30 Free Backlink Sites for SaaS Startups in 2026
A practical guide to 30 free backlink opportunities for SaaS startups in 2026, covering directories, communities, review platforms, and content sites—with notes on link type, value, and how to use each platform effectively.
Getting the first few backlinks for a new SaaS is surprisingly awkward.
You can find hundreds of “free backlink lists” online, but many of them mix together dead directories, low-quality sites, paid placements, forums where self-promotion gets deleted, and platforms that technically allow a link but provide almost no real value.
So instead of collecting every site I could find, I started maintaining a smaller, more practical database of backlink opportunities in Blink, where I track things like link type, DR, traffic, cost, submission method, and my own notes on how each platform is actually worth using.
The 30 free backlink opportunities in this article were exported from the Blink database and organized into this guide. They include startup directories, founder communities, software review platforms, content sites, open-source platforms, and a few less obvious channels that I would consider for a SaaS startup in 2026.
A quick note before starting: “free” here means there is a free way to submit, create a profile, publish content, or apply. It does not mean every platform will approve you, guarantee indexing, or give you a dofollow backlink.
What I Look for in a SaaS Backlink
I don't judge a backlink opportunity only by DR.
For a new SaaS, I usually care about four things:
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whether the page can realistically get indexed;
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whether the platform is relevant to SaaS or startups;
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whether someone could actually discover the product there;
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whether the listing creates a useful brand footprint beyond the link itself.
Some of the sites below use nofollow or ugc. I still include them because backlinks are only one part of the value. A Product Hunt page, G2 profile, GitHub repository, or Crunchbase company profile can still help with product discovery, branded search results, referrals, and credibility.
With that in mind, here are the 30 sites.
1. Product Hunt
Type: Startup Directory
Link: UGC
DR: 91
Submit: Product Hunt
Product Hunt is still one of the first places I would create a presence for a new SaaS. The direct SEO value of the link isn't the main reason to use it. The bigger value is having a permanent product page, getting discovered by early adopters, generating branded searches, collecting comments, and having another credible page appear when someone searches for your product.
Blink Note: Don't treat Product Hunt as a form where you paste a URL and leave. Build your account before launch, complete your profile, interact with products you genuinely care about, and prepare a good first comment. The first comment should read like a small founder story: why you built the product, the problem, who it is for, what it does, where you are now, and what feedback you want. If you have a significant new version later, Product Hunt can also become a repeatable launch channel rather than a one-off backlink.
2. Hacker News
Type: Community
Link: Nofollow
DR: 91
Submit: Hacker News
Hacker News is much more interesting for referral traffic and founder exposure than for getting a simple SEO link. A good Show HN can put a product in front of developers, technical founders, investors, and early adopters who are unusually willing to test new software.
Blink Note: The wrong strategy is creating an account and immediately dropping your homepage. Participate normally first. When the product is genuinely interesting to the HN audience, use a straightforward Show HN title and stay active in the comments. Product quality, the title, early discussion, and how the founder responds matter far more than keyword optimization. Think of the backlink as a side effect of a useful launch, not the objective.
3. Indie Hackers
Type: Community
Link: Nofollow
DR: 81
Submit: Indie Hackers
Indie Hackers is particularly relevant for bootstrapped SaaS, indie products, micro-SaaS, developer tools, and products that have an interesting founder story behind them.
You can create a product profile, but the long-term opportunity is bigger than the profile itself.
Blink Note: Create the Product Profile first, then continue publishing real updates, lessons, experiments, or milestones around the product. Avoid posts that read like “We launched X, please try it.” A much better angle is something like “We spent three weeks trying to solve X — here's what we learned.” The product link then becomes useful context inside the story rather than the whole reason the post exists.
4. GitHub
Type: Open Source
Link: Nofollow
DR: 97
Website: GitHub
GitHub is one of the easiest places for technical SaaS companies to build a broader web footprint, especially if your product has anything useful you can open source.
