Directory submission in 2026: 199 sites checked by hand

Search for "directory submission sites" and the first results are lists of 300 sites or more. Most of these lists are made of local business listings, such as Facebook pages, Yelp or Apple Maps, and of old general web directories. They rate each site by its Domain Authority, without saying whether its link counts for search engines. Lists like these are made for shops and restaurants. Software products, AI tools and startups are listed somewhere else: in directories of software, of AI tools and of new products.

In October 2026 we checked 199 of these directories by hand, on their own pages: the submission form, the pricing page, the rules, and a published listing to read the link. This is what we found:

• 121 of the 199 give a free listing with a dofollow link. 105 of them ask for something in return: their badge on your site (87) or a link back to them (18). 16 ask for nothing.
• 43 give a free listing with a nofollow link. The link becomes dofollow if you pay (24) or if your product reaches the top of their ranking (19).
• 18 never give a dofollow link: the link is nofollow or ugc, or it goes through a redirect.
• 17 charge for every listing.
• Of the 121 free dofollow listings, 26 go live the same day and 12 take more than 60 days.

Does directory submission still work?#

For a new site, yes, with limits. A listing on a directory that reviews what it publishes does three things:

• It gives you a link that counts. A new site has few links, and a directory gives one without asking anyone for a favor. 77 of the 121 free dofollow directories we checked have a Domain Rating of 50 or more.
• It helps search engines find your site. Crawlers follow links, and a listing is a page that links to yours.
• It puts your product where people compare tools. Some visitors browse a directory's categories to find a tool for a job.

What it does not do: one listing does not move a site's ranking on its own, and some directory links can hurt. Google's spam policies (opens in a new tab) name "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" as an example of link spam, with links bought for ranking and links made by automated programs. The question is which directories to submit to, and how.

How we checked them#

Every directory in this article has a page on Submitium with the facts we recorded and the pages we read them on. The directories page lists them all.

• Free listing: read on the directory's submission form and pricing page.
• Dofollow: the link on a published listing has no rel="nofollow", rel="ugc" or rel="sponsored", and points to the product's site directly, not through a redirect. Google explains these attributes in its page on qualifying outbound links (opens in a new tab).
• Domain Rating (DR): from Ahrefs, read between October 21 and 27, 2026. It goes from 0 to 100 and measures the strength of a site's backlinks.
• Badge or link back: what the directory asks you to show on your site, on which page, and for how long.
• Wait: the delay each directory announces for a free listing.

The 199 directories are of five kinds: 72 launch platforms, 60 software and SaaS directories, 43 AI tool directories, 19 startup directories and 5 communities. Launch platforms have their own article: Product Hunt alternatives: 72 launch platforms, checked by hand. The figures above cover all 199. The tables below list the 87 other directories with a free dofollow link.

The short list: ten directories live within three days#

Most directories make you wait. These ten have a Domain Rating of 65 or more, give a free listing with a dofollow link, and announce that it goes live within three days. All ten list software or AI tools, and Submitium submits to all of them. Prices are the ones each site showed between October 15 and 27, 2026.

1. Twelve Tools (DR 83)#

Twelve Tools lists software tools for free with a dofollow link, if your homepage or footer links back to it: a text link or one of its badges. It reviews free listings within 72 hours and needs no account. The Pro listing, $36 once, gives 3 dofollow links and needs no link back.

2. Findly.tools (DR 82)#

Findly.tools is a directory of software tools. It publishes your listing as soon as its badge is on your homepage, the same day, with a dofollow link. It checks the badge again regularly and unpublishes a listing whose badge is gone. Its paid Premium listing, $29, needs no badge and carries 4 dofollow links. Findly.tools is run by the team behind Submitium.

3. Neeed Directory (DR 74)#

Neeed Directory publishes a free listing at once, after an automatic check, and makes its link dofollow once its badge is found on your site. The badge can go on any page. A listing whose badge stays gone is hidden until the badge is back. The Premium listing, $19 once, keeps a dofollow link without the badge.

