Directories List: Where to List a Website, by Category

Website directory list: four categories at a glance

Each directory on this website directory list sits in exactly one of four categories, so the rows below add up to 179. Three follow the groups our category pages use. Developer tools is carved out of them: 2 directories our records file under that category and 3 whose home pages describe developer tooling.

Launches and new startups is the largest category, and the badge is commonest there: 18 of its 73 directories have a badge rule, against 4 of the 52 for AI products. Across all four, the no-equity mark beside a DR flags the directories whose live listings, counted for their guides, pass nothing to you.

The web directory list in 2026

In the old sense, a web directory list meant general directories that filed the whole web by topic. Yahoo! closed its directory as 2014 ended, and DMOZ, the volunteer-edited one, followed in March 2017. This list of web directories is cut by category instead of by alphabet or DA for that reason: what takes submissions in 2026 is niche directories, each built around a single kind of product. What happened to the general directories and which kinds still work get a post of their own, which covers every directory we submit to at DR 60 and up. The category tables below take the band beneath it, DR 30 to 59, with what each directory lists and what it asks of you, and print developer tools whole.

Directories for AI products

The catalog holds 52 directories for AI products, from DR 0 to DR 83. They file AI tools and agents, and some keep the form to a name and a URL, then write the listing page themselves. Badges are rare here, with a rule on 4 of the 52. 35 carry a followed link on our records, and 4 carry the no-equity mark.

From DR 60 up, the strongest with a guide and a followed link on our records are Twelve Tools (DR 83), Turbo0 (DR 81), DeepLaunch (DR 72) and AI Toolz Dir (DR 69). Below DR 30 the AI category runs down to DR 0, and our AI tool directories page lists it from top to bottom.

Directories for SaaS and software

Software directories come in many shapes: alternatives sites that file you beside the product you replace, weekly launch boards for SaaS, a gallery of SaaS website designs, an app archive and lists for one kind of work, such as productivity. The catalog holds 49 of them, from DR 0 to DR 91, and 10 have a badge rule, required or optional. Two are ours, AlterBase and AffyList, and we mark them wherever we print their DR.

From DR 60 up, the strongest software directories with a guide and a followed link on our records are Findly.tools (DR 82), Neeed Directory (DR 74), SaaSGrow (DR 62) and EasyDoFollow (DR 61). Neeed puts a price on its badge in plain sight. The free listing is published as soon as an automated check clears it, and its link becomes dofollow once Neeed verifies the badge on your site; $19, paid once, gets the dofollow link with no badge at all. Through Submitator the badge route asks nothing of you, because the badge is ours to place. The whole software group is on our SaaS directories page, which also lists 4 of the 5 developer tools directories below.

Directories for developer tools

Developer tools directories make the smallest category: 5 of them, from DR 28 to DR 79, and none asks for a badge. Our records file StackShare and Made with React.js under developer tools, and the home pages of Resource.fyi, Indie Dev Tools and Infrabase.ai describe developer tooling. StackShare, at DR 79, has the strongest domain of the 5. A developer tool also fits the launch boards and the software directories, so treat these as the place to start, with the other two categories after them.

On our category pages these rows sit with the groups they came from, on our SaaS directories page and our AI tool directories page. The table above is the one place they are listed together.

Directories for launches and new startups

Launch boards and startup directories account for 73 directories, from DR 0 to DR 91. A launch board shows new products for a day or a week, ranks them by votes or clicks and keeps a permanent page for each afterwards; a startup directory files companies by market, stage or place. The badge is commonest here, and so is a missing link type: 19 of the 73 have none on our records yet, Product Hunt and Hacker News among them.

From DR 60 up, the launch boards with a guide and a followed link on our records start with Startup Fame (DR 84), Uneed (DR 76), Show My Sites (DR 71) and DailyPings (DR 63). The full category, with every other directory we submit to, is in the catalog table on our startup directories page, and the launch platforms, judged by the link each one gives, have a page of their own.

