What makes an AI tool directory worth submitting to?

A good one clears three checks. It passes a dofollow link, so your Domain Rating sees it. It has real DR and indexed pages, so the link actually counts. And its audience browses for AI tools in your category, so the traffic has a reason to convert. A directory that fails the link checks is busywork; one that fails the audience check sends visitors who bounce. The listings near the top of this page clear all three.

How many AI directories should I submit to?

Fewer than the submit-to-200 crowd will tell you. The value sits in the dofollow directories above DR 60, which is a dozen or so for most AI tools. Past that the links get weak, and the same hour spent claiming one high-DR review profile like G2 does more for you. The quality of the link beats the count.

Are paid AI directory listings worth it?

Sometimes. Pay only when the directory has real DR, a permanent dofollow link, and an audience that buys in your category. There's An AI For That and Toolpilot can clear that bar for consumer AI tools. A paid nofollow listing rarely does, since you are renting a link that passes no authority. Do every free dofollow option first, then decide whether any fee is justified by traffic you can actually measure.

Which AI directories give a dofollow backlink?

Of the 25 here, 19 are dofollow, and the link type is labelled on every row of the table. The strongest free dofollow options are Dang AI, magicbox.tools and Future Tools. If you are optimising for Domain Rating, the dofollow column is the one to read; a nofollow link is fine for traffic but will not move your DR.

Is There's An AI For That worth the fee?

For a consumer-facing AI tool, usually. It is the largest AI directory by traffic and the one people open to find tools, so the placement buys discovery, not just a link. The free queue is slow and approval is not guaranteed. If your tool is internal or developer-facing, the audience fit is weaker and the budget is better spent elsewhere.

How current is this list, and where does the DR come from?

Domain Rating is pulled from the Ahrefs free DR API and was last refreshed on 2026-06-14 (Domain Rating by Ahrefs). The directory set is a hand-maintained allowlist, and dofollow status is checked by hand rather than assumed. When a directory dies or its DR drops, it gets corrected on the next refresh.

Directory Database

Best AI tool directories to submit your AI product

This is the shortlist of AI tool directories actually worth submitting to, ranked by live Ahrefs Domain Rating. New AI directories appear every week, and most are a thin page with no traffic and no link value. The 25 below are the ones where a listing earns a real backlink and reaches people who are hunting for AI products.

AI directories

Dofollow

DR 70+

Top DR

Updated 2026-06-14 · DR data: Domain Rating by Ahrefs

If you build AI software, the loudest advice is to submit your AI tool to as many directories as possible. That is how you end up with fifty links from sites Google already ignores. The better question is where to list an AI startup so the listing actually counts, and it comes down to two things. The directory has to pass a real backlink, and its audience has to be looking for AI products in the first place. Authority without relevance is a wasted afternoon. Relevance without authority does nothing for your Domain Rating.

My bias, after submitting a lot of products, is simple. A handful of strong, relevant listings beats a spreadsheet of two hundred. Start with the directories that are both dofollow and built for AI tools, work down by Domain Rating, and stop when the DR gets too low to matter. The table further down is ordered to make exactly that easy.

Methodology

How we pick AI tool directories

Every entry had to clear one bar: it has to index AI products as its actual job, not bury them inside a general software list.

The set is a hand-built allowlist of 25 domains we confirmed list AI tools as their main job, not a scrape of every site with AI in the name. Generic SaaS directories are covered by the other lists on this site. What you see here is the AI-native subset, plus a few crossover sites that genuinely surface AI products.

Domain Rating comes from the Ahrefs free DR API and was last refreshed on 2026-06-14. Domain Rating by Ahrefs. The underlying directory records come from a launchdirectories source we keep current, and we re-pull DR on a schedule instead of quoting a number from two years ago. You can check any directory yourself with our domain rating checker.

DR alone does not tell you whether a link passes authority, so each listing was checked by hand: we open a live listing page and inspect the actual outbound link. Where a directory implies a dofollow link but ships nofollow, it is marked nofollow here. Of the 25 directories, 19 pass a dofollow link and 16 let you submit without paying. The strongest sit at DR 81.

The shortlist

The best AI tool directories, reviewed

Ranked by live Domain Rating, with an honest note on who each one suits and whether it is worth the time or the fee.

DR figures below come from the Ahrefs free DR API (Domain Rating by Ahrefs), refreshed 2026-06-14.