The opportunity isn't limited to putting your homepage in your profile.
Blink Note: Start with your official GitHub profile and add your website. Then create something genuinely useful: a small library, starter template, dataset, prompt collection, example project, CLI, integration, or other resource related to your SaaS. Add your product naturally in the README as the maintainer or related project. The stronger play is submitting useful projects to relevant Awesome Lists. Avoid empty repositories created only to host a backlink—they add very little value and look exactly like what they are.
5. AlternativeTo
Type: Software Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 80
Submit: AlternativeTo
AlternativeTo is one of my favorite directory-style opportunities because the value isn't limited to a product profile.
Its real strength is competitor discovery.
Blink Note: After getting the product approved, don't stop there. Find established tools solving a similar problem and contribute your product as a legitimate alternative where it fits. That gives you a chance to appear on pages targeting searches like “X alternative” or “alternatives to X.” Those visitors already understand the category and are actively evaluating another solution, making the traffic much more valuable than a random directory visitor. Relevance matters: don't attach the product to unrelated competitors just to increase the number of links.
6. Brownbook
Type: Business Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 79
Submit: Brownbook
Brownbook is a global business-listing directory rather than a SaaS-specific community.
That makes it less likely to become a meaningful acquisition channel, but it can still create another indexed business reference connecting your company name and website.
Blink Note: Treat Brownbook as a brand citation, not a traffic strategy. Create one complete company listing with a consistent business name, website, description, and category. Once the profile is complete, move on. I wouldn't spend time trying to optimize or repeatedly promote the listing—the value here is breadth and another clean company reference on the web.
7. TinyLaunch
Type: Startup Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 72
Submit: TinyLaunch
TinyLaunch is a startup-launch directory where founders can create a dedicated listing for a new product.
Compared with a generic business directory, the audience and surrounding content are much closer to the startup ecosystem.
Blink Note: Use TinyLaunch when you already have the basics ready: a clear tagline, strong screenshots, logo, concise description, and working homepage. Don't rewrite an entirely different positioning just for the directory—keep the product name and messaging consistent with your other launch pages. The listing itself is useful, but any discovery or referral traffic should be treated as a bonus rather than the main reason to submit.
8. F6S
Type: Startup Community
Link: Dofollow
DR: 83
Submit: F6S
F6S is more startup-oriented than the average directory and can help establish a company or software presence alongside the wider startup ecosystem.
For founders, that makes the listing more credible than another unknown “submit your startup” page.
Blink Note: Fill out the company or software information as a real profile rather than optimizing solely for the backlink. Keep your product description, company name, category, and official URL aligned with the profiles you use elsewhere. I view F6S primarily as another startup entity and discovery page. If you're already maintaining founder profiles across several ecosystems, it is a logical addition.
9. PromoteProject
Type: Startup Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 49
Submit: PromoteProject
PromoteProject provides a startup-submission route and is useful for adding another product page to your early launch footprint.
The interesting part is that the platform encourages participation rather than only accepting a cold submission.
Blink Note: According to the submission workflow I track, you can browse startups and interact with projects to unlock a free submission opportunity. That's a healthier pattern than creating an account solely to paste a URL. Use the opportunity to look at how other founders describe their products, then submit a clean profile of your own. I would classify this as a secondary directory—worth doing, but after higher-intent platforms like AlternativeTo or Product Hunt.
10. SideProjectors
Type: Side-Project Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 71
Submit: SideProjectors
SideProjectors is aimed at developers, creators, indie founders, and people building side projects. That makes it particularly relevant to bootstrapped SaaS and micro-SaaS products.
It also gives each project its own listing rather than simply putting your URL into a giant link page.
Blink Note: If your SaaS started as a side project or small independent product, lean into that positioning. Create a concise project page and explain what you're building, who it is for, and what stage it is at. SideProjectors can also work nicely alongside Product Hunt because the same indie-founder audience overlaps. Don't expect huge referral traffic—the main value is a relevant project page, brand exposure, and a dofollow link from a site in your actual ecosystem.
