SaaS Directories: 100+ Places to List Your SaaS in 2026
A founder ships a SaaS, waits a week, and opens Google Search Console to find zero clicks. That is normal. A brand-new domain has no backlinks, so Google has little reason to crawl it and no reason to rank it. SaaS directories are the fastest white-hat fix for that cold start. A SaaS directory is a website that lists software products by category, with a profile page that links back to your site. Submit to the right ones and you build referring domains, lift your Domain Rating, and get your product onto pages that buyers, Google, and AI assistants already read. Below is a curated cut of the highest-value listings from BacklinkBot's database of 1,011+ directories, with the real DR score, link type, and pricing for each one.
What SaaS Directories Actually Do for Your SEO
Directory listings do three jobs, and knowing which job each directory does keeps you from wasting time.
Job 1: referring domains. Every listing on a unique domain is one more site linking to yours. Backlinks remain one of the strongest correlations with ranking: the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2 through #10, per Backlinko's analysis of 11.8 million search results. For a DR 0 to 20 site, 40 to 60 clean referring domains from directories is a visible step up. You can check where you stand right now with the free Domain Rating checker.
Job 2: direct discovery. G2, Product Hunt, and AlternativeTo rank for thousands of "best X software" and "X alternative" queries. Your profile on those pages gets seen by buyers even before your own site ranks for anything.
Job 3: AI visibility. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI results pull tool recommendations from sources they trust, and big directories are heavily represented in that set. Founders on r/SaaS keep reporting signups that trace back to AI assistants citing their directory profiles.
One warning before the list. Google's spam policies explicitly name "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" as link spam. The fix is not avoiding directories. It is avoiding junk ones. Every directory below is a real site with real traffic, pulled from the database we use for customer submissions.
Key insight: a directory link is only worth as much as the directory. Fifty listings on curated, trafficked sites beat five hundred on link farms, and the wrong five hundred can hurt you.
The Best SaaS Directories, Grouped by DR
The full filterable version of this list, with search and category filters, lives in the free directory database, and the SaaS-specific cut is at best SaaS directories. DR here is Ahrefs Domain Rating, a 0 to 100 measure of a site's backlink authority (definition). Link type matters too; if you are unsure why, read the dofollow vs nofollow guide.
DR 90+: the heavyweights
| Directory | DR | Link type | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub (org/repo profile) | 96 | dofollow | Free |
| WordPress Plugin Directory | 94 | dofollow | Free |
| SourceForge | 93 | dofollow | Freemium |
| G2 | 92 | nofollow | Freemium |
| Product Hunt | 91 | dofollow | Free |
| Capterra | 91 | nofollow | Freemium |
| Crunchbase | 91 | nofollow | Freemium |
| Hacker News (Show HN) | 91 | nofollow | Free |
| Wellfound (AngelList) | 90 | nofollow | Free |
If your SaaS ships an extension, package, or app, the stores are high-DR listings too: Chrome Web Store (DR 95, one-time $5 developer fee), npm (DR 94), VS Code Marketplace (DR 93), and Shopify App Store (DR 92). All nofollow, all worth having for discovery alone.
DR 70 to 89: the workhorses
| Directory | DR | Link type | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| GetApp | 89 | nofollow | Freemium |
| AlternativeTo | 89 | nofollow | Free |
| DEV Community | 89 | nofollow | Free |
| Software Advice | 85 | nofollow | Freemium |
| TrustRadius | 84 | nofollow | Freemium |
| StackShare | 82 | nofollow | Free |
| Hashnode | 82 | nofollow | Free |
| F6S | 81 | nofollow | Free |
| Slant | 80 | nofollow | Free |
| Indie Hackers | 79 | nofollow | Free |
| BetaList | 78 | dofollow | Freemium |
| Startup Stash | 76 | dofollow | Freemium |
| SaaSworthy | 73 | dofollow | Freemium |
| SaaSHub | 72 | dofollow | Free |
| Lobsters | 72 | dofollow | Free (invite-only) |
| Peerlist | 71 | dofollow | Free |
| Crozdesk | 70 | dofollow | Freemium |
Notice the pattern in that table: the giant review platforms are nofollow, while the founder-focused listers (BetaList, Startup Stash, SaaSHub, Peerlist, Crozdesk) tend to be dofollow. You want both kinds. The DR 50+ collection filters the database down to exactly this tier and above.
DR 40 to 69: easy dofollow wins
| Directory | DR | Link type | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uneed | 62 | dofollow | Freemium |
| Launching Next | 56 | dofollow | Freemium |
| Fazier | 55 | dofollow | Freemium |
| DevHunt | 52 | dofollow | Free |
| Startup Fame | 50 | dofollow | Freemium |
| MicroLaunch | 48 | dofollow | Freemium |
| TinyLaunch | 44 | dofollow | Freemium |
Every entry in this band is dofollow, submissions take minutes, and approval bars are reasonable for early products. If budget is zero, filter for the free directories collection and work through it top to bottom.
