Ahrefs is changing how it calculates Domain Rating. The new model, DR4, becomes the default on 1 December 2026, and many launch directories score much lower under it. Here are 40 launch boards, directories and review sites with their DR3 and DR4, whether a listing links to you with a dofollow link, what the badge rules are, and what listing costs.
Every row lists the pages we checked. Where we couldn't confirm something, it says Unknown.
−21.5
Median DR change for 123 curated launch directories
−31
Median change for 85 directories that trade a badge for a dofollow link
1 Dec
DR4 becomes the default in Ahrefs (2026)
Medians from SaaS City's study of 2,405 directories, measured 5 November 2026. The badge figure covers sites with a DR3 of 30 or more.
DR3 and DR4 for 40 of 40 sites, measured with Ahrefs' Domain Rating API: 37 by SaaS City on 5 November 2026, and 3 by us on 8 November 2026. Link types, badge rules and prices checked on each site on 8 November 2026. Sorted by DR4; this isn't a ranking or a recommendation.
Showing 40 of 40
Launch directories with DR3, DR4, the change between them, link type, badge rule, free option and cheapest paid option. Column headers with buttons can be sorted.
Software review marketplace with verified user reviews.
91
92
+1
Unknown
Not required
Yes
$299 a month
Link to your site
Listing pages blocked automated checks, so the link type couldn't be seen. G2 lists a profile button that sends buyers to your site as a paid Starter feature.
Badge
Badges are earned through reviews, not required to list.
Free option
You can claim a product profile for free and collect reviews.
Capterra says only sponsored (paid) profiles get a Visit Website link. On category pages that control is a script button, not a link. Product pages blocked automated checks.
Community-voted; posts titled “Show HN” appear on the /show page.
91
91
0
Mixed
Not required
Yes
None
Link to your site
Title links go straight to your site. Some carry nofollow and some don't: on 8 Nov 2026, 13 of 30 links on /show and 27 of 30 on /shownew had nofollow. Hacker News doesn't document the rule.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free with an HN account. Show HN rules ask for something people can try, not a landing page.
Crowdsourced software alternatives, ranked by likes.
82
81
−1
Mixed
Optional
Yes
Unknown
Link to your site
AlternativeTo's FAQ says website links are nofollow unless its editors decide otherwise, and that followed links can't be bought. Two well-known apps sampled had a followed main link.
Badge
Optional
Free option
Free with an account; the review queue can be long.
Paid options
Priority review: One-time fee, shown before paying
Hand-approved listings with a weekly leaderboard and newsletter.
71
74
+3
Conditional
Not required
Yes
£69
Link to your site
Visit Website links on sampled pages were nofollow. The submit page says the paid instant listing switches the link to dofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free listings are queued and nofollow. On 8 Nov 2026 the submit page's code marked the free route as paused, with posting about the listing offered as another way in.
Weekly launchpad inside a professional network for builders.
78
72
−6
ugc
Not required
Yes
$29
Link to your site
The Visit link on project pages has rel="ugc". Peerlist's FAQ says only the week's top 5 projects get a backlink; the week's top project we sampled was also ugc.
Badge
Not required
Free option
The documented launch flow has no payment step. It needs a verified Peerlist profile; launches open on Mondays.
Paid options
Featured Launch (top of the feed, per day): From $29
Editorially reviewed; features early-stage startups on a daily timeline and newsletter.
77
70
−7
Via redirect
Not required
No
Unknown
Link to your site
“Visit Site” points to a betalist.com address with no rel attribute, which 301-redirects to your site. BetaList's help page says this link is dofollow. Screenshot links to the same address are nofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
BetaList says all submissions are paid. Startups that aren't selected get a full refund.
Paid options
Lite, Standard or Premium submission: Shown in the submission form
Daily launches; paid plans can launch straight away or schedule.
84
69
−15
Conditional
To list free
Yes
$29
Link to your site
All 15 launch pages sampled were dofollow. The submit page ties the backlink to the plan: Lite promises it for the daily top 3, Premium guarantees it. It doesn't say what the free plan gets.
Badge
The free plan needs a link or badge to Fazier on your homepage or footer. Paid plans don't.
Free option
Reviewed and listed within 30 days; needs a link back to Fazier.
Per Uneed's FAQ: free launches stay dofollow with an upvote score of 20 or more, Fast-track with 10 or more, and Skip the line and Relaunch keep it permanently. Below that it becomes nofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free waiting line with a launch date at least 50 days out. A free launch needs an upvote score of 10 to stay published.
Weekly launch directory with an API for drafting submissions.
77
43
−34
Conditional
To list free
Yes
Unknown
Link to your site
Premium launches and free launches with a verified badge were dofollow; a free launch whose badge check failed was nofollow. The site doesn't state the rule.
Badge
Free launches must keep the badge to stay listed. It's optional for premium launches.
Free option
Free launch plan with a badge. Other terms are behind sign-in.
Runs on a subdomain of the Launch Llama newsletter site, which DR4 scores on its own.
