We tried 20 “free” startup directories. Here’s what free meant.
25–26 September 2026. We went through each one by hand to list LaunchGrill, paid for nothing, and wrote down what the free route actually asked for.
In short: of twenty startup directories that advertise a free listing, seven listed us for free within about a month. Five did too, but only after a queue of up to six months. Six would list us only if our site linked back to them, one turned out to be paid only, and the twentieth, Feed My Startup, no longer has a working form.
Free, no strings, listed within about a month — 7
These list you without a payment and without a link back from your site. None of them promised a followed link to every free listing.
- Launching NextNo account. Reviewed daily; you get an email if published.
- Startup StashNo account, a short application, reviewed by hand. No price anywhere.
- Next Big ProductYou pick an open date; ours was eight days out. The free listing is nofollow.
- SaaSHubApproved within about 32 days; verifying with an email on your domain speeds it up.
- Startup RankingSocial login; wants country, founding date and 300+ characters. Approved by hand.
- Peerlist LaunchpadNeeds a profile, and launches open only on Mondays (UTC).
- TinyLaunchA launch date is assigned — mid-October for a September submission. Only the top 3 get a link, with their badge.
Free, but you wait months — 5
Real free routes with a long queue. Each sells a shortcut.
- PeerPushAbout two months: 3,727 ahead of us. Hidden from search engines until it launches. $39 skips it.
- AlternativeToA queue of several thousand apps. $5 buys a review in 1–2 days.
- UneedUp to five months reported. Noindex and nofollow while you wait. $14.99 skips it.
- PitchWall30+ days, then one day on the homepage. The plan card lists a dofollow link under Free — its icon crosses it out.
- Open LaunchEvery free slot was taken for six months: our first open day was 25 March 2027. $9 skips it.
Free only if your site links back — 6
The listing is the payment for a link from you. The one checker we tried read only the homepage — a link on a separate page did not count.
- LaunchPandaTheir badge on your homepage, verified automatically — or $19.
- FazierA link from your homepage or footer, then listed within 30 days — or $29.
- StartupBaseTheir badge, then a 4–5 week queue (1,544 ahead) — or $39, pre-selected.
- HuzzlerTheir badge, a 72-day queue, and the free page is not indexed by Google — or $39.
- Launch VaultA verified dofollow link to them — or $9.99.
- Turbo0A link back to them, then listed within two weeks — or $29.90.
No free route — 1
- BetaListAfter the form, only $39, $99 or $299. The free queue many guides still describe is gone.
What we would tell a founder doing this next week
- 1.Read the pricing page before you make an account. It answered the free question every time we looked. We made two accounts we did not need before we learned this.
- 2.Read the icons, not the text. One plan card listed a followed link under Free; the icon beside it was a cross.
- 3.Replace the listing they write for you. Four of these drafted our listing from our homepage with AI, and two more offered to. A draft built from your page repeats your page — including what is wrong with it.
- 4.Decide about link-backs once. Six of twenty ask for one. Either you accept a badge on your homepage, or you skip them all; deciding each time costs an afternoon.
- 5.Expect nofollow. Of the twelve that list you without a link back, none promised a followed link to every free listing. List for the visitors, and treat a followed link as a bonus.
How we did it
Said, who builds LaunchGrill, went through each directory in his own browser on 25 and 26 September 2026, with the listing prepared in advance. We skipped any directory that required a link back, and paid for nothing. Prices and queues are what each site showed that day; directories change them without notice, so each directory’s own page here carries the date it was checked. Links from the listings will be measured once they go live.