Where to submit your startup: Product Hunt alternatives compared
25 submission sites compared on what they cost, whether they need an account, what kind of link the listing gives you and how long the review takes. Listed alphabetically, not ranked. We are in the table too, near the bottom of it.
Short answer
Free with no payment required: AlternativeTo, DevHunt, Launching Next, PeerPush, Product Hunt, SaaSHub, Show HN (Hacker News), yourhack.ai. Paid only: BetaList, There's An AI For That, Toolify. Of the 24 external directories below we inspected a live listing on 23 and found 13 serving a followed outbound link, 9 using nofollow and 1 using ugc. Every figure here was read off the live sites on 10 October 2026, except Product Hunt's link type: it blocked our requests this time, so that one is from our July 2026 check.
Launching something right now? yourhack.ai is one of the free options in this table: list it free, or go live today with Fast Track ($9).
Most "best directories to submit your startup" posts are a list of names with invented numbers next to them, usually written by someone selling a bulk submission service. This one is built the boring way: we opened every submit page and at least one live listing on each site, read what they actually say, and wrote down only that. Where a site blocked us or rendered its terms in JavaScript we could not read, the cell says unverified rather than a guess. The full list of URLs we opened is at the bottom, with the date.
Show me:
Submission directories compared on cost, account requirement, link type and stated review time
Followed no nofollow, sponsored or ugc on the anchor we inspected. nofollow and ugc are what we found in the markup. Unverified means we could not read it and are not guessing.
The sites in detail
AlternativeTo
nofollow
Best for: Anyone whose product replaces a well known paid tool. The "X alternatives" pages are the whole point, and they are what people actually search.
Cost
Submitting is free. Their FAQ now also offers "a one-time $5 fee to move your app to the front of the queue. Priority submissions are usually reviewed within 1-2 business days." The fee is not refundable once the review is done.
Account
Their FAQ: "You need to verify your email address before you can submit a new app."
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened, the official website link carried rel="nofollow noopener". A partner slot on the same page carried rel="sponsored".
Stated review time
Their FAQ is frank about the free queue: "The normal queue holds several thousand apps … most apps in it will not be looked at for a very long time … We can't give you a date."
What it lists
Software and apps of any kind, framed as an alternative to something people already use. Must support English.
Worth knowing
There is no /submit URL. You add an app from the "Suggest new application" item in the account menu; the obvious guesses like /manage/software/new/ return 404.
Best for: A pre-launch product that looks good and needs early adopters, if you are willing to pay for the review and can absorb a rejection.
Cost
Their FAQ is blunt about it: "All submissions are paid. There is no free submission option." Prices are only shown at the end of the submission form, so we could not read the number without paying. Full automatic refund if your startup is not selected.
Account
Requesting /submit redirects straight to /login.
Link on the listing
Their FAQ claims a do-follow link, and the page backs it up: the main "Visit Site" anchor had no rel attribute at all, and /startups/{slug}/visit answered 301 to the product site. The thumbnail links beside it did carry rel="noopener nofollow".
Stated review time
Not published as a fixed number: "The expected timeline is shown when you choose a plan and in your confirmation email."
What it lists
Pre-launch and recently launched startups with a real landing page.
Worth knowing
Your product needs its own domain. They state they do not accept vercel.app, netlify.app or herokuapp.com subdomains, or direct app store links.
Best for: An AI product that is happy to put a link to Dang.ai on its own site in exchange for a free listing and can wait a few weeks.
Cost
The pricing page offers a free path: "Not ready to pay? List for free. Requires a crawlable backlink to dang.ai, 1 category, and up to 4 weeks for review." Paid: Basic $49 ("Skip the backlink and get reviewed in about 4 days") and Pro at "$30 setup, then $19 /mo".
Account
Stated on the pricing page: "You'll create a free account (email sign-in, no password) before saving your listing details. You only pay after your details are saved."
