Startup Directories Ranked by Domain Authority (2026): The Honest List

TL;DR: Here are 24 startup directories sorted by domain authority — and the thing every other list on this topic leaves out. Several of the highest-DA directories on this page pass no link equity at all. A few of the "free dofollow" ones want a badge on your site in exchange. And nearly every guide telling you to submit to a hundred of them is published by a company that sells directory submission. Submit to six good ones. Skip the rest.

Start with who wrote the other lists

Search this topic and you will find pages promising 80, 140, 199 directories, each sorted neatly by domain rating. Scroll to the bottom of any of them and you will find the same sentence: we'll submit your product to 100 directories for you.

That is not a reason to dismiss those lists. The data on them is mostly real. But it explains the shape of the advice. If your business is submissions, "submit to thirty directories in month one" is not a recommendation, it is a product description. And sorting by DA descending puts the biggest, most impressive numbers at the top of the page, which is good for conversion and misleading for you.

We don't sell submissions. So here is the version that costs us nothing to write.

Why sorting by domain authority is the wrong instinct

Domain Rating (Ahrefs) and Domain Authority (Moz) both estimate how strong a site's backlink profile is on a 0–100 scale. Higher generally means a link from there is worth more. That is true as far as it goes, and it is why every list sorts this way.

The problem is what it hides. A link only passes PageRank if it is dofollow. A link carrying rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" tells Google not to pass authority — and since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a hard directive, which means "maybe a little, sometimes, if we feel like it." Not something to build a strategy on.

Now look at what that does to the ranking. The directories at the very top of every DA-sorted list — Product Hunt, Crunchbase, Capterra — nofollow their outbound links. You can be listed on a DR 91 site and receive precisely zero link equity from it. Sorting by DA puts those first and calls them the best. They may well be worth doing, but not for the reason the sort order implies.

So read the table below by all four columns, not the first one.

The four things that actually decide whether a listing is worth it

• Link type. Dofollow passes equity. Nofollow doesn't. This matters more than the DA number sitting next to it.
• Does anyone go there? A directory with authority but no readers gives you a link and no customers. A directory with modest authority and an engaged audience in your exact category gives you buyers. The second is usually worth more.
• What it costs you. Not just money. Several free dofollow directories require you to embed their badge on your site, which makes it a link trade rather than an earned link.
• Category fit. A listing in a directory your buyers actually browse beats a listing in a general directory ten times its size.

On the numbers below: the DA and DR figures floating around this topic are third-party estimates that shift monthly, and published sources disagree with each other more than you'd expect. We've used authority bands rather than pretending to a precision nobody has. Before you rely on any figure — ours included — check it yourself, and verify link type by opening a live listing and inspecting the link. That takes thirty seconds and beats every published list on the internet.

Band A — the giants (DA 85+, mostly nofollow)

Do these anyway, but understand what you're getting: brand credibility, referral traffic, and entity signal. Not link equity.

1. Product Hunt

The highest-traffic launch venue there is, and the link to your site is nofollow. Launch there for the launch-day audience and, more importantly, for the second-order links — a front-page appearance gets you written up in roundups and newsletters, and those links are frequently dofollow. That's where the SEO value of a Product Hunt launch actually lives.

2. G2

The dominant B2B software review platform. Buyers with procurement budgets genuinely use it, so the referral traffic converts unusually well. Published sources disagree on whether G2's outbound links are dofollow — verify on your own live listing rather than trusting anyone's table, including this one. Either way, if you sell B2B software, being absent from G2 is conspicuous.

3. Capterra

Same buyer-intent category as G2, nofollow links. Worth it for the traffic and for showing up in the comparison SERPs your prospects search, not for authority.

4. Crunchbase

Nofollow, low traffic, and still worth twenty minutes. Crunchbase profiles rank for your own branded searches — "[your company] funding", "[your company] revenue" — so a current profile controls what shows up when someone diligences you. Keep it updated or don't bother.

5. SourceForge

High authority, meaningful traffic, and genuinely useful if you ship open source or developer software. Less relevant for anything else.

