Verified Listings Are Followed. Unverified Ones Are Nofollow.
Written by Submitator. StackShare is one of the directories we file customers to, so read it as an interested party. Their site refuses plain HTTP clients, so every number below was measured in a real browser, and the footnote says exactly how.
StackShare is rated 78 by Ahrefs, the strongest directory in this batch by a distance, with 108,217 tool pages behind it. Publication is immediate rather than queued, and the submission is free.
The link question has a more interesting answer here than anywhere else we have measured. We rendered 20 tool pages and all 20 carry a Visit Website button pointing straight at the tool's own domain. But the rel splits down the middle: 12 carry rel="noopener noreferrer", which is followed, and 8 carry rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc", which is not.
That split is not random. Each page ships a data payload with a verified field in it, and when we checked the flag against the rel on twelve pages, they agreed on eleven.
| Listing | verified | rel on Visit Website |
|---|---|---|
| supabase | true | noopener noreferrer |
| stripe | true | noopener noreferrer |
| posthog | true | noopener noreferrer |
| appraize | true | noopener noreferrer |
| vlogme | true | noopener noreferrer |
| figma | false | noopener noreferrer |
| ai-anime | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
| sendraven | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
| fizlog | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
| orkestia | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
| joxo | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
| rankveo | false | noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc |
Every unverified listing we measured carries nofollow ugc. Submitting puts the page on a DR 78 domain and leaves the link withheld; getting it verified is what appears to change that. Figma is the one exception in our sample, unverified and followed, so this is a pattern rather than a documented rule. It is still the most useful thing we can tell you about this directory, and it is one step most people never take.
StackShare at a glance
| What you get | StackShare |
|---|---|
| Price to list | $0, account required |
| Publication | Immediate, in our experience |
| The link, verified | rel="noopener noreferrer", followed |
| The link, unverified | rel="...nofollow ugc", withheld |
| Domain Rating | 78 (Ahrefs) |
| Catalogue | 108,217 tools |
| Canonical on tool pages | Points at the home page, on 20 of 20 |
| The form | Two steps; Docs URL is required |
| Bot protection | Vercel checkpoint; plain clients get 429 |
| Filed for you by Submitator | Retried until it goes through, from $29 |
Per stackshare.io, its robots.txt, sitemap index and tool pages, and the live two-step submission form, all read on 22 September 2026. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' figure via submitator.com/domain-rating-checker, which returned 78. The site refuses plain HTTP clients: every request we made with curl, including for robots.txt, returned HTTP 429 behind a page titled Vercel Security Checkpoint, so robots.txt, the sitemaps and every listing page in this review were read in a real browser instead, and the anchor values were taken from the rendered DOM rather than from served markup. Their robots.txt names and allows GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, FacebookBot, Applebot-Extended and YouBot, each with /api/, /admin/ and /_next/ disallowed, then disallows Bytespider, Baiduspider, Sogou web spider, Sogou, YisouSpider, PetalBot and YandexBot entirely, with the same allowances for *. Its final line reads "Sitemap: http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml", a development address; the working sitemap index is at stackshare.io/sitemap.xml and lists core, tools, companies and stackups children. The tools child holds 324,663 URLs at three per tool, being /<slug>, /tools/<slug> and /tools/<slug>/alternatives, which is 108,217 tools; /tools/<slug> redirects to /<slug>. The link finding is a sample rendered in a browser: 20 tool pages chosen to span both long-established tools and recently submitted ones, all 20 carrying an anchor whose visible text is Visit Website and pointing at the tool's own domain with ?ref=stackshare.io&utm_source=stackshare.io&utm_medium=referral appended. Twelve carry rel="noopener noreferrer" and eight carry rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc". A first pass missed these anchors entirely because of a faulty host-matching filter of ours, not because they were absent, and the count was repeated with a direct text match before anything was concluded. The verified comparison covers 12 of those pages, reading a verified field from each page's own data payload and comparing it with whether the rel contained nofollow: they agreed on 11, the exception being figma, which reads verified false and is followed. StackShare publishes no rule for this and we tested no mechanism, so it is reported as an observed association and not as a documented behaviour. On all 20 rendered pages the canonical link points at https://stackshare.io/ rather than at the page itself; separately, 3 of 40 pages sampled from served markup carried a robots noindex and none lacked a title. Form fields are read from the live two-step flow. The observations that publication is immediate and that the form fails often enough to need retrying are our own experience filing these for customers, not commitments StackShare makes; they publish no review window, and Submitator's terms state an aim of 2 to 3 days and a committed ETA of 30 days from purchase, so this page makes no speed comparison in either direction. 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 list a tool on StackShare, step by step
- 1
Have a Docs URL ready, because it is required
The second step asks for a Docs URL with an asterisk next to it, alongside the website. If your product has no documentation site, this is the field that stops the submission dead. A getting-started page, a README on a public repo or a help centre all satisfy it; a pricing page does not.