Link on the listing
On the tool page we opened (Artly AI), the "View tool" anchor carried rel="noopener noreferrer" and no nofollow, but it points at a Dang.ai short link (l.dang.ai) that answered 302 to the product with ?ref=dangai appended. The link is not marked nofollow; whether a search engine passes anything through a temporary redirect on their own shortener is their call, not something we can verify.
Stated review time
Their comparison table lists review time as 4 days on Basic, 2 days on Pro and "Up to 4 weeks" on the free path.
What it lists
AI tools and services. The site also runs a separate NSFW section with its own pricing.
Worth knowing
The free path is free in money, not in links: it requires a crawlable backlink to dang.ai on your site. The paid Basic tier exists mainly to skip that requirement and the wait.
Best for: A tool whose users are developers, especially open source, where a week-long launch voted on by developers is a better fit than a general audience.
Cost
Their FAQ: "Listing a tool is free, and free tools are given a launch week from the queue. A paid launch costs $19 once: you choose any launch week, get a spot in the newsletter, and your link becomes dofollow. For $49 it is boosted."
Account
Their FAQ: "Sign in, open your account and submit your tool." Voting also requires signing in with GitHub or Google.
Link on the listing
The FAQ says it plainly: "Links on free listings are nofollow; paid launches get a permanent dofollow link." The pages match that: on the Affligo listing the website button carried rel="nofollow noopener", while on the BackupDrill listing the same button carried rel="noopener" only.
Stated review time
No review window is published. Free launches are scheduled from a queue; a paid launch lets you pick the week.
What it lists
Developer tools only. Their FAQ lists open-source projects, APIs and SDKs, frameworks, IDEs, CLIs, testing, DevOps, databases, auth, AI agents and MCP servers, and says tools that are not for developers are not accepted.
Worth knowing
Launches run for a whole week rather than a day. If your product is not for developers, do not bother: it is outside what they accept.
Best for: Makers who are happy to trade a footer link for a free listing and are not in a hurry.
Cost
The free "Basic" tier requires you to link back: "A backlink to our site is required (on your homepage or footer)." Paid tiers listed on the same page: Lite $39 struck through to $29, Premium $69 struck through to $49, Super $139 struck through to $99. Paid tiers state "No backlink required".
Account
The page has Sign In and Join controls, but they open in-page rather than at a URL we could follow, so we could not confirm whether the free submission itself requires an account.
Link on the listing
On the two launch pages we opened (both Premium launches), the "Visit" anchors carried rel="noreferrer" or rel="noopener" and no nofollow, so the paid-tier link is followed. We did not find a free-tier launch to check, so the free link is unverified.
Stated review time
Stated on the free tier card: "Reviewed & listed within 30 days."
What it lists
General product launches, similar shape to Product Hunt.
Worth knowing
Read the free tier carefully. It is free in money and not free in links: you put a link to Fazier on your own site.
Best for: Founders who will actually post, comment and share revenue numbers. It rewards participation, not submission.
Cost
No pricing text on the product pages we read. It looks free, but nothing on the page says so, so we are not stating it.
Account
The "Add Yours" link goes to /products/new, which redirects to /sign-in?next=/products/new.
Link on the listing
On the product page we opened, the website and stats links in the header carried rel="nofollow noopener".
What it lists
A community of founders first, a product directory second.
Worth knowing
The directory itself is gated: the products page says "Create a free account to access the entire directory." Treat it as a community you take part in, not a place to drop a link.
Best for: Makers who want a free permanent listing and a shot at the newsletter, and are not in a hurry.
Cost
The pricing page lists Free at "$0 forever", described as "Directory listing + product page. Reviewed and published in ~4 weeks." Paid: Featured at "$99 /month (or $29/week)", and Instant Launch at "$39 one-time" to skip the wait. A separate free newsletter feature on launchllama.co asks you to "Place our 'As seen on Launch Llama' badge on your website" first.
