Paid mobile app directories, in short
Paying only makes sense where the traffic is real, and the numbers in this table will tell you that before you spend anything. Treat a paid listing on a site with no measurable traffic as an advert, not a backlink.
Paid directory submission, defined
A paid directory charges for every listing, with no free path in. Prices run from a few dollars to a few hundred, and the price rarely tracks the value: some of the most expensive entries on this list have less traffic than free sites twenty rating points below them.
Paid submission has a long and not entirely respectable history in SEO, which is worth knowing. Directories that exist purely to sell links have been a target of search engine enforcement for well over a decade. Directories that sell placement to an audience that actually exists are a different thing, and the traffic column is how you tell them apart.
By the numbers
One directory matches. The strongest is Productivity Directory at DR 41. The link is not dofollow, so the case for it is traffic rather than SEO.
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
Buying on domain rating alone, which is the number link sellers lead with precisely because it is the easiest to inflate. Paying annually for a listing you never revisit. And treating a paid directory as a shortcut: the fee buys placement, never relevance.
Where to start
Only Productivity Directory is quick to approve, so start there if you are launching this week.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
1 directory matches on this page. 0 take a submission for nothing, 0 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 1 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, Productivity Directory (DR 41). Relevance beats both: a directory that actually covers what you built will do more than a stronger one that does not.
How much should a paid listing cost?
Anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred, and the price rarely tracks the value. Use the rating and traffic figures here to sanity-check what you are being asked for before you pay it.
Are paid directory submissions safe for SEO?
Paying for placement on a directory with a real audience is ordinary advertising. Paying a site whose only product is links is the pattern search engines have penalised for years. The traffic column separates the two.
Is paid faster than free?
Usually, yes. Skipping the review queue is the most common thing a fee buys, which matters when you are lining up listings for a launch date and not much otherwise.
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.