Mad Genius Charges $69.99 to Join the Largest Directory of AI Tools. It Lists 101.
Written by Submitator, which sells a competing directory-submission service. Every figure below is published with its source and its sample size, so you can check it against their site rather than against us.
Every page on madgenius.co carries the same title tag: "Explore the largest directory of AI tools". Their sitemap holds 105 URLs, of which 101 are tool pages, and their homepage links 101 tool slugs. Ahrefs rates the domain 15, the lowest of any paid directory in this series.
The price for joining it is $69.99, described as "Simple no-tricks pricing" and "Pay once, list forever". Our Scale plan is $79 and covers a hundred directories, so nine dollars separates one listing from a hundred submissions.
Open their sitemap and every entry carries the identical lastmod: 2023-07-28T14:48:31+00:00. All 105 of them, one moment in July 2023. The site is not abandoned, though, and that is the part worth knowing: 15 tools currently on their homepage are missing from that file entirely, Kane AI, Dreamwave AI, Boolvideo, Huntr and Ubrand among them. Listings are still being added. The file that tells search engines they exist has not changed in three years.
Mad Genius submission at a glance
| Feature | Mad Genius |
|---|---|
| What it is | An AI-tool directory, 101 listings |
| Where | /submit |
| Price | $69.99 USD, one-time |
| Higher tier | None, and no free route |
| Their own title | "the largest directory of AI tools" |
| Tools in the sitemap | 101 |
| Every sitemap lastmod | 2023-07-28, all 105 of them |
| Homepage tools missing from it | 15 |
| Turnaround | Within 24 hours once approved |
| Your link | Followed on 115 of 116, no rel |
| Canonical tag | On none of the 116 |
| Domain | DR 15 on Ahrefs |
| A hundred directories here | $79, every one named |
Per madgenius.co, its robots.txt, sitemap.xml, /submit and every tool page identified from its homepage and sitemap, all read on 30 August 2026. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' figure via submitator.com/domain-rating-checker; no second provider was queried. Nothing was submitted, no account was created and no payment was made. sitemap.xml is a single urlset of 105 URLs, 101 of them under /tools/, and every one of the 105 carries the identical lastmod value 2023-07-28T14:48:31+00:00. The homepage links 101 tool slugs; the union of the two lists is 116, of which 15 appear on the homepage but not in the sitemap, namely 40h, agenda-hero, boolvideo, custom-writings-ai-essay-writer, dreamwave-ai, fast-ai-essay-writer, fast-bots-ai, huntr, kane-ai, kapwing-ai-video, libby-ai, similarvideo-ai, touchpoint, ubrand and voicegf, and 10 appear in the sitemap but not on the homepage. The link census is not a sample: all 116 were fetched and all 116 returned HTTP 200. 115 carry a Visit Website anchor whose href is the tool's own domain with no rel attribute of any kind and a ?ref=madgenius parameter, one carries none, and no page in the set carries nofollow, sponsored or ugc. A rel=canonical was found on none of the 116, and the tool pages carry no robots meta tag. The price, the included-features list and the review promise are quoted from the served HTML of /submit, which renders client-side and was read in a browser. The title Explore the largest directory of AI tools is the title tag served on the pages we fetched. Submitator does not submit to Mad Genius: our plans are $29 for 30 directories, $49 for 60 and $79 for 100, one-time, chosen by you in the dashboard with each Domain Rating shown, rejections credited back as +1 directory and a 30-day refund policy on the conditions in our terms.
How to submit to Mad Genius, step by step
- 1
Count the directory before you pay to be in it
Open the homepage and count the tool cards, or open sitemap.xml and count the /tools/ entries. Both give 101. The title tag on every page says largest directory of AI tools. Neither number is hidden and the gap between them is the first thing to weigh against $69.99.
- 2
Check the domain rating, because that is what the link is worth
Ahrefs rates madgenius.co 15. A followed link from a DR 15 domain is a small thing, and seventy dollars is not a small price for one. If a link is the reason you are buying, this is the step where the arithmetic either works for you or it does not.
