Startup directories ranked by cost, wait and link terms, each checked on its own site: LaunchScaler, Product Hunt, Uneed, BetaList, SaaSCity and more.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·10 min read
The startup directories worth submitting to in 2026 are LaunchScaler, Product Hunt, Uneed, BetaList, SaaSCity, Microlaunch, Fazier, DevHunt, Peerlist Launchpad, TinyLaunch, PitchWall, OpenHunts and Twelve Tools, ranked here for a founder who wants a dated launch, a followed link and no months-long wait. Every price, wait and link term below was checked on the directory's own pages in September 2026.
Where a directory publishes nothing on a point, the table says "Not published" rather than guessing. Directories listed inside LaunchScaler's own directory are left out of this list.
How do startup directories compare on cost, wait and link?
Most startup directories have a free route with a condition attached: a queue, a badge on your site, or a top-three finish before the link is followed. Paid routes mostly buy a date or remove the condition. The table puts price, the free wait, the link terms and the audience each directory states side by side.
Directory
Free route
Paid route
Free wait
Link to your site
Audience it states
1. LaunchScaler
Free launch
Premium launch, $29 one-time
From the day the queue reaches you
1 dofollow link, earned by passing the readiness scan
Not published
2. Product Hunt
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
What are the best startup directories in 2026?
For a software startup, the ones worth comparing are LaunchScaler, Product Hunt, Uneed, BetaList, SaaSCity, Microlaunch, Fazier, DevHunt, Peerlist Launchpad, TinyLaunch, PitchWall, OpenHunts and Twelve Tools. They differ on price, the wait for a free launch, and whether the link to your site is followed.
Free: with its badge, or top 3; Premium: guaranteed
30,000+ users
11. PitchWall (was BetaPage)
Free launch
Pro $49, Premium $99
At least 30 days
Stated dofollow; non-featured listings seen nofollow
Figures differ across its own pages
12. OpenHunts
Free launch, 20 slots a week
Premium tier $9.90 (listed at $19)
About 60 weeks, shorter with its badge
Free: top 3 only; Premium: guaranteed
8,517 users over 6 months
13. Twelve Tools
Free, with a backlink to Twelve Tools
Pro $36 one-time
"Reviewed within 72 hours"
Free: 1 dofollow; Pro: permanent dofollow
Not published
Which startup directories are best in 2026?
For most software founders the order is LaunchScaler, Product Hunt, Uneed, BetaList, SaaSCity, then the smaller launch boards. LaunchScaler leads because it is the only one that scans your site before listing it and ties both the indexed page and the followed link to passing. The rest run from the broadest free terms to the narrowest, and from the terms published most completely to the least.
1. LaunchScaler: the directory that checks your site before listing it
LaunchScaler is a daily launch board and directory where a URL is the only thing you submit. Before anything is listed it runs a 156-check readiness scan across 6 of its 7 categories, from search and AI visibility to security and whether the site's forms and flows work. A listing's page is indexed once the site passes the readiness bar, and each listing can earn 1 dofollow link, which only passing earns.
The free launch gives you "your listing from the day the queue reaches you": a permanent listing in category and search, with an About section and pros and cons written from your own site, and it asks for LaunchScaler's badge on your site or a one-time fee to skip it. The Premium launch is $29 one-time: any open day, today included, your listing written for you from your own scan, nothing to put on your site, and a place in the permanent curated index after the listing's standing decays. The pricing page adds: "The followed link still needs a pass."
2. Product Hunt: free, with a daily reset at 12:01 am Pacific
Product Hunt says launching is "100% free to use." Its homepage runs on a 24-hour cycle in Pacific time, so a post at 12:01 am gets the full day, and you can schedule up to 1 month ahead. Not every launch is featured on the homepage: it doesn't feature waitlisted products unless immediate access is provided. You "cannot ask people directly to upvote." The "Visit website" link on sampled product pages carried rel="noreferrer noopener ugc".
