SaaS Directory Submission Checklist: Assets, Copy and Ops

Before submitting a SaaS to directories, prepare everything once: assets (a square logo in PNG and SVG at 512 px, screenshots at 1270 × 760 and 1600 × 900, a 1200 × 630 social card, a 60–90 second demo video, a favicon), copy (your exact product name, a tagline of 60 characters or less, and descriptions at 160, 500 and 1,000+ characters, plus categories and tags), and operations (a dedicated launch email, a password-manager entry per site, a company-domain email for review sites, UTM links per directory, and a tracker). With that kit, most directory forms take 3–10 minutes instead of 30.

Below: the full checklist, what each item is for, and how to prioritise which directories to submit to first.

Assets

Item	Spec	Why
Logo	Square PNG + SVG, 512 px, transparent background	Every directory asks; many crop to a square
Screenshots	1270 × 760 (launch platforms), 1600 × 900 (directories)	Product Hunt's spec is the common standard
Social card	1200 × 630	Used when listings are shared
Demo video	60–90 s, YouTube or Vimeo link	Many forms accept a video URL (structure)
Favicon	32 × 32 and 180 × 180	Some directories pull it automatically

Keep files under 3 MB. That's Product Hunt's limit, and many smaller sites' too.

Copy

Item	Limit
Product name	Exactly as on your site
Tagline	≤ 60 characters
Short description	≤ 160 characters
Medium description	≤ 500 characters
Long description	1,000+ characters
Categories and tags	1–3 accurate categories, 3–5 tags
Pricing summary	"Free plan; Pro from $19/month"
Founder name and role	For maker profiles

How to write each length: SaaS directory description guide.

What directory forms ask for

We parsed the signed-out submit forms of 108 directories in AgentLaunch's catalog. How many asked for each field:

Field	Forms asking (of 108)
Website URL	77
Email	69
Product name	65
Description	37
Category or tags	33
Tagline / short description	30
Pricing	17
Logo	17
Social links	17
Demo video	14
Screenshots	9
Discount or deal	9

And where they set a character limit:

• Taglines: 80 to 300 characters where capped, most often 160. Product Hunt and TinyLaunch use 60.
• Descriptions: 90 to 5,000, with 10 of 22 capped at 500 or less.
• Product names: 30 to 200, most often 100–120.

That's why the kit has four description lengths: 60, 160, 500 and 1,000+ characters cover nearly every form.

Operations

• A dedicated launch email (for example launch@yourapp.com) for directory accounts, so confirmations don't flood your main inbox
• A company-domain email for review sites. G2 and Crunchbase verify vendors by email domain (G2, Crunchbase).
• Password manager entries per site. You'll need them to update listings later.
• UTM links per directory (scheme)
• A tracker: one row per directory with status, dates, live URL and link type (template)
• A badge snippet ready if you'll use free routes that require one. In our catalog, 30% of free routes do.

Friction to plan for

From the same catalog of 394 active directories:

What you'll hit	How often
An account required before the form	23% of directories where we know
A CAPTCHA on the form	15%
A badge or backlink required on the free route	30% of free routes
Google sign-in offered	At least 69 directories
GitHub sign-in offered	At least 38
A stated review time of 48 hours or less	63% of the 65 that state one
A stated review time of a week or less	88%

Batch the friction: do all the email confirmations, CAPTCHAs and sign-ins in one sitting at the end of each session.

After a listing goes live: check the link

A listing being live doesn't mean the link is followed. In our checks of nearly 500 live listings in October 2026, several launch platforms served nofollow until a condition was met (upvotes, a weekly top-3 finish, or a paid plan), and the big review sites didn't link to vendors at all. Inspect rel when the listing goes live and again a week or two later (how).