Account
Their submit page FAQ: "Do I need an account? Yes. Sign in (or create a free account) to submit a tool and manage your listing."
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened (DataFast), every anchor to the product, including the "Visit" and "Website" links, carried rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" in the served HTML. Their own pages disagree about the free tier: the pricing table shows the dofollow backlink as a +$39 add-on for free listings, while their llms.txt says listings on "free and Featured tiers" get dofollow links.
Stated review time
Submit page: "Free listings are typically reviewed in about 4 weeks. Featured listings and Instant Launch go live immediately after payment."
What it lists
AI tools, dev tools and indie startups, in a directory with upvotes and a weekly newsletter.
Worth knowing
Read what you are paying for. Two of their own pages describe the free tier's link differently, and the listing we inspected, whose outbound URL was tagged as a featured tool, served a nofollow link, so do not pay for "dofollow" without checking your own listing's markup afterwards.
Best for: A free, no-account listing with a followed link, if you are fine with publication being their call.
Cost
Their submit page: "Submitting to Launching Next is free, but if you want your startup to be considered for publication within 1-business day, we offer a $99 upgrade on the next page."
Account
The form asks only for your name and email.
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened, the "Visit Website" anchor to the product had no rel attribute at all.
Stated review time
Their submit page: "We review submissions every day, and you'll receive an email if we publish your startup."
What it lists
New startups and side projects.
Worth knowing
Free means considered, not guaranteed: they email you only if they publish. The $99 upgrade buys a faster consideration, not a promise.
Best for: A founder with a small launch budget who wants a 30-day exposure campaign rather than a one-day launch.
Cost
Requesting /submit redirected to the pricing section of /premium, which lists Launch Pro at $39 (shown against $49 with code LAUNCH20) and Launch Plus at $79 (against $99 with code LAUNCH-PLUS-20). We found no free launch option on that page or the homepage, but we cannot rule one out inside the logged-in flow.
Account
The header shows Signup and "New Launch" controls, but we found no public URL for the launch flow itself (/submit redirects to the pricing page), so we could not confirm whether an account comes first.
Link on the listing
On both product pages we opened (Halovoice and Wallmockup), the link to the product carried rel="noopener noreferrer" and no nofollow. We could not tell whether those were paid launches; the Launch Pro card advertises "Lifetime SEO" do-follow backlinks as a paid feature.
Stated review time
No review window published. Launch Pro is sold with "Pick your launch date."
What it lists
Tech products and startups, with categories for AI, dev tools, marketing, productivity and social tools.
Worth knowing
The obvious submit URL lands on a sales page. If you are looking for a free listing, assume there is not one until you see it inside the flow.
Best for: A maker who wants a cheap dated launch; at $12 the paid tier is the realistic option while the free queue is booked out.
Cost
The pricing page says "Free launches are fully booked into 2027. Launch tomorrow with Premium." Premium Launch is $12 per launch; an "SEO Growth Package" is listed at $59 against $199.
Account
Requesting /projects/submit redirected to /sign-in?redirect=/projects/submit.
Link on the listing
Their free tier states "Dofollow Backlink only if: 1. Top 3 daily ranking 2. Display our badge on your site"; Premium promises a guaranteed dofollow link. On the listing we opened (AgentZap), all three anchors to the product carried rel="noopener nofollow".
Stated review time
No review window published. Launches go out daily at 8:00 AM UTC, and the free queue is the bottleneck, not a review.
What it lists
Startups and software projects generally, in a Product Hunt style daily launch.
Worth knowing
The free tier is listed but not currently usable in practice: their own page says free slots are booked into 2027. The site describes itself as an open source project.
Best for: A maker willing to either add a badge or pay a small fee, since the plain free queue is more than a year long.
Cost
Free Launch at $0 with "20 slots weekly" and "Current queue time: ~60 weeks", or "add our badge to skip". Premium Launch is $9.9 shown against $19 ("Skip the wait. Launch next Monday"), and Highlight is $20 a week shown against $59 with "Demand-based rates".