3. Uneed: a free line with a vote threshold for the link
Uneed's free line assigns a date between 30 days and 5 months out. On launch day an upvote score of 20 keeps a dofollow link, 10 to 19 keeps the listing with a nofollow link, and below 10 sends it back to your dashboard. Fast-track ($14.99) gives a date about 2 weeks out; Skip the line ($29.99) lets you pick the date with a dofollow link for life. Uneed states 90K monthly visitors and 26,000 newsletter subscribers.
4. BetaList: paid review for pre-launch and new startups
BetaList features "pre-launch and recently launched startups" on their own domain, not on vercel.app or similar subdomains. All submissions are paid, prices appear at the end of the submission form, and you're refunded in full if not selected. The featured "Visit Site" button is dofollow, routed through a 301 with ref=betalist added. It generally features each startup once, except a pre-launch startup can return when it launches.
5. SaaSCity: a free followed link for a badge and a wait
SaaSCity's free plan includes a dofollow link but requires its badge on your site and has an estimated 210-day queue, with free listings going live on a Monday. Quick Pass ($19.99) needs no badge and goes live within 24 hours; the $39.99 plan adds an editor-written launch post with 3 links. Its pricing page is candid that directory listings, its own included, "send modest referral traffic."
6. Microlaunch: free queue, followed link on Pro
Microlaunch's regular launch is free with a "2-3+ month wait queue" and "no-follow backlinks," per its own FAQ. Launch Pro, listed at $49 and discounted to $39 with a code when checked, skips the queue and includes "Lifetime SEO DR64+ Do-follow Backlinks." Pro also allows re-launches "for major feature releases only." Its audience figures differ between its homepage, premium page and FAQ, so none is quoted here.
7. Fazier: free with a backlink, guaranteed link on Premium
Fazier's Basic plan is free, "Reviewed & listed within 30 days," and requires a backlink to Fazier on your homepage or footer. Lite ($29, listed from $39) adds a scheduled date and a followed link for the day's top 3; Premium ($49, listed from $69) guarantees a "high-authority backlink (DR 83+)." Its help center requires a 6-month gap between launches of the same product. It states 1M+ visits.
8. DevHunt: for developer tools, weekly
DevHunt launches developer tools every Tuesday. The average wait for a free launch is 6 months; Skip the queue costs $49 and lets you pick any launch week. DevHunt doesn't publish its link terms, but the "Visit website" link on sampled tool pages had no nofollow. It states 200K+ visits from developers and a 10,000+ newsletter.
9. Peerlist Launchpad: free, weekly, for verified makers
Peerlist Launchpad opens every Monday from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm UTC, and a project goes live immediately. You need a verified Peerlist profile; workplace verification is free. Only "the top 5 projects of the week are awarded a backlink," and the sampled project's "Visit" control carried nofollow ugc. Peerlist doesn't publish an audience figure.
10. TinyLaunch: a free queue, a badge for the link
TinyLaunch's Standard launch is free, with a launch about 4 weeks after a free slot opens. Its homepage says a "dofollow backlink is granted when you embed the badge" linking to TinyLaunch, and top-3 products also get one. Premium ($39) skips the queue with a guaranteed backlink. Listings are moderator-reviewed. It states 30,000+ users.
11. PitchWall: the former BetaPage
betapage.co now redirects to PitchWall. Its free launch has at least a 30-day wait and is described as including a "Do-follow backlink (DR 70)"; Pro ($49) cuts the wait to 2 weeks and Premium ($99) lets you choose the date. On sampled pages, a featured listing linked with a followed link, while non-featured listings went through a redirect marked nofollow. Every submission is manually reviewed.
12. OpenHunts: cheap Premium, long free queue
OpenHunts runs 20 free slots a week with a queue of about 60 weeks, shorter if you add its badge; a free launch gets a dofollow link only in the top 3. Premium, $9.90 when checked (listed at $19), launches next Monday with a guaranteed dofollow link. It publishes its own traffic: 108,520 visits and 8,517 users over six months.
