Free startup directories that still send traffic

A handful of startup directories are still free to submit to and still send real visitors, but the list changes every year — some go paid-only, some get overrun with unrelated listings. As of September 2026, the ones worth your time are Product Hunt (free, ongoing), Show HN on Hacker News (free, one submission per project), and a smaller crop of newer launch boards — Uneed, Turbo0, TinyLaunch and 10words — that offer a genuinely free tier alongside a paid, faster one. BetaList, a long-time staple of these lists, dropped its free option entirely.

Which startup directories are actually free right now?

Prices, tiers and rules on this list change often — check each site's own submission or pricing page before you rely on it.

What actually makes a directory worth submitting to?

Three things, in order:

1. It's still active. A directory with a stale front page or a submission form that 404s isn't going to send anyone anywhere. Open the site before you submit.
2. The submission process is honest about what's free. Several directories that used to have a clear free tier now bury pricing until the last step of the form, or removed it entirely — BetaList is the clearest example: its own support page states "All submissions are paid. There is no free submission option," after years of being the default recommendation on lists like this one.
3. It tells you the link type. A "dofollow" backlink can help your site's authority; a "nofollow" one still sends visitors but not SEO credit. Directories that hide this, or gate it behind a paid tier or a minimum vote count (Uneed requires a score of 20 for its dofollow link), are worth knowing about before you count on the SEO benefit.

How do you submit to Product Hunt for free?

Product Hunt is still free for anyone with a personal account (company accounts can't post). To submit, per Product Hunt's own help center, you need:

1. A product name and tagline.
2. A thumbnail image (240×240 recommended) and at least two gallery images (1270×760 recommended).
3. A description of up to 260 characters.
4. A pricing tag: free, paid, or paid with a free trial.
5. Topics that describe what the product does.

There's no fee and no minimum follower count to post. The trade-off is visibility: without an existing audience to upvote you on launch day, you're competing against dozens of other products for a spot people actually see.

How do you post a Show HN on Hacker News?

Hacker News' own guidelines are specific: Show HN is "for something you've made that other people can play with," not a blog post, landing page, fundraiser, or a version-bump update. You have to have personally built it and be available in the comments to answer questions. The title must start with "Show HN," and asking friends to upvote it is against the rules. It's free, it's a single post (not an ongoing directory listing), and unlike Product Hunt, there's no submission form beyond posting normally — you just title it correctly.

Which newer launch boards still have a real free tier?

A handful of smaller, newer directories built specifically for the indie-launch crowd still let you in for nothing, with a paid option to skip the queue:

• Uneed: the free "join the line" option gets you a launch date up to five months out. You need an upvote score of 10 just to stay published, and 20 to keep the dofollow backlink — so a launch nobody engages with can effectively disappear.
• Turbo0: the free plan is permanent and includes dofollow links, but approval takes up to two weeks and requires you to link back to Turbo0 from your own site.
• TinyLaunch: submission itself is free; the dofollow backlink is reserved for top-performing launches via a badge you embed on your site, not guaranteed to everyone.
• 10words: free with no paid tier at all, but the format is a strict 10-word description with no categories to browse by — treat it as a small, quick extra listing, not a discovery engine.

None of these will replace a real marketing channel. Treat them as a cheap way to pick up a backlink and the occasional curious visitor, not a launch strategy on their own.

Is BetaList still worth using if it's no longer free?

That's your call to make with current pricing in hand — BetaList doesn't publish its price outside the submission form itself, and says a rejected submission gets a full refund. What's changed is the assumption behind most "free startup directories" lists still circulating: BetaList used to be the default free pick, and as of this run, it isn't one anymore. If a list you're reading elsewhere still calls it free, it's out of date.

How much traffic do these directories realistically send?

Less than most founders hope, and it varies a lot by directory and by how much your own network engages on launch day. None of the sites above publish visitor numbers you can verify independently, so treat every "X monthly visitors" claim on a directory's own marketing page as a sales pitch, not a promise. The realistic use of a free directory listing is a permanent backlink, a small trickle of curious visitors, and occasionally a comment or two worth responding to — not a user-acquisition channel on its own.

Once you've got a shortlist submitted, Larvabot's directory kit tracks which ones you've finished and helps you write submission copy for each, built on the same free tools stack as the rest of Larvabot (see how the kit works). For more on where else to launch and promote a new project, see the launch platforms and directories hub.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to pay to list my startup anywhere?

No. Product Hunt, Show HN, and the free tiers of Uneed, Turbo0, TinyLaunch and 10words all cost nothing to submit to, as of September 2026. Paid tiers on those sites buy you a faster launch date or a guaranteed backlink, not a listing itself.

Is BetaList worth paying for?

That depends on your budget and what you're optimizing for — BetaList itself doesn't publish its price until the last step of the submission form and offers a refund if you're rejected. Since it no longer has a free option, weigh it against a paid launch tier on Uneed or Turbo0 rather than assuming it's the default "free" pick it used to be.

What's the difference between a dofollow and nofollow directory link?

A dofollow link passes some SEO authority to your site; a nofollow one doesn't, though it can still send visitors who click it. Several directories on this list only grant a dofollow link once you hit a minimum upvote count or pay for a higher tier — check each one's current terms rather than assuming every listing counts for SEO.

Can I submit the same project to Show HN more than once?

Hacker News' guidelines are built around one meaningful Show HN post per project at a given stage — it's meant for something new you've made, not a way to repost the same link for more visibility. A genuinely major update is a different story than reposting the same launch.

Do startup directories actually help SEO?

A dofollow backlink from an active, real directory is a small positive signal, but it's one signal among many and won't move rankings on its own. The bigger, harder-to-fake benefit search engines and AI assistants respond to is being mentioned and linked from real, relevant pages over time — directories are one small piece of that, not the whole strategy.