We Re-Checked 144 Startup Directories. Here's What Broke
Lists of startup directories go stale fast. Sites shut down, domains expire, free listings become paid, and submission pages move. Most lists that circulate never get re-checked, so founders waste hours on dead links.
On 16 October 2026 we re-checked every active directory on our list: all 144 of them. This post covers what we found, how we checked, and what it means if you’re about to submit your startup.
The short version
| Finding | Count |
|---|---|
| Directories checked | 144 |
| Dead or taken over | 12 |
| Submission links that returned “page not found” | 46 of 143 |
| Submission links we fixed | 48 |
| Directories with no public submission path at all | 2 |
| Pricing or free/paid changes | 10 |
| Domain Rating (DR) values that were wrong or missing | 25 |
After the clean-up, 134 directories are active on the list. Every one of them had its homepage and submission link re-tested the same day.
12 directories were dead
A directory counts as dead here when the site no longer works as a directory. A slow page or a temporary error doesn’t count. We checked each one at least twice, from different addresses where possible.
| Directory | What we found |
|---|---|
| Best SaaS List, Bulletin, Launched | The domain no longer resolves at all |
| Top10 | Domain registration expired (registrar parking page) |
| AI Finder, AI Tool Guru, Ben’s Bites directory | Cloudflare error 522: the server behind the site is gone or unreachable |
| Made with Replit | The server refuses connections |
| Launched by Lovable | “Build incomplete” error on every page |
| ProductBurst | Redirects to the app builder’s “limit exceeded” page |
| JustGotFound | The domain now hosts an online gambling site |
| Slant | Persistent SSL error 526 on every URL we tried |
Two notes. Slant may be a long-running certificate problem rather than a shutdown; we found no announcement either way. And a directory we had already removed, Remote Tools, now hosts how-to guides for social media platforms.
The gambling takeover is the one to watch. When a directory’s domain lapses, someone else can buy it and inherit every link that points to it. A listing you submitted years ago can end up on a site you’d never want to be associated with.
A third of the submission links were broken
46 of the 143 “submit your startup” links we had returned a 404. Most were guesses that had never been checked: example.com/submit is the obvious URL, but many sites put the form somewhere else.
Where the forms actually were:
- Uneed:
/submit-a-tool, not/submit - Launching Next:
/submit/. Without the trailing slash, the page 404s. - Hot100: only works on the
www.version of the domain - No Code List: the old link pointed at the wrong domain entirely (
.ioinstead of.co) - TrustRadius: a “claim your profile” page rather than a submit form
- startups.fyi: an external Tally form
- Peerlist: its Launchpad page
A pattern stood out. At least eight newer launch sites (Open Launch, Firsto, Shipybara, SaasHunt, startuups, TinyLaunchpad, Stellar Launch and Aura++) use the same /projects/submit path. Firsto says it runs on Open Launch’s code, and the shared path suggests others are built from the same template.
Two directories have no public way to submit at all: Futurepedia and Designmodo. We removed their links rather than leave a guess. Several others only offer a login or pricing page until you sign up. That includes DevHunt, FindYourSaaS and Super Launch, so the “submit” link takes you to the closest page that works.
We fixed 48 links in total. Every new link was one the directory’s own site points to, and it loaded when we tested it.
Free listings keep turning into paid ones
Ten directories changed how they charge.
Went paid or paid-only:
- Toolify: now $99, listed within 48 hours, no free option
- Toollist: plans from $29 one-time, no free tier
- AI Directories: one-time plans at $99, $149 and $199
- Tool Finder: moved from toolfinder.co to toolfinder.com and now charges $29 or $79
- SaaS Genius: no longer accepts free listings
Added a free route, usually with a catch:
- Uneed: free launches join a waiting line, or you pay to skip it
- ToolPilot: free listings now require a link back to ToolPilot from your site
- Huzzler: free, or a $29 “Launch Boost”
- Startups Lab: free launches go live the next available Monday, or $9 to skip the queue
- startuplist.ing: a $4 listing fee, waived if you buy six or more days of featured placement
The direction is clear. Directories with real traffic charge for speed or placement, and many “free” listings now come with conditions such as a badge or link back to the directory. Our freemium and paid tag pages show the current state.
Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp now belong to G2
We had marked Capterra and Software Advice inactive. That turned out to be wrong.
G2 announced on 29 January 2026 that it was acquiring all three sites from Gartner. Today their “Get listed” buttons send software vendors to G2’s own product form. We reactivated both, updated their submission links and corrected the descriptions that still said Gartner.
If you’re listing B2B software, that matters: one form now feeds four of the biggest review sites.
DR numbers on public lists are unreliable
We corrected 25 Domain Rating values. Some had drifted: Toolify went from 58 to 72, Futurepedia from 62 to 72 and SoftwareSuggest from 68 to 77. Others were simply wrong. Public lists put Versily at DR 1; Ahrefs data shows 67.
DR is a third-party score for a site’s backlinks, and it says little about whether a directory has an audience. In zplatform’s audit of 42 AI directories, DR and organic traffic were essentially uncorrelated. Turbo0 had DR 80 and about one organic visit a month.
On our own list, only 4 of the 84 directories with DR between 20 and 60 appear in Chrome’s list of the top million websites. For directories above DR 60, it’s 27 of 51.
We’re not the only ones finding this
Our broader research points the same way:
- Merged public lists: combining 20 public GitHub lists of directories gave 1,308 unique sites. Of the 1,140 we don’t list, 255 (22%) were already dead, parked, returning 404 or redirecting elsewhere.
- SaaSCity: its audit of 2,972 directory domains found 44% weren’t worth submitting to and 13.3% were dead or broken (SaaSCity). It also counted 104 dead sites still labelled “dofollow” on the lists that circulate.
- Line of Sites: it measured 202 launch directories (Indie Hackers). Of 139 listing pages, 23 were dead, 18 had no outbound link, and 42 only showed the product’s link through JavaScript.
- One founder: found 60+ of 200+ directories dead or fake within three months (DEV).
How we checked
- Requested every homepage and submission link with a normal browser user agent, following redirects.
- Ran DNS lookups for any site that failed to connect.
- Loaded pages in a headless browser when a site relied on JavaScript or sat behind a Cloudflare challenge.
- Took the new submission link from the directory’s own navigation (“Submit”, “Get listed”, “Launch”), then tested it.
- Took DR from Ahrefs’ public pages where available, otherwise from a tool that shows Ahrefs DR, with the median of public lists as a last resort.
Some sites block automated checks entirely, including G2, Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, Reddit and StackShare. We couldn’t verify those, so we left them unchanged. Nothing suggests any of them are dead.
What this means if you’re submitting
- Check before you submit. Open the directory, find the submit button yourself, and make sure the site still lists recent products.
- Don’t pick directories by DR alone. Look for signs of real visitors: recent launches, comments, upvotes, a newsletter.
- Read the free-listing conditions. “Free” now often means a long queue, a required badge, or a link back to the directory.
- Re-check your old listings once or twice a year. If a directory has died or been taken over, ask for removal or stop linking to it.
- Keep a tracking sheet: directory, date, status, live URL and link type. Directories change too often to rely on memory.
We’ll keep re-checking. The full list at alldirectories.org shows each directory’s cost, link type and review speed, and every profile shows when it was last verified.