Free startup directories: where you can list for free, and what free costs at each

A free startup directory is one whose own pages say you can list for free. On our list, 47 places in room 01 say so in their own words: launch platforms such as Product Hunt and Uneed, software review sites, startup databases, and AI and SaaS directories. All of them are in the table below, each with the date we last checked its link.

Free rarely means nothing. Many of these places ask for something else instead of money: a wait of weeks or months, a badge or a link back to them on your site, an upvote score your launch has to reach, or an editor's yes. Many also sell a paid way around those. This guide sorts the free places by what free costs you, then by kind, with a link to the guide that covers each kind in detail. We run no directory and take no money from the places we list.

01Every free place on the list

A place is in this table when the price we read on its own pages starts with "Free" and the sentence we quote from that page says so too. If the only sentence we hold is about a paid plan, the place stays out until we find the free option in writing.

The columns show what each poster on the list shows: the kind, the cost in short form ("Free + paid" means the site also sells something), the stated wait or review rule (or the link type, where a site gives no time) and the date of our last link check. Hover a value for the full text we read. Each name opens the place's page on the list, where the source and the exact quote sit behind a free account.

Room 01 holds 163 places in all, and we have read a price on the site's own pages for 96 of them. The rest are not necessarily paid: we just haven't found the price in writing yet. With a free account, the free places page shows each one's full price text and the page it came from.

02What free costs you

The cost column tells you whether a place charges. It does not tell you what the free listing asks of you. On the sites' own pages, the price of a free listing comes in six forms.

A wait

The free option on a launch platform is usually a queue. 34 of the free places state a wait, a review or an approval rule; the approval column shows it in short form, and some free queues run for months. How long a free launch waits sets out every stated queue, longest first, with what it costs to skip it.

A paid way past the queue

Where the cost column says "Free + paid", the site sells something on top: usually a faster review, a launch date you choose, or a featured slot. Paggu, a site that reviews startups, says it plainly on its submission page: "Submitting your startup is absolutely free. In case you want to jump the line and get your startup reviewed immediately, we might charge a small fee." It names no price for the fee.

Older web directories sell placement the same way. 9sites, which calls itself a human-edited web directory, offers two listing types on its submission form: "Premium Links ($15.95 one time fee) Regular Links (free)". Its form adds that "Submissions that contain errors, bad grammar, or similar will delay approval."

A link or a badge on your site

Some free tiers ask you to link back first. A few say so in their price: Dokey AI lists you free if you add a backlink, and Fazier's free launch comes "with embed badge". Across the free places, 6 state a rule about a badge or a link back; each entry page has the rule in the site's words.

A badge is a link from your site to theirs, on your homepage or in your footer. One is a small ask. Twenty is a row of links to directories. Do startup directories help SEO? quotes what Google says about required links, next to Dokey AI's own sentence.

Votes

On some launch boards, what a free launch keeps depends on how it does on the day. Awesome Indie's link stays nofollow until a launch reaches 20 upvotes. Uneed ties both the listing and its followed link to an upvote score; Uneed vs Product Hunt walks through those rules. 8 of the free places state what kind of link a listing gets, and each entry page has the full rule.

An account

21 of the free places state whether you need an account to submit. That costs no money, but it is one more login to keep. Each entry page says whether the place asks.

An editor's yes

Some free places pick what they publish. Paggu writes a review "if it matches our criteria", by the same submission page. Feedough, a startup blog, features for free but skips businesses it doesn't see as startups. Land-book, a website design gallery, curates every submission; where to submit website design covers it with the other galleries. A curated place costs you nothing if it says no, except the time you spent on the form.

Nothing else that we found

A few places state only that listing is free, with no wait, badge or paid tier in the sentence we hold. Promote Project is one:

D087Promote Project·Cost

“Discover the latest innovative startups and companies. Promote your business for free, find investment opportunities, and connect with entrepreneurs worldwide.”

Our reading: Free

The startup databases Startup Tracker and the EU-Startups database are in startup databases, and Discover Cloud is with the SaaS directories.

03Free places by kind

The table mixes kinds on purpose: the free set cuts across them. Here is each kind in one line, with the guide that covers it in full.

