Directory review · AI tool directory
How to submit your AI tool to Future Tools
Future Tools is Matt Wolfe's hand-curated AI tool directory. Submitting is free; getting picked is the hard part. We read its submit form, FAQ and advertising page and checked tool pages on October 7, 2026.
Founder, SaaSCity
Updated
Checked by hand. DR from Ahrefs.
- 69
- Domain Rating
- Blocked redirect
- /go/ redirect, blocked in robots.txt
- Yes, if picked
- Free route
- Prices on request
- Paid from
Contents (9)
The short answer
As of October 2026, submitting a tool to Future Tools is free through the form at futuretools.io/submit-a-tool, and a person on Matt Wolfe's team reviews it. Its FAQ says over 75% of submissions are not approved and you will likely not hear back; if your tool is not listed within a week, you may resubmit. Listed tools link out through a futuretools.io/go/ redirect that its robots.txt blocks, so the listing is not a backlink. Featured listings, banners and newsletter sponsorships are sold by email, with no public prices.
Future Tools at a glance
- Type
- Curated AI tool directory with a news feed and newsletter
- Run by
- Matt Wolfe, its founder, per the About page
- Started
- Late 2022, as Matt Wolfe's spreadsheet, per the About page
- Size
- More than 4,300 AI tools indexed, by its advertising page
- Free route
- Public form, human review, no reply promised
- Approval rate
- Over 75% of submissions not approved, per its FAQ
- Paid options
- Featured listing, site banners and newsletter sponsorship; prices by email
- Link
- Through futuretools.io/go/ (302), a path robots.txt disallows
- Newsletter
- 250,000+ readers twice a week, by its own count
- Wait or review time
- Resubmit after a week
- Domain Rating
- 69 (Ahrefs)
- Website
- futuretools.io
What Future Tools is
Future Tools is the AI tool directory Matt Wolfe sends his YouTube viewers to. Its About page says it started in late 2022 as his personal spreadsheet of AI tools and grew into a website, which now also runs a curated AI news feed, a hand-picked Top 20, reviews and a twice-weekly newsletter.
The site says it is moving from "here is everything" toward "here is what matters", because people now ask AI assistants which tools to use. By its advertising page, it indexes more than 4,300 AI tools and has 60k+ monthly site visitors and 250,000+ newsletter subscribers. On its own numbers, the newsletter has about four times as many subscribers as the site has monthly visitors.
Listings are partly automated. Its FAQ says each tool's summary is written by AI (the GPT-5.2 API) from your homepage and checked by a person before it goes live, and the image is your Open Graph image or a homepage screenshot. A Newly Added page shows tools published in the last 48 hours, and a Recently Removed list shows dead entries taken down for 404 errors, unresponsive servers or parked domains.
Is Future Tools dofollow?
No. As of October 2026, the Visit button on a Future Tools tool page links to futuretools.io/go/<tool>, which answers with a 302 redirect to your site with ?ref=futuretools.io added. Its robots.txt disallows /go/, so search engines are told not to crawl the hop that leads to you.
On October 7, 2026 we opened Adrails and Postiz from the Newly Added page, plus older pages for Cursor, Granola, Ideogram and Humva. Every Visit button was an anchor with rel="noopener noreferrer" pointing at /go/, and none of the pages carried a direct link to the tool's own domain. Following /go/adrails-7a3de219 returned a 302 to https://adrails.ai/?ref=futuretools.io.
Paid and affiliate links take the same path. The featured slot on the homepage went through /go/p/ to its sponsor, and Postiz, whose page carries an affiliate disclosure, redirected to an affiliate URL. The tool pages themselves are indexable, with "index, follow" robots and a self canonical, so your listing can rank for your tool's name even though its link out is not a backlink.
The link as rendered on futuretools.io
<a href="/go/adrails-7a3de219" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="inline-flex"><button>Visit Adrails</button></a>
Future Tools pricing
Submitting a tool costs nothing. Everything paid is sold by email, and as of October 2026 the advertising page publishes no prices.
The advertising page says sponsorships are handled by email, with availability, pricing and audience details in the reply. Its FAQ says sponsors can never buy a spot in the Top 20, and that placements do not influence reviews or Matt's Picks.
How to submit to Future Tools
One public form, with no account and no fee. After that you wait, usually without a confirmation.
- Launch first Waitlist-only products are no longer accepted. Submit once anyone can sign up and use the tool.
- Get the homepage ready The listing summary is written by AI from your homepage, and the image is your Open Graph image or a homepage screenshot. Fix both before you submit.
- Fill in the form At futuretools.io/submit-a-tool, enter the tool name, URL, a short description, one of 19 categories, a pricing model (Free, Freemium, Paid or Open Source) and your email. Your name and the newsletter opt-in are optional.
- Wait a week The team reviews by hand and does not promise a reply. Check the Newly Added page, which lists tools published in the last 48 hours.
