LaunchScaler vs SaaSCity: badges, queues and paid passes compared
SaaSCity's free plan needs its badge and a 210-day queue; Quick Pass is $19.99. LaunchScaler's free launch needs a badge or fee; Premium is $29, any day.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
LaunchScaler and SaaSCity both trade a free listing for a badge on your site and sell a paid way around it. SaaSCity's free plan needs its badge and an estimated 210-day queue, and its Quick Pass ($19.99) removes both and goes live within 24 hours. LaunchScaler's free launch needs its badge or a one-time fee, and its Premium launch ($29) books any open day, writes the listing for you and needs nothing on your site.
The link rule is where they part. Every SaaSCity plan includes a dofollow link; LaunchScaler gives its one dofollow link only to a site that passes a 156-check readiness scan. SaaSCity's terms below come from its pricing page, and LaunchScaler's from its own pricing page, both read in September 2026.
How do LaunchScaler and SaaSCity compare tier by tier?
Each platform has a free tier paid for with a badge and paid tiers that remove it. SaaSCity has four plans and sells a written launch post and ad placements on the upper two; LaunchScaler has two launches and sells writing (the listing) on Premium. The first table covers the free tiers, the second the paid ones.
Free tier
SaaSCity Free
LaunchScaler free launch
Cost
$0
Free
What it asks
Its badge embedded on your site, verified before the link is upgraded
Its badge on your site, or a one-time fee to skip it
Wait
About 210 days, then a scheduled Monday drop
"Your listing from the day the queue reaches you"
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
How much does SaaSCity cost?
SaaSCity's free plan costs $0 and requires its badge on your site. Quick Pass is $19.99, Premium is $39.99 (shown struck through from $99.99) and Max is $99, all one-time payments, as its pricing page showed in September 2026.
A 156-check readiness scan across 6 of 7 categories
Link
Dofollow, from what it calls a DR 64+ domain
1 dofollow link, earned by passing the readiness scan
Written for you
No launch blog post
An About section and pros and cons from your own site
What you get
A listing page, map placement, community upvotes and ranking
A permanent listing in category and search, and a community thread
SaaSCity's paid plans, each a one-time payment:
SaaSCity plan
Price
Badge
Live
What it adds
Quick Pass
$19.99
Not required
Within 24 hours
Skips the badge and the queue, "and nothing else"
Premium
$39.99 (struck through from $99.99)
Not required
Within 24 hours
A launch post by its editor within 3 days, with 3 links to your site, built for AI search
Max
$99
Not required
Priority review, within 24 hours
A 3,000+ word launch post with 5 links, a 2x2 map building, 30 days of billboard, ticker and pinned homepage placement, priority support
LaunchScaler's paid launch, on its own:
LaunchScaler plan
Price
Badge
Live
What it adds
Premium launch
$29 one-time
Nothing to put on your site
Any open day, today included
The listing written for you from your own scan; permanent curated index after the standing decays; the followed link still needs a pass
How do the two badge deals compare?
Both free tiers are a trade: your site links to the platform, and the platform lists you. SaaSCity is explicit about it: "you link to SaaSCity with our badge, we link back to you from a DR 64+ domain," and it verifies the badge is live before it upgrades your link and unlocks map placement. The cost it names is "an outbound link and a place in the queue."
LaunchScaler's free launch asks for its badge on your site too, with one difference: you can pay a one-time fee to skip the badge and keep the free launch. (LaunchScaler's public pages do not print that fee.) What the badge does not buy on LaunchScaler is the followed link. That comes only from passing the readiness scan: "Clearing the readiness bar is what earns the followed link."
So the free trade differs in what you give and what you get. On SaaSCity you give a badge and about 210 days and get a followed link. On LaunchScaler you give a badge (or a fee) and get a permanent listing, and the followed link depends on your site. The guide to launch badges and SEO covers what an outbound badge link does to your own site.
How do the paid passes compare?
The closest match is SaaSCity's Quick Pass against LaunchScaler's Premium launch. Quick Pass is $19.99 and removes the badge and the queue, going live within 24 hours, and SaaSCity says it buys "nothing else." Premium is $29, lets you pick any open day including today, removes the badge, and adds a listing written for you from your own scan.
The difference is the link and the writing. Quick Pass includes SaaSCity's dofollow link with no further condition. LaunchScaler's Premium does not buy a link: "The followed link still needs a pass." What Premium adds instead is the written listing and a place in the permanent curated index after the listing's standing on the daily board decays.
