The Free Queue Will Not Take Your Own Site. Read That Before You Queue.
Written by Submitator. WebsiteHunt is in our catalog, and this page changed what our card says about it, which is the honest reason to read it as an interested party. Everything below is quoted from their own pages or measured from their listings, and the footnote says exactly what was read.
WebsiteHunt is a curated directory of interesting websites, rated 27 by Ahrefs, with 4,406 website pages, 1,526 topic pages and 20 hand-made lists. The submission form promises to "bring traffic, authority and visibility to your website", and it is worth knowing which of those three you are eligible for before you fill it in.
Their free tier is called Cool URL Submission and is described, on their own about page, as "For sharing cool websites you've found". The next line is the one that matters: "Self-promotion is not allowed."
So if the site is yours, the free queue is not the route, by their rule rather than by our opinion. The routes that are meant for you have prices on them, and the most interesting thing on their pricing is what the money actually buys.
| Route | Price | The link | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cool URL Submission | Free | Redirector link, followed, 302 | "Self-promotion is not allowed", curated, waiting line |
| Fast Track | €9 once | "No ... direct link", their words | Published within 24h, full refund if they cannot publish |
| Sponsored Basic | €20/month | "one direct link" | 24h publication, sponsor rotation, 1x newsletter weight |
| Sponsored Premium | €40/month | "multiple direct links" | Higher placement, 2x newsletter weight |
| Sponsored Elite | €100/month | "sitewide direct links and banner" | 3x rotation weight, newsletter "Presented by" |
Every listing we measured links out through an internal /go/<id>/ path on a 302. Their €9 tier says "No featured placement, newsletter rotation, highlighting, or direct link", and €20 a month buys "one direct link". So the redirector is the free product and the plain anchor is the paid one. That is an unusually honest way to price it, and it tells you precisely what the free listing is and is not.
WebsiteHunt at a glance
| What you get | WebsiteHunt |
|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, but "self-promotion is not allowed" |
| For your own site | €9 once, or €20+/month |
| The link on a free listing | /go/ redirector, followed, 302 |
| A plain direct anchor | €20/month and up |
| Redirector blocked in robots.txt | No, only /comments and /accounts are |
| Domain Rating | 27 (Ahrefs) |
| Catalogue | 4,406 sites, 1,526 topics, 20 lists |
| Their published traffic | 14,149+ pageviews/mo, 6,020 subscribers |
| Page quality | Title on all 49 read, no canonical on any |
| In the Submitator catalog | Yes, with the self-promotion rule noted on the card |
Per websitehunt.co, its /about page, robots.txt, sitemap.xml and the live submission form, all read on 22 September 2026. Domain Rating is Ahrefs' figure via submitator.com/domain-rating-checker, which returned 27 for websitehunt.co and for www.websitehunt.co. Their robots.txt contains a single User-agent group disallowing only /comments and /accounts, so the /go/ path used by every listing is not blocked to any crawler. Their sitemap holds 5,952 URLs: 4,406 under /websites/, 1,526 under /topics/ and 20 under /lists/. The link finding is a sample: 49 listing pages read in two passes, the second deliberately slowed after the site returned HTTP 429 to the first, with anchors located by regex on the anchor element rather than by an HTML parser. A first pass classifying anchors by external hostname found no link to the listed site at all, because the Visit website control points at an internal /go/<id>/ path; the filter was widened to internal paths before anything was concluded, which is the third time this year that classification has hidden the listing link. All 49 pages carry that control and all 49 carry rel="noopener noreferrer" on it, so none is nofollow, sponsored or ugc; two pages were re-requested with a Googlebot user agent and returned the same anchor and rel. Ten of those /go/ paths were then requested with redirects disabled and all ten returned HTTP 302 to the listed site's own URL, with no tracking, referral or affiliate parameter appended in any case. A 302 is a temporary redirect and a 301 is the stronger signal; nothing here is a claim about how Google treats any particular chain, only about what the chain is. All 49 pages carry a title element and none carries a robots noindex; none of the 49 carries a canonical link. Their advertising links are marked rel="sponsored noopener noreferrer", which is correct. Route names, prices and every quoted sentence are taken from their about page: "Cool URL Submission (Free)", "For sharing cool websites you've found", "Self-promotion is not allowed", "All websites must 'stand alone'. They generally cannot be landing pages or websites that only promote something else", "Fast Track (€9 once)", "Publication within 24 hours", "Automatic full refund if WebsiteHunt cannot publish the submission", "No featured placement, newsletter rotation, highlighting, or direct link", "Basic (€20/mo): Publication within 24 hours, sponsor rotation, one direct link, and 1× newsletter rotation weight", "Premium (€40/mo): Higher placement, multiple direct links, and 2× newsletter rotation weight" and "Elite (€100/mo): 3× sponsor rotation weight, sitewide direct links and banner, plus the newsletter's 'Presented by' placement", along with "Newsletter placement is rotational, not guaranteed for a specific issue" and the note that annual billing carries a 20% discount. Their traffic figures of 14,149+ pageviews a month, 5.6k+ users, 4k+ traffic distributed, 6,020 newsletter subscribers, 4.64% unique clicks and 24.11% unique opens are their own published claims and were not verified. Form fields are read from the live submission form. Nothing was submitted and no tier was purchased, so review behaviour, acceptance rate and what a sponsored placement produces are outside what we can report; they state publication within 24 hours on the paid routes, while 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.
