Free high authority directories, in short
Free almost never means free of conditions. Expect to be asked for a badge in your footer, a link back from your site, or a longer wait than the paying submissions. Read the submission page before you start typing.
Free directory submission sites, defined
A free directory submission site accepts your listing without payment. That is the whole definition, and it hides a lot: free almost always carries a condition. The three most common are a badge or return link on your own site, a review queue that paid submissions skip, and a nofollow link where paying would make it dofollow.
None of those conditions are unreasonable. Directories cost money to run and moderate, and asking for a link back is a fair trade for a page that sends you visitors. The mistake is discovering the condition after you have written the listing rather than before.
By the numbers
These 17 directories have a median rating of DR 81. The strongest is SourceForge at DR 93, the weakest at DR 71. 5 pass a dofollow link.
That is 23 points above the median for the full list of 175 directories, which sits at DR 58. By band that is 11 rated 80 or above and 6 rated 60 to 79. 1 of them have no traffic estimate at all, which usually means too little to measure rather than none.
What a listing actually gets you
Links from stronger domains do carry more weight, all else being equal, and that is the honest case for working down this list from the top. The high-rated directories are also, not coincidentally, the ones that have been around long enough to have real editorial standards.
All else is rarely equal, though. A directory rated 50 that covers exactly what you built will usually do more for you than a general index rated 85, both in visitors and in how the link reads in context.
Submitting without wasting the evening
Submit to these first, before anything else on the list, because the queue is the slow part. Most are moderated by hand, several take weeks, and a rejection usually means waiting before you can try again. Everything else can be done while you wait. Make these submissions the careful ones: a proper description, the right category, a real screenshot.
Common mistakes
Agreeing to a badge requirement and then never adding the badge, which gets the listing quietly removed a month later. Submitting to every free directory in one sitting because they are free, which is the exact pattern that makes a link profile look manufactured. And skipping the categories field, which is what decides whether anyone ever sees the entry.
Where to start
By audience size, the biggest here are SourceForge, Hacker News and DEV Community, led by 18M visits a month. 5 approve quickly, Indie Hackers, AlternativeTo and Dodo Payments Index among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
17 directories match on this page. 17 take a submission for nothing, 0 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 0 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, SourceForge (DR 93), DEV Community (DR 91) and Hacker News (DR 91). By audience, SourceForge is the largest at 18M visits a month. Relevance beats both: a directory that actually covers what you built will do more than a stronger one that does not.
Where can I submit my website for free?
The table above lists every free option we track, sorted so you can start with the strongest. The free tier on the larger launch platforms is usually worth more than any number of small free-only directories.
Are online directories free?
Many are, and many more run a free tier alongside paid upgrades. What you usually give up on the free path is speed and placement, not the listing itself.
Is a free listing worth less than a paid one?
Not inherently. Several of the highest-rated sites here take free submissions. Paying typically buys position and a faster queue rather than a fundamentally better link.
What is a good domain rating for a backlink?
Above 50 is generally considered solid and above 70 strong, but the thresholds matter less than relevance. A rating of 50 in your exact category beats an 80 in a general one.
What are some high-authority sites for backlinks?
Among the directories here, the strongest are SourceForge, DEV Community, Hacker News and Product Hunt, all rated 91 or above and all free to submit to. The table lets you sort by rating to see the rest.
How much does a high-authority backlink cost?
On this list, frequently nothing. The four highest-rated entries accept free submissions. Where sites do charge, the fee reflects their placement and audience rather than the rating itself.
Does a high rating guarantee a good link?
No. Rating measures the site's backlink profile, not whether your listing will be seen or whether the page it sits on will ever be indexed.
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.