- 2
Export a square logo before you start
The logo slot is labelled Square (Required) and it sits at the top of step two. There is no cropping tool. A wide wordmark will either be rejected or letterboxed into something that looks wrong next to every other tool in the category, so export a square mark first.
- 3
Write the features as a semicolon list, not prose
The field says "Features (separate with semicolons)" and it is required. This is the structured part of the listing and it feeds the comparison surfaces, so give six to eight concrete capabilities rather than three marketing phrases. Each one becomes a row somebody scans against an alternative.
- 4
Expect the form to fail, and try again
The site sits behind a challenge that returns 429 to anything that does not look like a browser, and in our experience the submission itself fails often enough that one attempt is not a plan. If you are doing this by hand, keep the tab open and retry rather than assuming it went through. Check the tool page afterwards either way.
- 5
Then go and get the listing verified
This is the step that appears to change the rel from nofollow ugc to followed, and it is separate from submitting. Every unverified listing in our sample carried the withheld version. Whatever else you do here, do not stop at publication and assume the link counts.
- 6
Do not count on the page ranking on its own
Every tool page we rendered declares its canonical to be the StackShare home page rather than itself. Treat the listing as a link and a presence in a well-known catalogue, and plan no search traffic from the page itself until that changes.
One flag decides the whole thing
We have measured a lot of conditional links this year. Hacker News withholds until a post earns roughly twenty points. Hunt0 withholds unless you finish in a weekly top twenty. StackShare is the first where the condition is not performance at all: it is a boolean on your own record.
Twelve of our twenty pages are followed and eight are not, and the pattern lines up with a verified field that each page ships in its own data. On the twelve where we compared the two directly, they agreed on eleven. The exception, Figma, is unverified and followed, which is why this page calls it an observed association rather than a rule: StackShare documents none of this and we tested no mechanism.
What makes it worth acting on anyway is the direction of the error. If the pattern holds you gain a followed link from a DR 78 domain for ten minutes of claiming a page. If it does not, you have claimed a page you should have claimed anyway.
The canonical points at the home page
On all twenty rendered tool pages, the canonical link is https://stackshare.io/. Not the tool page. The home page.
A canonical tag is how a page tells search engines which URL is the real one, and a tool page declaring the home page as its canonical is a page volunteering to be treated as a duplicate. We are reporting what the markup says rather than predicting what any search engine does with it, and search engines do sometimes ignore a canonical they can see is wrong.
For a submitter the practical consequence is narrow. It does not touch the rel on your link. It does mean you should not budget referral traffic from your own StackShare page arriving through search, because the page is asking not to compete.
Why the form fails, and why that is the pitch
The owner's note when this guide was commissioned was that the submission form fails often. We can corroborate the environment rather than the form itself: every plain HTTP request we made to stackshare.io returned 429 behind a Vercel Security Checkpoint, including the request for robots.txt. The whole of this review had to be done in a real browser.
That is a reasonable thing for a site with 108,000 pages to do, and it is also why a submission here is not a thirty-second job. Filing it by hand means being prepared to sit and retry. We retry it for you until it goes through, which is the least glamorous feature we sell and, on this particular directory, the one that matters.
Their robots.txt is worth reading
Two things in it stand out. The AI policy is the most explicit we have seen: they name and allow GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, FacebookBot, Applebot-Extended and YouBot, then block Bytespider, Baiduspider, Sogou, YisouSpider, PetalBot and YandexBot outright. Whatever you make of the line they have drawn, they have drawn it deliberately.