- 3
Look at the sitemap dates
Every URL in it carries the same lastmod, 2023-07-28. Fifteen tools on the homepage are not in the file at all, which means listings added since are not being published to it. Ask whether yours will be added, because the answer decides whether the page is discoverable through the route search engines are pointed at.
- 4
Expect a real followed link, because that part holds
All 116 tool pages we fetched returned 200, and 115 of them link straight at the tool with no rel attribute at all. That is exactly what a followed link looks like. Whatever else you weigh here, do not spend time worrying about nofollow.
- 5
Read what "forever" is attached to
The page promises "Pay once, list forever", "Get leads forever" and a "Dedicated living page". The first is a pricing statement and it is clear. The other two are outcomes nobody can promise, on a directory of 101 tools at DR 15. Treat the first as the offer and the rest as marketing.
- 6
Compare it against a hundred before you commit seventy
Their $69.99 is one listing. Nine dollars more buys a hundred directories here, each named with its Domain Rating on the card before you pick it. That is the comparison this page exists to put in front of you, and it does not need any arithmetic.
The largest directory of AI tools has 101 of them
That phrase is not a headline someone wrote once. It is the <title> tag served on every page of the site, including the submission page where the $69.99 is charged, and it is in the Open Graph and Twitter card metadata too.
The catalogue behind it is 101 tools. Their sitemap lists 101 tool pages out of 105 URLs total, and their homepage links 101 slugs. Combining the two lists gives 116 distinct pages, because the two do not perfectly overlap. Either way, the answer is around a hundred.
For comparison, most of the directories in this series hold thousands, and several hold tens of thousands. There is nothing wrong with running a small handpicked directory, and their own copy says so: "We carefully handpick the most high quality, useful innovative AI tools." That sentence and the title tag are describing two different products.
Credit first: the link is real
This is not a sample. We fetched every tool page we could identify from their homepage and their sitemap, 116 in total, and every one returned 200. 115 carry a "Visit Website 👉" button whose href is the tool's own domain, with no rel attribute at all and a ?ref=madgenius tag on the end.
No rel is what a followed link looks like in its simplest form. Not one page in the set carries nofollow, sponsored or ugc. Several better-known directories in this series promise a followed link and do not deliver it. This one does not promise it in so many words and delivers it anyway.
What the pages do not carry is a rel=canonical. None of the 116 has one, and there is no robots meta tag either. That is not a fault, exactly. It is simply the whole technical furniture of a page you would be paying seventy dollars to appear on.
One timestamp on every URL since July 2023
Their sitemap is a single file with 105 entries, and every entry carries the same lastmod: 2023-07-28T14:48:31+00:00. Not similar dates, not a cluster. One value, repeated 105 times.
A frozen sitemap on a dead site would be unremarkable. This site is not dead, which is what makes the detail worth reading. Fifteen tools linked from their homepage today do not appear in that file at all: Kane AI, Dreamwave AI, Boolvideo, Huntr, Ubrand, Voicegf, Agenda Hero, Kapwing AI Video and seven more. Ten entries run the other way, sitting in the sitemap while no longer being linked from the homepage.
So listings are still going up and the sitemap has not been regenerated in three years. If you pay $69.99 today, the reasonable question to ask first is whether your page will be added to it, because that file is the route search engines are told to follow.
What seventy dollars is next to
Their price is $69.99 for one listing. Our Scale plan is $79 for a hundred directories, each named in your dashboard with its Domain Rating on the card, ticked by you before anything is filed. The distance between those two numbers is nine dollars.
Put it the other way and it is starker. At what our Scale plan works out to per directory, $69.99 is roughly eighty-nine directories. Their $69.99 is one, on a domain rated 15. Nine of the hundred in that plan sell paid tiers of their own that the plan absorbs, each named with its price on the savings page, over $140 in total.
None of that means their listing is worthless. It means the price is set as though the directory were large, and by their own sitemap and their own homepage it holds about a hundred tools.
Their $69.99: one listing. Our $79: a hundred directories.
One payment, every directory named in your dashboard with its Domain Rating on the card, and you tick the ones you want before anything is filed.