13. Twelve Tools: free with a reciprocal link
Twelve Tools lists twelve tools a day. The free plan gives 1 dofollow link, is "Reviewed within 72 hours," and requires a backlink to Twelve Tools on your homepage or footer; the listing can be removed if that backlink goes. Pro is $36 one-time, listed within 24 hours, with permanent dofollow links and no backlink required.
What about profile directories like Crunchbase and AlternativeTo?
Profile directories list a company or product permanently rather than launching it on a day. They're worth a complete profile because buyers and journalists check them, but most use nofollow links. Each is free to join, with its own review queue.
Directory
Cost
Wait
Link
Crunchbase
Free for registered users
No queue; moderated after
Seen nofollow
AlternativeTo
Free; optional $5 to jump the review queue
"At least a few months," or 1 to 2 business days with the fee
Varies; a new app was seen nofollow
SaaSHub
Free, hand-approved; Featured $99 a month
Not published; listing competitors and verifying speed it up
Varies by button; seen nofollow on some
Indie Hackers products
Not published (sign-in required)
Not published
Seen nofollow
AlternativeTo notes that paying the $5 "doesn't buy approval," and SaaSHub rejects waitlist pages and free subdomains.
How do you check a directory is worth submitting to?
Before you submit, confirm three things: the directory's listing pages are indexed, it launched products recently, and its link terms are ones you accept. A listing on a page Google never indexed can't rank for your name and passes nothing. Checking takes five minutes per directory.
Open two or three existing listings. Search Google for site: followed by one listing's full URL. Google's documentation notes a site: query "doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed," so test more than one.
View each listing's source for <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> and check the outbound link's rel attribute.
Check the homepage for a launch dated this week.
Read the terms for badges, reciprocal links and vote thresholds.
URL Inspection in Search Console only works on properties you own, so for a directory's pages site: and the page source are your tools. The guide to whether launch listings get indexed walks through every check, and the verdict on whether directory submissions are still worth it covers Google's link spam policies.
Which directories fit your situation?
Start from the constraint you can't move. A fixed launch date points to a directory that sells dates; no budget points to a free route whose condition you can meet; a developer tool points to DevHunt and Show HN. For more launch-day options see the product launch platforms compared, for SaaS-specific places the SaaS directories list, and for AI products the AI tool directories ranked.
Launch on the day you pick with Premium
If your launch needs a date you control and a listing written for you, LaunchScaler's Premium launch is $29, paid once. It books any open day, today included, writes the listing from your own scan, puts nothing on your site because paying skips the badge, and keeps the listing in the permanent curated index after its standing decays. The followed link still depends on your site passing the 156-check readiness scan, so fix what the scan flags before your day. Get Premium, or choose the free launch on the same page and let the queue reach you.
Which startup directories are free?
LaunchScaler, Product Hunt, Uneed, SaaSCity, Microlaunch, Fazier, DevHunt, Peerlist Launchpad, TinyLaunch, PitchWall, OpenHunts and Twelve Tools all have a free route. Most free routes come with a condition: a queue, a badge on your site, or a top-three finish for the followed link. BetaList has no free option.
03
Do startup directories give dofollow backlinks?
Some do, on conditions. LaunchScaler's is earned by passing its readiness scan; Uneed's free line needs an upvote score of 20; SaaSCity's free plan needs its badge on your site; Fazier, TinyLaunch and OpenHunts guarantee one only on paid plans.
04
How many startup directories should I submit to?
A handful that are active, indexed and relevant to your buyers, spaced over a few weeks, beats dozens submitted in a day. Check each directory's listing pages are in Google before you submit.
05
How do I check if a startup directory is worth it?
Search Google for site: plus one of its existing listing URLs to see whether listings get indexed, look for a recent launch date on its homepage, and read its terms for the link. Skip any whose listing pages don't show up.
A listing that gets clicks has a one-liner for the job, a description of problem, method and audience, highlights with numbers, and a price stated plainly.
