The best SaaS directories list your product for free, without a badge on your site, and keep a profile buyers read when they compare software. Far fewer pass that test than the lists of hundreds suggest. So we submitted one real product, Oneprofile, and wrote down what each directory did.
The index above opens on the software and review directories. Search it for a name, or widen it to the other kinds of site we tried.
How to read each outcome
Every directory either listed us, is still keeping us waiting, is one where we stopped, or is one we have not got through yet. A wait counts the days since we submitted, never an average approval time, because an average hides the directories that never answer.
Where we stopped, the reason is written down with the day, since rules change. Not through yet usually means a security check or a verification email that never came, so read it as "not yet". Each entry also gives the cost to list and the link the listing gives back.
What "free" usually means
The same reasons keep coming back: paid only, a free tier that wants the directory's badge or a backlink, or no self-serve route at all, just a sales contact. A few are closed by who you are, such as a sign-up for one country or a minimum number of clients, and those may be open to you.
We do not pay, trade links or carry badges for a listing, so those sit with the reason written down. That is our rule, not a verdict on the site.
The profile matters more than the link. Google's guidance on qualifying outbound links asks sites to mark paid links as sponsored, and the profile is the page a buyer finds when they search your product's name next to "reviews".
Where to start
The directories that listed us. Submit, then fill the profile in for a buyer: logo, screenshots and a plain description.
The large review sites, early. Some keep you waiting a while, so start the clock on day one.
The reasons, before you skip a site. Some stop us and not you.
Your own record. Keep each submit date and login for the email that arrives weeks later.
AI products have their own page: the best AI tool directories. A profile waits for buyers to come to it, so Oneprofile finds the people who fit your product and helps you write to them by email and LinkedIn.