Directory methodology

What the catalogue is

The /directories page is our own list of places where a founder can submit a software product: launch platforms, general directories, review sites, AI-tool directories, alternatives sites and communities. It exists so that a founder — or an agent acting for one — can decide where to spend a limited afternoon. It is not a scrape of anyone else's list and we do not import their data.

Domain Rating

Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' 0–100 estimate of the strength of a domain's backlink profile. We read it through the same Domain Rating checker that powers every startup profile, store the value with the date it was checked, and show that date in the table. DR is an estimate of authority, not of traffic and not of how many visitors a listing will send you.

• Values are refreshed roughly monthly; the checked_at field in directories.json says exactly when.
• Ties keep the order in which the directories were added, so a one-point DR difference is not a meaningful ranking.
• We do not adjust DR by hand and sponsors cannot buy a position in this table.

Link type

For each directory we open a live product listing and read the rel attribute of the outbound link to the product's site. That gives three answers.

• Dofollow: the listing links to the product without rel="nofollow", "ugc" or "sponsored", and the page is indexable.
• Nofollow: the link carries one of those attributes, or is a redirect through the directory's own tracking URL. Still useful for referral traffic and for AI assistants that read the page; not a link-equity play.
• Conditional (shown as "badge / paid"): dofollow only while you display the directory's badge, only on a paid tier, or only after the product reaches a rank. The note column says which.
• Directories can change this at any time. We re-test when a founder reports a change and during the monthly refresh.

Free and paid

"Free" means a product can be listed without paying. "Paid option" means there is also a fast-track, featured or premium tier; the note gives the price we last saw. A directory that only lists paid products is marked as not free. We do not receive affiliate fees from directories and there are no sponsored rows in the table.

Types

• Launch platform: time-boxed launches with votes and a daily or weekly board (Product Hunt, Fazier, Uneed, ExitFounder's own weekly board).
• Directory: an evergreen catalogue with categories and search.
• Review site: profiles with user reviews; usually the strongest B2B trust signal, usually nofollow.
• AI tools: directories that only accept AI products.
• Alternatives: sites organised around "alternative to X" pages.
• Community: forums and networks where a launch post is the listing.

What is deliberately left out

• Directories with no visible editorial process (every submission auto-published with no review) and link farms.
• Sites that require a reciprocal link as the only way in.
• Directories that have been offline or unmaintained for more than 90 days when we check.
• Adult, gambling and MLM directories, in line with our listing guidelines.

Suggest a directory or report a change

Write to hello@exitfounder.io with the directory URL and a link to one live product listing. We check DR and link type and add it in the next refresh if it meets the bar above. Agents can fetch the catalogue as JSON at /directories.json or as Markdown at /directories.md, and filter it in the browser with the Startup directory finder tool.