The second thing is a slip. The file ends Sitemap: http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml, a development address no crawler can reach. The real index works at stackshare.io/sitemap.xml, so nothing is missing, but nothing is being pointed at either.
StackShare review: the short answer
The strongest domain on this list, free, instant, and behind a challenge that makes the form a retry job. Have a Docs URL and a square logo ready, then go back and get the listing verified, because unverified listings carry nofollow.
StackShare is free, when the form works. Thirty directories are $29, retried until they do.
One payment, every directory named in your dashboard with its Domain Rating on the card, a no-equity mark where the link passes nothing, badges installed and kept live where one is wanted, and a rejection credited back as another directory of your choice.
Verified is followed. Unverified is not.
A DR 78 catalogue of 108,217 tools. All 20 listings we rendered link straight at the tool, but 12 are followed and 8 carry nofollow ugc, and the split lines up with a verified flag on the listing itself, agreeing on 11 of the 12 we checked. Publication is instant, the form sits behind a challenge that fails a lot, and every tool page declares the home page as its canonical. The whole catalog.
FAQ
Is a StackShare link dofollow?
It depends on one flag. We rendered 20 tool pages and all 20 carry a Visit Website button pointing at the tool's own domain. Twelve carry rel="noopener noreferrer", which is followed. Eight carry rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc", which is not. The split is not random: the page data carries a verified field, and on the 12 pages where we checked both, verified matched followed on 11.
How do you get a followed link on StackShare?
Get the listing verified. Every unverified listing we measured carried nofollow ugc and almost every verified one was followed, so verification is the step that changes the rel rather than anything about the submission itself. It is the same shape as claiming a listing anywhere else: submitting puts the page there, claiming it makes it yours.
What is StackShare's Domain Rating?
78, per Ahrefs, which makes it the strongest directory in this batch by some distance. The catalogue behind it is 108,217 tools, each with a profile page, a /tools/ path that redirects to it, and an alternatives page.
Why does the StackShare submission form keep failing?
We cannot tell you their reason, only what we hit. Every plain HTTP request to stackshare.io returned 429 behind a Vercel Security Checkpoint, including for robots.txt, and the whole of this review had to be done in a real browser. Filing these for customers our experience is that the form fails often enough to matter, which is why we retry rather than submit once and hope.
What does the StackShare submission form ask for?
Two steps. First a website URL on its own. Then a square logo, marked required, plus tool name, website URL, Docs URL, a one-line description, a short description of two to three sentences, and a semicolon-separated list of features. Every field on the second step is required, including the Docs URL, which is the one that stops people.
Does StackShare publish listings instantly?
In our experience filing them, yes, publication is immediate rather than queued. They publish no review window, so that is our observation rather than a commitment they make.
Do StackShare tool pages have a correct canonical tag?
No, and this is worth knowing. On all 20 tool pages we rendered, the canonical link points at https://stackshare.io/, the home page, rather than at the page itself. A page that declares itself a duplicate of the home page is asking search engines not to index it on its own merits. We are reporting what the markup says, not predicting what any search engine does with it.
Which AI crawlers can read StackShare?
A deliberate split, and the most explicit we have seen. Their robots.txt names and allows GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, cohere-ai, FacebookBot, Applebot-Extended and YouBot, each with /api/, /admin/ and /_next/ closed. It then blocks Bytespider, Baiduspider, Sogou, YisouSpider, PetalBot and YandexBot outright.
What is the StackShare sitemap bug?
Their robots.txt ends with “Sitemap: http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml”, which is a development address no crawler can reach. The real sitemap index does work at stackshare.io/sitemap.xml, so this is a deployment slip rather than anything missing, and it is the sort of thing worth knowing about a site you are relying on.
Does Submitator submit to StackShare?
Yes, and this is one where the retrying matters. The form sits behind a challenge that fails often, so filing it by hand means sitting there trying again; we do that for you rather than counting one attempt as a delivery. The catalog card carries the Domain Rating, and this guide is where the verified-versus-unverified distinction is written down.
More submit-to guides.
StackShare is free, when the form works. Thirty directories are $29, retried until they do.
One payment, each directory named with its Domain Rating on the card before you choose it, a no-equity mark where the link passes nothing, badges installed and kept live where one is wanted, and a rejection swapped for another directory.