Startup Directories: 70+ Places to Submit Your Startup in 2026 (Free and Dofollow Flagged)

Startup directories fall into four groups, and a founder needs one or two from each: launch platforms for a spike of attention, evergreen directories that keep sending buyers for years, review sites that AI assistants cite, and communities that give honest feedback. Nobody needs all seventy. The table below tells you which is which, what each one costs, and whether its outbound link passes SEO equity, so you can pick the ten that fit your product and skip the rest.

Every row was checked on 7 September 2026. Domain rating (DR) comes from Ahrefs. The dofollow column comes from fetching a live listing page on each site and reading the rel attribute on the outbound links. Where a site blocks automated visits, the column says so rather than guessing. Fees change often, so treat the free or paid column as a pointer and confirm on the site.

How we checked

• DR: Ahrefs batch analysis, 7 September 2026.
• Dofollow: we fetched the homepage and up to four listing pages per directory, collected every outbound link to a listed product, and counted how many carried rel="nofollow", "ugc" or "sponsored". "Dofollow" means the product links we saw had none. "Mixed" means some did. "Nofollow" means all did. "Blocked" means the site refused the fetch, which most large review sites do.
• Free or paid: read from the submission page where it is stated. "Free, paid fast lane" means a free queue plus an optional paid skip.

The 72 startup directories, sorted by DR

The high-DR review sites (G2, Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice, TrustRadius) all nofollow their outbound links and all block automated checks, so their value is the reviews, not the link. The indie launch platforms (Fazier, MicroLaunch, Uneed, Startup Fame, OpenHunts, Tinylaunch) mostly pass dofollow links today, though several switch to nofollow for free listings without announcing it. And the AI-tool directories are the fastest-growing group, with DR 40 to 78 and dofollow links on most of them, if your product qualifies.

Group 1: launch platforms for a spike

What you want: a concentrated spike of attention in the first 24 to 72 hours. Signups, social proof, and a badge for your landing page.

Product Hunt remains the most recognised launch platform in tech. A strong finish drives real signups and press mentions when the product is consumer-facing or developer-facing, the network is ready to show up in the first hours, and the launch is timed for a Tuesday to Thursday. Links are nofollow.

Hacker News Show HN reaches a smaller, technically deep audience. Front-page traffic is high-intent and the comments are useful. The bar is high: an understated title, a direct link, and honest replies in the thread. Our check found about a third of outbound links on the Show HN page carry nofollow; the rest do not.

Fazier, MicroLaunch, Uneed, Startup Fame, OpenHunts and Tinylaunch are the indie launch platforms. The audience is smaller than Product Hunt and more supportive of bootstrapped and B2B products. All six were passing dofollow links on most product pages on 7 September 2026, and all six sell a paid fast lane.

Trade-off: launch traffic fades within a week.

Group 2: evergreen directories

What you want: a permanent, indexed listing that keeps sending buyers from search engines and AI assistants long after launch day.

directree keeps every listing live for as long as the product exists. Every listing is permanent, every fact is labelled by source (observed on your site, AI-inferred, or Founder-edited), and verified founders earn a dofollow link by embedding the badge. Paste a URL, a listing is built in about 30 seconds, claim it, correct anything inferred, and it stays. The SaaS directory page explains what gets listed and what does not.

SaaSHub and AlternativeTo are the two big alternatives catalogues. Both rank for "X alternatives" queries for years. SaaSHub nofollows 23 of the 25 product links we sampled; AlternativeTo blocks fetches.

Startup Stash, Tiny Startups, Startup Tracker, Startups.fyi are smaller curated directories that passed dofollow links on every product link we sampled. Startup Stash charges for submission.

Trade-off: evergreen discovery is slow. A new directory listing rarely shows measurable search traffic in the first month; the compounding effect, appearing in AI buying guides and long-tail comparison searches, shows up in months three to six.

Group 3: review sites AI assistants cite

What you want: a profile with real reviews on the sites that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name when a buyer asks "best X software".

G2, Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice and TrustRadius hold DR 85 to 91 and are cited in most AI answers about software categories. Profiles are free; placement and clicks are paid. None of them passes link equity. Ten honest reviews on one of them does more for AI visibility than fifty directory backlinks, because the models quote review counts and review text when they recommend software.

Group 4: communities for feedback

What you want: honest feedback and real conversations, not signups from launch-day curiosity.

Indie Hackers product pages attract peer feedback from builders who have hit the same problems. Reddit (r/SaaS, r/microsaas, r/sideproject, and your vertical's subreddit) works when you contribute before you promote. WIP is a paid build-in-public community. Slack and Discord groups in your vertical are often the best feedback channel of all, and none of them pass links.

Directories we dropped, and why

We started from 85 candidates and removed 13:

• Dead or broken: Startup Lister (404), Launched.io and Launching Today (no response), AllStartups.info (no response), Betafy (no response).
• Not a directory: Ben's Bites (a newsletter), BetaTesting (recruits testers, does not list products), Designer News (returned a payment wall).
• Too small to matter: Startup Pill (DR 0.4), Top SaaS Directories (DR 3, a list of directories rather than a directory).
• Blocked and paid with no free tier we could confirm: There's An AI For That stays in the table because the audience is large, but budget for the fee.

If a directory you use is missing, it either failed one of those checks or we did not know it. Tell us and we will check it for the next update.

A practical submission sequence

Before or on launch day

1. Submit to directree, claim the listing, correct the inferred facts, embed the badge for the dofollow link.
2. Create the free profiles on G2 and Capterra; ask your first ten customers for a review on one of them.
3. If the product fits, schedule Product Hunt one to two weeks out and draft the Show HN post.

The two weeks after

4. Launch on two or three of the indie platforms (Fazier, MicroLaunch, Uneed), not all six; the audiences overlap.
5. Submit to SaaSHub and AlternativeTo so the alternatives pages exist before anyone searches for them.
6. If you sell an AI product, submit to Toolify, aitools.fyi, Toolpilot and Tools For Humans; they are dofollow and quick.

Ongoing

7. Add the vertical directories in your category; link policies vary, so check each one.
8. Watch Search Console referrals for three months and drop the ones that send nothing.

FAQ

What are startup directories? Websites that list startups and software products in a searchable catalogue, usually with a profile page per product, so buyers, investors and journalists can find them. Some are launch platforms with a daily leaderboard; most are permanent catalogues.

Are startup directories worth it in 2026? Yes, for the right ten. Submitting to all seventy is a week of work for links Google mostly ignores.

Which startup directories give dofollow backlinks? As of 7 September 2026, directree (verified founders), MicroLaunch, OpenAlternative, Tiny Startups, Startups.fyi, Startup Tracker, Startup Stash, Pitchwall, Ctrl Alt CC, Indie Page, Toolpilot, Tools For Humans, aitools.fyi, Remote Tools and AppSumo passed dofollow links on every product link we sampled. Fazier, Uneed, Startup Fame, OpenHunts and Toolify passed most. Check again before you rely on any of them; policies change without notice.

How long does it take to get listed? Instant on most indie platforms and on directree. Days on the review sites, which verify the company. Weeks on BetaList's free queue.