I built this open source tool after wasting 20 hours on directory research
Hey everyone—maker here. Wanted to share the story behind this and get some real feedback.
The frustration that started this
Six months ago, I was preparing to launch a side project. Did what everyone does: Googled "best startup directories 2024." What I found was painful.
GitHub lists last updated in 2023.
Blog posts with dead links from 2018.
Services charging $997 to "submit to 400+ directories" (most of which send zero traffic).
No data on which directories actually matter—no Domain Rating scores, no dofollow/nofollow info, nothing to help me prioritize.
I spent 20+ hours on this. Built a spreadsheet. Manually checked if sites were still active. Looked up DR scores one by one. It was absurd.
Then I talked to other founders.
Same story.
Everyone wastes time on this.
Everyone builds their own messy spreadsheet. Everyone wishes someone had just... done the work already.
So I built it.
What I actually made
Awesome Directories is a curated list of 300+ launch directories with the data that actually matters:
Domain Rating scores (via Ahrefs API, updated weekly)
Dofollow/nofollow badges (manually verified)
Pricing info (free, paid, freemium)
Community voting from real founders
Filters so you can find DR 70+, free only, dofollow only in seconds
Multi-select checklist export
The goal: find your top 20 directories in under 3 minutes. Skip the other hundreds.
Why open source and free
I'm not charging for this. Apache-2.0 license. Fork it, remix it, whatever.
Two reasons:
First, I'm building reputation, not revenue (for now). I have zero audience. No X following. Few newsletter list. Charging money when nobody knows you exist is a losing game. Giving away something genuinely useful felt like a better path.
Second, the indie hacker community taught me everything I know about building products. Hacker News threads, Indie Hackers posts, random GitHub repos—all free. This is me paying it forward.
The whole thing costs me $20/month to run (VPS for email). I can sustain that indefinitely.
The tech stack (for the nerds)
Frontend: Astrojs@v5 + Vite + Tailwind, hosted on GitHub Pages
Backend: Supabase for database and auth
Data pipeline: Supabase Functions runs weekly to fetch fresh DR scores from Ahrefs API
Analytics: Pirsch (privacy-first, no Google)
Total build time: about 3 weeks of evenings and weekends.
The hard truth I discovered
While researching this market, I found something uncomfortable: directory submission follows an extreme power law.
3-5 directories (Product Hunt, Hacker News, maybe BetaList) drive 90%+ of results.
The other 300+ directories people submit to? Mostly noise. You might get a few visitors, but rarely signups or customers.
This changed how I think about the product. The value isn't "here are 400 directories to submit to."
The value is "here are the 20 that matter—now confidently ignore the rest."
That's harder to build. It requires curation, opinion, and saying no. But I think it's what founders actually need.
What I'm worried about
I'll be honest: retention is my biggest unsolved problem.
Directory research is a one-time task. You find your list, you submit, you're done. You never come back. That's the nature of the use case.
Current ideas to address this:
Weekly digest of new directories added
User-submitted launch stories ("I got 200 signups from X directory")
Community-driven performance data (which directories actually convert)
Expanding into adjacent tools (PR templates, launch checklists, etc.)
But I'm not sure any of these are right. Open to suggestions.
What I'd love feedback on
Be brutal. I can take it.
Is this actually useful? Or is it a "nice to bookmark, never use" tool?
What directories are we missing? Especially niche ones for dev tools, B2B SaaS, specific verticals.
Is the UI too busy? I'm a backend engineer can't figure good from excellent. Design feedback welcome.
Would you return? If yes, why? If no, what would change that?
Is the curation aggressive enough? Should we cut down to 50 directories? 30? Or is 80 the right number?
What's broken? Bugs, confusing UX, missing features—tell me everything.
The uncomfortable question
One thing I keep asking myself: does this need to exist?
Free GitHub lists exist. Paid submission services exist. Individual directory sites exist. What's the gap?
My answer: curation + freshness + transparency. GitHub lists are static and outdated. Paid services hide their directory lists until you pay.
Individual sites don't give you the full picture.
But I might be wrong. Tell me if I am.
What's next
Immediate priorities based on early feedback:
Add more niche directories (especially dev tools and B2B)
Improve the "quick start" flow (answer 3 questions → get your 15 directories)
Build community features for sharing launch results
Longer term, I want this to become the definitive answer when someone searches "which directories actually work."
That requires trust, which requires time.
Thank you
If you've read this far, thank you. Seriously.
Building in public with zero audience is humbling. Every piece of feedback helps.
Ask me anything about the tech, the market research, the decisions I made, or the mistakes I'm probably making right now.
Let's go 🚀
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