The best startup launch platforms after Ahrefs' DR4 update

After Ahrefs' DR4 update, the strongest places to launch a startup are still the established ones: SourceForge (DR4 92), Product Hunt and Show HN (both 91) barely moved in the preview. Of the 22 launch platforms and directories we compare here, 17 lost rating in the preview we read on November 7, 2026. Four fell by 12 points or more: PeerPush by 19, Fazier by 16, Uneed by 15 and Startup Fame by 12. For a launch this week, pick one or two sites for visitors and five to eight free sites that give a dofollow link, chosen by fit before DR.

#At a glance

• 22 platforms compared in Ahrefs' DR4 preview on November 7, 2026: 17 went down, 2 stayed the same and 3 went up.
• Their median Domain Rating went from 77.5 under today's model to 70.5 under DR4.
• Biggest drops: PeerPush (-19), Fazier (-16), Uneed (-15) and Startup Fame (-12).
• Biggest gains: aiwith.me (+12) and Micro SaaS Examples (+11). Both are paid to list.
• Across all 52 launch platforms on our list, the median went from 66 to 30.5, and 38 of the 52 lost 20 points or more.
• Free to list with a dofollow link, highest DR4 first: SourceForge (92), SaaSHub (76), Startup Fame (73), DevHunt and ToolPilot (71), Fazier (69) and PeerPush (60).
• When it counts: DR4 replaces today's Domain Rating on December 1, 2026. Until then every DR4 number is a preview and can still change.

#What DR4 changes

Ahrefs announced DR4 in November 2026 as its new model for Domain Rating. It replaces today's model, which we call DR3 here, on December 1, 2026.

Ahrefs names two main changes:

• Subdomains get their own rating. A subdomain no longer shares its main domain's number. Show HN is a good example: news.ycombinator.com is 91 under DR4, while the root ycombinator.com went from 91 to 89.
• The pool of domains whose links count is about half the size, around 132 million.

Ahrefs says DR4 tracks Google rankings more than 2.5 times better than the current model. That's the reason to pay attention before December: if the new number follows Google more closely, it's a better guide to which links are worth your time.

Here's what we see in the preview. Sites whose links come mostly from small or new sites drop the most. Links from groups of small sites that mostly link to each other count for little. Very new sites can show 0, likely because the preview data predates their links.

Check any site, your own included, with our free DR4 checker: up to 50 domains at once, both numbers side by side, no account needed.

#The 22 platforms, DR3 to DR4

Sorted by DR4, highest first. Price and link type come from our own catalog. Freemium means free to list, with paid upgrades. Where we haven't confirmed a site's link type, the table says so.

For the full set of 52 launch boards, with each one's DR3, DR4, price and link type, see our list of startup launch platforms.

#Why some fell

Four sites lost 12 points or more: PeerPush (79 to 60), Fazier (85 to 69), Uneed (77 to 62) and Startup Fame (85 to 73).

We haven't audited each site's backlinks, so we can't say exactly why any one of them fell. The pattern across the preview is clear, though: sites whose links come mostly from small or new sites drop the most, and DR4 counts those links for less.

Our reading is that launch boards collect a lot of that kind of link. The makers who launch on them are mostly building new sites. Some boards also ask for something back: 11 of the 52 launch platforms on our list give a dofollow link only on conditions, such as their badge on your site, and Fazier's free tier asks for a link back. Each badge is a link from a young product's site. The trade helps both sides, but under DR4 those links count for less. It's not one site's problem either: across the 52 launch platforms on our list, 38 lost 20 points or more.

A lower number doesn't change who visits these sites, only how much their links count. All four still give a dofollow link (Uneed once you qualify). PeerPush, Fazier and Uneed are still among the 13 of 52 launch platforms on our list with a DR4 of 50 or more.

#Why some rose

Three went up: aiwith.me by 12 points to 70, Micro SaaS Examples by 11 to 60, and DevHunt by 1 to 71. We can't say for sure why. Our reading: a site whose links already come mostly from established sites keeps them under DR4, so it holds steady or gains while others fall.

Both big risers are paid to list, and Micro SaaS Examples gives a nofollow link, so a rising number alone doesn't make a site the right place to launch.

#Why DR alone is the wrong way to pick

A DR number tells you how strong a site's own links are. It doesn't answer the three questions that matter more for your launch.

#Is the link followed?

A nofollow link still brings visitors and helps search engines find your pages, but it passes no ranking value. Product Hunt is DR4 91 and links with nofollow. Micro SaaS Examples is DR4 60, paid, and nofollow too.

Of the 22 sites in the table:

• 9 give every listing a dofollow link.
• 1, Uneed, gives one once you qualify.
• 2 use nofollow.
• 9 we haven't confirmed yet, because a link type only counts as confirmed once a listing of ours is live there.
• 1, Toolify, isn't in our catalog.

Once a listing goes live, check its link yourself with our dofollow checker, since link policies can change.

#Can you list for free?

BetaList, There's An AI For That, aiwith.me and Micro SaaS Examples have no free way to list. BetaList refunds a submission it doesn't select. Paying can make sense when the audience is exactly yours, but check the site's DR4 and link type before you pay, not after.

#Does the audience fit?

A strong rating doesn't help if nobody there wants what you make.