Account
Requesting /projects/submit redirected to /sign-in (Google, GitHub or email and password).
Link on the listing
The free tier promises a "Dofollow backlink if top 3"; paid tiers say "Guaranteed dofollow backlink". On two of the three listings we opened (Acctaly and AI Character Generator) the "Visit website" anchor carried rel="noopener nofollow"; on the third (Jev AI) it carried rel="noopener" only. We could not see which plan each one used.
Stated review time
No review window published. Launches happen on Mondays at 8:00 AM UTC, and the free queue was stated as about 60 weeks.
What it lists
General startup and product launches, weekly rather than daily.
Worth knowing
A 60-week queue makes the free tier close to nominal. Check the current queue on the pricing page before you plan around it.
Best for: Individual builders who already have, or will build, a Peerlist profile and want a weekly launch among other developers and designers.
Cost
No launch fee appears in their help docs. But "Anyone with a Verified Peerlist profile can launch", and their verification page says "Workplace verification is free. Identity verification has a minimal fee associate with it."
Account
A personal, verified Peerlist profile: "Only individual profiles are allowed to launch projects. Your profile must have a valid name and profile picture, and it should not represent a company."
Link on the listing
Could not be inspected: the Launchpad pages render client-side and served no project links. Their FAQ is explicit anyway: "Do all projects receive a backlink from Peerlist? No, only the top 5 projects of the week are awarded a backlink."
Stated review time
Their guide: "Your project will immediately go live on Peerlist Launchpad." The launch window opens on Mondays, and you can schedule a launch for a later week.
What it lists
Their FAQ lists coding projects (dev tools, browser extensions, libraries), design projects (Figma files and plugins, portfolios) and digital products (ebooks, Notion templates, UI kits).
Worth knowing
Company profiles and agencies are out: "SEO marketing agencies are strictly prohibited from launching projects on behalf of their clients." The project must be 100% complete on your profile or the launch fails.
Best for: A polished launch you have prepared for, with people you can genuinely ask to show up. It is a one-day event, not a listing.
Cost
Their launch guide answers it directly: "Is Product Hunt free? Yes. It’s 100% free to use."
Account
/posts/new redirects to the login page. Their guide adds that company accounts are prohibited, so it has to be a personal account.
Link on the listing
When we last could read it (31 July 2026), the website link on a product page carried rel="noreferrer noopener ugc". In October 2026 every direct request was blocked, so we could not re-check it. Search engines treat ugc as a hint rather than a plain endorsement, so do not plan a launch around the link.
Stated review time
No published review window.
What it lists
Anything you would call a product launch. The biggest audience on this list by a distance.
Worth knowing
You cannot ask people to upvote. Their guide says to ask people to visit and comment instead, and accounts get flagged for the usual growth-hacking behaviour.
Best for: Established-enough software that can name its competitors and wants to sit in comparison and alternatives pages.
Cost
Their own nav describes it as "Our free tool that helps you to promote your product." A separate "Feature My Product" option sells premium placement.
Account
The submit form is served to logged-out visitors: paste a URL and continue.
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened, the main site button carried rel="nofollow". A duplicate variant of the same button had an empty rel, which looks like a template inconsistency rather than a policy.
Stated review time
They confirm there is one: "Please note that all submitted products go through an approval process."
What it lists
SaaS, IaaS and PaaS, most software products and apps, mobile apps with a decent website.
Worth knowing
They publish the rejection list: no agencies, no waitlist landing pages, nothing unreleased, no free subdomains, English only. They also warn that leaving the competitors field empty pushes you to the bottom of the queue, and that verifying with an email on your product’s own domain raises your priority.
Best for: A working, non-trivial thing you built yourself and are around to discuss, that people can try without signing up.
Cost
No fee and no paid tier. You submit a normal story whose title begins with "Show HN".