01
Dang AIdang.ai
DR81
dofollowFree
The highest Domain Rating here that is also free and dofollow, which makes it the first listing I would claim. There is no fee and the review is light. The traffic is modest next to the giants, but the link is the point: a permanent dofollow reference from a DR 81 page costs you about ten minutes.
Best for
The easiest high-authority link in the set
Gate
Light review, usually quick
02
Twelve Toolstwelve.tools
DR81
dofollowFree + Paid
A launch-and-directory hybrid that syndicates your tool across a network of smaller AI lists, so one submission turns into several backlinks. DR 81 dofollow on the main domain. The free tier sits in a queue and paying skips it. Worth it for the spread, less so if you only care about a single strong link.
Best for
New launches that want several placements at once
Gate
Free queue, or pay to skip it
03
findly.toolsfindly.tools
DR79
dofollowFree + Paid
Browsed by use-case, which suits a tool that does one job well. The base tier is a free dofollow listing with paid placement on top. DR 79 puts it among the stronger links here, and the audience is specifically shopping for AI software rather than passing through.
Best for
Tools with one clear use-case
Gate
Free tier, fast
04
Turbo0turbo0.com
DR79
dofollowPaid
Paid only, but it keeps listing quality higher than the free-for-all directories, so your tool sits next to real products instead of clones. DR 79 dofollow. I would reach for this after the free options are done, and only when the category fit is strong.
Best for
Budgeted tools that want a cleaner index
Gate
Paid, lightly curated
05
There's An AI For Thattheresanaiforthat.com
DR77
dofollowPaid
The biggest AI-tool directory by traffic, and the one people actually open to find tools. A free submission exists, but the queue is long and approval is not guaranteed. The paid tiers buy speed and placement, not just a link. If your tool is consumer-facing, this is the one paid listing I would not skip.
Best for
Consumer-facing AI tools chasing discovery
Gate
Review; paid skips the queue
06
Toolpilottoolpilot.ai
DR77
dofollowPaid
DR 77 dofollow with an audience in buying mode rather than idle browsing. It is paid, so judge it on whether your category gets real traffic there before you spend. For a tool with an obvious buyer, the conversion usually justifies the fee.
Best for
Tools with a clear buyer and a clear price
Gate
Paid
07
SubmitAiToolssubmitaitools.org
DR75
nofollowPaid
I am including this one to be straight about it. DR 75 looks tempting, but the listing is nofollow and paid, which is the worst of both: you pay, and the link passes no authority. Only consider it if you can confirm it sends real referral traffic in your category. Otherwise skip it and put the budget toward a dofollow placement.
Best for
Honestly, very few cases (see note)
Gate
Paid, and nofollow
08
magicbox.toolsmagicbox.tools
DR70
dofollowFree + Paid
A free dofollow option at DR 70 with a quick submission. The ratio of authority to effort is good, which is the reason it earns a place on the shortlist. It is not a traffic firehose, but it is a solid permanent link you can get in one sitting.
Best for
A clean DR 70 link with little effort
Gate
Free, simple submission
09
Future Toolsfuturetools.io
DR68
dofollowFree
Matt Wolfe's hand-curated list. It is free and dofollow, but a human decides whether you get in, so a thin or half-finished tool will be turned away. That gate is exactly why a listing here reads as more trustworthy than an auto-approve directory, and why language models tend to weight curated sources.
Best for
Polished tools that can pass a curator
Gate
Hand-curated, selective
10
AiToolsaitools.inc
DR68
nofollowFree + Paid
DR 68 and a real audience, but the listing is nofollow, so treat it as a visibility play rather than a backlink. The free tier is fine for that. I would not pay to upgrade here while dofollow options at a similar DR are still on the table.
Best for
Reach, not link equity
Gate
Free tier; nofollow
11
NextGen Toolsnxgntools.com
DR66
dofollowFree + Paid
A straightforward DR 66 dofollow listing with a free tier. The traffic is nothing special, but it is a legitimate indexed directory, and by this point in the list you are stacking honest mid-authority links rather than chasing volume.
Best for
Filling out the mid-DR dofollow tier
Gate
Free tier
12
Launch Llama Toolstools.launchllama.co
DR60
dofollowFree
DR 60 is roughly where I stop for most tools. This one is free and dofollow, so it is a reasonable last pick before the authority drops off. Below DR 60 the links rarely move the needle, and your time is better spent on a strong review profile.
Best for
A final free dofollow link near the DR 60 floor
Gate
Free

Building an AI SaaS? List it free

SaaSCity takes AI products too: a free, permanent dofollow listing on a DR 47 domain, plus a spot on a live 3D map. A clean addition alongside the AI-specific directories here.

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Full reference

Every AI directory in the set

All 25, sortable and filterable. Use the dofollow filter to see only the links that move Domain Rating, and start at the top.