4. AI Directories (DR 71)#

AI Directories lists AI tools. A free listing asks for a link back on your homepage and is reviewed within 3 days. The Pro listing, $49 once, needs no link back and goes live at once.

5. ShowMySites (DR 71)#

ShowMySites publishes the same day or the next. The link becomes dofollow once it finds its badge or a link to it on your homepage, the only page it checks. If the badge goes, the link turns nofollow. Premium, $10 once per account, makes every listing of the account dofollow without a badge.

6. ToolDirs (DR 70)#

ToolDirs reviews free listings within 2 days. The free listing asks for a dofollow link back to ToolDirs in your site's footer. The One-Time listing, $9.99, needs no badge.

7. VerifiedDR (DR 70)#

VerifiedDR publishes at once and makes the link dofollow when its badge is on your homepage. Its paid plans are 90-day programs, from $299, that include submissions to other directories.

8. TheSaaSDir (DR 68)#

TheSaaSDir needs no account: you give an email address with the submission. The listing goes live the same day, and the badge goes on the page you list, which does not have to be your homepage. A listing whose badge is gone is unpublished. The paid listing, $19, needs no badge and carries 3 dofollow links.

9. ToolRain (DR 67)#

ToolRain lists AI tools and reviews free listings within 72 hours. Its badge has to stay on your site for as long as you are listed. The Basic listing, $9.90 once, goes live at once without the badge.

10. DailyPings (DR 65)#

DailyPings is a directory of new software tools. Like Findly.tools, it publishes your listing the same day once its badge is on your homepage, with a dofollow link, and it checks the badge every day. Its Premium listing, $19, needs no badge and adds 7 days in its "Newly launched" list and a mention in its newsletter. DailyPings is run by the team behind Submitium.

If you can wait longer#

Three directories have a higher Domain Rating than most of the ten, and a longer wait:

• Startup Fame (DR 85) reviews free listings in 3 to 7 days, with its badge on your homepage.
• Turbo0 (DR 81) asks for a link back on the page you list, and reviews within 2 weeks.
• ToolPilot.ai (DR 79) lists AI tools after a queue of up to 90 days.

Every directory with a free dofollow link#

The 87 directories below give a free listing with a dofollow link. The 34 launch platforms that do are in the launch platforms article.

Each table is sorted by Domain Rating. "Asks" is what the directory wants on your site in return: its badge, a link back (a text link or a badge), or nothing. "Live" is the wait each directory announces for a free listing.

Software and SaaS directories (50)#

AI tool directories (22)#

Startup directories (12)#

Communities (3)#

We don't submit to 17 of them. Nine give a dofollow link without asking for a badge, and two use a badge only to review faster: you can submit to these eleven yourself. Six have a badge written in HTML, which our badge wall does not show yet.

What directories ask in return#

105 of the 121 free dofollow listings depend on something you put on your site: the directory's badge (87) or a link back to it (18). Three rules come back on most of them:

1. It goes on the page they check. 38 check your homepage, 28 the page you list, and 12 accept any page. 27 don't say which page they check.
2. It stays as long as you are listed. 100 of the 105 ask for it to stay. 5 ask for it only until the listing is live.
3. Removing it has a cost. When a directory says what happens if it goes, it removes the listing (29 directories) or turns the link nofollow (19). The other 57 don't say.

Some check again every day, like DailyPings. Others check every week, or "regularly" without a date. A badge removed by mistake during a redesign can end several listings at once.

Ten badges pasted one by one in a footer get long. The badge wall keeps them in one block: you add it once, and Submitium adds and removes badges as your listings change.

How long before your listing is live#

Directories are faster than launch platforms, many of which publish on a schedule. 57 of the 87 directories in the tables above publish a free listing within a week, against 12 of the 34 launch platforms. Where a directory has a queue, its paid listing usually skips it: on Twelve Tools within 24 hours for $36, on ToolRain at once for $9.90.