• Launch platforms. 12 of the 19 launch platforms on the list have a free launch. Product Hunt is free and you pick the day; on the others a free launch usually gets a date from a queue, and the site sells a skip. All of them are in Product Hunt alternatives.
• Review sites. 14 of the 29 review sites have a free option: business software sites with a free vendor profile, and app review blogs with a free review in a queue. See where to list B2B software and app review sites.
• Directories. 12 free places carry the plain "directory" label in the table: old web directories such as 9sites, startup databases with a review queue, and a few one-offs, among them a marketplace for side projects (SideProjectors), an early-adopter board (Getworm) and a design gallery (Land-book). Startup databases covers the databases.
• AI directories. 5 of the 28 AI directories have a free listing. AI tool directories splits them into free if you wait and free if you link back.
• SaaS directories. 3 of the 15 SaaS directories list for free; SaaS directories has them with the alternatives sites.
• A newsletter and an app catalog. 10 Words features new projects in its newsletter, and App Rater is a catalog for apps. 10 Words and Getworm are both in where to find beta users.

This guide covers room 01. In the communities of room 02, posting costs nothing and the price is each community's rules. For feedback on a site or a design rather than a listing, r/websitefeedback and r/Design_Critiques are in where to share side projects.

04Free places that stopped working

Free directories close, go quiet or get taken over, and lists of them age fast. In our 2026 link check, 20 of the 375 startup launch links we checked were dead, parked or showing spam.

Three places we took off room 01 or hold back show how it happens. Killer Startups had published nothing since April 2025 when we looked on 30 September 2026, and its submit page led to a newsletter sign-up. Startup Stash's listing form said "This typeform is now closed" the same day, leaving an email address as the only way in. Primeindies failed three link checks in a row and was a parked page of keyword ads when we last looked. We print their names without links on purpose. Changes to the list are in the changelog.

Before you fill in any free form, spend a minute on the site. Dead, parked or hijacked lists the five signs to look for.

05How to use the free places

Start with the long queues. A free launch that waits months has to be submitted months ahead. Submit to the longest queues first and fill the weeks before launch with the faster ones. The launch plan lays this out week by week.

Pay only for a date you need. If one launch has to land on a set day, the paid skip on that one site is what buys it. Everywhere else, the free option gets you listed later.

Pick by audience, not by count. A review site is for buyers comparing software; a launch board is for people who like new things; a design gallery is for designers. A listing where your buyers don't look does little, however free it is. We don't measure the traffic a listing brings, and no free place we read promises any.

Keep a record. Write down the date each queue gives you and the address of each listing once it is live. My launch keeps that list on a free account: press + on a poster on the list, and mark each place submitted and live as you go.

06How we checked

Each price and each rule comes from the site's own pages, read on 29 and 30 September 2026, with the page and the exact words on the place's page on the list. The table and every count in this guide are read from the list when you open the page, so they change when the list does. Each poster shows the date of its last link check; a place is hidden after three failed checks in a row. We don't submit products or measure what a listing brings. Nobody pays to be listed or to appear in a guide. Read how we check for the details.

07Questions

01

Are there still free startup directories?

Yes. Launch platforms, review sites, startup databases and AI and SaaS directories on our list say in their own words that you can list for free. The table in this guide shows all of them, read from the list when you open the page, with the date of each one's last link check.

02

Why do free directories also sell paid listings?

On the sites' own pages, the paid extra is mostly a way to go faster: a faster review, a launch date you choose or a featured slot. If your launch date is flexible, the free option gets you listed later rather than not at all, as long as the site accepts you.

03

Do free startup directories give a dofollow link?

Some do, some only to paid listings, and some only if a free launch gets enough upvotes, as on Uneed and Awesome Indie. Each place's page on the list states its link rule with the source. Do startup directories help SEO? explains what Google says about directory links.

04

What is the catch with a free startup directory?

Usually one of these: a queue of weeks or months, a paid option sold to skip it, a badge or link back on your site, an upvote score your launch has to reach, an account, or an editor who can say no. The table shows each place's stated wait, and its page on the list has the full rule in the site's words.

05

How many free directories should I submit to?

As many as fit your audience, not as many as exist. We don't measure the traffic a listing brings, so we can't tell you a number. Start with the places your buyers browse, submit to the long free queues first, and check each site is still alive before you fill in its form.