Prioritise: which directories first

From our catalog of 394 active directories:

Category	Count
AI tools directories	131
Launch platforms / maker communities	120
SaaS / startup directories	50
Software review / B2B marketplaces	31
Developer tools	15
Alternatives directories	12

A sensible order:

1. Review sites if you're B2B (which first)
2. Launch platforms for your launch week (sites like Product Hunt)
3. Category-relevant directories (AI, dev tools, SaaS)
4. Alternatives sites (AlternativeTo, SaaSHub)
5. Everything else only if it passes the quality checks

The master checklist

Copy this into your tracker or notes.

Assets

• Square logo, PNG and SVG, 512 px, transparent
• Icon at 240 × 240 for launch-platform thumbnails
• 3–5 screenshots at 1270 × 760, plus 1600 × 900 versions
• 1200 × 630 social card
• 60–90 second demo on YouTube (public or unlisted)
• All files under 3 MB

Copy

• Tagline at 60 characters
• Short description at 160
• Medium description at 500
• Long description at 1,000+
• First sentence rewritten for developers, founders and B2B buyers
• Pricing summary and a launch discount code
• 1–3 categories and 3–5 tags
• Founder name, role and a one-line bio

Accounts and tracking

• launch@ email for directory accounts
• Company-domain email for review sites
• Password manager folder for directory logins
• UTM scheme, and a note of which directories add their own ref parameter
• Tracker with status, dates, live URL, link type and next check
• Badge snippet ready for free routes that need one

Per submission

• Read the site's eligibility rules (B2B only? dev tools only? SaaS only?)
• Search for an existing listing before creating a new one
• Choose the narrowest honest category
• Record the date and the route (free, badge, paid)
• Set "next check" to the stated review time plus two days

After it's live

• Inspect rel on your link; record it
• Re-check rel 7–14 days later
• Add the live URL to your tracker
• Check referral signups after 30 days

Maintenance schedule

When	What
Weekly (20 minutes)	Clear the "needs you" pile; update statuses; add the next five directories
Monthly	Referral signups by source; drop directories that sent nothing after 60 days from your next-wave list
Quarterly (30 minutes)	Update pricing, screenshots and descriptions on your top 10–15 listings; re-check link types (guide)
On any big change	Name, domain or pricing change: update every listing within two weeks

Pace

There's no magic number, but steady and relevant beats a burst of 200 in a day. Submit to sites you'd be happy for a customer to find you on. Track rejections and fix the cause (common reasons).

A worked example: one afternoon, 15 directories

With the kit ready, a realistic first session looks like:

Time	Directories	Notes
0:00–0:30	3 review sites (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius)	Company-domain email; claim existing profiles
0:30–1:15	5 launch platforms (free routes)	Same tagline and gallery; badge added once
1:15–2:00	5 category directories	Rewrite first sentence per audience
2:00–2:30	2 alternatives sites	Name the incumbents you replace
2:30–3:00	"Needs you" batch	Email verifications and CAPTCHAs in one go

Average time per directory: about 10 minutes, including reading the form. Without the kit, it's usually 25–40 minutes, most of it spent hunting for logos, rewriting descriptions to fit limits, and recovering logins.

Related

• Best startup directories and dofollow directories for startups
• Automated directory submission. AgentLaunch uses this kit: your AI agent in Claude Code, Codex or Cursor fills the forms and hands you CAPTCHAs and payments.

FAQ

What do I need to submit my SaaS to directories? A logo, screenshots, a social card, a demo video, a tagline and three description lengths, a launch email, UTM links and a tracker.

How many directories should I submit to? As many relevant, quality directories as you can track. For most SaaS that's 20–60, not hundreds.

What image sizes do directories need? A square logo (512 px), screenshots at 1270 × 760 or 1600 × 900, and a 1200 × 630 social card cover almost all forms.

What's the most common character limit on directory forms? For taglines, 160 characters (10 of 20 forms with a limit). For descriptions, it varies from 90 to 5,000; 10 of 22 capped it at 500 or less.

How long do directories take to approve a listing? Of the 65 directories in our catalog that state a review time, 63% promise 48 hours or less and 88% a week or less.