Nofollow startup directories, in short
A nofollow link does not pass ranking signals directly, so the case for these is traffic and audience rather than SEO. Several of the largest sites on the whole list are nofollow, and they are still the ones worth launching on.
Nofollow directories, defined
A nofollow link carries rel="nofollow" (or increasingly rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc"), an attribute that tells search engines not to pass ranking signals through it. Several of the largest directories on this list are nofollow by policy, including some with millions of monthly visitors.
The attribute is a publisher decision, not a quality judgement. Sites that accept open submissions often mark every outbound link nofollow simply because they cannot vouch for what gets submitted, which says nothing about whether their audience is worth reaching.
By the numbers
These 12 directories have a median rating of DR 70. The strongest is Startup Fame at DR 84, the weakest at DR 12. 6 of them accept a submission for nothing, and 3 charge for every listing.
That is 12 points above the median for the full list of 175 directories, which sits at DR 58. By band that is 3 rated 80 or above, 4 rated 60 to 79, 2 rated 40 to 59 and 3 rated below 40. 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
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
Skipping the biggest directories in the category because the link is nofollow, which is the most expensive mistake on this page. Treating nofollow as a reason to put less effort into the listing. And assuming the attribute is permanent: several sites switch it on upgrade, and some have changed policy site-wide.
Where to start
By audience size, the biggest here are Indie Hackers, BetaList and Startup Stash, led by 836K visits a month. The highest-rated one you can use without paying is Indie Hackers at DR 81. 2 approve quickly, Startup Fame and Indie Hackers among them.
Questions people ask
How many are there, and what do they cost?
12 directories match on this page. 6 take a submission for nothing, 3 run a free tier with paid upgrades, and 2 charge for every listing.
Which should I submit to first?
By rating, Startup Fame (DR 84), Turbo0 (DR 81) and Indie Hackers (DR 81). By audience, Indie Hackers is the largest at 836K 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 does nofollow mean?
It is an attribute on a link telling search engines not to pass ranking signals through it. Introduced to fight comment spam, it is now standard on sites that accept open submissions and cannot vouch for every entry.
Is a nofollow link pointless?
No. It does not pass ranking signals directly, but it still sends visitors, still gets your name in front of people, and still appears in the link graph that other tools and models read. Pointless would be a dofollow link on a page nobody visits.
How do I tell if a link is dofollow or nofollow?
Open the page, view the source, find the link to your site and look for rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". A browser extension will highlight them all at once if you are checking a batch.
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.