Mad Genius review: is the $69.99 worth it?
The offer is straightforward and the delivery on the measurable part is good. A followed link, a simple page, review inside 24 hours, one payment and no subscription. If you want a handpicked listing on a small curated site and the price does not bother you, nothing here is a trap.
We would not pay it. Seventy dollars is the second-highest single-listing price in this series and it buys a link from a domain rated 15, in a directory of about a hundred tools, on a page with no canonical, in a site whose sitemap has carried one timestamp since July 2023. Each of those alone is minor. Together they describe what the seventy dollars is actually buying.
And the alternative is nine dollars away. One listing there, or a hundred directories here with every Domain Rating on screen before you choose.
$69.99 for one. $79 for a hundred.
Mad Genius charges $69.99 to join what its own title tag calls the largest directory of AI tools, and it lists 101 of them on a domain Ahrefs rates 15. The link is genuinely followed on 115 of the 116 pages we fetched, with no canonical tag on any of them, and every URL in its sitemap has carried the same July 2023 timestamp while 15 current listings are missing from the file. Our $79 covers a hundred directories, and you read the list first. The whole catalog.
FAQ
How much does it cost to submit to Mad Genius?
$69.99 USD, once. Their page calls it "Simple no-tricks pricing" and "Pay once, list forever", and there is no second tier and no free route. What is included, in their words: "Get leads forever", "Dedicated living page", "Impressions and traffic" and "Quality engagement".
How big is the Mad Genius directory?
101 tools. Their sitemap holds 105 URLs of which 101 are tool pages, and the homepage links 101 tool slugs. Every page on the site carries the title "Explore the largest directory of AI tools". Both numbers are checkable in about a minute.
What is Mad Genius' Domain Rating?
15 on Ahrefs when we checked, which is the lowest of any paid directory we have written up. That figure is what a link from the site is worth, and at $69.99 it is the number to weigh the price against.
Is the Mad Genius link dofollow?
Yes, and it is the best thing here. We fetched all 116 tool pages we could identify from their homepage and sitemap, every one returning 200: 115 carry a Visit Website button pointing straight at the tool's own domain with no rel attribute at all, which is a followed link, and each carries a ?ref=madgenius tag. Not one carries nofollow.
When was the Mad Genius sitemap last updated?
Every entry in it carries the same timestamp: 2023-07-28T14:48:31+00:00. All 105 URLs, one moment in July 2023. The site itself is not frozen, because 15 tools currently linked from the homepage are missing from that file, among them Kane AI, Dreamwave AI, Boolvideo, Huntr and Ubrand. So new listings are being added to the site and not to the sitemap.
Do Mad Genius tool pages carry a canonical tag?
None of them do. We checked all 116 and found a rel=canonical on zero. There is no robots meta tag on the tool pages either. The pages themselves are small and simple, and that is the whole of their technical setup.
What does "Pay once, list forever" actually cover?
It is their phrase for the listing having no recurring fee, alongside "Get leads forever" and "Dedicated living page". There is no terms clause on the submission page qualifying it, and their review promise is separate: "Once approved, your submission will be automatically added to the directory within 24 hours."
Is Mad Genius worth $69.99?
The link is real and followed, which is more than several better-known directories manage, and the review is quick. Against that, the domain is rated 15, the directory holds 101 tools, and the sitemap has not been regenerated since July 2023. Seventy dollars is a lot to pay for a followed link from a small site, and that is the whole calculation.
Does Submitator submit to Mad Genius?
No. Their $69.99 buys one listing on one DR 15 domain. Our Scale plan is $79 for submissions to a hundred directories, each named in the dashboard with its Domain Rating on the card, and you tick the ones you want before a single submission is filed. $29 covers thirty and $49 sixty, paid once, with a rejection swapped for another directory and a thirty-day refund window on the conditions in our terms.
More submit-to guides.
Their $69.99: one listing. Our $79: all hundred, upfront.
One payment, each directory named with its Domain Rating on the card before you choose it, badges installed and kept live where one is wanted, and a rejection swapped for another directory.