Account
The submit page says: "You have to be logged in to submit." Account creation is a username and password on the same page.
Link on the listing
On the Show HN item we opened (Carrier-Explode, already on the /show page), the title link had no rel attribute at all. But on /shownew, where every new Show HN lands first, 27 of the 29 title links carried rel="nofollow", and 9 of 30 on /show did. In practice a new post starts nofollow, and the link only loses it once the post gains traction.
Stated review time
Their guidelines: "Every Show HN appears on shownew. Once it clears a small points threshold, it will appear on the show page in the top bar."
What it lists
Their words: "something you've made that other people can play with". Off topic: "blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material".
Worth knowing
They ask you not to post "quickly-generated one-offs", landing pages or fundraisers, and say minor version updates are not Show HNs. Asking friends to upvote or comment is "not ok on HN".
Best for: A maker comfortable putting a badge on their homepage in exchange for a free followed link.
Cost
The free plan is called Verified: "add a Startup Fame badge to your homepage, then our verification bot checks it." Paid plans skip the badge: Highlight at $19 a month and Spotlight at $149 a month.
Account
Their FAQ mentions managing startups "from your account" and a dashboard, but the submit page is client-rendered and we could not see whether sign-in comes first.
Link on the listing
On a free Verified listing we opened (1moment, outbound URL tagged utm_campaign=verified), the "Visit" anchor had no rel attribute. A listing for Launch Llama on the same site carried rel="nofollow", and their FAQ says the link "stays live while your startup remains listed", so the followed link depends on keeping the badge or paying.
Stated review time
The plan cards show the free tier as "Available 7 days" and the paid tiers as "< 30 seconds".
What it lists
Startups of most kinds, browsable by category and by location.
Worth knowing
Like several sites here, the free followed link is paid for with a badge on your own site. Remove the badge and expect the link to change.
Best for: B2B and startup-facing tools that want a plain evergreen listing rather than a launch-day spike.
Cost
The add-listing page states no price. We read the embedded Typeform's public configuration (without submitting it): it asks for your details, product, URL, category, logo and video, ends with an optional "Are you interested to advertise with us?", and has no payment step.
Account
The Typeform is embedded directly in the page with no login in front of it.
Link on the listing
On both listings we opened, the outbound site link carried rel="external noopener" and no nofollow.
What it lists
Tools and resources aimed at startups.
Worth knowing
The form only takes work emails: "Sorry, we only accept work/business emails." No price is stated anywhere, but the form has no payment step either.
Best for: An AI product with budget. If your tool is not AI, this is not your directory.
Cost
Paid tiers on the launch page: "Low traffic" at $49, described as a one-time review fee with a permanent listing, "Maximum exposure" at $437 one-time, and a custom plan on request. The one free route is in their FAQ: "We run a thread on X once a month where indie makers can submit their tool for free. We choose one tool from each thread."
Account
Their form states edit access is granted on email verification.
Link on the listing
On both tool pages we opened, the main website link had no rel attribute at all. Secondary promoted slots on the same pages carried rel="nofollow noopener", so the followed link is the listing itself, not every link on the page.
Stated review time
Their FAQ: "The average processing time for submissions is 1-2 days." Submissions are manually reviewed by their staff.
What it lists
Their launch page is explicit: "We accept AI tools, MCPs, GPTs and AI influencers (non-human)."
Worth knowing
The $49 is described as a review fee. Read that as paying for the review, not for a guaranteed outcome.
Best for: Small bootstrapped products that want a hand-approved listing among similar projects.
Cost
Their own site metadata calls it "a free startup launch platform", but the submit form is five steps with an "Upgrades" step at the end, and no pricing page exists (/pricing returned 404). Footer links price other listing types: submitting a deal and listing a tool are each £69.
Account
The header shows "Log in / Sign up", but step one of the form (your URL) is served to logged-out visitors. We did not go further.