The rule most people will not read
It is four words on an about page and it decides whether the whole exercise is legitimate: "Self-promotion is not allowed." The free tier exists so that people can post interesting things they have found, which is also why their own examples are Wayback Machine, Tiii.me, Radiooooo and Snapdrop rather than anybody's SaaS.
They reinforce it with a second rule about what qualifies at all: "All websites must 'stand alone'. They generally cannot be landing pages or websites that only promote something else." Between them, those two sentences rule out most of what a founder would want to submit on the free route, and they do it in public before you spend any time on the form.
We would rather say this plainly than have a customer's submission quietly declined for a reason nobody read. If your site is a genuinely standalone thing that a stranger would send to a friend, the free queue may take it. If it is your product, the honest route is the paid one, and at €9 it is not expensive.
They price the redirector against the direct link
This is the part worth the whole page. Every listing we read links out through /go/<id>/. That path is not blocked in robots.txt, which disallows only /comments and /accounts, and the anchor carries rel="noopener noreferrer" with no nofollow anywhere in 49 pages. Ten of those hops, requested with redirects disabled, all returned 302 to the listed site's own URL with nothing appended.
Their own tiers then explain why that matters. Fast Track at €9 states what it does not include: "No featured placement, newsletter rotation, highlighting, or direct link." Basic sponsorship at €20 a month includes "one direct link", Premium at €40 "multiple direct links", and Elite at €100 "sitewide direct links and banner".
So the redirector is the free product and the plain anchor is what they sell. We are not going to tell you what Google does with a 302 through an unblocked path, because nobody outside Google can. We will tell you that a 301 is the stronger signal, that this is a 302, and that the company itself treats the direct version as the thing worth charging a subscription for. Read their pricing as the most informed opinion available on the difference.
What €20 a month buys, against what $29 buys once
Since the numbers are close enough to be confusing, here they are side by side. WebsiteHunt Basic is €20 a month, recurring, for one direct link on one site, with sponsor rotation and a share of newsletter weight. Submitator is $29 once for thirty directories you choose yourself, each with its Domain Rating on the card and a no-equity mark where the listing passes nothing.
They are not competing products and both can be right. Theirs is placement in a curated publication with a real newsletter behind it; ours is coverage. What they should not be is confused, and a subscription that renews is a different commitment from a payment that does not.
Credit where it is due
Three things here are better than the norm. They publish their own traffic on the about page, which almost nobody does: 14,149+ pageviews a month, 5.6k+ users, 6,020 newsletter subscribers with a 24.11% unique open rate, and they even publish the click rate. Modest numbers, honestly stated.
Their €9 tier carries an automatic full refund if they cannot publish the submission, which puts the risk on the right side. And their advertising links carry rel="sponsored", correctly marked, which is a detail plenty of larger sites get wrong. The one gap we found is that none of the 49 listing pages carries a canonical tag.
WebsiteHunt review: the short answer
A genuinely curated directory whose free queue is not for your own site. If yours stands alone, submit it free and accept a 302 redirector link. If it is your product, €9 gets it published in a day and €20 a month is what a direct link costs.
How to submit to WebsiteHunt, step by step
- 1
Decide first whether the free queue is even open to you
Their free tier says "Self-promotion is not allowed" and requires sites to "stand alone" rather than being landing pages or promoting something else. Read both lines against your own site honestly. If it is your product, skip to the €9 Fast Track; a submission that breaks their stated rule wastes a curator's time and your own.
- 2
Choose the one category carefully, because it is the page you live on
The form allows exactly one, and says so: "Chose wisely, you can only select one. It will be the main page for your website." Topics allow up to three and are the secondary surface. Look at the live category pages before you pick, and choose the one a browsing reader would open rather than the one that describes you most precisely.
- 3
Prepare a logo, a main image and up to five more
The main image is described as "Main image of your submission" and the additional ones "create a carousel and increase user engagement", capped at five. This is a visual directory with a curator deciding what goes live, so the screenshots are doing more work here than the description. Export them before you open the form.
- 4
Write the tagline and description for a reader, not a search engine
Both are required and both are read by a person deciding whether to publish you. Their own good examples are Wayback Machine, Tiii.me, Radiooooo and Snapdrop, all of which explain themselves in one sentence a stranger would repeat. Match that register and you have matched their bar.