At this point, the difficult part usually changes.
Finding ten websites isn't hard. Finding another twenty isn't particularly hard either. Remembering what you submitted, which platforms approved you, what link type each site uses, and which ones still need follow-up is where the spreadsheet starts becoming annoying.
That's the workflow I eventually moved into Blink: one database for tracking SaaS backlink opportunities, submission status, link attributes, notes, and the actual process for each platform.
The backlink strategy doesn't change. It just becomes much easier to manage.
11. Launchtory
Type: Startup Directory
Link: Nofollow
DR: 57
Submit: Launchtory
Launchtory offers another project-submission opportunity for startup founders.
Because the outbound link is nofollow, I wouldn't prioritize it for pure link equity, but that doesn't automatically make the listing useless.
Blink Note: Use Launchtory to create another discoverable startup profile, especially if you've already prepared the logo, screenshots, description, and launch copy for other directories. Since the incremental effort is small once those assets exist, it can be part of a broader directory campaign. I wouldn't spend significant time customizing the submission unless the platform is sending you meaningful referral traffic.
12. Startup Stash
Type: Startup Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 64
Submit: Startup Stash
Startup Stash focuses on resources and tools for startups, which makes category relevance its main advantage.
A SaaS product that genuinely helps founders or startup teams is much more at home here than on a generic web directory.
Blink Note: Relevance matters more than simply qualifying for the form. Position the product around the specific startup problem it solves and choose the closest available category. A listing that fits the surrounding resource collection has a better chance of being useful to real visitors. If your product has little connection to startups, I would skip it rather than force the submission.
13. AI Infinity
Type: Open-Source AI Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 91
Submit: AI Infinity submission form
AI Infinity is an AI-resource collection connected to a public GitHub project, making it most relevant to AI SaaS and AI-powered developer products.
This is a much narrower opportunity than a general startup directory—which can actually be a good thing.
Blink Note: If AI is genuinely central to the product, submit a concise description explaining the actual use case instead of filling the listing with generic “AI-powered” wording. Niche directories are most useful when someone browsing the category can immediately understand why the tool belongs there. For non-AI SaaS, skip it. Relevance is worth more than adding one more domain to your backlink count.
14. StackShare
Type: Software / Developer Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 79
Website: StackShare
StackShare sits closer to developers and technical teams than traditional startup directories.
That makes it particularly interesting for infrastructure products, APIs, developer tools, databases, analytics products, and other SaaS products whose technology is part of the buying decision.
Blink Note: Don't approach StackShare like a random startup listing. The strongest fit is when your product belongs naturally in a technical stack or has a real developer use case. Complete the product information clearly and connect it to the category developers would expect to find it under. For a purely consumer-facing app, I would rank this much lower. For a devtool, it can be far more relevant than several higher-traffic generic directories.
15. V2EX
Type: Community
Link: Nofollow
DR: 79
Post: V2EX
V2EX is different from almost everything else in this list because the opportunity comes from the community, not the domain authority.
For products targeting developers, indie makers, AI users, or Chinese-speaking technical audiences, the right post can produce useful discussion and direct traffic.
Blink Note: Do not write an advertisement. V2EX responds much better to an independent-founder post: explain what problem you ran into, what you built, what decisions you made, what still isn't working, and then ask for feedback. The product link should simply let interested readers see what you're talking about. A genuine “I built this and want feedback” post has a very different feel from “the best SaaS tool is now live.”
16. Reddit
Type: Community
Link: Nofollow
DR: 95
Website: Reddit
Reddit is one of the highest-potential channels on this list and one of the easiest to misuse.
There is no universal “submit your SaaS” page. The opportunity comes from finding the right subreddit and contributing something people actually want to read.
Blink Note: Build the account before promoting your product. Follow relevant communities, answer questions, leave normal comments, and learn each subreddit's self-promotion rules. For SaaS founders, useful communities can include r/SaaS, r/SideProject, r/Entrepreneur, and product-specific niches. I often prefer helpful comments over standalone promotional posts: find someone already asking the problem your product solves, answer the question properly, and mention your tool only when it genuinely adds context. Value first, promotion second.