Link on the listing
The submit page promises you can "Earn" a do-follow backlink, worded as earned rather than given. On both listings we opened (Jan and Recordly), the link to the product carried rel="nofollow noopener".
Stated review time
They say "Every listing is hand-approved" but publish no time frame.
What it lists
Indie makers and small startups, with a weekly leaderboard and a newsletter.
Worth knowing
The followed link is something you "earn", and the listings we checked did not have it. Find out what the Upgrades step costs before you count on anything beyond a nofollow listing.
Best for: A maker who can rally some support on launch day, since the free followed link goes to the top three.
Cost
The pricing page lists Standard Launch as Free ("Standard launch queue") and Premium Launch at $39 per launch ("Skip the queue"). Separately sold: a $279 submission service and featured spots at $15 or $30 a week.
Account
Requesting /submit redirected to /login?returnTo=/submit. Their agent guide describes sign-in as a six-digit code sent to your email.
Link on the listing
The free tier promises a backlink only "for top 3 ranking products"; Premium says "Guaranteed high authority backlink". On the two launch pages we opened (Trylle and BackupDrill) the product link carried rel="noopener" only. On the homepage the same day, 2 of the product links carried rel="nofollow noopener", so expect nofollow on a free launch that does not place.
Stated review time
No review window published. Free launches wait in the standard queue; Premium skips it.
What it lists
Startups and software products in a launch competition format.
Worth knowing
The pricing page leads with an upsell ("AI Visibility Audit", $9) before the launch plans. The free launch itself is real; just scroll past it.
Best for: An AI product that wants a fast paid listing and can justify $99 against expected referral traffic.
Cost
One option on the submit page: "Total: $99", described as "No queue, listed within 48 hours". No free tier appears anywhere on that page.
Account
The page shows a Login control, but the submit form itself is reachable without one.
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened, the product link literally carried rel="dofollow". That is not a real HTML value and browsers ignore it, but what matters is what is absent: no nofollow, sponsored or ugc, so the link is followed.
Stated review time
Sold as part of the fee: "listed within 48 hours, no queue".
What it lists
AI tools and GPTs.
Worth knowing
They advertise "no less than 6 quality dofollow links". We verified one followed link on one listing page and did not count six, so treat the number as their claim rather than ours.
Best for: A maker who wants a quick, followed listing and does not mind a badge in the footer.
Cost
Free is "$0 forever" but "A backlink to our site is required (on your homepage or footer)." Pro is "$36 one-time payment", shown at $25.20 with a discount code, with "Permanent dofollow links, no backlink needed".
Account
The free submit form opens with a URL field for logged-out visitors; its five steps are Website, Screenshot, Review, Badge, Live. We did not see a sign-in step, but did not complete the form.
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened (Seline Analytics), the "Visit Website" anchor and the other links to the product carried rel="noopener" and no nofollow, matching the "dofollow link" promised on both tiers.
Stated review time
Stated on the plan cards: free is "Reviewed within 72 hours", Pro is "Reviewed and listed within 24 hours".
What it lists
Startups and web tools, "Twelve new tools a day", hand-picked.
Worth knowing
The free tier requires a link back from your homepage or footer, so it costs you a link rather than money. The submit link at /submit actually shows the pricing page; the free form is at /submit-your-tool.
Best for: A maker who wants a real launch day with a followed link and cannot or will not pay Product Hunt-scale attention costs.
Cost
The free "Join the line" plan: "We assign your launch date, at most 5 months out. An upvote score of 10 to stay published, 20 for the do-follow backlink." Paid: "Fast-track" ($14.99) assigns a slot in about 14 days, "Skip the line" ($29.99) lets you pick your date and guarantees the do-follow link, a relaunch is $15, and Uneed Pro is $99 a year (struck through from $139).
Account
The form is honest about the order: "No account needed to start, we’ll scrape your page first, then ask you to sign up to save it."
