Dofollow backlink sites: what you get
A dofollow link passes ranking signals to your domain, which is why most people work through a list like this at all. Relevance still matters more than the rating: one link from a directory in your niche is worth several from a general one.
Dofollow backlink sites, defined
A dofollow link is an ordinary link: one without a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking signals through it. Every link is dofollow by default, so "dofollow directory" really means a directory that has not added the attribute.
You can check any listing yourself in about five seconds: open the page, view source, find the link to your site, and look for rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" on it. Browser extensions will highlight them for you if you are checking many at once. Do not take the directory's word for it, because the attribute frequently differs between the free and paid tiers.
By the numbers
These 106 directories have a median rating of DR 57. The strongest is DEV Community at DR 91, the weakest at DR 12. 13 of them accept a submission for nothing, and 9 charge for every listing.
That puts them in line with the list as a whole, which runs to a median of DR 58. By band that is 7 rated 80 or above, 36 rated 60 to 79, 44 rated 40 to 59 and 19 rated below 40. 48 of them have no traffic estimate at all, which usually means too little to measure rather than none.
What a listing actually gets you
A dofollow link passes ranking signals to your domain, which is why most people work through a list like this at all. The effect of any single directory link is small; the effect of a dozen relevant ones accumulated over months alongside everything else you do is real but slow.
Relevance matters more than rating. One link from a directory that actually covers your category is worth several from a general index with a higher score, because the surrounding context is part of what the link communicates.
Submitting without wasting the evening
Do not submit to all of them in one week. A burst of identical directory links pointing at a new domain is the oldest pattern in link spam, and it is the one thing that can turn a useful list into a liability. Spread them out, start with the ones relevant to what you built, vary the anchor text naturally, and let the rest accumulate over months rather than days.
Common mistakes
Treating link count as the goal, which leads directly to submitting everywhere regardless of fit. Using the same keyword-stuffed anchor text on every listing. And paying for dofollow upgrades on directories with no traffic, which buys the signal without the substance behind it.
Where to start
By audience size, the biggest here are Hacker News, DEV Community and Toolify.ai, led by 13.53M visits a month. The highest-rated one you can use without paying is DEV Community at DR 91. 22 approve quickly, Twelve Tools, Findly.tools and SaaSHub among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
106 directories match on this page. 13 take a submission for nothing, 84 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 9 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, DEV Community (DR 91), Hacker News (DR 91) and Fazier (DR 83). By audience, Hacker News is the largest at 13.53M 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 is a dofollow backlink?
A normal link that passes ranking signals to the page it points at. Links are dofollow unless the publisher adds rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored", so the term describes the absence of an attribute rather than the presence of one.
How do I tell if a link is dofollow?
View the page source, find the link to your site and check for rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". An extension can highlight them in bulk. Check after your listing goes live, because the attribute often differs between free and paid tiers.
How many dofollow directory links are safe?
There is no number, but pace and relevance matter more than volume. A handful from directories that cover your category, added over weeks, looks like what it is. Eighty in a weekend does not.
Are directory backlinks still relevant?
As one modest input among many, yes. As a strategy on their own, no, and they have not been for a long time. Treat the good directories as a traffic and discovery channel that happens to leave a link behind.
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.