What a dofollow backlink is (and why founders chase them)
Every link on the web either passes SEO authority to the page it points at, or tells search engines not to count it (rel="nofollow", rel="ugc", rel="sponsored"). A dofollow link — really just a link with none of those attributes — is a vote: it transfers a slice of the linking site's authority to yours. Collect enough votes from reputable domains and your own Domain Rating climbs, which lifts every page on your site in search.
Agencies charge $50–$200 per placement for exactly this. But early-stage startups don't need to buy links: a surprising number of legitimate, high-DR platforms give dofollow links to any product that completes a listing. This is the current list — every entry verified for link type, with Ahrefs DR as of July 2026 (the same data behind our ranked submission directory).
How to verify a link is dofollow (30 seconds)
- Open a live listing page on the platform — not the homepage, an actual product page like yours would be.
- Right-click the outbound link to the product's website and choose Inspect.
- Read the
<a> tag: if rel contains nofollow, ugc, or sponsored, it passes no authority. If those tokens are absent, it's dofollow.
Directories change their policies quietly, so check before you invest effort. We re-verify the claims below periodically and mark anything we haven't confirmed as such on the directory page.
18 free (or freemium) dofollow sources, highest DR first
- GitHub — DR 96. A public repo README with your product link. For anything with a technical surface (CLI, SDK, open-source core), this is the single highest-DR dofollow link a startup can get for free.
- SourceForge — DR 92. Vendor profile + listing for software products. Dated interface, enormous authority, dofollow.
- DEV Community — DR 90. Links inside your posts are dofollow. Write a real technical article about how you built something; a link dump gets flagged.
- Softpedia — DR 88. Software directory that still indexes and ranks; free submission, dofollow.
- AlternativeTo — DR 88. List your product as an alternative to your biggest competitor. Evergreen comparison traffic plus a dofollow link.
- F6S — DR 78. Startup profile, free, dofollow. Doubles as your identity for accelerator and grant applications.
- Indie Hackers — DR 76. Product page links are dofollow. The community rewards build-in-public posts far more than launch announcements.
- BetaList — DR 73. Pre-launch listing with a dofollow link; free with a queue, paid skip available.
- Land-book — DR 73. Design gallery: if your landing page looks good, a free submission earns a dofollow link and design-community traffic.
- SaaSworthy — DR 72. SaaS directory, freemium, dofollow. Categories rank well for "best X software" queries.
- Futurepedia — DR 71. One of the two AI directories that matter (see our AI directory guide). Freemium, dofollow.
- Startup Stash — DR 71. Category-organized tools directory, freemium, dofollow.
- Nick Launches — DR 68. Curated indie launch platform; product links verified dofollow.
- Toolify — DR 65. Large AI tools directory, freemium, dofollow.
- SaaSHub — DR 64. Alternatives site for SaaS; free listing, dofollow, ranking comparison pages.
- AI Tool Hunt — DR 41. Smaller AI directory, free, dofollow.
- PitchWall — DR 40. Product Hunt-style feed, free, dofollow.
- SubmitHunt — DR 37. Ours. Submit free, get a listing plus a dofollow badge backlink; every launch also gets a dedicated review post and a spot on its category page. Paid plans add a guaranteed placement link.
Getting the most from each link
- Link to your homepage unless you have a strong reason not to — it distributes authority across your site via your own internal links.
- Keep anchors natural. Your product name is the right anchor text almost every time. Directories set the anchor anyway; never try to force "best crm software" as your anchor — that pattern is what link-spam detection looks for.
- Complete every profile. Half-filled listings get pruned in directory cleanups, and the traffic difference between a bare listing and one with screenshots and a real description is large. Our startup submission checklist covers the assets to prepare once and reuse everywhere.
- Pace yourself. Google does not penalize a new site for gaining directory links, but 18 links appearing in one afternoon looks odd next to a site with three pages. Spread submissions over a few weeks and keep publishing content meanwhile — quality backlink building is a habit, not an event.
What to avoid
Skip anything advertising "1,000 backlinks for $5", reciprocal link farms, and comment-spam tools. Those links are ignored at best and toxic at worst. A realistic free plan — the 18 sites above plus a handful of niche communities — builds a DR 15–25 foundation for a brand-new domain in a quarter, which is enough to start ranking for long-tail queries in most niches.
FAQ
Do directory backlinks still work in 2026?
Curated, moderated directories: yes, as a foundation layer. They won't outrank real editorial links, but they establish the baseline authority a new domain needs. Full analysis in our directory backlinks deep-dive.
How many backlinks does a new startup need?
There's no magic number, but the pattern we see across launches: sites with 15–30 referring domains start appearing for long-tail queries; 50+ quality referring domains is where competitive terms come into reach.
Are paid directory listings worth it?
Only where the audience is real. Pay for reach (There's An AI For That for AI tools), not for the link alone — a paid link with no traffic is a poor trade at any price.