Directory	DR	Link	Price	Submit
Dang AI dang.ai	81	Dofollow	Free	Visit
Twelve Tools twelve.tools	81	Dofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
findly.tools findly.tools	79	Dofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
Turbo0 turbo0.com	79	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
There's An AI For That theresanaiforthat.com	77	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
Toolpilot toolpilot.ai	77	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
SubmitAiTools submitaitools.org	75	Nofollow	Paid	Visit
magicbox.tools magicbox.tools	70	Dofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
AiTools aitools.inc	68	Nofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
Future Tools futuretools.io	68	Dofollow	Free	Visit
NextGen Tools nxgntools.com	66	Dofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
acidtools.com acidtools.com	65	Dofollow	Free	Visit
toolsfine toolsfine.com	65	Dofollow	Free	Visit
Launch Llama Tools tools.launchllama.co	60	Dofollow	Free	Visit
aiwith.me aiwith.me	59	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
We Like Tools weliketools.com	49	Nofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
Awesome Tools awesome.tools	46	Nofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
AiTools aitools.fyi	45	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
1000.tools 1000.tools	38	Nofollow	Paid	Visit
toolfolio toolfolio.io	38	Nofollow	Free + Paid	Visit
RankYourAI rankyourai.com	35	Dofollow	Free	Visit
LLM Relevance llmrelevance.com	30	Dofollow	Free	Visit
hot100 hot100.ai	27	Dofollow	Free	Visit
ToolHub toolhub.me	26	Dofollow	Paid	Visit
Toollist toollist.ai	21	Dofollow	Paid	Visit

Showing 25 of 25. DR = Domain Rating by Ahrefs.

The honest part

Getting cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity

Assistants surface tools from two sources. The training data they were built on, which scrapes the large AI directories and review sites, and live web results for the ones that browse, like Perplexity, ChatGPT search and Claude with search. The directories at the top of this page feed both. Being listed on them raises the chance your tool appears when someone asks for the best AI tool for a given job.

Here is the part the get-cited-by-AI sellers skip. A listing improves your odds, it does not buy a result. Nobody can guarantee placement inside an AI answer, and anyone charging for a guaranteed citation is selling air. What you can do is concrete. Be on the directories these systems actually read, which is the dofollow DR 60-plus set above. Describe your tool the same way on every listing, so your name and category settle into one recognisable entity. Lead with a specific use-case instead of calling yourself an AI productivity tool.

For the submission order, the copy and asset specs to prepare, and a realistic timeline for when any of this shows up, the AI-tool submission playbook goes step by step. This page is the ranked shortlist. That one is the how-to.

Frequently asked questions

What makes an AI tool directory worth submitting to?: A good one clears three checks. It passes a dofollow link, so your Domain Rating sees it. It has real DR and indexed pages, so the link actually counts. And its audience browses for AI tools in your category, so the traffic has a reason to convert. A directory that fails the link checks is busywork; one that fails the audience check sends visitors who bounce. The listings near the top of this page clear all three.
How many AI directories should I submit to?: Fewer than the submit-to-200 crowd will tell you. The value sits in the dofollow directories above DR 60, which is a dozen or so for most AI tools. Past that the links get weak, and the same hour spent claiming one high-DR review profile like G2 does more for you. The quality of the link beats the count.
Are paid AI directory listings worth it?: Sometimes. Pay only when the directory has real DR, a permanent dofollow link, and an audience that buys in your category. There's An AI For That and Toolpilot can clear that bar for consumer AI tools. A paid nofollow listing rarely does, since you are renting a link that passes no authority. Do every free dofollow option first, then decide whether any fee is justified by traffic you can actually measure.
Which AI directories give a dofollow backlink?: Of the 25 here, 19 are dofollow, and the link type is labelled on every row of the table. The strongest free dofollow options are Dang AI, magicbox.tools and Future Tools. If you are optimising for Domain Rating, the dofollow column is the one to read; a nofollow link is fine for traffic but will not move your DR.
Is There's An AI For That worth the fee?: For a consumer-facing AI tool, usually. It is the largest AI directory by traffic and the one people open to find tools, so the placement buys discovery, not just a link. The free queue is slow and approval is not guaranteed. If your tool is internal or developer-facing, the audience fit is weaker and the budget is better spent elsewhere.
How current is this list, and where does the DR come from?: Domain Rating is pulled from the Ahrefs free DR API and was last refreshed on 2026-06-14 (Domain Rating by Ahrefs). The directory set is a hand-maintained allowlist, and dofollow status is checked by hand rather than assumed. When a directory dies or its DR drops, it gets corrected on the next refresh.

Get your AI tool on the map

Start with a free dofollow listing on SaaSCity, then work down the AI directories above by DR.

List your SaaS free