17. Medium
Type: Content / Guest Post
Link: UGC
DR: 94
Publish: Medium
Medium is useful because you're not limited to one product listing. You can build an entire body of content around the problem your SaaS solves.
That creates opportunities for backlinks, branded search visibility, referral traffic, and distribution through existing Medium audiences.
Blink Note: Don't publish “Introducing My SaaS.” Write the article someone would still want to read if your product didn't exist. Good formats include founder stories, tutorials, experiments, technical retrospectives, and workflow articles. Then mention the product naturally when the workflow reaches the problem it solves. If your original article already lives on your own site, Medium's import workflow can also be useful when republishing rather than manually copying everything.
18. DEV Community
Type: Content / Guest Post
Link: Dofollow
DR: 91
Publish: DEV Community
DEV is particularly useful when a SaaS has a technical angle.
Development tutorials, architecture decisions, API workflows, engineering retrospectives, open-source projects, and technical founder posts all fit naturally into the platform.
Blink Note: Write for developers first and your backlink second. Instead of publishing a product launch announcement, show how you solved something: an implementation, benchmark, technical mistake, dataset, open-source component, or build process. Add one or two contextual links when readers genuinely need the underlying tool or example. According to the data I track, links in article bodies are more useful than dropping the product into the comments, so publishing real content is the better strategy.
19. Peerlist
Type: Community / Launch Platform
Link: Nofollow by default
DR: 77
Submit: Peerlist
Peerlist combines professional profiles, projects, and product launches, making it particularly relevant for products created by developers and designers.
The project page itself is useful, but Launchpad adds a competitive discovery layer.
Blink Note: Complete the project properly before launching: tagline, URL, category, description, visuals, and creator profile. Then submit it to Launchpad and encourage real users to visit, comment, and provide feedback. The Blink data I track notes that weekly Top 5 projects may receive a follow backlink, which makes ranking more interesting than simply creating the profile. Even without that, the main goal should remain exposure inside the builder community.
20. Blogger
Type: Content Platform
Link: Dofollow
DR: 94
Publish: Blogger
Blogger is easy to dismiss because it has been around forever, but it can still be useful if you treat it as a real publication rather than a page created solely to host a backlink.
The biggest advantage is that you control what topics you publish and can keep building the site over time.
Blink Note: Pick a narrow editorial theme related to your product. For a backlink SaaS, that could be SaaS Growth, SEO, Product Launches, Indie Hacking, and Backlink Building. Publish several genuinely useful articles and place your product in the workflow only where it belongs. An empty Blogspot site with one 300-word promotional post is not a strategy. A small niche publication with useful articles can become an actual long-term content asset.
21. G2
Type: Software Review Directory
Link: Nofollow
DR: 91
Submit: G2
G2 is one of the entries where I care much less about the nofollow attribute.
For B2B SaaS, an independent G2 product page can become part of the research process when prospects compare tools, search for reviews, or verify whether a product is established.
Blink Note: Apply once the product is genuinely launched and usable. After the product page is approved, claim it and complete the profile rather than leaving a half-empty listing. The long-term strategy is to collect authentic customer reviews, not just acquire the initial link. A well-maintained G2 profile can support branded search visibility, comparison intent, credibility, and customer research. Think of the backlink as the smallest part of the opportunity.
22. Crunchbase
Type: Media / Company Database
Link: Nofollow
DR: 91
Submit: Crunchbase
Crunchbase is closer to a company-entity database than a traditional backlink directory.
For technology companies and startups, that distinction is important because the profile can support the company's broader web presence rather than simply create another link.
Blink Note: Create or claim the company profile and complete the information consistently: company name, website, logo, description, founders, industry, and any other information that genuinely applies. Keep the same basic company identity across Crunchbase, LinkedIn, Product Hunt, G2, and your own website. I use Crunchbase mainly for brand entity building and branded SERP coverage, not direct referral traffic.