- 5
Pay the €9 if it is yours, and know what it does not include
Fast Track is €9 once for publication within 24 hours with an automatic full refund if they cannot publish it. It explicitly excludes featured placement, newsletter rotation, highlighting and a direct link. It buys speed and legitimacy, not prominence, and that is a reasonable thing to buy.
- 6
Treat €20 a month as advertising, because it is
Basic sponsorship adds a direct link, sponsor rotation and newsletter weight, and it renews. Judge it the way you would judge any monthly placement: against their published 14,149 pageviews and 6,020 subscribers, not against a one-off directory fee. Annual billing carries a 20% discount and they state that prices are locked while the subscription is maintained.
Their €20 a month is one direct link. Our $29 is thirty directories, once.
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.
Free, unless the site is yours.
WebsiteHunt is a curated DR 27 directory of 4,406 sites whose free tier says "Self-promotion is not allowed". For your own product it is €9 once for publication in a day, or €20 a month for a direct link. Every listing we read links through an unblocked /go/ redirector on a 302 with no nofollow, which is exactly the thing the €20 tier upgrades. The whole catalog.
FAQ
Can you submit your own website to WebsiteHunt for free?
Their rules say no. The free tier is called Cool URL Submission and is described as “For sharing cool websites you've found”, with the line “Self-promotion is not allowed” directly underneath. Their paid routes exist for exactly that purpose, so if the site is yours the honest options are Fast Track at €9 once or a sponsorship from €20 a month.
Is a WebsiteHunt link dofollow?
The anchor is followed, and it is not a direct link. Every one of the 49 listing pages we read carries a Visit website button pointing at an internal /go/<id>/ path with rel="noopener noreferrer", so no nofollow, sponsored or ugc anywhere. That path is not disallowed in their robots.txt, which blocks only /comments and /accounts, and all ten we followed returned a 302 to the listed site's own URL with no tracking parameter attached.
What does a direct link cost on WebsiteHunt?
€20 a month. Their sponsorship tiers are explicit: Basic at €20/mo includes “one direct link”, Premium at €40/mo “multiple direct links”, and Elite at €100/mo “sitewide direct links and banner”. The €9 Fast Track tier says the opposite in as many words: “No featured placement, newsletter rotation, highlighting, or direct link.” So the redirector hop is what a free or Fast Track listing gets, and the direct anchor is the thing being sold.
What is the WebsiteHunt Fast Track?
€9 once, for publication within 24 hours, with an automatic full refund if they cannot publish the submission. It buys queue position and nothing else: no featured placement, no newsletter rotation, no highlighting and no direct link. For a founder submitting their own site it is the cheapest route that is consistent with their own rules.
What is WebsiteHunt's Domain Rating?
27, per Ahrefs, on a catalogue of 4,406 website pages, 1,526 topic pages and 20 curated lists. They also publish their own traffic figures on the about page, which almost nobody does: 14,149+ pageviews a month, 5.6k+ users, 6,020 newsletter subscribers with a 24.11% unique open rate, and 4k+ of traffic distributed to listed sites.
What does the WebsiteHunt submission form ask for?
A URL, a title, a tagline and a description, all required. Then a logo, a main image and up to five additional images for a carousel. Then exactly one category, with the note “Chose wisely, you can only select one. It will be the main page for your website”, and up to three topics. Twitter and Facebook are optional.
What kind of sites does WebsiteHunt accept?
Sites that stand on their own. Their wording is “All websites must 'stand alone'. They generally cannot be landing pages or websites that only promote something else”, and submissions are curated with a stated right to refuse anything below their quality bar. Their own examples are Wayback Machine, Tiii.me, Radiooooo and Snapdrop, which tells you the register better than any rule does.
Are WebsiteHunt listing pages well built?
Mostly. All 49 pages we read carry a title and none is noindexed, and their sponsored advertising is correctly marked with rel="sponsored", which is more care than most sites take. The one gap is that none of the 49 carries a canonical tag.
Does the /go/ redirector pass link value?
We can tell you what the chain is and not what Google does with it. The anchor carries no nofollow, the /go/ path is not blocked to any crawler, and the hop is a 302 to the listed site's own URL. A 302 is a temporary redirect and a 301 is the stronger signal, which is presumably part of why a direct link is the thing they charge for. Nothing here is a prediction about indexing.
Does Submitator submit to WebsiteHunt?
It is in our catalog, and this page is the reason its card now carries the note it does. Their free queue excludes self-promotion by their own published rule, so for a customer's own product the routes that fit their terms are the €9 Fast Track or a sponsorship, and both of those are decisions with a price on them rather than something to file quietly in a batch.
More submit-to guides.
Their €20 a month is one direct link. Our $29 is thirty directories, once.
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.