The Only Form Here That Can Reject You on Principle. It Prints the Principles First.
Written by Submitator. kis.tools is one of the directories we file customers to, so read it as an interested party. The link result below is a census of the whole catalogue rather than a sample, and the footnote says exactly what was read.
kis.tools is a curated directory of 75 tools, rated 32 by Ahrefs, whose subtitle is the whole editorial policy in four words: tools kept it simple. The submission form is a URL and an optional email, and that is all of it.
On the link question we can skip the usual hedging, because we read the entire directory. All 75 tool pages in their sitemap, every one carrying a Visit button that points straight at the tool's own domain with no rel attribute at all. Across those seventy-five pages there is not a single nofollow, sponsored or ugc on any external anchor, nothing is noindexed, and a Googlebot pass returns the same markup.
Which leaves the interesting part, and it is not the link. Before the form, this site does something no other directory in our catalog does: it tells you exactly what would get you turned down.
| Their rule | What it actually tests |
|---|---|
| Offers a free version that delivers its promises | No restrictions that only appear after somebody has started using it. |
| Doesn't require user registration for basic use | At least one function you advertise as free works with no account at all. |
| Has a clean, ad-free interface around key functions | No watching an ad to get output, no ads crowding the part that does the work. |
| Provides high-quality output without requiring payment | The free tier is not deliberately degraded to sell the paid one. |
| Allows unrestricted use of output | No attribution line, no commercial-use limit, no conditions on the result. |
Most directories will take anything with a logo, which is why most directory pages are four thousand entries deep and nobody reads them. A list that can say no is a list somebody might actually browse. So the five rules are not an obstacle between you and a listing: they are the reason the listing is worth having, and the reason a page with seventy-five tools on it beats a page with four thousand.
kis.tools at a glance
| What you get | kis.tools |
|---|---|
| Price to submit | $0, no paid tier offered |
| The form | A URL, plus an optional email |
| The link | Followed and direct on 75 of 75 |
| Redirector in the path | None |
| Domain Rating | 32 (Ahrefs) |
| Badge on your site | Not required |
| Account needed | No |
| Editorial bar | Five published criteria, enforced by review |
| Catalogue size | 75 tools, deliberately small |
| Filed for you by Submitator | Free listing, plus 29 more directories from $29 |
Per kis.tools, its home page, /submit, robots.txt and sitemap.xml, all read on 17 September 2026. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' figure via submitator.com/domain-rating-checker, which returned 32. Their robots.txt is "User-agent: * / Allow: /" with a sitemap line and no disallow rules of any kind. The sitemap holds 122 URLs, of which 75 are tool pages at the site root, the remainder being 15 tag pages, platform listings under /web/, /desktop/, /mobile/ and /extension/, five /all/ pages and the submit, subscribe, privacy and terms pages. The link finding is a census rather than a sample: all 75 tool pages were fetched successfully and every anchor was located by regex on the anchor element rather than by an HTML parser, after a parser silently truncated a similar page earlier this week; a first regex pass on this same file also under-reported external links, so the count was repeated with a second pattern before anything was concluded. On all 75 pages the Visit control is an anchor of class link-cta carrying href to the tool's own domain with a ?ref=kis.tools parameter and no rel attribute; across the whole set no external anchor carries nofollow, sponsored or ugc, and none of the 75 pages is noindexed. Three pages were then re-requested with a Googlebot user agent and returned the same anchor with the same absent rel. Every tool page also renders the full catalogue beneath the featured entry, which is why each page carries roughly 77 external anchors and each listed tool is linked from all 75; that is one referring domain regardless, and no claim is made here about what the internal structure is worth. The five criteria and their explanations are quoted verbatim from /submit, as is "We will email you if your tool is approved for listing" and the closing line about tools that "align with these principles of simplicity and genuine free use". No review window, queue position or acceptance rate is published anywhere on the site, and nothing was submitted in the course of this review, so their turnaround and their rate of rejection are outside what we can report. Submitator files customers to kis.tools. Our plans are $29 for 30 directories, $49 for 60 and $79 for 100, one-time, chosen by you with each Domain Rating shown and no-equity marked where it applies, badges installed and kept live, rejections credited back as +1 directory and a 30-day refund policy on the conditions in our terms.
How to submit to kis.tools, step by step
- 1
Test criterion two on your own site, in a private window
Open your product with no session and no cookies and try to do the thing your homepage advertises as free. If you hit a sign-up wall before any output appears, you fail their second rule as written: at least one prominently advertised free function has to work with no account. This takes two minutes and it is the most common reason a good tool gets turned down.
- 2
Read criterion five against your own terms, not your intentions
Their wording is "no attribution requirements, no limitations on commercial use, and no other conditions that complicate the use of the results." Plenty of generous free tiers quietly ask for a credit line or reserve commercial use for the paid plan. If yours does, this listing is not for you, and knowing that before you submit is worth more than the submission.
- 3
Fix the homepage title before you paste the URL
The form takes a URL and an optional email. Nothing else. So the name, the description and the category on your listing are all written from what is at the end of that link, the same as every directory that scrapes rather than asks. The page title and the first sentence above your fold are the actual submission here.
- 4
Fill in the optional email anyway
It is not marked required, and their only note about what happens next is "We will email you if your tool is approved for listing." With no dashboard, no queue position and no published review window, that email is the entire status system. Leaving it blank means finding out by checking the site.
- 5
Pick the right free tier to point at
If your product has several entry points, send the one that best satisfies all five rules rather than the one you most want traffic on. A reviewer is going to try the thing at the end of the URL, and a clean single-purpose free tool passes a bar that a pricing page with a trial button does not.