What paid listings cost#

188 of the 199 directories sell something. The cheapest paid option of each one costs $12 at the median, and half of them cost between $9 and $19. What they sell is one of four things, often several at once:

• a listing without the badge,
• a listing without the wait,
• more dofollow links in the listing,
• a place on the homepage or at the top of a category.

17 directories only sell paid listings, from $1.99 (AI Website Directory) to $249 (Tekpon).

Google's spam policies count buying links for ranking as link spam, and ask that paid links carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". A paid listing with a dofollow link is that kind of link. Submitium never pays a directory: we only submit to free listings.

Well-known directories with no free dofollow link#

Some of the best-known directories are not in the tables above: their free listing gives a nofollow link or a redirect, or they only sell paid listings. A nofollow link still sends visitors. It just doesn't count as a recommendation for search engines.

• ShowMeBestAI and Tiny Startups make the link dofollow on their paid listings, from $9.99 and $92.
• SaaSHub sells a featured placement, $99 a month, and its links stay nofollow.
• Dang.ai asks for a link back on its free listing, and links to you through a redirect.

How to submit to directories#

1. Write your listing once. Almost every form asks for the same things: the product's name, a one-line tagline, a short description, a longer one, a square logo, two or three screenshots, a category and your pricing. Write them once, and paste them into each form.
2. Put the badges up before you submit. Most free listings check for their badge before they go live, on the page they check.
3. Start with the directories that publish within days. The ten in the short list publish within three days. Submit to the ones with a queue the same day, so their wait starts early.
4. Check each listing once it is live. Open the page, check that the link points to your site, and read its rel. A listing can go live with a nofollow link, or with a link that goes through a redirect.
5. Keep a list. With dozens of directories, a list of where you submitted, when, and what each one asked for saves checking each site by hand.

Manual or automated submission?#

Some tools submit a site to hundreds of directories at once, by filling in their forms. Most directories in this article need more than a form: 93 of the 121 free dofollow listings need an account, 105 check for a badge or a link back, and 10 launch platforms want the account to vote for or comment on other launches. Google's spam policies also count links made with automated programs or services as link spam.

Submitium submits by hand. We submit your product to the directories you pick, among the 100 marked "Yes" in the tables of this article and of the launch platforms article. We follow each submission until the listing is live, and keep the badges in one badge wall. A directory costs $0.99, less from the 51st, and a first order starts at 30 directories. See the pricing and the full list of directories.

Questions#

What is directory submission?#

Adding your website to an online directory. You fill in a form with your product's name, description, link and images, and the directory publishes a page about it, with a link to your site.

Does directory submission still work in 2026?#

For a new site, it is one of the simplest ways to get its first dofollow links: 121 of the 199 directories we checked give one for free. It works with directories that review what they list. Google counts links from low-quality directories as link spam.

Are directory backlinks dofollow?#

Not all of them. Of the 199 directories we checked, 121 give a dofollow link on their free listing, 43 make it dofollow only if you pay or reach the top of their ranking, and 18 never do.

Is directory submission free?#

Mostly. 182 of the 199 directories have a free listing. 105 of the 121 free dofollow listings ask for their badge or a link back on your site in return.

Which directories should I submit to?#

The ones that list products like yours and give a dofollow link. For a software product, an AI tool or a startup, that is the 87 directories in the tables above and the 34 launch platforms of the other article. The short list above is where a listing goes live fastest.

Can directory submission hurt my SEO?#

Links from low-quality directories can. Google's spam policies name them as link spam, with links bought for ranking and links made by automated programs. Submit by hand, to directories that review each listing and list products like yours, and don't pay for dofollow links.

How long does directory submission take?#

From the same day to about three months, depending on the directory. Of the 121 free dofollow listings, 26 go live the same day and 43 within a week. 12 take more than 60 days.