ListMy.Site vs LaunchDirectories vs StartupSubmit (2026)
If you have spent time this year searching for a directory submission service, you have likely encountered ListMy.Site, LaunchDirectories, and StartupSubmit. All three offer a similar service; they manually submit your startup to a selected group of high-authority directories. This way, you won't have to spend your weekend filling out forms and tackling CAPTCHAs.
Yet the pricing, the number of items in the directory, the delivery times, and the actual result you get are different enough that it would be a bad idea just to choose one. Here's a truthful, side-by-side comparison of all three, based on the information each service publishes about itself.
What Each Service Actually Does
With ListMy.Site you get a flat-fee, hands-off service based on a single package. In this you provide your URL, a brief description and your target keywords, after which the company manually submits your product to 100 directories that it chooses for you, at a rate of 7 to 10 submissions each day, and from the very first day you receive a live tracking sheet which includes the links and screenshots as the listings are published.
LaunchDirectories runs a database of 250+ startup directories and lets you pick a tier based on how many submissions you want. Every submission is manual, and the directory list is tailored to your product's niche rather than blasted to a generic set. One notable choice: they intentionally skip Product Hunt, arguing that launch deserves your personal attention rather than being outsourced.
StartupSubmit positions itself as the highest-volume option, submitting to 220+ directories (some of their own pages cite up to 250+) across tiered plans that scale from an entry-level package up to a premium "Authority" plan. Like the other two, submissions are done by a person, not a bot.
For a broader look at the category beyond these three, our roundup of the 5 best directory submission services covers a couple of automated and hybrid options too.
Pricing and Directory Count Compared
| Service | Starting Price | Directories | Delivery | Directory Selection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ListMy.Site | $169 one-time | 100 | ~10 days (7-10/day) | Picked for you from your URL, description, and keywords |
| LaunchDirectories | $99 (30+ directories) up to $219 (100+) | Up to 250+ in their database | 3-6 days | Curated to your product's niche |
| StartupSubmit | Tiered, roughly $99 up to ~$299 for the Authority plan | 220 to 250+ | 5-7 days (some campaigns run longer) | Curated from their directory database, count scales with tier |
The pattern is straightforward. LaunchDirectories is the fastest and cheapest at the entry tier if you only need 30 to 40 submissions. StartupSubmit wins on raw directory count if you want the widest possible footprint and don't mind a tiered pricing ladder. ListMy.Site sits in the middle: one package, one price, no tier decisions to make.
How the Submission Process Differs
All three claim 100% manual submission, and based on what each publishes about their process, that checks out - none of them are running bots against directory sign-up forms.
Where they actually differ is in how much you have to think about. LaunchDirectories and StartupSubmit both ask you to pick a plan tier, which means deciding upfront how many directories you want and how much you're willing to spend to get there. ListMy.Site removes that decision entirely - one package, directories chosen for you based on relevance to your product, submitted at a pace slow enough that Google doesn't flag it as an unnatural link spike.
If you'd rather see the full directory landscape before picking a service, our free list of 100+ startup directories is a good starting point, and this breakdown of the 25 highest-DA platforms tells you which listings matter most regardless of which service you use.
The Report You Actually Get
This is where all three are genuinely similar, and it's worth calling out because a lot of cheaper directory tools skip it entirely. LaunchDirectories hands you live links, screenshots, and login credentials for every directory. StartupSubmit provides submission links with screenshot proof. ListMy.Site gives you a live Google Sheet from day one that updates with links and screenshots as each submission goes live, so you're not waiting until the campaign ends to see what happened.
If a directory submission service does not show you proof of work, that's a signal to walk away. All three here pass that bar.
The Signal Most Comparisons Skip: AI Citation Visibility
Directory submission used to be purely a Google SEO play - more backlinks, higher Domain Rating, better rankings. That's still true, but it's no longer the whole story. When someone asks ChatGPT or Claude to recommend a tool in your category, those models retrieve answers from the same aggregator platforms - Product Hunt, G2, Crunchbase, IndieHackers - that directory submissions get you listed on.
Neither LaunchDirectories nor StartupSubmit messages heavily around this. ListMy.Site builds it into the pitch directly, framing every submission as both a backlink and a citation source for AI-generated answers. If ranking in ChatGPT and Perplexity recommendations matters to you as much as ranking in Google, that's worth weighing alongside price and directory count. Our guide to LLM SEO breaks down exactly which signals matter for AI visibility, and directory presence is the biggest one.
Real results back this up regardless of which angle matters more to you: one ListMy.Site client, planetcert.com, went from DR 10 to DR 35 with 859 backlinks after a single campaign. Its own product, IndieKit Pro, reached DR 41 the same way.
Which One Should You Actually Use?
Pick ListMy.Site if you want zero decisions to make, a flat one-time price, and a service that is explicitly optimising for AI citation visibility on top of Domain Rating.
Pick LaunchDirectories if you want full control over how many directories you're submitting to, don't mind starting small at $99 for 30+, and want login credentials handed over for every listing.
Pick StartupSubmit if directory count is your priority above everything else and you're comfortable paying more at the top tier for the widest possible footprint.
None of these are wrong choices. They're built for slightly different founders, and the honest answer is that your budget and how much control you want over directory selection should decide it more than any single feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is directory submission still worth it in 2026?
Yes, especially for a new domain sitting at DR 0. A single round of 100 manual submissions to relevant, high-authority directories is still one of the fastest ways to build referring domains and get both Google and AI models to recognise your site exists.
Do LaunchDirectories, StartupSubmit, and ListMy.Site all really submit manually?
Based on what each service publishes, yes - all three explicitly market themselves as bot-free, human-submitted services, which is a meaningful difference from automated blast tools that spam duplicate descriptions across hundreds of low-quality sites.
Which one is cheapest for a bootstrapped founder?
LaunchDirectories has the lowest entry price at $99 for 30+ directories. If you want 100 submissions specifically, ListMy.Site's $169 flat fee and LaunchDirectories' $219 tier land close together, so the deciding factor becomes whether you want directories picked for you or want to choose the tier yourself.
Can I use more than one of these services on the same launch?
You can, though it's rarely necessary. Running two services back to back mostly means overlapping directories and duplicate listings, which does not compound the SEO benefit the way founders assume. Pick one, let the campaign finish and index, then evaluate results before considering a second round somewhere else.
How long until I see SEO results from directory submissions?
Regardless of which service you use, plan on 30 to 60 days for backlinks to get indexed and Domain Rating to stabilise. Submission speed (3 days versus 10 days) affects how fast the campaign finishes, not how fast Google processes the resulting links.
The Bottom Line
All three services solve the same core problem: getting your startup listed on the directories that build Domain Rating and, increasingly, get you cited by AI tools. LaunchDirectories wins on flexibility and entry price. StartupSubmit wins on raw directory count. ListMy.Site wins on simplicity and is built specifically around the AI citation angle on top of traditional backlinks.
If you'd rather skip the tier-picking and get a flat-fee, 100-directory campaign with AI visibility baked into the strategy, that's exactly what our directory submission service handles - one package, $169, done in about 10 days, with a live tracking sheet from day one.