What a real editorial bar is worth
We have measured a lot of directories this year and most of them have no bar at all. One had twenty-three thousand listings, another had three thousand four hundred, and in both cases a submission is an insert rather than a decision. Those are still worth filing, and we file them, but nobody browses them.
Seventy-five is a number a person can read. That is only true because things get turned away, and it is why the five rules deserve reading as a feature rather than as friction. The criteria also happen to be a decent product review in disguise: a tool that passes all five is one that does not wall its advertised function behind a sign-up, does not make you watch an ad for output, does not cripple the free tier to sell the paid one, and does not attach strings to what you make with it.
If your product fails one of them, the honest answer is that the submission is better spent elsewhere. That is also why our catalog credits a rejection back as another directory of your choice: an editorial bar is a good thing to submit into and a bad thing to pay for twice.
Every page carries the whole catalogue
One structural detail worth knowing, because it is unusual. A kis.tools tool page renders the featured entry at the top and then the entire directory underneath it, each row linking out to that tool's own site. That is why every page carries around 77 external anchors and why your listing, once accepted, is reachable from all seventy-five pages rather than from one.
It is one referring domain either way and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But there is no orphan-page problem here, no pagination burying entry sixty, and nothing that depends on a listing staying near the top of a feed. Every tool on the site is one click from every other tool on the site.
kis.tools review: the short answer
Free, two fields, no badge, a followed link on every one of the seventy-five listings, and a genuine editorial bar published in advance. Check your product against rules two and five before you submit, and fix your homepage title first, because it is writing your listing.
kis.tools is free. Thirty directories are $29, each one measured.
One payment, every directory named in your dashboard with its Domain Rating on the card, a no-equity mark where the link cannot be crawled, badges installed and kept live where one is wanted, and a rejection credited back as another directory of your choice.
Two fields, five rules, followed on all 75.
A DR 32 directory of 75 curated tools. We read every page in it: each carries a Visit button straight to the tool with no rel attribute at all, no redirector, the same under Googlebot. The form is a URL plus an optional email. The five published criteria are the reason the list is short enough to read, and rules two and five are the ones that catch good tools out. The whole catalog.
FAQ
Is a kis.tools link dofollow?
Yes, on every listing. We read all 75 tool pages in their sitemap, which is the whole directory, and each one carries a Visit button pointing straight at the tool's own domain with a ?ref=kis.tools parameter and no rel attribute at all. Across those 75 pages there is not one nofollow, sponsored or ugc on any external anchor, nothing is noindexed, and three pages re-requested with a Googlebot user agent returned identical markup.
Is kis.tools free to submit to?
Yes, and the form is two fields: a URL, which is required, and your email, which is not. There is no account, no payment step, no badge and no queue to buy your way past. Their only note is “We will email you if your tool is approved for listing”, which is why the email field is worth filling in even though it is optional.
What are the kis.tools submission criteria?
Five, published in full before the form rather than in a policy page nobody opens. A free version that delivers its promises, no registration required for basic use, a clean and ad-free interface around key functions, high-quality output without payment, and unrestricted use of output. Each comes with a paragraph explaining what they mean by it, and together they read as a description of what a tool should not do to its users.
Which kis.tools criterion catches most tools out?
The fifth, on output: “no attribution requirements, no limitations on commercial use, and no other conditions that complicate the use of the results.” Plenty of otherwise generous free tiers ask for a credit line or restrict commercial use, and both fail here. The second is the other common trip: at least one function you advertise as free has to work with no sign-up at all.
What is kis.tools' Domain Rating?
32, per Ahrefs. The directory holds 75 tools across 122 URLs including its tag and platform pages, so it is small and deliberately so. What makes the listing worth having is not the rating: it is that the link is followed and direct, and that an editorial bar this specific means the page you land on is not a wall of 4,000 entries.
How many links does a kis.tools listing get you?
More than one page's worth, because of how the site is built. Every tool page renders the whole catalogue underneath the featured entry, so each page carries around 77 external anchors and every listed tool is linked from all 75. It is one referring domain either way, but your listing is reachable from every page on the site rather than from one.
What does the kis.tools form ask for?
A URL and an email address, and that is the entire form. No name, no tagline, no category, no logo upload and no description. Everything on your listing is therefore written from what is at the end of the URL, so the page title and the first thing your homepage says about itself are the real submission.
How long does kis.tools take to approve a tool?
They do not publish a review window. The form says only “We will email you if your tool is approved for listing”, with no stated turnaround and no queue position. Nothing was submitted in the course of this review, so their review time and acceptance rate are outside what we can report.
Does Submitator submit to kis.tools?
Yes, it is in the catalog with its Domain Rating on the card and the link measured rather than assumed. It is also one of the entries where the editorial bar does real work, so if your tool does not meet the five criteria the submission is better spent elsewhere, and a rejection comes back as a credit for another directory of your choice.
Are there tools kis.tools will not list?
Yes, and they say so plainly: tools that reveal restrictions only after use, that gate advertised free functionality behind a sign-up, that require watching an ad before producing output, that deliberately degrade free output as an upsell, or that attach conditions to what you do with the results. Their closing line is that tools “that align with these principles of simplicity and genuine free use are ideal for our directory.”
More submit-to guides.
kis.tools is free. Thirty directories are $29, each one measured.
One payment, each directory named with its Domain Rating on the card before you choose it, a no-equity mark where the link cannot be crawled, badges installed and kept live where one is wanted, and a rejection swapped for another directory.