23. Substack
Type: Content / Newsletter
Link: Dofollow
DR: 94
Publish: Substack
Substack can work as both a newsletter and an independent content property.
That combination makes it more interesting than creating a one-page directory listing, especially if your SaaS operates in a category where you can publish useful insights repeatedly.
Blink Note: Create a publication around the problem space, not around your product name alone. A SaaS SEO product might write about backlink acquisition, startup directories, search traffic, and launch experiments. Target real long-tail questions such as “how to get backlinks for a new SaaS” and naturally reference the product when relevant. The payoff comes from accumulating content and subscribers over time; an empty Substack containing one promotional post has very little value.
24. ListedAI
Type: AI Directory
Link: Dofollow
DR: 13
Submit: ListedAI
ListedAI has much lower authority than some of the giant domains in this list, but that doesn't automatically make it useless.
For an AI product, topical relevance can sometimes be more useful than adding yet another unrelated high-DR directory.
Blink Note: I would submit here only when AI is a meaningful part of the product. Keep the description extremely clear about the use case and category so the listing helps both users and search engines understand what the product actually does. Because this is a smaller directory, don't spend hours optimizing it. Prepare reusable listing assets once, submit a good profile, and move on to the next relevant opportunity.
25. Promote Project — Articles
Type: Guest Post
Link: Dofollow
DR: 49
Publish: Promote Project Articles
Promote Project also provides an article-publishing route, which is a different opportunity from its startup directory.
A contextual link inside a useful article can be more natural than another product-card backlink.
Blink Note: Use the article section for educational content connected to your SaaS category. A founder building an SEO product could write about how they evaluate backlink opportunities; an analytics SaaS could publish a practical measurement guide. The article should solve the reader's problem first and introduce your product only as an implementation, example, or tool in the workflow. Rewriting your landing-page copy as an “article” defeats the point.
26. SourceForge — Software Vendor Listing
Type: Software Directory
Link: Nofollow
DR: 92
Submit: SourceForge Software Vendors
SourceForge has much stronger software-category relevance than a generic directory and can be worth testing for products that clearly fit into an established software category.
Again, the link attribute isn't the entire value.
Blink Note: Use the software-vendor route for a commercial SaaS or software product rather than pretending it is open source. Provide a complete product profile and choose the most accurate category available. The listing can contribute another recognizable software profile and potentially reach users already comparing software. I would prioritize this more highly for traditional software and developer products than for consumer apps.
27. SourceForge — Open Source Project
Type: Open Source
Link: Nofollow
DR: 92
Submit: SourceForge Open Source
This is a separate opportunity from SourceForge's software-vendor submission.
The important distinction is simple: this route is for an actual open-source project.
Blink Note: Don't create a fake or empty repository just to qualify. If your SaaS already has an open-source SDK, library, template, CLI, integration, or community edition, SourceForge can give that project another distribution page and connect it naturally to the company behind it. If you don't have anything genuinely open source, skip this route and use the commercial software listing instead.
28. SlideShare
Type: Content / Community
Link: Nofollow
DR: 92
Upload: SlideShare
SlideShare isn't a normal “submit your website” directory.
The backlink opportunity comes from publishing useful presentations, PDFs, or documents that contain your brand and website.
Blink Note: Turn an existing piece of expertise into a presentation: a tutorial, benchmark, checklist, industry report, case study, or “how we solved X” deck. Add your website where it is relevant inside the document and make the text an actual hyperlink rather than simply typing the URL. This works particularly well if you already produce visual content, because the same research can become a blog article, SlideShare deck, social post, and lead magnet instead of creating separate content from scratch.
29. AppSumo
Type: Marketplace / Media
Link: Dofollow
DR: 83
Submit: AppSumo Partners
AppSumo is the odd one out in this list because it is not a simple backlink submission site.