If You Only Submit to 10 Directories, Pick These
Most founders do not need 300 listings this week. They need the highest-value ten done properly:
- Product Hunt (DR 91, dofollow, free). The single highest-impact launch day available to a tech product.
- G2 (DR 92, free profile). Nofollow, but G2 pages rank for your category and convert buyers.
- SourceForge (DR 93, dofollow). A rare dofollow business profile at DR 90+.
- Crunchbase (DR 91). The canonical company profile; ranks for your brand name on day one.
- AlternativeTo (DR 89, free). Captures "alternative to [incumbent]" searches, which are pure buying intent.
- SaaSHub (DR 72, dofollow, free). Free dofollow link plus alternatives-style discovery.
- BetaList (DR 78, dofollow). Ideal while you are pre-launch or collecting first signups.
- Startup Stash (DR 76, dofollow). Curated, high-traffic founder resource directory.
- Peerlist (DR 71, dofollow, free). Developer-heavy audience and a friendly launchpad.
- Uneed (DR 62, dofollow). Maker-first launch platform with a free queue.
That set gives you six dofollow links, two DR 90+ review profiles, and coverage of launch, review, and alternatives intent. It is the same priority logic we apply when fulfilling customer orders.
Submission Tips by Directory Type
Each directory type has its own approval quirks. What follows is what we have learned submitting products by hand.
Launch platforms (Product Hunt, Uneed, Fazier, MicroLaunch). Prepare assets once: logo, 3 to 5 screenshots, a 60-second demo video, and a one-line tagline. Product Hunt rewards scheduling at 12:01am PT and being active in comments all day. Smaller platforms like Fazier and Startup Fame offer an embeddable badge; adding it often speeds up approval.
B2B review sites (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius). Complete every profile field, pick categories precisely, then ask your happiest customers for reviews. An empty profile at DR 92 does less for you than a complete one at DR 60. Capterra data syndicates to GetApp and Software Advice, so one effort covers three sites.
Startup listers and alternative engines (SaaSHub, AlternativeTo, Slant). Position against incumbents. Tag your product as an alternative to the biggest names in your category, because that is the search intent these sites capture.
Dev platforms (GitHub, DevHunt, StackShare). A polished README with your homepage URL, topics, and screenshots is your listing. GitHub org and repo pages are dofollow at DR 96, which makes them one of the strongest free links available to a software company.
Communities (Hacker News, Indie Hackers, Lobsters). These are not form-fill submissions. A Show HN or an Indie Hackers milestone post earns traffic only if you write something genuinely interesting and answer comments. Treat them as launch events, not listings.
If your product is AI-flavored, there is a whole additional tier of niche sites covered in our AI tool directories guide.
The Real Time Cost of Doing It Yourself
Directory submission is not hard. It is repetitive, and the volume is where DIY plans die.
From doing this by hand across hundreds of customer projects: a simple lister takes 10 to 20 minutes once your assets are ready (account creation, email verification, form, category selection). Review platforms and app stores run 30 to 45 minutes because they want screenshots, pricing tiers, and descriptions in specific formats. Add prep time for the asset kit itself, plus a tracking sheet so you know what is live, pending, or rejected.
Run the arithmetic on the $99-tier scope of 100 directories at a conservative 15-minute average and you get roughly 25 hours of clicking through forms. That is more than half a work week for a solo founder, which is exactly why most DIY attempts stall out around listing 20. If you go the DIY route, batch it: one hour a day, top of the list downward, highest DR first. New to the tactic itself? Start with the primer on what directory submission is.
FAQ
Are SaaS directories still worth it in 2026?
Yes, with curation. Quality directories build referring domains for a young site, rank for buyer searches you cannot reach yet, and feed the sources AI assistants cite. Google only penalizes low-quality directory link schemes, per its spam policies, so stick to real, trafficked sites.
How many directories should I submit my SaaS to?
Start with the ten in the shortlist above, then expand in DR order as time allows. A typical done-for-you project covers 100 to 300 directories. Past that point, remaining options are mostly low-quality and the returns fall off sharply, so more is not automatically better.
Do nofollow directory links help at all?
They do. Nofollow profiles on G2, Crunchbase, and AlternativeTo rank for buyer queries, send referral traffic, and build a natural-looking link profile. Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a hard rule. A profile that never sends link equity can still send customers.
How much do SaaS directory listings cost?
Most directories in our database are free or freemium. Free tiers usually mean a review queue that can take weeks, while paid options ($5 to a few hundred dollars) skip the line or add featured placement. You can build a solid profile spending nothing but time.
Want the List Handled for You?
The full database of 1,011+ directories, with DR, link type, and pricing filters, is free to browse, and launching on the BacklinkBot leaderboard earns a free dofollow backlink. If the 25 hours is the problem rather than the list, BacklinkBot submits your product by hand to 100+ directories for a one-time $99 (200+ for $167, 300+ for $357) and sends a proof report of every listing. See how done-for-you works.