SaaSCity's upper plans have no LaunchScaler equivalent in the launch itself. SaaSCity's Premium ($39.99) adds a launch post on its blog within 3 days with 3 links to your site, and Max ($99) adds a longer post with 5 links and a month of ad placements. The nearest LaunchScaler offer to a written post is its separate Review article, an editor-written, labelled review page with 3 links back to your site, sold at $59 on its own. For the question of whether paying to skip a queue is worth it at all, see is a skip-the-line launch worth it.
What does each platform check before listing you?
SaaSCity reviews every listing by hand. Its FAQ says "Every listing gets a human review," with priority review on paid plans, and on the free plan it also checks that the badge is live on your homepage before upgrading your link. Its pricing page does not publish the criteria the reviewer applies.
LaunchScaler checks the site with software before it is listed. The readiness scan runs 156 checks across search, AI visibility, security, compliance, speed and visual, and whether the site works, and shows a verdict for each. Among them: a live page carrying a noindex directive, a robots.txt rule blocking a page you want ranked, no discoverable XML sitemap, HSTS not enforced, non-essential trackers firing before consent, a primary call to action that does nothing when clicked, and Largest Contentful Paint from real visits. The listing does not wait for a pass; the followed link does.
The two checks answer different questions. SaaSCity's review asks whether your product belongs in its directory. LaunchScaler's scan asks whether your site is ready for the visitors and crawlers a launch sends, which is worth knowing whichever platform you launch on.
Which fits a launch that must go live this week?
Both do. SaaSCity's Quick Pass, Premium and Max all promise to be live within 24 hours, and SaaSCity refunds 100% if the listing is not approved, the paid upgrade is not live within 48 hours, or the dofollow link does not pass through. LaunchScaler's Premium launch books any open day, today included, so you can choose tomorrow or a specific day later in the week.
Your situation
Better fit
Live this week, cheapest, followed link guaranteed
SaaSCity Quick Pass
Live on a specific day you choose, listing written for you, nothing on your site
LaunchScaler Premium
Live this week with a written launch post on the platform's blog
SaaSCity Premium or Max
No budget, can carry a badge, can wait months
SaaSCity Free
No budget, want the listing sooner than about 210 days, and a link tied to site quality
LaunchScaler free launch
What do both platforms say about traffic?
Neither promises customers, and SaaSCity says so directly: directory listings, its own included, "send modest referral traffic, and anyone promising a flood of signups from one is selling you something." It tells readers to treat the traffic as a bonus and the link as the product. SaaSCity states 410K visitors per 30 days, 14K Google impressions a day and 1,640 startups listed.
LaunchScaler does not publish an audience figure. Its daily board ranks products on community votes, and the readiness score on each card is measured separately and cannot be voted up or bought. What it adds before the listing is the readiness scan itself, which gives you a verdict on search, AI visibility, security, compliance, speed and visual, and whether the site works.
What are the alternatives to SaaSCity?
The other common launch platforms are Product Hunt (free, one day, starting 12:01 am Pacific), Uneed (a free line of 30 days to 5 months or paid dates), BetaList (paid, editorially selected, for pre-launch startups) and Show HN (free, for things people can try). Their prices and link terms are compared in best product launch platforms.
Book this week's launch with Premium
If your launch has to happen on a day you choose, LaunchScaler's Premium launch is $29, paid once. It books any open day, today included, writes your listing for you from your own scan, and puts nothing on your site because paying skips the badge. The listing stays in the permanent curated index after its standing decays, and the dofollow link still needs your site to pass the readiness scan. Get Premium, or choose the free launch on the same page if you can wait for the queue.
SaaSCity estimates about 210 days for its free review queue, and free listings go live on a scheduled Monday drop. Paid plans get priority review and go live within 24 hours.
03
Does SaaSCity require a badge?
Only on the free plan. SaaSCity verifies its badge is live on your site before it upgrades your link to dofollow and unlocks map placement. Quick Pass, Premium and Max need no badge.
04
What is the difference between LaunchScaler and SaaSCity?
Both offer a free listing in exchange for a badge and a paid way to skip it. SaaSCity gives every plan a dofollow link and sells launch posts and ad placements, while LaunchScaler scans your site against 156 checks first and gives its one dofollow link only to sites that pass.
05
Which is faster if my launch must go live this week?
SaaSCity's Quick Pass goes live within 24 hours for $19.99 with no badge. LaunchScaler's Premium launch books any open day, today included, for $29 and writes your listing for you, with nothing to put on your site.
Uneed's free line waits 30 days to 5 months and ties the link to upvotes; LaunchScaler ties it to a site scan. Queues, prices, links and reviews compared.
LaunchScaler, Uneed, BetaList, SaaSCity, Show HN and Reddit ranked by what each leaves you: a lasting listing, a followed link and visitors, with prices.
