I went through 1,445 "free" startup directories. Most of them aren't free.

Sam Carter — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 08:44:57 +0000

Every "where should I launch my SaaS" thread ends the same way: someone pastes a list of 500+ startup directories and says "just submit to all of these."

I tried. A lot of those sites are dead, some are paid-only, and a surprising number want a backlink before they'll list you. I run a small directory submission service, so I needed real answers, not vibes. We merged the popular public lists (a few big spreadsheets, a couple of "directory of directories" sites and about a dozen GitHub awesome-lists), removed duplicates, and opened every submit page one by one.

Here's what we found.

The lists are about half noise

	Domains
Unique domains across the public lists	3,044
Don't load anymore (unreachable, 404, server error, parked)	438
Not a directory at all (social networks, forums, media sites, app stores)	~600
Live directories that accept submissions (out of 1,445 fully checked so far)	954

So before you even start, roughly a third of a typical "500+ directories" list is wasted time. (The ~800 we haven't finished checking are the low-DR long tail.)

Of the 954 live directories

	Count	Share
Fully free to submit	338	35%
Free option exists, but they push a paid "featured" or fast-track listing	463	49%
Paid only	153	16%
Free tier requires a backlink or badge on your site	78	8%
Require an account	512	54%
...and only take Google, GitHub, X or similar logins	191	20%
Send a confirmation email you have to click	348	36%

A few things surprised me:

Several well-known names are paid now. There's An AI For That starts at $49, Futurepedia's verified listing is $497, BetaList asks you to pick a paid plan after drafting your submission, Tekpon is $249. Fine if you want them, but they shouldn't be on a "free directories" list.
"Freemium" usually means a slow free queue. The free path is real, but it's the slow lane, and the confirmation page offers you a paid fast lane.
Login walls kill more submissions than paywalls. 191 directories only take Google, GitHub, X or similar logins. Not a problem if you're happy to connect your accounts, but worth knowing before you plan a "submission day".

Captchas are less painful than people think

Captcha on the submit flow	Directories
None	642
Cloudflare Turnstile (usually just a checkbox)	96
Google reCAPTCHA	77
Image puzzle	21
hCaptcha	8
Unclear / only after signup	110

Two out of three have no captcha at all. The time sink is accounts and confirmation emails, not captchas.

Domain rating is mostly low

DR (Ahrefs Domain Rating)	Directories
80+	42
60-79	144
40-59	206
20-39	183
Under 20 or no rating	379

40% of live directories sit under DR 20. Those links won't move much for SEO on their own, though some of them still send real visitors in niche categories.

What's left when you want free, email signup, no backlink

If you filter for: free path, no forced backlink or badge, email signup (or no account), English, you get 322 directories. Only 36 of those are DR 60+.

If I were launching something this week, I'd start here (DR in brackets):

GoodFirms (87), F6S (83), Index by Dodo Payments (81), AlternativeTo (80)
Peerlist Launchpad (78), PeerPush (78), Tracxn (78), Findstack (77)
Alternative.me (76), SaaSHub (75), neeed (74), TinyLaunch (74)
SaaSworthy (72), Tiny Startups (71), SideProjectors (68), SpotSaaS (66)
Startup Stash (66), Future Tools (65, AI tools only), WebCatalog (60), MarketingDB (60)

Also worth noting: 348 of the live directories only list AI tools. If you're not building an AI product, a big chunk of any "AI directories" list is simply not for you.

How I'd approach it with limited time

Skip the giant lists. A third of the entries are dead or not directories. Start from the 30-40 high-DR free ones and stop when the returns drop.
Prepare your listing once. Name, a 60-character tagline, a 160-character description, a ~300-character description, a long one, logo, 2-3 screenshots, categories. Every directory asks for some mix of these, and rewriting on the fly is where the hours go.
Use one inbox for signups. Over a third of directories need an account plus an email confirmation. Keep logins in one place so you can claim and update listings later.
Decide on paid listings case by case. A few are worth it for your niche. Most fast-track upsells aren't.
Screenshot the confirmation page. Some directories take weeks to review, and without a screenshot you won't remember where you've already submitted.

The full list of the 322 (DR, categories and free vs. freemium for each) is free, no signup: submitbyhand.com/directories. Full disclosure, I run Submit by Hand, where we do these submissions for you, but the list is there for anyone who'd rather do it themselves.

Happy to answer questions about specific directories in the comments.