Do directory backlinks still work?
Yes, from curated, moderated directories that rank for your category and link to your real homepage without nofollow. No, from the 300-site submission lists that most "directory backlinks" guides sell. The first kind is a handful of links that pass equity and get cited by AI assistants. The second kind is a footprint.
Two different communities, two different answers
Search "directory backlinks seo" on Reddit and you find two separate communities reaching different conclusions, and both are correct in context.
r/SEO is skeptical. Threads there warn against bulk directory submissions. Generic listings on low-authority catch-all sites rarely move rankings, and some commenters flag that outbound links to spammy directories add trust-signal noise. The advice that surfaces repeatedly: treat directory links as one minor element among many, not a core strategy.
r/SaaS is more pragmatic. Founders share spreadsheets of 50 to 130 directories to submit to. The follow-up replies in those same threads add the qualifier: most entries on those lists are low-traffic or no longer maintained. Pick 10 to 20 that rank for your category and have added a listing in the last month; skip the rest.
They are talking about different directories
Mass submission to generic, catch-all sites is low-value. r/SEO is right about that.
Relevant, niche directories, especially those covering software or a specific vertical, work differently. They carry real domain authority, real visitors, and in many cases do-follow links that pass equity. A maintained directory page is also a permanent, structured description of your product on a domain Google already trusts, which is why those pages show up as citations in AI answers months after launch.
So the question is not whether to get directory backlinks. It is which directories are worth submitting to.
Directory backlinks that still count in 2026: the list we tested
On 7 September 2026 we fetched the homepage and up to four listing pages on 85 startup and software directories, collected every outbound link to a listed product, and read the rel attribute. These 25 passed do-follow links on all or most of the product links we sampled. DR is from Ahrefs on the same day. The moderation column describes how listings get in, because an unmoderated directory is the kind r/SEO warns about.
| Directory | DR | Cost | Do-follow on sampled product links | Moderation | |---|---|---|---|---| | Fazier | 83 | Free, paid fast lane | 304 of 310 | Launch queue, light review | | Startup Fame | 83 | Free, paid fast lane | 36 of 44 | Launch queue, light review | | AppSumo | 83 | Revenue share | 58 of 58 | Curated marketplace, deal required | | Indie Hackers | 81 | Free | 35 of 52 | Community, self-serve product pages | | Toolpilot | 78 | Free, paid placement | 17 of 17 | AI tools, reviewed | | BetaList | 76 | Free queue, paid fast lane | 11 of 11 (small sample) | Editorial queue, weeks on the free tier | | Uneed | 75 | Free, paid fast lane | 8 of 12 | Launch queue, light review | | Toolify | 73 | Free, paid placement | 28 of 37 | AI tools, large catalogue | | Tinylaunch | 73 | Free, paid fast lane | 19 of 36 | Launch queue | | Tiny Startups | 71 | Free, paid placement | 51 of 51 | Curated, newsletter-backed | | OpenHunts | 70 | Free | 105 of 152 | Launch queue | | Pitchwall | 68 | Free | 11 of 11 | Reviewed pitches | | Indie Page | 67 | Free profile | 62 of 62 | Founder profiles, self-serve | | Startup Stash | 66 | Paid submission | 46 of 46 | Curated, paid gate | | MicroLaunch | 63 | Free, paid fast lane | 151 of 151 | Launch queue, light review | | Remote Tools | 57 | Free | 15 of 15 | Curated, remote-work tools only | | directree | 55 | Free | Verified founders only | Quality gate, thin listings are noindexed | | BetaPage | 54 | Free, paid featured | 100 of 110 | Light review | | OpenAlternative | 52 | Free | 70 of 70 | Curated, open source only | | Ctrl Alt CC | 50 | Free | 2 of 2 (small sample) | Curated | | Startup Tracker | 45 | Free | 12 of 12 | Light review | | aitools.fyi | 43 | Free, paid placement | 101 of 101 | AI tools, large catalogue | | Tools For Humans | 39 | Free, paid placement | 56 of 56 | AI tools, reviewed | | Startups.fyi | 32 | Free, paid placement | 26 of 26 | Light review | | Startup Collections | 19 | Free | 9 of 18 | Light review |
Where a directory is "mostly" do-follow, the nofollow links were on free or unclaimed listings and the do-follow ones on paid or claimed listings. That is the pattern across the indie launch platforms now: the attribute is a perk you unlock, not a default.
Popular directories that nofollow. SaaSHub (23 of 25 sampled product links), Crozdesk (18 of 23), StartupBase (26 of 50), Softpedia, WIP and Awesome Indie. Product Hunt, G2, Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice, TrustRadius, AlternativeTo and SourceForge block automated checks and have carried nofollow on product links for years. They are still worth a profile for the reviews and the citations, just not for the link. The full 72-directory table is in Startup Directories: 70+ Places to Submit Your Startup, and the definition and check method are in Do-Follow Backlinks: What They Are.
What the better r/SaaS advice looks like
Target directories that rank for your product category. A listing in the right place compounds quietly: a backlink, a citation source for AI answers, and a reference page that stays live and indexed without further effort. Ten of the directories above, chosen for your category, beat a hundred from a megalist.
directree's policy
directree is a software directory built for this: do-follow backlinks for verified founders, no pay-to-rank, free to submit. Every fact on a listing is labelled Observed (crawled from your site), AI-inferred, or Founder-edited, so nothing on the page is an invented claim about your tool. Thin listings are kept out of Google's index until they are enriched, which is why the directory stays citable.
Submit your tool free and a structured listing goes live in about 30 seconds. Or read how directree makes do-follow backlinks free for the linking model.