Most "500 places to submit your startup" lists are the same list. Someone compiles it, the next person copies it, and a word like "dofollow" travels from list to list without anyone submitting a product to see if it is true.
We built our directories page from those lists anyway, because that is where makers start. Then we threw out anything only one list mentioned, unless someone had confirmed it in a real submission, and wrote down what each directory asks for. The export behind this post is dated October 17, 2026. It holds 929 directories.
Scrolling 929 rows teaches you nothing, but filtering them does.
From 929 directories to 32
Every directory in the list: 929. Free to submit: 636. Free, and reported by our sources to give a followed link, with or without a badge: 277. Of those, confirmed working by someone who actually submitted: 114. Of those, the ones that take a product without making you create an account: 32.
Thirty-two directories is something you can get through in one weekend. A list of 929 tells you submitting never ends. A list of 32 is something you can finish.
The page will rebuild that short list for you with four filters: free, dofollow, no sign-up, verified. Sort it by Domain Rating and start from the top.
One thing stands out when you read the 32 names. More than half of them are directories of AI tools. If your product has nothing to do with AI, a listing on most of them will look odd to the people browsing, and your real list is closer to a dozen. Relevance matters more than the count here. A followed link from a page about unrelated products is the kind search engines learned to ignore years ago.
The closer people look, the less "dofollow" holds up
Split the 929 in two and the picture changes. On one side, 286 directories that someone confirmed by submitting a product. On the other, 643 that only appear on lists.
Among the list-only directories, 37% are reported as plain dofollow. Among the confirmed ones, 28% are. The share where our sources disagree about the link moves the other way. It is 4% for list-only directories and 16% for confirmed ones.
Here is how we read it: a claim copied from list to list never gets contradicted, because nobody tests it. Once makers submit for real, some find a nofollow where a list promised dofollow, and they write that down. A directory with a disputed link is often one that more people actually checked.
The badge numbers point the same way: only 3% of list-only directories are marked "dofollow with a badge". Among the confirmed ones, it is 20%. A badge rule usually sits on the submit form or in the FAQ, so the people who got that far saw it, and a list compiled from other lists rarely does.
Free rarely means quick
Of the 286 confirmed directories, 176 want you to create an account before you submit. Another 27 let you in with Google or GitHub. Only 77 take a product with no account at all.
76 directories in the full list sit behind a captcha or another bot check. That is worth knowing before you pay a service that promises to submit your product to 500 directories in a day. Ask how it handles those 76, and ask for the list of URLs where your product actually went live.
Then there is the badge, which costs you something too. A directory that trades a followed link for its badge wants that badge on your homepage for as long as you want the link. Five of them and your footer turns into a row of other people's logos. Pick the ones whose audience you would want anyway.
Paying doesn't buy you certainty
105 directories in the list charge to submit. Our sources report a followed link for 38 of them, and don't know what the paid listing links with for another 38.
Before you pay, find out whether the link is followed, whether it is marked sponsored, and whether it stays when a subscription ends. If the FAQ can't tell you, email them. You may still want the listing for its visitors, which is a fine reason to pay. You just shouldn't pay for a link you have never seen.
Our post on dofollow, nofollow and sponsored explains what each of those words means for you.
A weekend plan for the 32
On Saturday morning, write the listing once: a tagline under 60 characters, a description of about 150 words, a square logo and one screenshot. Nearly every form asks for some mix of those, and copying from one note saves an hour. The tagline guide has examples that work in a directory list.
Saturday afternoon goes to the no-account directories. Keep a sheet with three columns: the directory, the date you submitted, and the URL of your listing once it appears. Some approve in minutes and some take weeks, so the sheet is how you'll know which ones never came through.
On Sunday, if you have energy left, move to confirmed directories that need an account, the ones closest to your product first. With a launch date coming, set the category filter to launch platforms and do those 41 first, then the rest.
Two weeks later, open the sheet and go down the column of listing URLs. A listing you can't find is a link you don't have. For the three or four you care about most, open the listing and look at the link to your site in the page source. If it says rel="nofollow" and the list said dofollow, write that down too.
Where these numbers can be wrong
The link types come from our sources, not from our own crawl of every directory. "Verified" means someone got a product listed through the form. It doesn't promise what the link is today. 457 entries carry no date of a last check. Directories change their rules quietly: a free plan turns paid, a followed link turns nofollow.
So treat every count here as a starting point, and read the directory's own page before you rely on it. If you find one that has changed, the directories page has an address at the bottom to tell us, and we update the list.
We also run a directory ourselves, which gives us a stake in this. On website.show, listing is free, a person reviews every product, and the link is followed while our badge is on your homepage. website.show is not one of the 929, so every count above is about other people's directories. You can list your product here as well.
FAQ
How many startup directories give a free dofollow link?
In our list of 929, 277 are free and reported to give a followed link, counting the ones that require their badge. Only 114 of those are confirmed working in real submissions, and 32 of those also need no account.
Is it worth submitting to hundreds of directories?
Rarely. A handful of directories that match your product and actually publish the listing do more than hundreds of unrelated ones. Past a few dozen, most of your time goes into forms for links that no visitor will ever click.
What does "dofollow with badge" mean?
The directory gives your listing a followed link only while its badge is on your homepage. Take the badge down and the link usually becomes nofollow, sometimes after a few missed checks.
Why do lists disagree about whether a directory is dofollow?
Because many lists copy each other and few people test. When makers submit for real, some find a nofollow link where a list promised dofollow. A directory can also change its links after a list was written.
Can I see the 32 directories?
Yes. Open the directories page with the filters free, dofollow, no sign-up and verified. The page shows each one's price, sign-up and a link to its submit form.
Sources
- website.show directories list, export of October 17, 2026: every count in this post
- Google Search spam policies, on link spam
- Google: qualify your outbound links with rel attributes
We counted every number in this post from the export named above on October 27, 2026. The link types are what our sources report, not a crawl of each directory, and directories change their rules without notice.