High authority startup directories, in short
Rated 70 and above. These are harder to get into, slower to approve, and worth more when they accept you. Submit to them first, because the queue is the long part and everything else can be done while you wait.
High authority backlinks, defined
Domain rating is a third-party score from 0 to 100 estimating the strength of a site's backlink profile. It is logarithmic, so the gap between 70 and 80 is much larger than the gap between 30 and 40, and it says nothing at all about traffic, relevance or whether your listing will ever be seen. This page filters to everything rated 70 and above.
Different tools produce different numbers for the same site: domain rating, domain authority and authority score are separate metrics from separate vendors that happen to look alike. Comparing a figure from one against a threshold from another is a common and entirely avoidable mistake.
By the numbers
These 22 directories have a median rating of DR 75. The strongest is DEV Community at DR 91. 6 of them accept a submission for nothing, and 3 charge for every listing. 11 pass a dofollow link.
That is 17 points above the median for the full list of 175 directories, which sits at DR 58. By band that is 8 rated 80 or above and 14 rated 60 to 79. 2 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
Chasing the rating and ignoring the fit, which produces links from strong sites in categories nobody browses. Comparing scores across different SEO tools as though they were the same metric. And assuming a high rating means the page your listing sits on will be indexed, which is a separate question and frequently not the case.
Where to start
By audience size, the biggest here are Hacker News, DEV Community and F6S, led by 13.53M visits a month. The highest-rated one you can use without paying is DEV Community at DR 91. 6 approve quickly, Startup Fame, Twelve Tools and Indie Hackers among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
22 directories match on this page. 6 take a submission for nothing, 13 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 0 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, DEV Community (DR 91), Hacker News (DR 91) and Startup Fame (DR 84). 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 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.
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.