Launch directories ranked by verified dofollow link value, November 2026

This page is for founders choosing where to list a product for backlinks. If you want launch-day traffic rather than link equity, the complete launch guide compares audience and launch model instead. Toolfound publishes this ranking and is included in it, ranked by the same rule as every other row.

The ranking

A directory ranks higher when its product links were followed on every listing we checked, and, within the same verdict, when its domain gets more visits. The order is mechanical: verdict first (followed, mixed, not followed, no product link), then directories with no stated condition before those that tie the followed link to a badge, a link back or a vote threshold, then Tranco rank of the directory’s domain, then name. Nothing is placed by hand, and no platform can pay to move up.

Each value in the “rel read” column links to the listing page it was read on, so you can check it yourself. “(none)” means the link had no rel attribute, which makes it a followed link. A condition is shown only where the platform states it on its own submit or pricing page, linked; “—” means we did not find one, not that none exists.

How to read a verdict

A followed link is one whose rel attribute contains none of nofollow, ugc or sponsored. Values such as noopener, noreferrer and external only control the browser and do not change how search engines treat the link.

• Followed (21): the product link was followed on every listing we opened.
• Mixed (8): we saw followed and not-followed product links, across listings or on the same page. Often a paid or reviewed tier decides which one you get.
• Not followed (11): every sampled product link carried nofollow, ugc or sponsored. Still useful for visitors, not for link equity.
• No product link (6): the rendered listing had no anchor to the product’s own site, or routed it through a click redirect on the directory’s domain.

Some verdicts here differ from what a directory says about itself and from our own earlier checks. Where that happened we report what the live page showed on 1 November 2026, and the notes column says what changed.

Directories we could not read

15 directories from our launch dataset are left out of the ranking because we could not read a listing page on 1 November 2026. We do not guess their verdict.

How we know

Every verdict on this page comes from a live listing page read on 1 November 2026, not from a directory’s FAQ. For each directory in Toolfound’s launch dataset we opened one or two public listing pages, first as static HTML with curl and then rendered in a single headless Chromium browser, so links added by JavaScript were counted too. On each page we found the anchor pointing at the listed product’s own site and recorded its rel attribute exactly as served. Links to social profiles, ads, sponsor rails and the directory’s own pages were ignored.

The traffic tie-break is the Tranco top-1M list (list ID 7462X, downloaded 1 November 2026), using the rank of the directory’s registrable domain. Tranco measures popularity, not link authority, and subdomain directories inherit their parent domain’s rank. Costs come from the dataset behind our launch guide and show “—” where we have not verified them.

Limits: one or two listings per directory is a sample, a directory can treat new, paid or reviewed listings differently, and rel attributes change without notice. The date at the top of this page is the date of the last full check. Our general sourcing rules are on the methodology page.

Common questions

Want a followed listing that you can check yourself? Launch on Toolfound for free: verify your domain and your listing links out without nofollow. Related guides: startup directories with dofollow backlinks · AI tool directories compared · where to list an MCP server · high authority startup directories.