Dofollow startup directories, in short
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 49 directories have a median rating of DR 52. The strongest is DEV Community at DR 91, the weakest at DR 13. 7 of them accept a submission for nothing, and 3 charge for every listing.
That is 6 points below the median for the full list of 175 directories, which sits at DR 58. By band that is 4 rated 80 or above, 15 rated 60 to 79, 19 rated 40 to 59 and 11 rated below 40. 18 of them have no traffic estimate at all, which usually means too little to measure rather than none.
What a listing actually gets you
The launch platforms give you a spike: traffic, sign-ups, sometimes press, almost all of it inside forty-eight hours. The permanent indexes give you the opposite, a slow trickle that continues for years and a page that ranks for your company name alongside your own site.
Both give you something less obvious, which is a dated, third-party record that your company existed and did a thing on a particular date. That turns out to matter when journalists, investors and search engines try to work out whether you are real.
Submitting without wasting the evening
These reward timing more than polish. Pick a launch date, submit to as many as you can in the two days before it, and keep the description identical everywhere so the mentions reinforce each other. A listing that goes live three weeks after your launch is worth a fraction of one that goes live on the day. Have your founder profile, a logo, a one-liner and a 300-character description in a file before you start, because you will be pasting them fifteen times.
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 PitchWall, led by 13.53M visits a month. The highest-rated one you can use without paying is DEV Community at DR 91. 13 approve quickly, Twelve Tools, Startup Fast and Dofollow Tools among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
49 directories match on this page. 7 take a submission for nothing, 39 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 3 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.
What are the best startup directories?
By reach, Product Hunt, Hacker News and Indie Hackers are still the three that matter most, and all three are free. By durability, the permanent indexes such as F6S, BetaList and Startup Stash keep sending small amounts of traffic for years. The table above lets you sort by either.
Should I submit to all of them at once?
To the launch platforms, yes, within the same week. To the permanent indexes it makes no difference, so those can be worked through whenever you have a spare evening.
Do startup directories help with funding?
Indirectly. Investors do not browse them, but they do search for you, and a directory entry with a coherent description is one more page saying the same clear thing about what you do.
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.