6. Reddit

Not a directory, but it belongs in any honest version of this list because it is where a large share of AI-cited answers come from now. Links are nofollow. The value is being the thing people recommend in the thread, which no submission gets you.

7. Hacker News

Same logic. Nofollow, enormous authority, and a Show HN that lands produces a wave of secondary coverage that carries real links.

8. LinkedIn company page

Nofollow, obvious, and skipped surprisingly often. It's an entity signal — one of the profiles Google leans on to work out that your brand is a real organisation.

Band B — the workhorses (DA 60–85, free, usually dofollow)

This is the band that does the actual SEO work, and it's the one buried halfway down every DA-sorted list.

9. AlternativeTo

Consistently reported as dofollow on free listings. High authority, and the pages rank for "[incumbent] alternative" queries, which is the highest purchase intent available anywhere. If you only do one thing on this page, do this one.

10. SaaSHub

Similar model, similar value, with the same alternatives-page dynamic. Note that dofollow and featured placement are sometimes reserved for paid tiers — check what your free listing actually renders.

11. F6S

Dofollow, startup-focused, and doubles as an accelerator and deals platform. Low traffic, easy listing.

12. BetaList

The pre-launch option. If you're still collecting a waitlist rather than shipping, this is the one on the page built for that stage.

13. Turbo0

Strong authority for an indie-focused directory, dofollow — after you install their badge on your site. That's the trade. Fine if your site can carry a small badge, worth knowing before you start.

14. findly.tools

Curated tools aggregator, quick approval, badge required. Good authority-to-effort ratio for tool-shaped products.

15. Toolpilot

AI-tools focused with a fast review process. If your product is even adjacent to AI, this is among the cheapest wins on the list.

Band C — niche and category directories (DA 40–60)

Lower authority, much better fit. For most products these convert better than Band A, because the audience is already sorted.

16. Launching Next

Free, permanent, dofollow. Unglamorous and reliable — a listing that stays live and keeps working.

17. Startup Buffer

Quick approval, reasonable authority, low effort.

18. StartupLister

Multi-category, useful mainly for referring-domain variety rather than any single strong link.

19. TechLogHub

Ours, so take the recommendation with the appropriate amount of salt — and here's the honest scope. TechLogHub indexes developer tools by category, use case, and audience, and builds head-to-head comparison pages that rank for "X vs Y" queries. That makes it useful if you're shipping an API, CLI, SDK, or developer-facing SaaS, and useless if you're building a consumer app or a service business — we won't list you, and you shouldn't want us to. The reason to be in a category index rather than a general directory is that the traffic arrives later and doesn't decay: someone searching your category in month nine is shopping, not browsing.

20. Dev Hunt

Free dofollow for developer tools, with GitHub-gated voting that keeps the audience relevant. Narrow and good at being narrow.

21. Uneed

Curated indie launch board with newsletter distribution. Free submission; dofollow and featured placement may sit behind a paid tier.

22. Peerlist

Builder-focused, week-long launch format, thoughtful feedback. Better as a launch venue than as a backlink.

23. Indie Hackers

A community, not a directory. Nofollow. Included because a genuinely good post there outperforms most of Band C combined — but only if you're a participant, not a visitor.

24. DEV.to

Publish rather than submit. A technical article with a contextual link to your docs is worth more than most directory listings on this page, and you control the anchor text.

Band D — the ones to skip

Two categories, and it's worth naming the pattern rather than the sites, because the sites rotate.

Mass-submission farms. Any directory that accepts everything, publishes no editorial standard, and exists to sell placement. A hundred of these produce a backlink profile that looks bought, because functionally it was.

Anyone charging for a dofollow link. A paid link is supposed to carry rel="sponsored". A directory taking your money and promising dofollow anyway is selling you something Google's own guidelines classify as a link scheme. The listing might still be worth buying for the traffic — just never for the link.

What actually changed in 2026

The reason to care about directories has quietly moved. Bulk directory links stopped moving rankings a long time ago. But AI answer engines and Google's AI Overviews lean on directories and comparison pages when answering "best tool for X" or "alternatives to Y" — which means a listing is now partly a distribution decision, about being present where those systems look, rather than purely a link-building one.