List of SEO directories: the ones whose link counts

A list of SEO directories is shorter than a list of directories. A listing earns its place for SEO when three things hold: the anchor to your site on the live page carries no nofollow, sponsored or ugc, the page is open to indexing and the directory itself still has sites linking to it. Our records file 106 of the 179 directories here as dofollow, none of them flagged for no equity: 35 for AI products, 31 for SaaS and software, 3 for developer tools and 37 for launches. For a list of directories for SEO, start with those.

A record is a starting point, and our guides count the links on live listings to turn it into a finding. Dynamite AI (DR 32) linked each tool three times, all followed, on the 80 pages its guide sampled. Productivity Directory (DR 41) followed 832 of 832 links across its 416 listing pages. LemonLaunch (DR 53) carried a direct followed link on all 315 listing pages its guide read, in return for its badge, which we place. Two with no link type on our records yet read just as cleanly: Infrabase.ai on all 80 tool pages its guide read and Go Publicly on each of 90 launch pages sampled.

The no-equity mark in the tables is the opposite case: live listings that pass no equity, however strong the domain. An SEO directory listing is as good as the link on it, so once yours go up, read the rel on each one, and before you rank one directory over another, see what makes a directory link worth having. And a listing page Google has not crawled yet is a link Google has not seen: how a new listing page gets into Google is the subject of a companion post.

How to choose from a list of directory sites

A top or best directories list sorted by DR alone tells you which domains are strong, not which of them take your product or give you a link that counts. Four questions, in this order, pick the right ones from any online directories list, this one included.

What are you listing?

Start with the category. A directory for AI products files AI tools, a gallery of SaaS designs files website pages and a React showcase files projects built with React. The directories built for your kind of product put you beside the tools your buyers compare you with.

Is the link followed?

Then the link type. Dofollow on our records is the first filter, and the guide linked from each row reads the link on its live listings. A nofollow listing can still send you visitors; its rel asks search engines not to credit the link. The rel on other free link sources is read the same way.

Does it want a badge?

Then the badge. 32 of the 179 require one or offer one, and on several of them the badge is what turns the link dofollow. A badge is code on your site that has to survive every redesign, and a directory that checks for it can drop the link or the listing when it goes; through Submitator we install it and keep it there, so a badge never has to rule a directory out. Whether a badge is a fair price has its own post.

How strong is the domain?

Last, the DR, to rank what is left. Domain Rating rates the directory's domain and not your link, which is why the tables print the no-equity mark beside it. For a directory that is not on this list, look its domain up in our free DR checker, and the link preview checker shows your title, description and image the way a directory's scraper reads them.

How many directories to submit to?

As many as the pages ranking above you suggest, and how many backlinks a new site needs works that number out from the sites you compete with.

Getting listed across every category, done for you

Submitator submits to every directory in these tables. In our dashboard you pick yours with each one's DR beside its name, and one order can run across categories: an AI product can take the AI directories, the launch boards and the software lists together. From there the forms are ours, and so is the description on each listing, written for that directory and to its length rules. Every badge or link back among your picks lives inside one Submitator component, which we install on your site and look after for all of them; a directory that joins your list later slots into that same component, with nothing for you to edit.

As for timing, most directories are delivered in 24 to 48 hours, every directory within 21 days at most. If a directory rejects a submission, by default you get one more directory to pick; All Directories has no swap to give, since its selection is the whole catalog. A refund can be requested within 30 days of purchase, on the conditions in our terms.

No plan renews: $29 for 30 directories, $49 for 60 and $79 for 100, or All Directories at $149 for the whole catalog and every directory added after it. Each plan includes free indexing by IndexMachine ($25 value), our sister product: as your listings go up, we push their pages through IndexMachine ourselves, with no setup on your side, and whether and when each page is indexed stays Google's call. A directory joins the catalog table once a real submission there has run end to end, and every row shows its DR, link type and badge rule.