- Resubmit once, after a week If the tool is not listed within a week, you may resubmit. The FAQ warns that resubmitting sooner will almost guarantee it is not added.
- Keep the listing alive Use the Suggest Changes button on your tool page for corrections, and keep the site up: tools whose sites return errors, stop responding or look parked are removed.
Waiting on Future Tools? Book a launch week you can plan
Future Tools may never reply, and its link runs through a blocked redirect. SaaSCity, which we run, lists AI tools too, with a permanent page and a building on our city map on a DR 66 domain. The free route waits for one of 15 Monday slots a week and its link turns dofollow once our badge is on your homepage; Quick Pass ($19.99) goes live within 24 hours after a human review.
Why Future Tools turns tools down
Its FAQ says over 75% of submissions are not approved. The most common reasons, as of October 2026:
The concept is already there
If the site already lists the same idea several times, another copy is likely skipped. Make the difference obvious.
A low-effort website
A site that looks rushed or has a poor user experience is read as a sign of a rushed product.
It is not a software tool
Custom GPTs, newsletters, blogs, sites that copy the Future Tools idea and links straight to Discord, Telegram or WhatsApp bots are out.
Adult content
Sites with adult content are refused unless filters are on by default; the FAQ calls Future Tools a family friendly site.
Red flags
Sites that look like scams, or apps with an overwhelming number of poor store reviews, are likely not listed.
Is Future Tools worth submitting to?
Yes, for a launched AI tool with a polished homepage, because it costs one form. A listing puts your tool in a directory with a known curator behind it and gives you an indexable page under your tool's name. Treat it as a long shot: more than three in four submissions are turned down.
Do not submit for SEO. The only link to your site is a redirect through a path robots.txt blocks. Most of the reach is in the newsletter, and the site does not say a listing earns a mention there; Matt picks what goes in each issue.
The paid placements suit teams with a budget and a launch date. Only two featured slots exist each week, prices come by email and the link still runs through /go/. Ask for the media kit and compare the price per subscriber with other AI newsletters before you book.
Good fit
- Launched AI tools with a polished homepage
- Tools with an angle the directory does not already cover
- Teams that can pay for newsletter reach
Skip it if
- Your product is waitlist-only or a custom GPT
- You want a backlink
- You need a guaranteed listing date
Other AI directories to submit to
AI tool directories we reviewed, each checked on October 7, 2026. Our AI directory list ranks more of them by DR.
- DR 77
A $49 one-time review fee buys a basic listing, by its launch page.
- DR 73
Charges $99 and says tools are listed within 48 hours, with no queue.
- DR 72
No public submit form (the old page returns a 404); its one listing offer costs $497 and links with nofollow.
- DR 82
Free if you link back to Dang.ai, with up to four weeks of review; $49 skips the backlink.
- DR 64
A $47 one-time Fast Track, live within 48 hours.
Future Tools FAQ
- Is it free to submit to Future Tools?
- Yes. As of October 2026, the form at futuretools.io/submit-a-tool is free and needs no account. Its FAQ says affiliate links and newsletter sponsors keep submissions free.
- How long does Future Tools take to list a tool?
- It does not promise a time or a reply. As of October 2026, its FAQ says you can resubmit if your tool is not listed within a week; resubmitting sooner, it warns, will almost guarantee the tool is not added.
- Why was my tool not approved on Future Tools?
- Its FAQ says over 75% of submissions are not approved. Common reasons are a concept already listed several times, a low-effort website, a waitlist-only product, a custom GPT, adult content or signs of a scam.
- Does Future Tools give a dofollow backlink?
- No. As of October 2026, its Visit buttons go through futuretools.io/go/, a 302 redirect in a path its robots.txt blocks, so the listing is not a backlink to your site.
- Who runs Future Tools?
- Matt Wolfe, whom the About page lists as founder; it says the site began as his personal spreadsheet in late 2022. His team reviews tool submissions by hand.
- How do I get into the Future Tools newsletter?
- Matt picks the tools in each issue, and there is no form to apply for an editorial mention. Sponsored slots are sold by email through the advertising page; as of October 2026, the site says the newsletter has 250,000+ subscribers.
- How do I update my tool's listing on Future Tools?
- Click Suggest Changes on your tool page and describe the fix; the team reviews changes by hand. Its FAQ says summaries are written by AI from your homepage, so keep that page current.
How we checked
Every fact on this page was read on the site it describes. Last checked on . Prices and rules change, so check the site before you pay.
- Future Tools homepage
- Submit a tool
- FAQ
- About
- Advertise
- Newsletter
- Newly added and recently removed
- robots.txt
- Tool page checked (Adrails)
- Tool page checked (Postiz)
- There's An AI For That launch page
- Toolify submit page
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SaaSCity runs a launch directory, so we are not a neutral party. Nobody paid for this review, and the facts in it come from the pages listed under How we checked.