Link on the listing
On the listing we opened (which had 40 upvotes), the product link carried rel="noopener" and no nofollow. On the free plan the followed link is conditional: their pricing page ties it to an upvote score of 20.
Stated review time
No review window published. Free launches are queued to the next open date rather than reviewed on a clock.
The free path is a queue of up to 5 months, and staying published (10 upvotes) and the followed link (20 upvotes) depend on votes. If your launch is tied to a press or funding moment, the paid tiers are the realistic route.
Best for: Small free tools and side projects that want to be listed and cited rather than launched. Be realistic: we are a young site with far less traffic than most names above, so treat us as a long-term listing, not a traffic event.
Cost
Free to submit and free to stay listed, and the free path is the normal one. Optional extras: Fast Track ($9) puts the listing live instantly, with a followed link and no badge. A Featured week ($19) pins a live listing on the homepage, at the top of Launches and first in its section for 7 days (at most 3 at a time). The Launch bundle ($25) is both. A quick automatic check still blocks dead and spam sites before payment, and anything we pull is refunded automatically.
Account
A confirmed email address and nothing else: continue with Google, or have a six-digit code sent to you once. No password, no profile, no newsletter.
Link on the listing
Your listing link is rel="nofollow" by default. Put our badge, or any link to yourhack.ai, on your own site and the listing upgrades to a followed link (nothing else changes): we check waiting sites automatically about every six hours, or you press "Check my site now" (no login, linked from our emails) and it happens in seconds. Live listings are re-checked every three hours, so if you remove the link the listing drops back. Fast Track ($9) is the other way to the followed link, with nothing to put on your site and nothing to keep up.
Stated review time
Free submissions are reviewed in order within 14 days: we open each one in a real browser and actually use it, and you get an email either way. Fast Track goes live the moment you pay.
What it lists
Any real, live, free-to-try project: tools, apps, games, experiments, APIs and sites. Everything is listed on one Launches page.
Worth knowing
The followed link is conditional: either you link back, or you take Fast Track. That is deliberate. If neither appeals, take the plain nofollow listing; it costs nothing, asks nothing and stays up.
Rejections cluster around the same handful of causes, and most of them are fixable in an afternoon. Every point below comes from a rule one of these directories publishes, not from folklore.
Ship it first, and give it its own domain
This is the single most common hard rejection on the list. SaaSHub says products that are not released yet "will be rejected immediately" and rejects free subdomains outright. BetaList says your startup must have its own domain and names vercel.app, netlify.app and herokuapp.com as disqualifying. A $10 domain removes two rejections before you write a word.
Put the value proposition in one line, above the fold
Reviewers are giving you seconds, not minutes. BetaList states it prioritises submissions with a clear value proposition, an idea it has not seen before and a well designed landing page, and SaaSHub rejects landing pages that are just an email form for a waiting list. Write the sentence that says what the thing does and who it is for, and put it where a reviewer lands.
Do not put a login in front of the value
If a reviewer has to create an account to see anything work, many will close the tab and mark it unclear rather than fight through your onboarding. Make at least one real thing usable, or visible in a working demo, without signing in.
Use real screenshots of the real product
Mockups on gradient backgrounds tell a reviewer nothing about whether the product exists. A plain screenshot of the actual interface doing the actual job is more persuasive and takes less effort.
Name your competitors
Directories are built on comparison pages, so this is help, not a weakness. SaaSHub says outright that a submission will be "slowed down and put to the bottom of the queue" if competitors are not listed, and AlternativeTo is built entirely on the alternative-to relationship. Fill that field in.
Submit from an email on your product’s own domain
It is the cheapest proof of ownership there is. SaaSHub says verifying gives your submission higher priority and requires an address on the product domain, and There’s An AI For That grants edit access on email verification.
Write in English and match the shape of the directory
AlternativeTo requires apps to support English and SaaSHub rejects products that are not in English. Beyond language, read what a directory actually lists: There’s An AI For That states it accepts AI tools, GPTs and AI influencers, so a non-AI product submitted there is a wasted evening.