That shifts the priority away from raw DA and toward two things: directories that maintain structured, current data about your product, and comparison pages that describe what you are relative to your competitors. Both are things a machine can quote. A bare listing on a dead directory is not.

The order to do this in

Six listings, spread over a month, in this sequence:

• Week 1: AlternativeTo and SaaSHub. Highest-intent traffic, and the alternatives pages compound.
• Week 2: Your two best category-fit directories from Band C. For a dev tool that's Dev Hunt and a category index; for B2B SaaS it's G2 and Capterra.
• Week 3: Crunchbase and LinkedIn. Twenty minutes each, and they own your branded SERP.
• Week 4: Nothing. Go check what actually sent traffic.

That last step is the one nobody does. Put a UTM parameter on every submission link before you start, and in week four you'll know which two directories were worth it and which four weren't. That single piece of data is worth more than another fifty listings — and it means next quarter you're making a decision instead of a guess.

If you haven't run the launch itself yet, this is the follow-on step rather than the starting point — the sequencing for launch week is in our guide to where to launch your startup.

FAQ

Do startup directories actually help SEO?

A handful do, most do very little. Value concentrates in two places: dofollow links from directories that genuinely vet what they list, and high-authority profiles that establish your brand as a recognised entity even when the link is nofollow. Fifty listings on directories nobody visits won't move your rankings and can make your backlink profile look purchased. Six good listings beat sixty weak ones.

Which startup directories give dofollow backlinks?

AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, F6S, BetaList, and Dev Hunt are commonly cited as passing dofollow on free listings — though several reserve dofollow or featured placement for paid plans, and terms change without notice. Always verify before you count on it: open your live listing, inspect the link to your site, and check whether it carries rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". That thirty-second check is more reliable than any published list, this one included.

How many directories should I submit my startup to?

Five to eight in your first month, then one or two a quarter if you find genuinely relevant niche ones. The lists recommending twenty to a hundred submissions are almost always published by companies selling submission services. Past a small set of quality listings you're adding low-value referring domains, which does nothing useful and can look manipulative in aggregate.

Is Product Hunt a dofollow backlink?

No. Product Hunt links to your site are nofollow, so they pass no PageRank directly. Launch there anyway, but for the right reason: launch-day traffic, and the secondary coverage a front-page appearance attracts from blogs and newsletters writing roundups. Those secondary links are frequently dofollow, and they're where the real SEO value of a Product Hunt launch comes from.

Are paid directory submissions worth it?

Occasionally — when the directory sends real buyer traffic in your category and you can measure it. Paying purely for a backlink is a different thing: a paid link is supposed to carry rel="sponsored" and passes no equity when it does. If a directory charges a fee and promises dofollow anyway, it's selling something Google's guidelines classify as a link scheme. Judge paid listings on referral traffic and conversions, never on promised link equity.

Do directory backlinks still work in 2026?

The mechanism has shifted. Bulk directory links stopped moving rankings years ago, but authoritative directory profiles matter more than they used to, because AI answer engines and Google's AI Overviews cite directories and comparison pages when answering questions like "best tool for X" or "alternatives to Y". Being listed where those systems look is now a distribution question as much as a link-building one.

What is a good domain rating for a directory?

As a rough floor, DR 40 and above is worth your time and DR 20 and below rarely is. But domain rating alone is a poor filter. A DR 90 directory that nofollows your link passes no equity, while a DR 45 directory in your exact category with real readers can send buyers who convert. Check link type, whether anyone actually visits, and category fit before you look at the number.

Should I pay a service to submit my startup to 100 directories?

Generally no. The value in directory listings is concentrated in a small number of quality placements, and those are exactly the ones that need a human to write a decent description and pick the right category. Bulk submission produces a long tail of listings on sites with no readers — the pattern search engines have spent a decade learning to discount. If your time is genuinely the constraint, pay someone to do six listings properly rather than a hundred badly.

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Shipping a developer tool? Being listed is step one; being the tool that comes up when someone compares options is where the durable traffic is. See how TechLogHub comparison pages position tools in your category.