74
30
−44
Conditional
To list free
Yes
$39
Link to your site
Free listings are nofollow until the badge is verified, the listing reaches 50 upvotes, or it finishes in the weekly top 5. Paid plans include a permanent dofollow link.
Badge
Required for a free listing and rechecked about every 14 days.
Free option
Live after about 4 weeks; needs upvotes on 5 tools and one review.
Weekly leaderboard; Premium launches get a launch post.
73
30
−43
Conditional
For dofollow
Yes
$39
Link to your site
Premium is always dofollow. Free launches are dofollow while the ScrollLaunch badge stays on your site, rechecked weekly. Feed and archive links are nofollow ugc on every plan.
Weekly upvote-based launch directory, also called NextGen Tools.
70
18
−52
Conditional
For dofollow
Yes
$29
Link to your site
Free launches sampled were nofollow and Premium launches were dofollow. The site says free launches in the weekly top 3 get dofollow when the badge is embedded.
Badge
For dofollow
Free option
Weekly queue of 70 tools; each is shown for one week.
Software review marketplace with verified user reviews.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Listing pages blocked automated checks, so the link type couldn't be seen. G2 lists a profile button that sends buyers to your site as a paid Starter feature.
Badge
Badges are earned through reviews, not required to list.
Free option
You can claim a product profile for free and collect reviews.
Capterra says only sponsored (paid) profiles get a Visit Website link. On category pages that control is a script button, not a link. Product pages blocked automated checks.
Community-voted; posts titled “Show HN” appear on the /show page.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Title links go straight to your site. Some carry nofollow and some don't: on 8 Nov 2026, 13 of 30 links on /show and 27 of 30 on /shownew had nofollow. Hacker News doesn't document the rule.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free with an HN account. Show HN rules ask for something people can try, not a landing page.
Crowdsourced software alternatives, ranked by likes.
Details and sources
Link to your site
AlternativeTo's FAQ says website links are nofollow unless its editors decide otherwise, and that followed links can't be bought. Two well-known apps sampled had a followed main link.
Badge
Optional
Free option
Free with an account; the review queue can be long.
Paid options
Priority review: One-time fee, shown before paying
Hand-approved listings with a weekly leaderboard and newsletter.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Visit Website links on sampled pages were nofollow. The submit page says the paid instant listing switches the link to dofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free listings are queued and nofollow. On 8 Nov 2026 the submit page's code marked the free route as paused, with posting about the listing offered as another way in.
Weekly launchpad inside a professional network for builders.
Details and sources
Link to your site
The Visit link on project pages has rel="ugc". Peerlist's FAQ says only the week's top 5 projects get a backlink; the week's top project we sampled was also ugc.
Badge
Not required
Free option
The documented launch flow has no payment step. It needs a verified Peerlist profile; launches open on Mondays.
Paid options
Featured Launch (top of the feed, per day): From $29
Editorially reviewed; features early-stage startups on a daily timeline and newsletter.
Details and sources
Link to your site
“Visit Site” points to a betalist.com address with no rel attribute, which 301-redirects to your site. BetaList's help page says this link is dofollow. Screenshot links to the same address are nofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
BetaList says all submissions are paid. Startups that aren't selected get a full refund.
Paid options
Lite, Standard or Premium submission: Shown in the submission form
Daily launches; paid plans can launch straight away or schedule.
Details and sources
Link to your site
All 15 launch pages sampled were dofollow. The submit page ties the backlink to the plan: Lite promises it for the daily top 3, Premium guarantees it. It doesn't say what the free plan gets.
Badge
The free plan needs a link or badge to Fazier on your homepage or footer. Paid plans don't.
Free option
Reviewed and listed within 30 days; needs a link back to Fazier.
Per Uneed's FAQ: free launches stay dofollow with an upvote score of 20 or more, Fast-track with 10 or more, and Skip the line and Relaunch keep it permanently. Below that it becomes nofollow.
Badge
Not required
Free option
Free waiting line with a launch date at least 50 days out. A free launch needs an upvote score of 10 to stay published.
Weekly launch directory with an API for drafting submissions.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Premium launches and free launches with a verified badge were dofollow; a free launch whose badge check failed was nofollow. The site doesn't state the rule.
Badge
Free launches must keep the badge to stay listed. It's optional for premium launches.
Free option
Free launch plan with a badge. Other terms are behind sign-in.
Runs on a subdomain of the Launch Llama newsletter site, which DR4 scores on its own.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Free listings are nofollow until the badge is verified, the listing reaches 50 upvotes, or it finishes in the weekly top 5. Paid plans include a permanent dofollow link.
Badge
Required for a free listing and rechecked about every 14 days.
Free option
Live after about 4 weeks; needs upvotes on 5 tools and one review.
Weekly leaderboard; Premium launches get a launch post.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Premium is always dofollow. Free launches are dofollow while the ScrollLaunch badge stays on your site, rechecked weekly. Feed and archive links are nofollow ugc on every plan.