The platform is a software marketplace. Getting listed means creating an actual offer rather than just entering your homepage into a directory.
Blink Note: Don't use AppSumo if your only goal is SEO. The Blink resource notes that the submission process involves preparing a deal and a redemption workflow, so there is significantly more work involved than with a startup directory. Consider it only when an AppSumo launch makes sense as a customer-acquisition experiment on its own. The backlink and marketplace profile should be treated as secondary benefits.
30. Active Search Results
Type: Directory
Link: Nofollow
DR: 74
Submit: Active Search Results
Active Search Results is closer to the old-school web-directory model than most of the platforms above.
That means I put it near the bottom of the priority list for a SaaS launch.
Blink Note: If the submission is quick and your website is already ready, this can be used to add another basic web reference. I would not spend meaningful time optimizing it, nor would I choose it over a relevant startup community, software directory, guest article, or review platform. Think of it as backlink breadth, not a channel likely to produce customers.
Which Backlinks Should You Build First?
The biggest mistake is opening all 30 tabs and submitting them randomly.
I would prioritize them by how closely the platform matches the product and what extra value the listing creates.
For a typical new SaaS, my rough order would be:
NaN. Core product profiles: Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, GitHub
NaN. Founder/startup communities: Indie Hackers, Hacker News, Peerlist, SideProjectors
NaN. Software authority profiles: G2, Crunchbase, SourceForge, StackShare
NaN. Relevant startup directories: F6S, Startup Stash, TinyLaunch, PromoteProject
NaN. Content backlinks: DEV, Medium, Blogger, Substack, SlideShare
NaN. Community distribution: Reddit, V2EX
NaN. Niche directories: ListedAI, AI Infinity and other category-specific sites
NaN. Lower-priority general directories: Brownbook, Active Search Results
This order changes depending on the product.
A developer tool should probably move GitHub, Hacker News, DEV, and StackShare higher. An AI SaaS should add relevant AI directories earlier. A mature B2B SaaS with real customers should prioritize G2 much sooner.
Relevance beats collecting the largest possible backlink count.
Dofollow Isn't the Only Thing That Matters
In the 30 opportunities I'm currently tracking, the link types are mixed:
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15 dofollow
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13 nofollow
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2 UGC
I wouldn't delete the other half of the list just because it isn't dofollow.
A nofollow G2 profile with real reviews may be more valuable to a SaaS company than a dofollow link from a random directory nobody visits. A Hacker News discussion that sends hundreds of relevant developers is more interesting than a directory link created only for SEO.
The better question is:
What does this page add to my startup's web presence besides the backlink?
That usually leads to better decisions.
Don't Manage This With 30 Browser Bookmarks
Once you're submitting to this many sites, you need to know more than the URL.
For each opportunity I track:
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submission URL;
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free or paid;
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directory or community;
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dofollow / nofollow / UGC;
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authority;
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traffic;
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login requirements;
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submission difficulty;
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approval status;
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notes on how the platform actually works.
That's why I keep the larger resource database in Blink rather than a growing spreadsheet. The useful part isn't having a list of websites—it's knowing which opportunities are worth doing, how to submit to them, and what you've already completed.
Final Thoughts
If you're launching a new SaaS, you don't need hundreds of backlinks on day one.
Start by building a believable web footprint around the product: a few legitimate product profiles, relevant startup communities, technical or educational content, and company pages on platforms people actually recognize.
Then expand gradually.
I would rather have 20 relevant pages that accurately describe the product than 500 links from directories created only for SEO.
And whenever possible, choose backlinks that can do more than one job:
SEO + discovery + referral traffic + branded search presence + credibility.
Those are usually the opportunities worth keeping.
Article type:
Resource / List + SaaS Growth Guide
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30-free-backlink-sites-for-saas-startups-2026
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Discover 30 free backlink sites for SaaS startups in 2026, including Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, GitHub, G2, Reddit, DEV and more, with practical notes on the value and strategy behind each backlink.
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