84 SaaS and startup directories, with receipts

What 84 SaaS directories taught us

• 62 of the 72 free routes we read ask for something on your site first: their badge, or a link back. Free mostly means a backlink swap.
• 8 free routes follow the link only for the day's or week's top 3; every other free listing there is nofollow.
• Paying mostly buys a date. Free queues ran from a few days to more than a year.
• 6 paid listings stayed unpublished until we went back to the directory's dashboard and pressed Publish. Paying was not the last step.
• Paying doesn't guarantee a followed link: 2 paid listings came back nofollow in whole or part when a crawler read them. Check the rel on your listing after you pay.
• 2 directories gave a DR above what Ahrefs showed us that week (MagicBox and Firsto). Read DR yourself, on the day.

How to submit your startup to directories

1. Write the listing once. Name, a tagline under 60 characters, a 150–300 word description, a square logo and two or three screenshots. Most forms ask for the same things; paste, don't rewrite.
2. Launch on Launchdog too. Directories are links; a launch board is a week when people look. Launchdog gives a permanent dofollow link, free with our badge or $9 to pick your week, and your AI agent can book it for you.
3. Read the free route before you submit. Most want their badge or a link back on your site, and several re-check it. Only take the ones you'll keep up.
4. Pay for a date or a promised dofollow link, nothing else. Check that the plan page says dofollow in writing. A paid plan that only promises "visibility" is an ad.
5. Go back after you pay. Some paid listings stay unpublished until you press Publish in the directory's dashboard.
6. Check the link once it's live. Open your listing, inspect the link to your site and read its rel. Nofollow or ugc passes nothing, whatever the plan said.

How we got these numbers

• DR is Ahrefs' Domain Rating from its free checker, read between Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2026. It moves; read it again before you pay.
• Free route is what each directory's own pages asked of us when we submitted.
• We paid is what our receipts say, in US dollars with tax, including launch-week promotions. 2 more charges we couldn't tie to Launchdog for certain are left out.
• Link we got is the rel on our listing's link: read by a backlink crawler (DataForSEO) where it had found the listing, otherwise by us on the live page. "Live, not checked yet" means the listing is up and neither of us has read it yet. A listing that isn't up yet shows what the directory's own site promises for it.
• We'll update the links and DR as listings go live. Launchdog's own DR: 33 on Nov 2.

Citing one directory? Each row has its own anchor (#startup-fame). Run one of these directories and something here is out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.

Questions