Weekly upvote-based launch directory, also called NextGen Tools.
Details and sources
Link to your site
Free launches sampled were nofollow and Premium launches were dofollow. The site says free launches in the weekly top 3 get dofollow when the badge is embedded.
Badge
For dofollow
Free option
Weekly queue of 70 tools; each is shown for one week.
Want a fresh number for one of these, or for your own site? Use the DR3 vs DR4 checker. To see whether a listing really links to you, and how, use the backlink checker.
How to choose a directory after DR4
Look for real traffic. DR4 rewards links from sites that people find through search. Search for the directory's category pages and a few of its listings. If they don't show up, a link from there carries less weight, and fewer people will see your launch.
Check DR4, not DR3. Many lists and sales pages still quote DR3. Many directories above are 20 or more points lower under DR4. Check the current number with the DR3 vs DR4 checker.
Check the link on a live listing. What a pricing page promises and what a listing page contains don't always match. Open a recent listing and run it through the backlink checker to see whether the link is dofollow, nofollow, ugc or sponsored, and whether the page itself is indexable.
Avoid directories on site-builder subdomains. Under DR3, a directory on a Notion, Softr or Gumroad subdomain showed the platform's high score. Under DR4 it's scored on its own: in the SaaS City study, four directories on softr.app went from 79 to between 0 and 5, and ones on notion.site and gumroad.com went from 92 to about 2.
Don't pay for the link itself. Google's spam policies treat buying links that pass ranking as link spam. If you pay a directory, pay for what you can see: placement, a newsletter, a review, visitors.
Treat badge links as a small extra. A badge in exchange for a dofollow link is a link exchange. It's common (IndieTide worked this way until DR4), but these directories fell the most under DR4, and Google's policies name excessive link exchanges. List where your users are, and count any link as a bonus.
Methodology
Domain Rating. DR3 and DR4 come from SaaS City, “Ahrefs DR4: We Checked 2,405 Directories”, published by the founder of SaaS City, which is itself a launch directory and says so in the study. Ahrefs' free Domain Rating API, called once with version=dr3 and once with version=dr4 for each site, on the day Ahrefs previewed DR4. The study lists sites by name, not by exact host. We matched each name to the site's main address. For the three sites the study didn't publish (IndieTide, ScrollLaunch and SaaS City) we called the same API ourselves on 8 November 2026; those rows list it in their details. We didn't take numbers from any other source.
Link type. On 8 November 2026 we loaded current listing pages on each site, as a search engine crawler receives them, and read the rel attribute on the link to the listed product's website. We usually sampled 2 to 15 listings per site. Where a site states a rule, such as a badge, a paid plan or a top-3 finish, the row says Conditional and gives the rule. Mixed means we saw both and the site doesn't explain why. We didn't sign in, submit anything or get past bot checks; sites that blocked us say Unknown.
Badges and prices. Taken from each site's own pricing, submit and FAQ pages on 8 November 2026, in the currency shown. Several sites were running sales, so prices change often.
What this isn't. It isn't a ranking, a review or a recommendation, and no site paid to be included. The default order is by DR4 because that's what most people ask about. Spot a mistake? Email hello@indietide.com.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between DR3 and DR4?
Both are Ahrefs' Domain Rating, a 0 to 100 estimate of how strong a site's backlinks are. DR3 is the model Ahrefs has used until now. DR4, previewed on 5 November 2026, gives more weight to links from sites that get organic search traffic and scores subdomains on their own instead of passing down the root domain's score. Ahrefs says DR4 becomes the default in its app on 1 December 2026.
Why did so many launch directories drop under DR4?
A likely reason: many launch directories get most of their links from the sites of the products they list, often through badges, and many of those sites get little search traffic. DR4 gives such links less weight. In the SaaS City study, the median curated launch directory fell 21.5 points, and directories that trade a badge for a dofollow link fell a median of 31.
Is a nofollow listing worth having?
Often, yes. A listing can bring visitors, early users, feedback and mentions that lead to other links. Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule. Judge a directory by whether people actually use it, not only by the link.
Should I pay for a dofollow link?
Be careful. Google's spam policies count buying links that pass ranking as link spam, and ask for paid links to be marked sponsored or nofollow. Paying for a launch package for its visibility, placement or newsletter is a different thing from paying for the link itself.
Is DR a Google metric?
No. Domain Rating is made by Ahrefs from its own link index. Google doesn't use it. It's a rough guide to how well linked a site is.
Where do the DR numbers come from?
Most come from one published study, so they were measured the same way on the same day. Three sites weren't in it: IndieTide, ScrollLaunch and SaaS City. We measured those ourselves on 8 November 2026 with the same free Ahrefs API, and each of those rows says so in its details. IndieTide is new, so its DR is 0 under both models.
Something here is wrong or out of date. How do I fix it?
Email hello@indietide.com with the page that shows the correct information. Prices and link rules change often, so each row lists the pages we checked and the table shows the date we checked them.