Pick five and do them properly
Blasting fifty directories in an afternoon produces fifty thin listings and a pile of rejections. Choosing the handful that genuinely match your product, and writing a real description for each, beats volume on every measure that matters.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Product Hunt alternatives for launching a startup?
It depends on what you want from the listing. Free to submit with no strings, as of 10 October 2026: AlternativeTo, DevHunt, Launching Next, PeerPush, SaaSHub, Show HN (Hacker News), yourhack.ai. Product Hunt itself is free too, but a launch there is a one-day event decided by votes, while most alternatives are long-term listings you keep. Pick the two or three whose audience overlaps with your users, rather than all of them. Every site in the table below is compared on cost, account, link type and review time, with the pages we read listed at the bottom.
Do directory backlinks still help SEO?
Less than the pitches suggest, and it depends on the site. We opened one live listing page on each of the 24 external directories in this table and could read the outbound link markup on 23 of them: 13 served a followed link, 9 used rel="nofollow" and 1 used rel="ugc". So a followed link is real but far from guaranteed. Treat a listing as referral traffic, discovery and a source AI assistants can quote, and take the link as a bonus when it happens.
Which submission sites are free?
Free with no payment and no strings attached at the point of submission, as of 10 October 2026: AlternativeTo, DevHunt, Launching Next, PeerPush, Product Hunt, SaaSHub, Show HN (Hacker News), yourhack.ai. Fazier has a free tier but it requires you to put a link to Fazier on your own homepage or footer. Uneed has a free queue, but staying published and its followed link depend on reaching an upvote score. Paid only: BetaList, There's An AI For That, Toolify. Startup Stash states no price on its public page, so we cannot call it either way.
How long do reviews take?
Most sites do not publish a number. Of the 24 external sites in the table, 12 state something about timing, and it ranges from minutes (Show HN, Peerlist, which go live when you post) to months on free queues (AlternativeTo: "we can't give you a date"; Uneed: up to 5 months). Paying almost always buys speed: AlternativeTo $5, Launching Next $99, Toolify $99 and others promise 1-2 days or less. yourhack.ai reviews free submissions within 14 days and puts paid Fast Track listings live instantly. The "Stated review time" column has each site's own words.
What is the difference between a nofollow, ugc and followed link?
A followed link is a plain link that search engines may treat as an endorsement. rel="nofollow" and rel="ugc" are hints that tell a search engine not to treat the link as an endorsement, with ugc specifically flagging user-generated content. All three send you exactly the same human traffic when someone clicks. If a directory pitches its links as an SEO product, check the markup on a live listing yourself before you pay: it takes about ten seconds in view-source.
Is it worth submitting to a lot of directories at once?
Rarely. A directory listing works when the audience of that directory overlaps with the people who need your product, and most bulk submission services optimise for count instead of overlap. Five listings that match your product and are written properly will beat fifty that are not, and you will not spend the next month answering rejection emails.
Methodology and sources
Everything above was checked on by requesting the live pages listed below and reading what came back. Directories change their terms often, so verify anything that matters to your decision before you pay for it.
What we did: for each site we opened the submission or pricing page and recorded the cost, account requirement and any published review time in the site’s own words. To classify the link, we opened one live listing page and read the rel attribute on the anchor pointing at the listed product.
What we did not do: we did not measure traffic, we did not calculate or copy any domain authority or domain rating score, and we did not pay for a submission. Where a directory advertises a metric of its own, we have attributed it to them rather than repeating it as fact. A link classification is a spot check of a single page on a single day, not a site-wide guarantee, and a site can change its markup at any time.
Where we failed: Product Hunt blocked every direct request in October 2026, so its link type is carried over from our July check and labelled as such. We could not find a free-tier launch on Fazier, so only its paid-tier link is verified. Cells we could not read say so rather than being filled in from memory.