75/month annual or $100/month month-to-month) packages. The go-to-market combines a content-led top-of-funnel approach (organic SEO, community articles, events) with a direct sales motion that contacts local SMBs to convert them into advertisers and paid directory listings. Customers are exclusively local North Idaho SMBs, with a directory listing base of roughly 2,500+ businesses across the region, though most listings are free rather than paid.

Name

Sandpoint

Legal name

Sandpoint.com

Website

https://sandpoint.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sandpoint.com is a privately-held community portal serving Sandpoint and North Idaho since 1998, providing local news, events, recreation guides, real estate listings, and a tiered business directory subscription for local small businesses.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Community Portal

NAICS

Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

News & Content Aggregation Portals (BPAMAAAI)

Keywords

• Local business directory
• Community portal website
• Display advertising services
• Online business listings
• Local news publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Sandpoint

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Display Advertising: Graphical banner advertisements on the Sandpoint.com website and sister sites (BonnersFerry.com, ClarkForkIdaho.com, HopeIdaho.com). Ads rotate randomly across all pages with click-through tracking and reporting capabilities.
2. Business Directory Listings: Tiered business directory subscription service with Free, Standard ($49.99/year), and Featured ($99.99/year) packages offering varying levels of visibility, links (DoFollow/NoFollow), images, video, and category listings.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Sandpoint.com operates a North Idaho community portal website providing a business directory, display advertising, an events calendar, real estate listings, and local news articles. The platform generates revenue by selling tiered business directory subscriptions (Free, Standard at $49.99/year, Featured at $99.99/year) and display advertising packages ($50-$100/month) to local businesses across the Sandpoint and surrounding North Idaho communities.

Product overview

Sandpoint.com is a single, unified community portal website rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core product is the sandpoint.com portal itself, which provides community information, news articles, and local resources. The main service modules include: the North Idaho Business Directory (offering Free, Standard, and Featured listing tiers), display advertising services, an events calendar, and real estate listings powered by Century 21 RiverStone. These services operate as integrated features of the portal rather than separate standalone products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BonnersFerry.com: Related community portal website for Bonners Ferry, Idaho area
• ClarkForkIdaho.com
• HopeIdaho.com
• Ponderay.com

Products and services

• Business Directory An online business directory for North Idaho businesses offering Free, Standard ($49.99/year), and Featured ($99.99/year) listing tiers with varying features including categories, images, video, and SEO benefits.
• Display Advertising Graphical banner advertising service with monthly rates ($50-75/month for website-only, $75-100/month for multi-site package) that rotates randomly on all pages of the site.

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• BonnersFerry.comminorOthersSister website covering Bonners Ferry, Idaho and Boundary County. Part of the same network of North Idaho community portal sites owned and operated by Sandpoint.com.
• ClarkForkIdaho.comminorOthersSister website covering Clark Fork, Idaho. Part of the same network of North Idaho community portal sites.
• HopeIdaho.comminorOthersSister website covering Hope, Idaho. Part of the same network of North Idaho community portal sites.
• Ponderay.comminorOthersSister website covering Ponderay, Idaho. Part of the same network of North Idaho community portal sites.
• Century 21 RiverStonecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReal estate brokerage with multiple offices in Sandpoint, Priest River, and Ponderay providing real estate listings integrated with Sandpoint.com's real estate section. Features residential, waterfront, land, commercial, and Schweitzer property listings.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Patch.com: Nationwide network of hyper-local community news and information portals with local business directories and event calendars — the most direct analog to Sandpoint.com's model, though operating at vastly greater scale.
• ChamberOfCommerce.com: Online local business directory and city guide covering thousands of U.S. communities, monetized via tiered paid listings — directly comparable business model to Sandpoint's North Idaho Business Directory.
• Local.com: Local search and business directory platform monetized through SMB listings and advertising — a scaled version of the same directory-plus-display-ad model Sandpoint.com operates at a regional level.

Broad incumbents

• Yelp: Dominant local business directory and reviews platform; competes directly for the same SMB advertising dollars that Sandpoint.com sells through its business directory and display ads.
• Tripadvisor: Major destination/travel information portal that overlaps with Sandpoint's lodging, dining, and annual events content aimed at tourists and prospective visitors to the Sandpoint area.
• About.com / Dotdash Meredith: Large-scale content portal monetized primarily through display advertising, illustrating the scaled, content-driven monetization model that Sandpoint.com operates at a hyper-local level.

Emerging players

• Houzz: Home-focused local directory connecting homeowners with local professionals; overlaps with Sandpoint's real estate and home services directory categories (builders, window companies, etc.).
• Alignable: Small business referral and directory network focused on local connections, overlapping with Sandpoint's directory value proposition for SMBs seeking local visibility.
• Nextdoor: Neighborhood-level community platform with local business recommendations and advertising, increasingly capturing the local SMB and resident mindshare that community portals like Sandpoint.com depend on.
• City-data.com: U.S. city and town information portal with demographics, local guides, and business listings; comparable to Sandpoint.com as a community information hub with adjacent local advertising.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/SandpointIdaho
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/forward-capital-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sandpoint