App review sites: which still review apps, what they charge, and which are gone

App review sites are blogs that write up new iOS, Android and web apps, often for a fee. Of the ones on our list that state a price, some sell the review, some give one away with help from a marketing agency, and App Rater lists apps for free. Several of them also belong to one group, in their own words, so check before you pay two of them.

This guide covers the app review sites on our list: what each one charges, how long a review takes where the site says so, what the free offers are, and the app sites that no longer work. Every price is the site's own, read on the date shown, and each name links to the place's page on the list. We take no money from the places we list.

01The short list

Here they are side by side: the kind, the cost, the wait where the site states one, and the date of our last link check. Hover a value to see the full text we read. A blank cell means we have not found that fact on the site's own pages: appPicker, for one, states no price on the pages we read.

They all hang in room 01 with the startup directories.

02One network, several names

Apps 400's About page (opens in a new tab) says it plainly: "Apps400 is one of a group of independent review sites run by the same editorial team." The sites it lists in that group include Appiod, AppsThunder, Apps Listo, Apps Mamma and Web App Rater, plus several blogs that are not on our list.

The footers point the same way. Apps Mamma's (opens in a new tab) reads "Maintained by AppMarketingPlus". Web App Rater's (opens in a new tab) reads "Promoted by AppMarketingPlus - Developer Friendly App Marketing Company". AppMarketingPlus is also the agency behind the free review on Apps Listo (more on that below).

That matters when you buy. Appiod, AppsThunder, Apps 400, Apps Listo and Web App Rater each sell a package that places one app on several blogs. If you buy one, ask which blogs it covers, and do not also pay for a single review on one of them.

03What the paid reviews cost

As we read them on each site's own pages on 29 or 30 September 2026:

• Appiod: paid, a $29 guaranteed review or a $249 network review.
• Apps 400: paid only, from $49, or $349 for placement across 12 sites. Reviews are published within 7–10 working days of payment. Its home page (opens in a new tab) says the same: "Paid reviews from $49. Network placement across 12 sites, $349. Published within 7–10 working days."
• AppsThunder: a free review that comes with lead-generation support, or a $249 package for reviews on 10 blogs.
• Apps Listo: a free review through its partner agency, or paid: a $25 guaranteed review, a $75 featured review with 30 days on the home page, or a $169 package of 10 reviews.
• Web App Rater: paid, a $29 guaranteed review or a $249 network review of 10 reviews.
• Apps Mamma: a free or a paid review.

Three of them state a wait on their submission forms, in almost the same words: "Generally it took 7-10 days to get a review published." Apps Mamma adds that it publishes at most one free review a day, and Web App Rater at most three reviews a day, so submissions wait in a queue.

A review you pay for is a paid placement, and two sets of rules treat it that way. In the US, the FTC's guidance on endorsements (opens in a new tab) says that if there is a connection between an endorser and a marketer that "a significant minority of consumers wouldn't expect and it would affect how they evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously." And Google asks sites (opens in a new tab) to "Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links) with the sponsored value." Its spam policies (opens in a new tab) count "Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links" as link spam. So pay for a review for the readers it may bring, not for the link. What other paid directories charge, and which refund you, is in paid startup directories.

04Free options

App Rater lists apps for free and sells promotion separately. It covers iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and web apps, and one person works through its queue, so expect a wait. Its terms, quoted, are in where to promote a Mac or iOS app, and the other places for an Android app in where to promote an Android app. App Rater on the list.

Apps Mamma offers a free review as well as a paid one, for apps that suit its readers. The free ones go out at most one a day:

D067Apps Mamma·Kind

“AppsMamma is an online magazine that specializes in providing information about children's apps and parenting apps. The magazine's team finds high-quality apps and reviews them”

Our reading: review site

Apps Listo and AppsThunder offer a free review that comes with lead-generation support. On Apps Listo that runs through an agency rather than the blog's own queue. Its home page (opens in a new tab) puts it this way: "Partner with AppMarketingPlus, a seasoned app marketing agency, for lead generation assistance and a complimentary review." The agency's own FAQ (opens in a new tab) answers the question "Is there a cost involved in the free review?" with "No, the initial review is completely free." Note the word "initial".

appPicker describes itself as an indie iOS app blog. We have not found a submission form or a price on its site: its About page (opens in a new tab) only asks readers to get in touch if "we missed something".

05Catalogs for Apple-platform apps

If you make an app for Apple platforms, a few places on the list are catalogs and features rather than review blogs: 9to5Mac Indie App Spotlight, Indie App Catalog and MacUpdate. None of them states a price on the pages we read. Their rules, with Setapp, Apple's own featuring nominations and the r/macapps and r/iosapps threads, are in where to promote a Mac or iOS app.

06App sites that are gone

These app sites failed our 2026 link check. We name them as text, without links:

• Submit Your App was on our list. Its domain now shows a hosting error page, "This page doesn't exist" with "404 DEPLOYMENT_NOT_FOUND". We removed it after three failed checks in a row; the removal is in the changelog.
• Appvita, from our research list, now forwards to a personal website on another domain. We never listed it.

A working link does not prove that anyone still reads the submissions. Before you pay, open the newest review on the site and look at its date. How to check a directory before you submit covers the other signs: parked domains, spam, and sites that now send you somewhere else.

07Launch platforms take apps too

Review blogs are one route. Launch platforms are another, and they list apps next to every other kind of product. 12 of the 19 launch platforms on our list have a free launch.

D038Uneed·In their words

“Uneed is a launch platform where makers launch their products every day. Discover, upvote and review the best new tools, apps and startups.”

The launch platforms on the list, Product Hunt and Uneed among them, are compared in Product Hunt alternatives, with what each one charges and how long a free launch waits.

08Questions

01

Are there free app review sites?

A few. App Rater says submitting, being published and staying in its archive are free, with promotion sold separately. Apps Mamma offers a free or a paid review. Apps Listo offers a free review through an app marketing agency, and AppsThunder a free review that comes with lead-generation support. The table in this guide shows the cost each site states.

02

How much do app review sites charge?

It depends on the package. The sites that sell reviews offer a single write-up on one blog, or a network package that places one app on several blogs for several times the price. The section on paid reviews gives each site's price in its own words.

03

How long does an app review take to publish?

Most of the review blogs that sell reviews say about a week or two. Apps 400 says reviews are published within seven to ten working days of payment, and Apps Mamma, AppsThunder and Web App Rater say a review generally took seven to ten days, from a queue. App Rater says one person works through its queue, so expect a wait rather than minutes. We have not found a stated time for the others.

04

Are these app review sites independent of each other?

Apps 400's About page says it is one of "a group of independent review sites run by the same editorial team", and that group includes Appiod, AppsThunder, Apps Listo, Apps Mamma and Web App Rater. Ask which blogs a network package covers before you buy reviews on more than one.