Design and mobile app directories, in short
Design directories are the one category where the screenshot does the selling. A listing with a sharp hero image will outperform a better-written one without, so get the artwork right before you submit anywhere.
What counts as a design directory
A design directory indexes tools for making things: interface and graphic design software, prototyping, illustration, typography, colour, icons, mockups and the growing pile of no-code builders that sit alongside them. Listings are browsed visually, in a grid, which makes them behave more like a gallery than an index.
The category splits in a way worth noticing. Some of these sites index tools designers use; others index design resources, templates and assets. Submitting a tool to a resource directory is the most common wasted evening in this category.
By the numbers
These 7 directories have a median rating of DR 43. The strongest is Product Hunt at DR 91, the weakest at DR 12. 4 of them accept a submission for nothing, and 1 charge for every listing. 3 pass a dofollow link.
That is 15 points below the median for the full list of 175 directories, which sits at DR 58. By band that is 1 rated 80 or above, 1 rated 60 to 79, 3 rated 40 to 59 and 2 rated below 40. 3 of them have no traffic estimate at all, which usually means too little to measure rather than none.
What a listing actually gets you
App directories will not move your store ranking, which is driven by installs, retention and reviews. What they do is create indexable web pages about an app that is otherwise invisible to search engines, which is the single biggest discovery problem mobile products have.
They also reach the people who research on a laptop and install later, a larger group than most app teams expect, and one that store optimisation cannot touch at all.
Submitting without wasting the evening
Submit the store link, not a landing page, and check which stores the directory covers before you start: several accept iOS only. Screenshots from the store listing usually transfer over, so get those right in the store first and the directory work becomes copy and paste. Include the size, the minimum OS version and whether there is a free tier, because those are the three filters app directories most often expose.
Common mistakes
Submitting a logo instead of the product. Using a dark screenshot on a directory with a light grid, or the reverse, so your entry disappears next to everything around it. And writing three paragraphs when the card only shows the first twelve words.
Where to start
By audience size, the biggest here are Product Hunt, Micro SaaS Examples and Waildworld, led by 4.84M visits a month. The highest-rated one you can use without paying is Product Hunt at DR 91. 3 approve quickly, Dofollow Tools, Productivity Directory and Startup.sx among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
7 directories match on this page. 4 take a submission for nothing, 2 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 1 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, Product Hunt (DR 91), Dofollow Tools (DR 73) and Micro SaaS Examples (DR 49). By audience, Product Hunt is the largest at 4.84M visits a month. Relevance beats both: a directory that actually covers what you built will do more than a stronger one that does not.
What image should I submit?
The interface doing the thing your tool is for. Directories that show a grid of thumbnails are effectively ranking you on that one image, which makes it the highest-leverage thing you will prepare.
Do design directories accept no-code tools?
Most do, and several now have a dedicated category for them. Check whether the directory indexes tools or assets first, because the assets ones will reject a builder however good it is.
Is a free listing enough?
On the visual directories, placement matters more than elsewhere, because browsing stops after the first two rows. A free listing gets you in; paid placement is one of the few cases where the upgrade is measurable.
What is an app directory?
A curated index of mobile applications, usually linking to the App Store or Play Store and organised by platform and category. Most carry store screenshots and a short description rather than a full review.
Why are there so few app directories here?
Because most of the larger directories assume a web product with a visitable URL. Anything that only exists behind a store link is out of scope for them, which leaves a much shorter list than the main table suggests.
Do app directories help with App Store ranking?
Not directly. Store ranking responds to installs and retention. What a directory gives you is a web page about your app that search engines can index, which is where most of an app's discoverable surface area otherwise does not exist.
Every figure quoted above is read off the table on this page, so it moves as the list does. Domain rating and traffic are third-party estimates captured in September 2026: useful for ordering a shortlist, not precise figures.