original data · 25 September 2026
Which startup directories are worth it? We checked 975
Of 975 startup directories, 95 are free, dofollow, graded worth submitting, and carry a Domain Rating that belongs to the page rather than to the platform it sits on. That is about one in ten. The other nine are paid, nofollow, rated poorly by the list’s own author, or borrowing a big site’s number.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed September 2026
How many are worth an afternoon?
| Captured | 975 | the full list, 2 September 2026 |
| Still there | 958 | 17 were gone three weeks later |
| Free | 813 | 85% |
| Dofollow | 621 | 65% |
| Free and dofollow | 500 | 52% |
| Graded worth submitting or better | 230 | 24% |
| All of the above, with a DR that is the page’s own | 95 | 10% |
What did we find?
97 of the 141 entries rated DR 90 or higher borrow the number. They are a subreddit, a LinkedIn group, a Discord server or a newspaper section: the DR is the platform’s, and a listing there passes none of it to you. Sorted by DR, a directory list puts exactly these at the top.
The list’s own author rates 350 of its 975 entries low or skip. A third of a popular directory list is material the person who compiled it does not recommend.
17 entries died within three weeks. Between the capture on 2 September 2026 and our probe of every outbound link on 22 September 2026, 17 rows had gone: moved wholesale to another domain, or answering 404. A published directory list rots faster than it is updated.
48 of the 81 submission pages we recorded send you to a sign-in first. A further 15 refused an automated visit outright, and 1 is a form an agent cannot fill at all. Submitting is mostly accounts, not forms.
“Free” can mean “free if you link to us”: 8 of the free, dofollow sprint directories we have opened make the dofollow link depend on a badge or a link back to them on your site. Paying skips it. The list marks them free and dofollow, which is true only if you link back.
The median entry is DR 50. Half the list sits below it, where a listing is a citation more than a ranking signal.
How was this measured?
- The list is seomade.app’s public directory dataset, captured whole on 2 September 2026: name, category, Domain Rating, dofollow, price and the author’s own grade for each entry.
- We flagged every entry whose Domain Rating belongs to a host platform rather than the page (a subreddit carries reddit.com’s number), and kept the author’s grades as given rather than re-scoring them.
- On 22 September 2026 we requested every outbound link our directory index publishes, and recorded which answered, which refused an automated request, and which were gone. A refusal is not counted as dead.
- For the 81 sprint directories whose submission page we have on record, we fetched each one and recorded whether it asked for a sign-in first. The pages we have since opened in a browser to submit marketinque itself added what a fetch cannot see: sign-ins behind a button, and free tiers that want a badge.
The full, graded index is at /get-backlinks, and the 95 worth doing first are the first phase of it. The launch platforms alone, graded, are on Product Hunt alternatives. Cite this page as “marketinque, startup directories study, 25 September 2026”.