• Show HN is for things people can try right away, discussed by a technical crowd.
• DevHunt is weekly launches for developer tools, APIs and libraries, voted on by developers.
• ToolPilot, Future Tools, There's An AI For That and aiwith.me are AI directories, so they fit AI products.
• Peerlist Launchpad suits makers already active on Peerlist. A new week opens every Monday, and launching needs a verified profile.
• SaaSHub lists your product next to the tools it competes with.
• Product Hunt takes every kind of tech product, so small tools compete with well-known companies on the same day. Since 2024 its team picks which launches are featured on the homepage.

If you're weighing Product Hunt against the rest, our Product Hunt alternatives page compares 11 of them by price and who each suits.

#A launch plan for this week

#Before Monday: write your listing once

Every site asks for the same things. Write them once and reuse them everywhere, so your listings match:

• Your product's name, spelled the same way on every site.
• A tagline under 60 characters that says what it does.
• A short description of about 160 characters, and a longer one of two or three paragraphs.
• A square logo of at least 256 by 256 pixels, and two or three screenshots.
• Its categories, pricing and the platforms it runs on.
• An email address at your own domain. Some sites ask for one to confirm the site is yours.
• A sheet with one row per site: the date you submitted, its status and the listing's link.

#The first 10, in order

1. Peerlist Launchpad (DR4 72, free). Its new week opens on Monday, so launch then. Verify your profile beforehand.
2. Uneed (DR4 62, freemium). Free launches join a waiting line, so get in line on day one, even if your slot comes later.
3. SourceForge (DR4 92, freemium, dofollow). The highest DR4 on the list, and free to list on.
4. SaaSHub (DR4 76, free, dofollow). List and verify your product next to the tools you compete with.
5. Startup Fame (DR4 73, freemium, dofollow).
6. DevHunt if you make developer tools, or ToolPilot if you make an AI product. Both are DR4 71 and dofollow.
7. Fazier (DR4 69, freemium, dofollow). Its free tier asks for a link back to Fazier.
8. PeerPush (DR4 60, freemium, dofollow).
9. Product Hunt (DR4 91, nofollow), for its visitors, not its link. A launch there competes for a single day, so pick a day you can stay online and have people ready to look.
10. Show HN (DR4 91, free), only if readers can try your product right away.

#Day by day

Expect listings to go live over the following days or weeks. Most sites review new listings first, which takes from a day to a few weeks, and a listing whose confirmation email you skipped may never reach review.

#Where ProductsFarm fits

We built ProductsFarm, so read this as one option among many, with the facts laid out.

• A week, not a day. A launch week runs Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59 UTC, and upvotes are open all week, so makers in every time zone get the same chance.
• A fair first look. Vote counts are hidden for the first 24 hours of a week, and the board order is shuffled.
• Free to launch. Before you list, you upvote one product from the live week, which means opening its website first. Each week has 25 free and 10 premium slots.
• Ranked by votes alone. Votes are weighted by the age of the voter's account, the top 3 of each week become Product of the Week, and paying never changes rank.
• A page that keeps working. Every product keeps a permanent, server-rendered page that search engines and AI assistants can read, plus a markdown version and a line in our llms.txt.
• Dofollow links, two ways. Premium is a one-time $5 for a limited time (usually $10) and gives a dofollow link for good, after a review of the site. A free listing earns a dofollow link during its launch week once its maker has upvoted 3 other products.

One honest note. productsfarm.com is DR 28 today and shows 0 in the DR4 preview, like other new sites whose links the preview data likely predates. A link from us is worth less today than one from the bigger sites above. What we offer is a week of attention from other makers and a permanent page. If that fits, you can launch your product for free, and our ranking rules explain every detail of votes, awards and links.

#Beyond the launch sites

Ten launch sites is a good first week, not the whole job. Our list of 137 product directories ranks the rest by DR4, with DR3 beside it, and 51 of them give every listing a dofollow link.

By hand, each one takes about 30 minutes: an account, a confirmation email, the form and its images. That's 15 hours for 30 directories and 50 hours for 100. Our directory submission guide walks through the process, what to prepare and which mistakes to avoid.

If you'd rather spend those hours on your product, our directory submission service does the forms for you, by hand, highest Domain Rating first. The plans are at the end of this article.

#How we put this together

• Ratings: DR3 and DR4 for the 22 sites in the table come from Ahrefs' API, read on November 7, 2026. Domain Rating by Ahrefs.
• The wider list: for the 52 launch platforms on our list, DR3 was checked on October 30, 2026, and DR4 is the preview number the list showed on November 7, 2026. The table above read DR3 on November 7, so a number there can differ by a point or two from our directory pages.
• Price and link type: from ProductsFarm's own catalog, the directories our team submits products to by hand. A link type stays "not confirmed" until a listing of ours is live on that site. Toolify isn't in our catalog, so we show only its ratings.
• Preview: DR4 is Ahrefs' preview until December 1, 2026, and any of these numbers can still change.
• More numbers: our product directory study covers all 137 directories by price, link type and Domain Rating band.

#Have the directories done for you

We submit your product by hand to directories that are free to list on, highest Domain Rating first, with AI directories added for AI products. Starter covers 30 directories for $49, Growth 60 for $99, Complete 100 for $199 and Max 350+ for $500, each a one-time payment. We submit to every directory in Starter to Complete within 3 to 7 days, and Max within 7 to 10, and each listing then goes live on that directory's own schedule. Your dashboard shows every directory's status and listing link, and your Domain Rating when we start and when we finish. We can't promise a DR number, because each directory decides whether to list you and whether its link is dofollow. See the plans.